Where business and health merge -- Editor’s Picks
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Sometimes, separating the business of health from the health of business is difficult. Here are three stories that shed some light on the intersection of these no-longer (if they ever were) inseparable subjects.
From the Washington Post: Prescription data used to assess consumers
Records aid insurers but prompt privacy concerns: ‘Health and life insurance companies have access to a powerful new tool for evaluating whether to cover individual consumers: a health ‘credit report’ drawn from databases containing prescription drug records on more than 200 million Americans.’
From Forbes: Health-care reform, corporate style
Company medical clinics are springing up at Toyota, Harrah’s, Disney and elsewhere -- and the savings are substantial: ‘When a company unveils a new plan to rein in health-care costs, workers usually groan. Yet Toyota Motor is getting rave reviews for the on-site medical center it built at its truck factory in San Antonio. Ask line worker Louis Aguillon. He went to the clinic in May with nagging back pain, and paid just $5 for the visit.... Toyota isn’t running a charity. The medical center, which cost $9 million to build in 2007, could save the company many millions over the next decade.’
And from U.S. News & World Report: Five great health applications for your iPhone
And one lousy one: ‘The release this month of Apple’s iPhone 3G, the sleeker, faster, cheaper version of the original iPhone, was met with cheers and long lines across the country. But the star that stole the show was the introduction at the same time of the App Store, which features hundreds of downloadable programs -- some free, some not -- for both the new and old iPhones as well as the iPod Touch.’
-- Tami Dennis