Cost-Containment

Not everyone likes change, especially when it comes to health care. However, with health cares rising costs and the tough economic climate, more of those expenses are shifting to employees, says Sheryl Kovach, president and CEO of Kandor Group, a human resources consulting firm in Houston.

Telemedicine has measurable cost effective results and the ability to transfer lifesaving data during critical needs diagnosis. Those companies and professionals who make the best use of telemedicine for their practices should see more efficiency on a clinical basis as well as increased profitability and return on investments.

The ranks of America's poor are greater than previously known, reaching a new level of 49.1 million or 16 percent due to rising medical costs and other expenses that make it harder for people to stay afloat, according to new census estimates.

The world is simply getting biggerin a bad and costly way.

The amount of money health plans dispensed to pay for medical and hospital benefits finally slowed.

In 10 months in office, Gov. Lincoln Chafee has managed to anger an impressive assortment of constituencies: business leaders and organized labor, medical marijuana advocates and critics of illegal immigration.

Most pension plans will see their funded status drop significantly in 2011, with plan sponsors facing sharply higher contributions, according to an analysis by Mercer actuaries.

A new contract between Ford Motor Co. and the United Auto Workers union will raise the automaker's labor costs by less than 1 percent a year, reaching a company goal of holding the costs steady, executives said Thursday.