SAN FRANCISCO, April 13 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- As all eyes turn to the health reform debate in Washington, Bruce Bodaken - the chairman and CEO of Blue Shield of California - will urge that "everything be on the table" at the 6th Annual World Health Care Congress in Washington, D.C. Mr. Bodaken will participate in a keynote panel kicking off the conference on Tuesday, April 14th, 2009 at 8:00 a.m. that begins with an address by Dora Hughes, counselor to the Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services. more»

The World Health Care Congress Leadership Summit (18 and 19 March 2009) revealed four key themes: (1) member retention must be a business imperative; (2) analytics is the foundation for member retention; (3) health insurers must think and act like retailers; and (4) member retention initiatives are still in preliminary stages. The summit also reinforced the need for healthcare insurers to identify goals, evaluate solutions and design effective action plans to improve member retention. more»

Employers are stepping up communication with their employees about wellness and employee assistance programs available to them and are not planning to make significant cuts in their budgets for those programs. more»

Here’s the presentation I’m giving this afternoon at the World Health Care Congress Consumer Connectivity Summit. Regular SMUGgles will note significant similarities to my previous presentations, but for those attending the Summit or who are unfamiliar with what we’ve been doing with social media at Mayo Clinic, I hope this will be a helpful resource. more»

I’ll be taking off this evening to attend the second day of the World Health Care Congress 2nd Annual Leadership Summit on Consumer Connectivity, where I will be presenting twice on Tuesday.

I’ll be joining representatives from Community Health Network and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as part of the Innovator’s Showcase. more»

Major companies of Europe and the U.S. will meet at 5 Annual World Health Care Congress Europe, to be held from 13 to 14 May in Brussels (Belgium) more»

"Value-based insurance design" (VBID) is being embraced by a growing number of employers, especially those who self-insure, as they seek the twin goals of optimizing employee health and containing costs. more»

Corporate financial statements may start to include well-being index scores that gauge employees' health and fitness, John Harris, senior vice president and chief wellness office at Healthways, told attendees last week at the 4th Annual Employer Health and Human Capital Congress. more»

Corporate financial statements may start to include well-being index scores that gauge employees' health and fitness, John Harris, senior vice president and chief wellness office at Healthways, told attendees last week at the 4th Annual Employer Health and Human Capital Congress. more»

A host of leading health care companies from Europe and the United States have joined the World Health Care Congress Europe, which will convene more than 600 health care leaders from more than 50 countries around Europe and the world for its 2009 event, 13-14 May, 2009 in Brussels, Belgium. more»

George Halvorson Chairman and CEO Kaiser Foundation Health Plan, Inc. and Kaiser Foundation Hospitals, joined healthcare executives, legislators, and business leaders at the Fourth Annual World Healthcare Innovation & Technology Congress on December 8th, 2008 in Washington D.C. He said "the vision for the future is to provide all of the information about all of the patients, all of the time, anywhere." more»

Health Data Management has announced the five winners of its second annual Editors' Choice Awards. Editorial Director Gary Baldwin announced the winners at the fourth annual World Healthcare Innovation and Technology Congress in Washington, D.C. this morning. The awards recognize top innovators in the healthcare industry who were featured in articles in Health Data Management during the past year. Health Data Management is the official publication of WHIT. more»

The first day of the World Healthcare Innovation and Technology Congress provided abundant information and gave a glimmer of hope to those of us trying desperately to improve healthcare through the infusion of IT. more»

The World Health Care Congress Europe is a major international forum where over 600 health leaders share best-practices and successful initiatives for improved delivery and outcomes in Europe. Participating thought-leaders include: ... more»

Halvorson recorded this podcast in advance of his keynote address, 'Changing the Shape of Healthcare: Groundbreaking Innovations and Their Impact on Healthcare Delivery,' at the fourth annual WHIT Congress. Kate Christensen, MD, medical ... more»

Reader's Digest attended the 5th Annual World Health Care Congress, and interviewed several speakers for the piece linked here. Among them are Steve Burd, CEO of Safeway, Toby Cosgrove, CEO of Cleveland Clinic, James Hagedorn, CEO of Scotts Miracle-Gro and Roy Schoenberg, MD, CEO of AmericanWell. more»

Scott McNealy, founder and chair of Sun Microsystems, will address the possibilities of open-source technology in health IT systems at the World Healthcare Innovation and Technology Congress (WHIT 4.0), Dec. 8-10, in Washington, D.C. more»

BOSTON – Personal health information networks are likely to prove better models for health data exchange than regional health information organizations, or RHIOs, speakers at a recent world conference on interoperability said. more»

Last year I attended the Healthcare Quality and P4P (Pay for Performance) conference put on by the World Health Congress. This was my first healthcare conference and it provided me a great opportunity to gain a better understanding of the healthcare market and critical issues therein. more»