From the Desk of Ghen Sugimoto

Humana and iCan Benefit Group jointly issued a press release this morning announcing a partnership that will make available a new line of discounted products for individual consumer, including dental, vision, and pharmacy products. The agreement establishes the iCan Benefit Group as the primary marketer of these products and will connect Humana with iCan’s national distribution network. iCan will offer the new products through online and TV campaigns, as well as through distribution to large organizations. The two teams have worked hard over the last number of months to build these exciting product offerings. A unique feature about the discount pharmacy benefit is that is being made available to the public at no cost and will represent a 31-50% average saving off prescription drugs at over 54,000 participating retail locations. The official press release can be found at: http://www.businesswire.com/ . These jointly created programs will be combine

Although telehealth and healthcare IT are by no means novel concepts, at first glance they can appear culturally shifting and disruptive technologies for many users. If you consider telehealth as the modern facilitation of age old practices like the house call or midnight phone call, then it becomes easier to accept as a viable means of connecting doctors and patients. Traditionally, if your child were to awake screaming during the night and you had the luxury of a close family physician; you would call and receive immediate advice resulting in either a home remedy or a trip to the emergency room.  However, using the latest technology, well defined operational work flows and an expert team of telemedicine trained physicians, today’s telehealth consult can be significantly more comprehensive and include video, high definition imagery, electronic health records management, and a historical account of the patient’s health. Whether or not we realize it or not, these advances in healthcare