Matthew Bennett of Cigna Medical Group

October 14, 2021 Vera

Matthew Bennett is one of 13 up-and-coming health leaders featured in this annual Managed Healthcare Executive series.

Matthew Bennett, senior vice president of Evernorth Care Delivery at Cigna.

I grew up in upstate New York and always dreamed of studying abroad. After working two jobs at age 16 to earn enough money to make this dream (come true), I attended high school in the Dominican Republic and the Netherlands. I went on to attend Duke University, where I studied public policy and economics.

I started my career as the special adviser of strategy and planning for Plowshares Institute, an international nonprofit organization nominated twice for the Nobel Peace Prize. A few years later, I co-created and led The Purpose Project, a nonprofit designed to address the growing generation gap in the social sector.

Taking my passion for leading organizations through change from the nonprofit world to healthcare, I joined Cigna Medical Group (CMG). Over the past 11 years, I’ve held various leadership roles across strategy, technology, operations, clinical and care delivery.

Who has had greatest influence on your life?

I can honestly say my parents. They instilled in me the importance of a strong sense of self, humility, generosity, an open mind, a sense of curiosity and an orientation to learn. Individually, my dad gave me the gift of an analytical and problem-solving orientation, and my mom’s gifts were empathy and emotional intelligence.

Why did you pursue a career in healthcare?

I was drawn to healthcare because of the sector’s transformative nature, and because of its unique ability to improve and save lives. Although there is much to appreciate about the American healthcare system — scientific innovation and research, skilled care and passionate professionals — we also have a need and opportunity to do better. As a nation, we spend a tremendous amount of money on healthcare, yet achieve subpar quality outcomes.

Which career accomplishment has given you the greatest satisfaction?

I’m extremely proud of CMG’s response through COVID-19. Our team of 1,200 clinicians, staff and leaders came together with a laser focus on driving rapid change and innovation to ensure patients had ongoing access to care and services. As a team, we consolidated locations to concentrate resources and staff into our 14 largest centers, ensured an ongoing supply of PPE, launched a telehealth solution in five weeks and introduced same-day medication delivery to patients’ front doors. We also

Biden uses Trump-era policy to expand health care for transgender Coloradans

October 14, 2021 Vera

The Biden administration is using a Trump-era policy to approve the expansion of health care coverage for transgender Coloradans, forcing many of the state’s private insurers to cover gender-affirming care.

Former President Donald Trump’s 2018 policy allows states to redefine the essential health care benefits insurers are required to cover under the Affordable Care Act. On Tuesday, the Biden administration used it to approve Colorado’s request to add gender-affirming care among its health plans’ guaranteed benefits.

The move will force individual and small-group insurers to cover transition-related procedures, including hormone therapy, breast augmentation and laser hair removal, starting Jan. 1, 2023.

Federal officials and Colorado Gov. Jared Polis, one of two openly LGBTQ governors, said they hoped the measure would serve as a model to expand gender-affirming care in other states. The Biden administration also cited discriminatory barriers that transgender Americans frequently face when they seek transition-related care, often described as cosmetic.

“Health care should be in reach for everyone; by guaranteeing transgender individuals can access recommended care, we’re one step closer to making this a reality,” Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra said in a statement Tuesday. “I am proud to stand with Colorado to remove barriers that have historically made it difficult for transgender people to access health coverage and medical care.”

Medicaid covers gender-affirming care in more than a dozen states, including Colorado. But only a handful of states, including Massachusetts and Washington, have policies similar to the new Colorado measure, requiring many private insurers to cover transition-related care.

As a result, nearly half of transgender Americans — including 54 percent of trans people of color — say that their health insurers covered only some of their gender-affirming care or that they had no providers in network, according to a survey last year by the Center for American Progress. The report found that 46 percent of trans respondents and 56 percent of trans respondents of color were denied gender-affirming care by their insurers.

Dr. Alex Keuroghlian, the director of the National LGBTQIA+ Health Education Center at Boston’s Fenway Institute, who works directly with transgender patients, applauded the Biden administration’s new measure.

“What we’ve learned the hard way is that private insurers and employers won’t necessarily have these equitable policies around coverage of medically necessary gender-affirming care without the government enforcing such expectations,” he said.

Keuroghlian said that when Massachusetts similarly expanded coverage for transgender patients in

How moving toward universal health care and other reforms can address them

October 14, 2021 Vera

Higher rates of COVID-19 infection among essential and frontline workers put a spotlight on underinsured laborers. Essential workers—those who perform a range of jobs and services that are necessary for society to function well, including but not limited to occupations in health care, food service, and public transportation—are less likely to have insurance and are more likely to be underinsured than non-essential workers. However, a 2020 Brookings report found that Black essential workers are more likely to be uninsured than white essential workers. Similarly, an Urban Institute analysis found that Black workers are more likely to be essential and frontline workers (a sub-category of essential workers comprised of people who cannot work from home), and they are more likely to be underinsured. The Urban Institute study adds that the problem of not having adequate insurance is even more acute for American Indian or Alaska Native and Latino or Hispanic workers. In order to achieve equity for the lowest paid and most essential frontline workers of color, the American health insurance and health care systems need a radical restructuring.

The concentration of Black people in essential jobs did not develop through happenstance. Racism in labor markets is revealed in racial disparities in occupational concentration, employment rates, and pay. For instance, Black people in Minneapolis, as in much of the nation, are more likely to work in jobs considered essential—transit, factories, retail, health care facilities, and childcare—which increases their exposure to COVID-19. In the state of Minnesota, Black people make up 7% of the total population, and account for approximately 25% of all COVID-19 infections as of the summer of 2020, according to a University of Minneapolis study. There is a causal relationship between wealth and quality of life outcomes, including health. Wealth is the sum of all assets owned minus debt held—a person’s net worth. Occupational discrimination factors into how much wealth a family has and the resultant degree of protection a family has to withstand inevitable economic shocks.

Medical debt among Black workers adds insult to injury. An examination of debt as a function of wealth provides insights into structural racism—the policies and practices that produce racial disparities. Therefore, we introduce evidence that by reducing the amount of medical debt held by all households, we are disproportionately helping Black people. This will signal that we are mitigating structural racism and improving conditions so that Black workers and their families can

Kore 2.0 Watch Reviews: Smart Health Fitness Tracker Worth It?

October 14, 2021 Vera

Keeping your body healthy through exercising is very crucial as it helps you maintain your body weight and keeps you active all day. Apart from that, you can live a life free of stress, anxiety, depression, and other conditions like high blood pressure and stroke.

As much as that is the case, it is always important to monitor your fitness activities because too much physical activity can damage your body tissues and cause heart problems. The News of Medical Life Science has also indicated that too much exercise is bad for the heart.

So, how do you go about this? First of all, you need to understand that exercising is not about losing weight in one or two days. It is about staying fit, and that is why Kore 2.0 fitness band is here to help you track your fitness successfully. The Kore 2.0 smartwatch is gaining popularity day by day, and it will help you stay healthy. Please keep reading to understand how it works.

What Is Kore 2.0?

Kore 2.0 is a special type of digital watch that allows you to monitor your fitness, heart rate, and daily activities. The smartwatch provides you with reliable readings about your body, and the best part is that it is not a complicated watch. It is worn just like the other watches, and it is effortless to navigate through its features.

Another thing is that you can wear the watch wherever you go, even when you sleep, as it monitors your sleep patterns. With Kore 2.0, you can significantly improve your lifestyle by tracking your heart health, skin temperature, and sleep patterns. This will help you get an idea of what your health state is and whether there are some warning signs to keep an eye on.

The watch is also suitable for all skin types, and it is another factor that makes the watch stand out. Unlike many other fitness watches that do not track people who have tattoos, Kore 2.0 provides data for all skins as it has an advanced sensor.

Key Specifications and Features of Kore 2.0 Watch

Before buying any device or product, it is always important to check the features and specifications of the product to determine if it is worth buying. Here are all the features and specifications of the Kore 2.0 watch;

Key Specifications

It can be charged with the included USB charging cable

Soha Ali Khan Column: Actress spills lockdown fitness secrets, shares favourite Dussehra recipe | Health

October 14, 2021 Vera

Soha Ali Khan Column: Growing up I saw my mother balance family life and work effortlessly. In many ways, she has inspired me to become the person I am today, and a lot of my habits and mantras are borrowed from the way she managed her household and family. All my life, I have been surrounded by people who hold health and fitness in high regard. So, working out regularly and eating right is something that has been naturally ingrained in me since childhood, and it’s something I live by even as an adult.

‘My routine helps in setting the right example for Inaaya’

I make sure to exercise every day for a minimum of 30 minutes and start with Yoga. I also make sure I complete 10,000 steps every day. If nothing, I walk around the house and terrace, taking breaks in between activities to ensure I am not sedentary for long hours. Since I also have a young child at home, who is constantly seeing what I do and tries to emulate me. This routine also helps in setting the right example for Inaaya.

Eating healthy, snacking mindfully

During the pandemic, I have become even more committed to my family and my own health and lifestyle. I have made sure to follow a well-balanced diet, which includes a variety of nutrients which helps in nourishing the body, while also strengthening the immune system. Besides eating healthy, I also make sure I snack mindfully. Almonds are my go-to snack as they are a source of 15 nutrients such as vitamin E, magnesium, protein, riboflavin, zinc, etc. These nutrients are important to help grow your muscle mass and keep you energetic through the day.

ALSO READ: Soha Ali Khan makes ‘dull’ workout fun with twist to skipping, pushups exercises

Our Dussehra special recipe

With Inaaya, I ensure that her day is balanced with healthy meals and snacks in between, light exercise and fun-filled activities. She’s a very curious person, and she loves engaging with things – especially her food. She’s very fond of participating in the process of the food being prepared, and often I try to involve her too while making something special. We both love cake, but as someone who is very conscious about what we eat, I try to bake using healthier alternatives. With Dussehra around the corner, launching us into the festive season, both of us

Best Biowellness Tests to Hack Your Health: Levels, Everlywell, and More

October 14, 2021 Vera

By this stage you’ve probably seen athletes of all walks running around with a big black dot on the back of their arm. It’s a wearable—a sensor, actually—called Levels ethat helps you understand how your body utilizes carbs (more on this below).

It used to be that you could only get specialized health tests on a doctor’s orders—now, you can mail in blood, saliva and urine tests without ever putting pants on. This shift from outpatient to at-home testing is thanks to advances in sample collection. Whether you’re sending in your samples or going to Quest Diagnostics, the science is basically the same, says Kamal Obbad, co-founder and CEO of Nebula Genomics.

The issue is in interpreting the results. When your doc orders a lab test, they know your history and review your data with that in mind. But when an algorithm spits out recommendations in an app (with oversight from a physician you’ve never engaged with), “be carefeeul about considering that information diagnostic.” Translation: Don’t make any medical decisions based on an at-home test. “Talk to an expert about your results whenever possible.”

What you can use these at-home tests for is optimizing diet and fitness so you feel and perform better.

Man checking glucose levels on arm monitor — Courtesy Image

1. Levels: Best for Optimizing Diet

Glucose—which comes from carbs—is your body’s fastest, most accessible form of fuel. Head into a workout without enough in your system and you’re likely to bonk. This biowearable uses a small sensor (stuck on your upper arm) to monitor blood sugar levels 24/7 for two weeks at a time. Manually log workouts and meals via its app, and you’ll see live feedback as to how those impact your glucose so you can tweak habits to feel and perform your best.

[$399 for one month; levelshealth.com]

Get it

2. Inside Tracker: Best for Fitness and Performance Insights

This blood test (go to a lab or have a technician come to your home) analyzes up to 43 biomarkers involved with energy, metabolism, strength and endurance. Tack on the DNA test to see how 261 genetic markers influence your athletic potential. From there, the app flags problem areas and delivers custom interventions—“have one serving of probiotics each day” or “aim for three 20-minute HIIT workouts per week”—that can help you level up.

[From $179; insidetracker.com]

Get it

Everlywell testosterone test Courtesy Image

3. Everlywell: