U.S. adults may be a little healthier than they used to be, more ignorant about their health, or more paranoid about admitting health problems to pollsters.
Dan Witters, an analyst in the Washington office of the Gallup Organization, talks about U.S. adults' reports on their health in a review of results from Gallup surveys conducted in 2010 and 2011.
Witters finds that the percentage of participants who said they had ever been diagnosed with having high blood pressure, high cholesterol, diabetes or a heart attack had dropped.
The percentage of participants who said they had been diagnosed with having asthma or cancer remained about the same, Witters says.
The percentage who admitted to having ever had high blood pressure fell to 30% in 2011, from 30.6% in 2010, and the percentage who admitted to having ever had high cholesterol fell to 26.2%, from 27.3%.
The percentage who admitted to having had asthma increased to 11.7%, from 11.5%, and the percentage who admitted to having diabetes fell to 10.9%, from 11.3%.
The percentage who said had ever been obese fell to 26.1%, from 26.5%.
Younger adult participants were much less likely to say they had been told they were obese or suffered from a chronic health condition — even though other studies have suggested that U.S. residents are more likely to be obese and to suffer from conditions such as diabetes.
NO ROSE-COLORED GLASSES HERE
The American Academy of Actuaries, Washington, and the Society of Actuaries, Schaumburg, Ill., will be presenting a webinar on the new federal medical loss ratio (MLR) laws and regulations at noon EST Feb. 8.
The MLR provision of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) requires health insurers to spend 85% of large group revenue and 80% of individual and small group revenue on health care or quality improvement or else pay customers rebates or find some other way to use the difference between actual MLRs and the required minimums to benefit customers.
Seminar presenters — Rowen Bell and Donna Novak — will discuss topics such as the differences between the final MLR regulations and the interim final regulations, insurer experience with MLR reporting and rebates to date, and areas of uncertainty in MLR and rebate calculations.
The fee is $149 at a site with 1 or 2 participants.
BROKER EXPANDS
Corporate Synergies Group L.L.C., Mount Laurel, N.J., has opened an office in Orlando, Fla.
Corporate Synergies, a benefits broker, has named Michael Goodwin to be the regional vice president in charge of the office.
John Turner, who has been Corporate Synergies' president since December 2010, previously was a vice president at Connextions Inc., Orlando, a benefits exchange and health insurance sales support company.
Corporate Synergies also has offices in New York; Melville, N.Y; King of Prussia, Pa.; and Bethesda, Md.
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