Healthcare - What We're Reading - StockBuz2024-03-28T16:55:59Zhttp://stockbuz.ning.com/articles/feed/category/HealthcareFunday Monday Reads June 2ndhttp://stockbuz.ning.com/articles/funday-monday-reads-june-2nd2014-06-02T12:25:03.000Z2014-06-02T12:25:03.000ZStockBuzhttp://stockbuz.ning.com/members/1t2xbcvddkrir<div><ul>
<li>Better than expected China PMI over the weekend and ECB meeting on Thursday with LTRO announcement being anticipated and a (speculative) rate cut to help boost their economy.</li>
<li>$GOOG is planning on extending its customer base by offering internet usage to the un-wired regions of the world via satellite and boost revenue as well as earnings. The new project's estimated price ranges from $1B-$3B, and will start with 180 small, high-capacity satellites orbiting Earth at low altitude.  180 "low altitude"?  Just how many are up there anyway?  lol</li>
<li>Cost-cutting in a digital age to continue.  Imagine the possibilities.  For example one bank digitized it's mortgage-application and decision process, cutting the cost per new mortgage by 70% and slashing time to preliminary approval from several days to just one minute. A telecom created a self-serve, prepaid service where customers could order and activate phones without back-office involvement. A shoe retailer built a system to manage its in-store inventory that enabled it to know immediately whether a shoe and size was in stock—saving time for customers and sales staff. An insurance company built a digital process to automatically adjudicate a large share of its simple claims. <a href="http://www.mckinsey.com//Insights/Business_Technology/Accelerating_the_digitization_of_business_processes" target="_blank">Full post at McKinsey</a></li>
<li>AAPL will unveil more Beacon tech at the World Wide Developers Conference in San Francisco starting today. Virgin Atlantic has already installed beacons in London's Heathrow Airport so a smartphone automatically displays a boarding pass when the passenger comes to the gate or security. LabWerk has used the technology to create an app to alert drivers of empty spots in parking garages. Apple (<a target="_blank" href="http://email.seekingalpha.com:80/track?type=click&mailingid=20140602&messageid=wall_street_breakfast&databaseid=&serial=wall_street_breakfastO20140602O.c3fafe4135cfe021ed4b51be9e807857.1401705507&emailid=mrsbuz1%40aol.com&userid=304377&extra=&&&3000&&&http://seekingalpha.com/symbol/aapl?source=email_wsb&ifp=0" title="Apple Inc." style="color: #024999; text-decoration: none;">AAPL</a>) has designed the beacons to transmit the Bluetooth signal within 500 feet of a phone. (hat tip <a href="http://seekingalpha.com" target="_blank">S/A</a>)</li>
<li>With an aging baby boomer population and given the recent scandal at the Veterans Administration, I found this quite timely.  Technology and expenditure growth in Healthcare (hat tip <a href="http://ritholtz.com" target="_blank">Ritholtz</a>) 
<center>
<p style="margin: 12px auto 6px auto; font-family: Helvetica,Arial,Sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 14px; line-height: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; -x-system-font: none; display: block;"><a title="View w16953 on Scribd" href="http://www.scribd.com/doc/227472827" style="text-decoration: underline;">w16953</a></p>
<iframe id="doc_36975" width="100%" height="600" src="//www.scribd.com/embeds/227472827/content?start_page=1&view_mode=scroll&show_recommendations=true" data-auto-height="false" data-aspect-ratio="undefined" scrolling="no" frameborder="0" name="doc_36975"></iframe></center>
</li>
</ul>
</div>Education Cost Concerns Highest Among Young Adultshttp://stockbuz.ning.com/articles/education-cost-concerns-highest-among-young-adults2014-04-21T18:27:28.000Z2014-04-21T18:27:28.000ZStockBuzhttp://stockbuz.ning.com/members/1t2xbcvddkrir<div><p>PRINCETON, NJ -- Paying tuition or college loans far exceeds other money matters as the top financial challenge young adults in the U.S. say they face today. More than one in five adults aged 18 to 29 mention college costs as the biggest financial problem their families are dealing with, well exceeding the percentage of older Americans who identify this as their top issue.</p>
<p>While college expenses outpace all other financial concerns among the youngest adults, it ties with overall lack of money or low wages as the top concern of those aged 30 to 49. And it ranks near the bottom of the top 10 financial problems that older Americans name, mentioned by 7% of 50- to 64 year-olds and 1% of seniors -- those aged 65 and older.</p>
<p>Housing costs also emerge as a relatively bigger concern for younger adults (14%) than those aged 30 and older (9% or less). At the same time, at 5%, cost of living/inflation is a particularly low concern for young adults, perhaps because this age group has not been paying bills long enough to experience as much change in prices as have older adults.</p>
<p>Despite the availability of Medicare for seniors, healthcare is the chief concern of adults aged 65 and older as well as those aged 50 to 64, mentioned by 15% of both groups. However, other issues come close, including paying bills -- for 50- to 64-year-olds -- and lack of money -- for seniors.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><img alt="Top financial problems facing family, by age" src="http://content.gallup.com/origin/gallupinc/GallupSpaces/Production/Cms/POLL/oe6gzzz3numo3kanagmn-q.png" /></p>
<p style="text-align: left;">Full story at <a href="http://www.gallup.com/poll/168584/young-adults-cite-college-costs-top-money-problem.aspx?utm_source=alert&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=syndication&utm_content=morelink&utm_term=Economy" target="_blank">Gallup.com</a></p>
</div>Hump Day Readinghttp://stockbuz.ning.com/articles/hump-day-reading2014-04-02T14:11:21.000Z2014-04-02T14:11:21.000ZStockBuzhttp://stockbuz.ning.com/members/1t2xbcvddkrir<div><p><a target="_self" href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/1290510?profile=original"><img class="align-right" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/1290510?profile=RESIZE_320x320" width="300"></a></p>
<ul>
<li>For all the worrying about weather impacting job creation, Trim Tabs say <strong>real time tax receipt data</strong> (allegedly more reliable than BLS data) suggests that the economy has been picking up steam. <a href="http://247wallst.com/economy/2014/04/02/trimtabs-shows-higher-payrolls-growth-ahead-of-labor-department/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+typepad%2FRyNm+%2824%2F7+Wall+St.%29" target="_blank">24/7WallStreet</a></li>
<li>A 8.2% magnitude earthquake overnight off the coast of Chile with a 2 meter tsunami. Supposedly mining operations have not been affected buy you try to tell that to silver and gold this morning. They're not buying it (so far)</li>
<li>Interesting metrics from <a href="http://blog.flurry.com/bid/109749/Apps-Solidify-Leadership-Six-Years-into-the-Mobile-Revolution" target="_blank">Flurry</a> on mobile usage today. GOOG accounts for 18% of time spent by consumers which includes YouTube, while FB is 17%. Android web browsing is losing market share, going from 20% or usage down to 14%</li>
<li>Facebook apps continue to hold strength ahead of Google according to <a href="https://www.comscore.com/Insights/Press_Releases/2014/3/comScore_Reports_January_2014_US_Smartphone_Subscriber_Market_Share" target="_blank">Comscore data.</a>. Twitter's app was only used by 22.8% of U.S. smartphone users in January. 77.6% used Facebook's core app, and 27.5% Instagram. Five different Google apps were used by over 40% of users.</li>
<li>The Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) met it's target of 7mil signups but fell very short of the 40% of young, healthy adult subscribers 18-34 needed to keep insurance premiums at bay, says <a href="http://www.gopusa.com/news/2014/03/14/healthcare-premiums-likely-to-go-up-in-2015/" target="_blank">Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius.</a> Expect rates to increase in 2015. Who's shocked here?</li>
</ul></div>Obamacare Update - Who Has Signed Up?http://stockbuz.ning.com/articles/obamacare-update-who-has-signed-up2014-03-29T15:58:10.000Z2014-03-29T15:58:10.000ZStockBuzhttp://stockbuz.ning.com/members/1t2xbcvddkrir<div><p>For better or for worse, it doesn't appear that the Affordable Care Act "Obamacare" is going anywhere but will have to be "fixed" with Amendments down the road.  In the meantime, how are the STATES actually doing in terms of enrollment?  You might be surprised.</p>
<p>Note:  If this video does not display, blame Bloomberg for their (once again) broken code and view the video <a href="http://www.bloomberg.com/video/obamacare-state-by-state-winners-and-losers-VdKIaIiiTDK7T2VL_4E~9w.html" target="_blank">HERE</a><br />
<object style="overflow: hidden;" width="640" height="430" classid="clsid:d27cdb6e-ae6d-11cf-96b8-444553540000" codebase="http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=6,0,40,0"><param name="src" value="http://www.bloomberg.com/video/embed/VdKIaIiiTDK7T2VL_4E~9w?height=395&width=640" ></param>
<param name="wmode" value="opaque" ></param>
<embed wmode="opaque" style="overflow: hidden;" width="640" height="430" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" src="http://www.bloomberg.com/video/embed/VdKIaIiiTDK7T2VL_4E~9w?height=395&width=640"></embed></object></p>
</div>Daily Readshttp://stockbuz.ning.com/articles/daily-reads-152014-03-28T13:39:08.000Z2014-03-28T13:39:08.000ZStockBuzhttp://stockbuz.ning.com/members/1t2xbcvddkrir<div><ul>
<li>Just goes to show you, when it's hated, it can outperform. Who was the outperformer for your money in Q1? Bonds baby! <a href="http://www.bespokeinvest.com/thinkbig/2014/3/28/bonds-trounce-stocks-in-q1.html" target="_blank">Bespoke</a></li>
<li>Today is Option Expiration for some weekly options. Monday will be end of month and end of quarter. Redemption selling has been pretty vicious but orderly. Some feel this is the beginning of a larger correction and that reaction rallies should be sold at the higher level. Clear rotation out of tech and small caps into fixed income, financials and oil/gas. Kos picked up slivers of her favorites names last night looking for some window dressing. Keep an eye on USD/JPY for proxy for risk appetite. To those not so brave, let the market show it's direction before pulling the trigger and even then, be nimble and prepared to bail.</li>
<li>60 minutes will be doing a spot on Elon Musk and TSLA Sunday evening.</li>
<li>Early on, there's been market chatter of further easing coming out of Japan and Fed's Evans talking to reporters that he feels rates won't be increased until second 1/2 of 2015. Says holding off on hikes until 2016 could be appropriate given the state of the economy. Market likes both and is trying to squeeze the shorts.....but will it hold? Many don't believe so.</li>
<li>Kos bought slivers of TSLA, AMZN, FB, FEYE, LNKD, ILMN, LULU, QCOM for a quick scalp. Shorted STX<a target="_self" href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/1290469?profile=original"><img class="align-right" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/1290469?profile=original" height="129" width="194"></a></li>
<li>Big day for $AA (which Kos is long as a drawer stock) as a UK Court ruling threw LME warehouse reform plans on ice. The High Court in London ruled in favor of Russian aluminum producer Rusal, which feared prices of its products would suffer from the LME's efforts, and that the consultation process had been unfair. LME reforms designed to make owners of warehouses in the exchange's global network deliver metal more quickly to consumers had been due to take effect on April 1.</li>
<li>On today's move, @StevenPlace says "<em>sell a crapton of put spreads on GOOG NFLX BIDU FB and so on, buy some OTM put calendars on QQQ. You're welcome."</em></li>
<li>Sadiq's broker is saying to watch Japanese bonds. The "widowmaker" (like UNG) may setup for a turnaround soon.</li>
<li>Out of over 800 professions, BLS projects this one to <span style="text-decoration: underline;">grow the fastest</span> of all.............home healthcare workers.....and <a href="http://www.epi.org/blog/supreme-court-set-decide-home-care-workers/" target="_blank">they want Union benefits</a>. All eyes on the Supreme Court and what impact this would have on certain healthcare stocks.</li>
<li>The FTC is going after big pharma for delaying shipments of generic drugs vs name brand <a href="http://www.cnbc.com/id/101535013#_gus" target="_blank">CNBC</a></li>
<li>64% of IPO's that went public in 2013 did so with no earnings. Is this possibly a <strong>good</strong> thing? Are we in a IPO bubble?</li>
</ul>
<p><iframe width="640" height="360" scrolling="no" frameborder="0" src="http://screen.yahoo.com/daily-ticker-videotron/king-digital-went-sour-ipo-160426574.html?format=embed" allowfullscreen="true" mozallowfullscreen="true" webkitallowfullscreen="true" allowtransparency="true"></iframe></p>
<p> </p>
<p> </p></div>64% Of Americans Now Support Obamacarehttp://stockbuz.ning.com/articles/64-of-americans-now-support-obamacare2014-03-13T12:46:48.000Z2014-03-13T12:46:48.000ZStockBuzhttp://stockbuz.ning.com/members/1t2xbcvddkrir<div><p><a target="_self" href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/1290411?profile=original"><img class="align-left" style="padding: 5px;" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/1290411?profile=RESIZE_180x180" width="127"></a>Maybe it's backfiring. Maybe those who had pre-existing conditions accepted that <em>having</em> coverage was worth the higher price versus no coverage at all. Add in those with lower income levels who had no insurance previously. A big bump. Maybe all the foot stomping over website glitches (which is common with new websites folks), fear mongering of information security, "death panels" and contraception coverage from the angel-believing right are being drowned out. </p>
<p>A new survey shows 64% of Americans now back ACA, of course slight revisions being supported as well but wasn't that expected? No major law goes on the books without tweaks and revisions but this is actually good news if you're long certain healthcare names whose price has benefited the last few years. </p>
<p>Of course maybe Bloomberg's survey is inaccurate. Stranger things have happened but MSM (main stream media) would have you believe ACA (Obamacare) is a nightmare and hated nationwide. Maybe, just maybe, MSM is feeding us what their Corporate owners want us to see and maybe, just maybe, their nose is growing.</p>
<p>Read the survey details at <a href="http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-03-12/americans-stick-with-obamacare-as-opposition-burns-bright.html" target="_blank">Bloomberg</a></p></div>