Local governments across the U.S. are struggling to decide how to handle new ride-sharing services, which are often at once popular and unrelated — or even illegal. Odette Yousef of WBEZ reports on the debate in Illinois, trying to determine the answer to one important question: What makes ride-share services different from taxis?
WASHINGTON (AP) — Under pressure from Congress, celebrity Dr. Mehmet Oz on Tuesday offered to help "drain the swamp" of unscrupulous marketers using his name to peddle so-called miracle pills and cure-alls to millions of Americans desperate to lose weight.
Oz appeared before the Senate's consumer protection panel and was scolded by Chairman Claire McCaskill for claims he made about weight-loss aids on his TV show, "The Dr. Oz Show."
Oz, a cardiothoracic surgeon, acknowledged that his language about green coffee and other supplements has been "flowery" and promised to publish a list of specific products he thinks can help America shed pounds and get healthy — beyond eating less and moving more. On his show, he never endorsed specific companies or brands but more generally praised some supplements as fat busters.
McCaskill took Oz to task for a 2012 show in which he proclaimed that green coffee extract was a "magic weight loss cure for every body type."
"I get that you do a lot of good on your show," McCaskill told Oz, "but I don't get why you need to say this stuff because you know it's not true."
Oz insisted he believes in the supplements he talks about on his show as short-term crutches, and even has his family try them. But there's no long-term miracle pill out there without diet and exercise, he said.
Within weeks of Oz's comments about green coffee — which refers to the unroasted seeds or beans of coffee — a Florida-based operation began marketing a dietary supplement called Pure Green Coffee, with claims that the chlorogenic acid found in the coffee beans could help people lose 17 pounds and cut body fat by 16 percent in 22 weeks.
The company, according to federal regulators, featured footage from "The Dr. Oz Show," to sell its supplement. Oz has no association with the company and received no money from sales.
Last month, the Federal Trade Commission sued the sellers behind Pure Green Coffee and accused them of making bogus claims and deceiving consumers.
The weight-loss industry is an area where consumers are particularly vulnerable to fraud, Mary Koelbel Engle, an associate director at the FTC, testified at the Senate hearing. She said the agency conducted a consumer survey in 2011 and found that more consumers were victims of fraudulent weight-loss products than of any of the other specific frauds covered in the survey.
Oz stressed during the hearing that he has never endorsed specific supplements or received money from the sale of supplements. Nor has he allowed his image to be used in ads for supplements, he said.
"If you see my name, face or show in any type of ad, email, or other circumstance," Oz testified, "it's illegal" — and not anything he has endorsed.
Buying health insurance, even on the exchanges created by the health law, can be an expensive proposition. And some consumers are already wondering how much coverage will cost next year. That led to a recent question about the rules that apply to insurance premiums.
I understood that under the health law, premiums for individuals could not increase by double digits, that rate increases were capped at under 10 percent unless approved by the government. Isn't that right?
The health law requires insurers in the individual and small group markets that propose premium increases of 10 percent or more to disclose publicly that information and explain why they think the increase is justified. You can find details of proposed increases on many state websites, and a consumer-friendly version of the information will soon be available on HealthCare.gov, according to an official at the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services.
States, which have primary responsibility for regulating insurance rates, provide varying degrees of oversight. Some don't permit insurers to raise rates without state insurance department approval, while others require insurers to inform states of proposed changes, and states may retroactively reject them.
Some states have no authority over premium rate hikes at all. Under the health law, the federal government reviews rate increases if states don't have an effective process in place.
However, unless states that have the authority to do so step in, "once an insurer files a justification [for an increase over 10 percent], nothing in the Affordable Care Act prohibits them from proceeding," says Timothy Jost, a law professor at Washington and Lee University who is an expert on the health law.
The health insurance marketplaces also have the authority to take insurers' proposed rates into consideration when deciding whether to accept a plan on the exchange, says Jost.
Other provisions of the health law act as a brake on unreasonable rate increases. For example, insurers are required to spend at least 80 percent of the premiums they collect on medical claims or quality of care improvements. If they don't meet that standard, called a medical loss ratio, insurers have to return the extra premium amounts to consumers.
I am concerned that few family doctors in my area are accepting new Medicare patients. Is there a requirement that doctors who work for hospitals accept them? For example, if hospital X buys physician practice Y and pays those physicians a salary, are they required to accept Medicare patients?
No, physicians aren't generally required to accept new Medicare patients, whether or not the doctors are employed by a hospital.
There are many reasons a doctor might refuse a new patient. Her practice may already be full, for example, or she may decide she lacks the necessary expertise to treat someone's condition.
But the vast majority of physicians do in fact accept new Medicare patients, according to a recent study by the Kaiser Family Foundation (Kaiser Health News is an editorially independent program of the foundation.)
In its analysis of the 2012 National Ambulatory Medical Care Survey-National Electronic Health Records Survey, the foundation found that 91 percent of physicians reported that they were accepting new Medicare patients, the same rate as those accepting privately insured patients. Among primary care physicians, the figure was slightly lower, 88 percent.
The study also found that the number of physicians who bill Medicare continues to grow at the same rate as the growth in beneficiaries, staying constant at 3.8 primary care physicians per 1,000 beneficiaries.
NORWALK, Conn. (AP) — Prosecutors on Tuesday said they were dropping a disorderly conduct case against Paul Simon and his wife, Edie Brickell, that stemmed from a fight at the couple's home.
Simon, 72, and Brickell, 48, did not appear in Norwalk Superior Court, where prosecutors told a judge they were declining to pursue the case, meaning the charges will be dropped and eventually erased after 13 months.
Prosecutors declined to comment outside court. A telephone message left for the couple's attorney, Andrew Bowman, was not immediately returned.
The couple fought April 26 inside a cottage on their property in New Canaan, police said.
Brickell told officers she confronted her husband after he did something to "break her heart," according to police, but she did not provide any details. She told police Simon shoved her and she slapped him. The police report said Simon suffered a superficial cut to his ear and Brickell, who smelled of alcohol, had a bruise on her wrist.
Both said in court on April 28 that they did not consider the other a threat, and no protective order was issued.
Simon is a 12-time Grammy winner and member of The Songwriters Hall of Fame and Rock and Roll Hall of Fame — as half of the duo of Simon and Garfunkel and as a solo artist.
Brickell is perhaps best known for the song "What I Am," recorded with her band the New Bohemians and released in 1988. She collaborated last year with comedian Steve Martin, who has an acclaimed career as a folk musician, for the roots album "Love Has Come For You."
The singers were married in 1992. They have three children.