I was at the Coconut Grove Gallery Walk this past weekend and noticed a lady walking with an oxygen tank, it was unobtrusive except for the hose going up to her nose. I didn't ask, but after we engaged in conversation (we all do at gallery walks), she mentioned she was in Miami, visiting from Central America, because she was here for medical treatment. She was seeing an oncologist and getting treatment at one of the local hospitals.
What I found interesting was that while here, she was enjoying the art at the Gallery Walk and also visiting restaurants, shopping malls and spending money on a hotel stay while here for her treatment; and she had her whole family with her, all here enjoying what the city has to offer, spending money and having her live literally saved in the process!
Tourism was way up in Miami in 2011 thanks in large part to a 7.2 percent increase in international visitors to 6.5 million. But how many were here not so much to enjoy the sand, sun and fun, but for medical treatment? Many! That's quite a large chunk of the tourism budget.
Large amounts of money flood the area in the form of medical tourism and many people in the know, cater to these special clients. An unknown aspect of medical tourism is that the tourists pay for their own medical care, they don't use medical insurance, and in the process, they not only spend money on hospitals, doctors and medical treatment, but they spend money on hotel stays, restaurant, shopping and more and the patient usually has family members along for the duration.
Navigating the US healthcare system is no simple feat, even for us Americans. Patients needs much needed medical treatment, but how do they begin? This is where medical concierge companies come into play, like <a href="http://www.ornoa.com/">ORNOA</a> (Oncology Referral Network of America).
ORNOA is a patient navigation service developed by Miamian Maria Freed. They've treated over 500 patients in almost two years.
"We provide patient navigation services for these members, and also direct patients to non-members because the goal is to match the patient to the most appropriate provider in South Florida. In light of the continued loss of professional income and the impending 27.4% reduction in Medicare reimbursement , local private practice physicians are starting to pay attention to the international market," says Maria.
In the last 18 months, 70% of the patients have been insured, and 30% were self pays. Medical concierge services negotiate fees for patients that have no insurance. Physicians are attracted to international cases because they offer higher reimbursement than Medicare or Medicaid local patients. In Miami Dade 1/3 of residents have no insurance coverage.
International health insurance carriers are looking for value, and no longer automatically refer to the big hospitals in South Florida, because they deem their fees as too high and service offered to their patients is not optimum. Medical Tourism continues to evolve with many more patients seeking care in places other than the U.S. However, there are still more people who travel to the U.S. for healthcare yearly (approximately 3 million) than travel to any other country.
The strongest service lines for international patients coming to South Florida include oncology, orthopedic surgery, cardiovascular, general surgery and pediatrics.
The next time you're lying out at the pool and shopping at Dadeland, consider the fact that the person right next to you may just have had their life saved last week!
Chrysler stops taking wholesale orders for new Fiat 500 Abarth - detroitnews.com
Just over a month after the first models arrived in U.S. showrooms, Chrysler Group LLC has informed dealers that it is no longer accepting wholesale orders for the new 2012 Fiat 500 Abarth, according to company sources.
The high-performance version of Fiat's diminutive subcompact has been selling as fast as, well, an Abarth. And while customers can still find a few in dealer inventories around the country, those who place orders now will be put on a waiting list for the 2013 model, which is expected to ship this fall.
"I put my deposit down back in March and I found out today that I'm being bumped to the 2013 build batch and now have to wait until mid-September," wrote one disappointed customer on an enthusiast website.
The track-tuned Abarth went on sale in late April. By then, the company already had cash deposits from more than a thousand customers — about as many as it had originally planned to build this year. Fiat-Chrysler upped production to about 3,000 units, but sources said that is all the company's factory in Toluca, Mexico could handle.
Demand for the pocket rocket has been spurred by rave reviews in a number of leading automotive publications.
Most Americans had never heard the name "Abarth" before the automaker aired a steamy ad for the hot hatch during the Super Bowl featuring Romanian supermodel Catrinel Menghia.
Fiat sales were up a whopping 432 percent in the United States last month, according to Chrysler.
"Dealer orders for the Abarth, the ultimate high-performance small car, exceeded the production run of this model for the 2012 model year," the company said in a statement.
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Improving Product Returns Presents Biggest Opportunity for Retailers ... - CNBC
RESTON, Va. and ATLANTA, June 4, 2012 /PRNewswire via COMTEX/ -- While 86 percent of consumers are satisfied with the overall experience of shopping online, retailers still have significant opportunity to improve customer satisfaction and their competitive position by making the process of returning or exchanging items easier, a new study shows. comScore, Inc. (NASDAQ: SCOR), a leader in measuring the digital world, and UPS (NYSE: UPS) today released the Online Shopping Customer Experience Study, a report analyzing consumers' online shopping behaviors and preferences pertaining to the post-purchase experience.
(Logo:
) Drawing its analysis from a February 2012 comScore survey of more than 3,100 U.S. online shoppers and an online focus group held in January 2012, the report highlights which factors lead consumers to return items, to recommend online retailers to friends, their requirements for a smooth checkout process, and which shipping services they find most valuable. To download a copy of the report, please visit:
.
Convenient Return Process Critical to Customer SatisfactionFew factors figure more prominently in improving customer satisfaction in online shopping than an easy-to-understand and convenient returns process. A significant 63 percent of online shoppers look at a retailer's return policy before making a purchase.
Nearly half said that they would shop more often and recommend a retailer with a lenient returns policy, indicating its value in driving customer loyalty.
Hassle-free returns and exchanges rank above average in terms of importance for shoppers but rank low in terms of current customer satisfaction, showing a significant area of opportunity for retailers.
"The Online Shopping Customer Experience Study provides retailers with the insights needed to enhance the post-purchase online shopping experience, focusing on the factors which lead to customer loyalty and growth," said Susan Kleinman, comScore director. "While free shipping has tended to dominate the discussion regarding what provides satisfaction to online shoppers, the study shows there are several other factors critical to a positive online shopping experience. Retailers need a holistic understanding of these drivers if they hope to stimulate sales while maintaining healthy margins in this competitive retail environment." "This is important intelligence that can be put to use immediately," said Alan Gershenhorn, UPS's chief sales and marketing officer. "Online retailers of any size can win more business during this year's holiday season if they prepare now to offer a better shopping experience. UPS recognized some time ago that online customers are expecting speed, convenience and flexibility after they click to buy. That's why we've developed solutions such as the industry's broadest range of return options and UPS My Choice(SM) which lets consumers control the time and location of delivery." Two in Five Online Shoppers Abandon Shopping Carts Because of Delivery TimingConsumers are currently most satisfied with the ease of checking out, the variety of brands and products available and online delivery tracking ability.
They are least satisfied with the current level of flexibility in choosing delivery dates.
At least 42 percent of online shoppers reported abandoning their shopping carts because of delivery timing estimates. While two-thirds of shoppers choose the most inexpensive shipping option, more than 40 percent expect to see the availability of 2-3 day delivery and nearly a third want the option to choose overnight shipping. The need for speed is also important, with 48 percent of online shoppers not willing to wait more than 5 days for packages to be delivered. A third of shoppers said they most often choose to pay a fee for faster delivery.
Online shoppers also said they valued having tracking capabilities to know when their packages would arrive. 46 percent said receiving their orders when expected would lead them to recommend an online retailer. The ability to reroute a package and schedule a 2-hour delivery window is also important for shoppers in the delivery process.
Please follow this link to view an infographic highlighting insights from the study:
Additional Findings Presented at the 2012 Internet Retailer Conference and ExhibitionMs. Kleinman will present additional results at the 2012 IRCE in Chicago at the E-Commerce Technology Theater on Wednesday, June 6, 2012 at 4:30 p.m. For more information, please visit:
.
About the Online Shopping Customer Experience StudyThe Online Shopping Customer Experience Study, a report commissioned by UPS, evaluates consumer shopping habits from pre-purchase to post-delivery. The study is based on a comScore survey of more than 3,100 U.S. online shoppers. For additional information on the report, please contact Susan Kleinman at skleinman@comscore.com.
About comScorecomScore, Inc. (NASDAQ: SCOR) is a global leader in measuring the digital world. For more information, please visit
.
Follow us on Twitter: twitter.com/comScore About UPSUPS (NYSE:UPS) is a global leader in logistics, offering a broad range of solutions including transporting packages and freight; facilitating international trade, and deploying advanced technology to more efficiently manage the world of business. Headquartered in Atlanta, UPS serves more than 220 countries and territories worldwide. The company can be found on the Web at UPS.com and its corporate blog can be found at blog.ups.com. To get UPS news direct, visit pressroom.ups.com/RSS.
SOURCE comScore, Inc.; UPS
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Google Shopping at your service - Independent Online
Reuters
Google unveiled major changes to its shopping business that will likely prove controversial in the e-commerce world.
San Francisco - Google unveiled major changes to its shopping business that will likely prove controversial in the e-commerce world.
Starting in the fall, product search results for users in the United States will be influenced by how much retailers and advertisers pay, a company executive said. In the past, product search results were based mainly on relevance and the program was free.
Google, the world's most popular Internet search engine, will rename its service Google Shopping from the current Google Product Search.
“We are starting to transition Google Product Search in the US to a purely commercial model,” said Sameer Samat, vice president of product management at Google Shopping. “This will give merchants greater control over where their products appear on Google Shopping.”
Google has been in the product listing and search business for about a decade. During that time, it has provided merchants with free access to shoppers. The company made money by running paid product search ads along with the organic, or unpaid, product listings, according to Eric Best, CEO of Mercent, which helps retailers sell through Google and other e-commerce websites such as Amazon.com and eBay.
“Today, that model goes away,” Best said. “It's a very big deal.”
The changes may ultimately help Google extract more revenue and profit margin from its retail advertisers, which account for up to 40 percent of Google's advertising base, Best said.
For retailers, there are upsides and downsides, he added.
“The downside is that retailers are going to have to pay for performance when it comes to e-commerce traffic and revenue driven by or through Google,” Best said. “The free traffic is disappearing.”
The changes may be controversial in the Internet community because Google's search results have traditionally not been influenced by money, Best said.
“Pay-for-placement to some degree is an alternative to purely organic relevancy results,” he said. “The fact that shopping results will be more closely tied to bid-for-placement will not sit well with all advertisers.”
The new program will help retailers make their products more visible to shoppers searching on Google. The old system was difficult for Google to police because retailers could list a lot of products for free. If they have to pay, it may reduce clutter, Best explained.
“Having a commercial relationship with merchants will encourage them to keep their product information fresh and up to date,” Google's Samat wrote in a blog on Thursday. “Higher quality data - whether it's accurate prices, the latest offers or product availability - should mean better shopping results for users, which in turn should create higher quality traffic for merchants.” - Reuters
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Analysts Forecast Lower CPI, Higher Egg Prices - CRIENGLISH.com
The price of eggs has jumped to 5 yuan per kilogram in nearly a month, Securities Daily reported on Monday.
The wholesale price of eggs in Beijing Xin Fadi Agricultural Products Wholesale Market on Sunday was 10.2 yuan per kilogram, an increase of 57 percent from the price on May 1 of 6.48 yuan.
Xinhua News Agency and National Agricultural Market System of Agricultural Price Monitoring data shows that, the price of eggs in some areas has increased more than 20 percent over the past 10 days, including areas in Tianjin, Jilin, Heilongjiang, Shanghai, Henan and Ningxia.
According to industry analysts, the main reason for the price hike is a short-term supply shortage.
The number of egg-laying hens fell due to tumbling egg prices last November. Also, egg-laying capacity has been affected, supposedly by high temperatures. To add to the problem, farmers are holding out for higher prices during the upcoming Dragon Boat Festival.
"Disease has decimated egg-laying hens in some areas," said Shu Anli, an analyst at Shen Nong, a website for agricultural market information. "But in terms of egg-laying hens changing the price of eggs, the supply for the national egg market is adequate this year."
Data from the Xin Fadi Market website shows that the wholesale price of garlic on Sunday reached 8.2 yuan per kilogram, up 49 percent from the price on May 31 due to the drought in the northern fields.
Still, industry insiders believe that this sudden rise in food prices is indicative of the downward trend of China's consumer price index (CPI) in May, a major gauge for inflation which will be released by the National Bureau of Statistics on June 9. Food prices weigh heavily into the calculation of the CPI.
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