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[ad_1] As many as 32 prominent doctors from India and abroad have written a letter to the Union as well as state governments and warned about “inappropriate” diagnostic methods and medications being used to deal with the current wave of the coronavirus pandemic. “Wanton use of drugs” can be harmful, as seen during the earlier two waves of the pandemic, they warned in the open letter. “Despite the weight of available evidence and the crushing death toll of the delta wave, we find the mistakes of the 2021 response being repeated in 2022 during the clinical management of COVID-19. We urge you to intervene to stop the use of medications and diagnostics that are inappropriate for clinical management of COVID-19,” the letter said. The “vast majority of patients” who are asymptomatic or have mild symptoms will require little or no medication, it said. “Most prescriptions we have reviewed in the past two weeks include several COVID-19 “kits” and cocktails. The prescribing of vitamin combinations, azithromycin, doxycycline, hydroxychloroquine, favipiravir and ivermectin for treating COVID-19 is irrational practice,” said the doctors. Outbreaks of fungal infections like mucormycosis in India and aspergillosis in Brazil were attributed to the widespread abuse of inappropriate medications, the letter pointed out. It also said that most COVID-19 patients will need no additional tests after the initial positive rapid antigen or PCR test, except, in some cases, home monitoring of oxygen levels. The Omicron variant can infect even those who had contracted the infection earlier or who are vaccinated, but the “mortality” will be lower among these patients, it said. “However, CT scans and a battery of laboratory tests like d-dimer and IL-6 are routinely being prescribed by practitioners across the country in asymptomatic and mild cases, placing undue financial burden on families,” the letter said. Patients are being admitted to hospitals “without clinical justification,” which adds to such burden and also leads to non-COVID patients not getting hospital bed in emergency, it warned. The government as well as medical associations must put an end to such practises, the letter said. The signatories to the letter included Dr Sanjay Nagral of Jaslok Hospital, Mumbai; Dr Cyriac Abby Phillips, the Liver Institute, Rajagiri Hospital, Kerala; Dr Rajani Bhat, Bengaluru; Dr Bharat Gopal, Delhi and Dr Richa Gupta, Christian Medical College, Vellore. The group also included some Indian-origin doctors living in the US and Canada. [ad_2] Source link

[ad_1] While layoffs sweep the mortgage industry, particularly consumer-direct lenders, non-qualified mortgage (non-QM) lenders are going on a hiring spree. Non-QM lenders Angel Oak Mortgage, Acra Lending and Newfi alone currently have at least 130 openings on jobs listings sites. According to Evan Kidwell, chief operating officer at Griffin Funding, a consumer-direct lender that launched non-QM operations in November 2020, the company is willing to hire newbie LOs and processors and give them on-the-job training. “If you have non-QM experience, we can throw you right in, you’re going to have a job right away,” he said. “If you’re willing to learn and you’re coachable and trainable, that works too.” Kidwell said his company is looking for loan processors to identify fraud in non-QM loans, in addition to loan officers. The hiring trend at non-QM lenders stands in sharp contrast to recent layoffs at some consumer-direct lenders, which specialize in conventional refinance loans. In recent months, Better.com, Intefirst Mortgage and Wyndham Capital Mortgage announced loan officer layoffs. With the three companies combined, over 1,000 employees have received pink slips. Acra Lending, which rebranded from Citadel Servicing last year, more than doubled its headcount year-over-year from 200 employees to 420 in 2022. Keith Lind, president of Acra Lending, said that in a few months, the company will have over 500 employees. “The area of focus for us right now is hiring LOs,” Lind said. Riches in the niches The Mortgage Bankers Association has forecasted that mortgage originations will grow by 9% to $1.73 trillion in 2022. Non-QM lenders are optimistic that loan originations outside the purview of the government-sponsored enterprises will propel that growth. In a recent interview with HousingWire, HomeXpress, a non-QM lender, predicted the sector will double its market share in the coming year, from 5% in 2021 to nearly 10% in 2022. One reason the non-QM sector is expected to take off, according to non-QM lender executives, is because self-employed borrowers and those who work in the gig economy need homes. Current GSE guidelines make it difficult to for borrowers who don’t have a traditional salary to qualify for agency-backed loans. “I think there’s so many self-employed borrowers who have felt like they’ve kind of been pigeonholed into only being able to do one type of loan for so long and they’re just now finding out that non-QM could be an option for them,” said Kidwell. “I would say most of our clients didn’t even know non-QM was an option two years ago.” Kidwell also said that real estate investing is another segment that is driving more business to non-QM. “I would say probably at least 30% to 40% of our clientele are real estate investors,” Kidwell said. The Federal Housing Finance Agency recently announced new upfront fees for second-home loans which, much like the abrupt and now-suspended caps on such loans last year, are expected to give the private-label securities market a boost. And as rising mortgage rates slow the flood of refinances, lenders are preparing for increased interest in non-QM. Alex Naumovych, an LO at Draper and Kramer Mortgage, said that his company’s upper management has urged LOs to give more thought to non-QM programs in 2022. “In 2020 and 2021, there was so much refi volume that no one really had the time and patience to deal with these types of loans,” said Naumovych. “This year, everyone will have a little bit more time as well, they’ll be providing a little bit better service and paying more attention to those loans.” Non-QM loans, Naumovych noted, are more time-intensive to originate, because they do not go through an automated underwriting approval process, as loans backed by the GSEs do. Some market participants are also closely eyeing regulatory changes that could dampen the non-QM market by expanding the pool of loans able to get QM status. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau‘s new General QM Final Rule replaced the 43% debt-to-income ratio limit in favor of more flexible pricing guidelines, allowed jumbo loans to get QM status and provided additional ways to verify income or assets. The new rule is slated to be implemented on Oct. 1, 2022. Redwood Trust, in a report published in April 2021, noted that if the rule is implemented, “the increased flexibility will likely result in loans that would previously be deemed as non-QM qualifying as QM going forward…a corresponding reduction in non-QM lending will follow.” The regulatory uncertainty didn’t diminish Lind and Kidwell’s confidence in the non-QM sector, however. “I learned a long time ago to not get too worried about those things,” said Kidwell. “The riches are in the niches.” The post Non-QM lenders hunt for LOs as consumer-direct model falters appeared first on HousingWire. [ad_2] Source link

[ad_1] The post Betterment vs. Acorns: How They Compare appeared first on Millennial Money. Betterment and Acorns are two popular financial services that aim to automate saving and investing for their users. But what happens when you compare Betterment vs. Acorns head to head? With Acorns, you round up your purchases to the nearest dollar and toss the spare change into a savings or investing account.  On the other hand, with Betterment, you allow the app’s robo-advisor functions to automatically invest your money and balance a portfolio. While both companies offer similar features, there are some key differences that will help you decide which app is right for your financial situation. Betterment Acorns Robo Advisor Quality Provides more flexibility and easier goal tracking Better if you’re beginning or just want a way to put your spare change to use Mobile Banking Debit card and mobile money management plus a high-yield savings option Debit card and mobile money management Promotions and Rewards Cashback rewards, no fees for asset management for bringing referrals Direct cash rewards for referrals, $1 million sweepstakes Pricing Free basic plan Acorns charges a fee for all of its account tiers Customer Support Direct one-on-one access to advisors, plus email and phone support Phone support but no advisory services App Performance Secure, full encryption, identity verification, and fraud protection Secure, full encryption, identity verification, and fraud protection Keep reading to learn how Betterment and Acorns compare so you can make that call yourself.  or, jump straight to our in-depth Betterment vs. Acorns comparison Betterment Review for 2022 Here’s everything you need to know about Betterment. What is Betterment? Betterment is a mobile investing app and robo-advisor service. It also offers access to checking and savings accounts as well as taxable accounts and tax-friendly accounts. The app launched back in 2008. Recently, Betterment announced record growth during the first quarter of 2021, with net new clients up more than 100% year over year. As of today, the platform has $31 billion in assets under management (AUM) and upwards of 650,000 customers.  Betterment features Here are the top features of Betterment. Automated investing  Betterment is a top hands-off investment option.  When you open a Betterment account, the platform attempts to understand your unique financial situation and make investment decisions on your behalf.  Betterment builds customized portfolios with low-cost, diversified exchange-traded funds (ETFs), which are one of the least risky asset classes.  Betterment Tax Loss Harvesting+  Tax-loss harvesting involves selling investments at a loss to offset capital gains taxes. This is a sophisticated strategy that individual investors shouldn’t attempt on their own. Betterment offers tax-loss harvesting on investment accounts, whereas Acorns doesn’t. The feature is known as TLH+.  IRAs and 401(k) Looking to set up a tax-friendly retirement account? Betterment offers traditional IRAs, Roth IRAs, SEP IRAs, and rollovers. Currently, the company doesn’t offer SIMPLE IRAs.  Betterment also has a goal-based investment allocation system, which transfers money into various stocks and bonds. Additionally, the company features a tax coordination tool, which increases after-tax returns on retirement money. Betterment lets you set up regular auto-deposits with automatic stoppages to prevent you from going beyond annual IRA limits. No-fee checking In addition to investing, Betterment offers a handy no-fee checking service. It comes with a tap-to-pay Visa debit card, along with access to mobile pay services like Apple Pay and Google Pay. Betterment automatically reimburses all ATM fees and foreign fees and avoids overdraft fees. In addition, through a partnership with NBKC Bank, this platform offers insurance from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) that protects up to $250,000 per account. To clarify, financial technology providers like Betterment and Acorns aren’t banks and don’t store or transfer money. Instead, they partner with banks to power the customer-facing digital experiences.  Cash Reserve Betterment also provides access to the Cash Reserve savings program, which makes it easy to manage money using a mobile device.  This no-fee, high-yield account offers a variable APY, which tracks the fed funds rate. At the time of writing, the rate is hovering at 0.10% APY.  Cash Reserve lets you create separate stashes of cash for specific goals and automatically save money to accomplish each. On top of this, the app provides spending analysis and guidance. You can move money in and out of a Cash Reserve account without having to worry about transfer fees, and withdrawals take one to two business days. What’s more, Betterment now offers joint Cash Reserve accounts, which are eligible for up to $2 million in FDIC insurance.  Betterment Varies Betterment can help grow your money by making saving and investing easy. Invest in a tailored portfolio, set buckets for your goals, and earn rewards. Get Started Goal tracking One of my favorite Betterment features is goal tracking, which helps you set financial goals and monitor your progress. For example, you can customize goals like “family vacation” or “new bike” and use Betterment’s tools to help reach them. Connect outside accounts, schedule deposits, and calculate how to reach your target with a goal forecaster.  All-in-one financial dashboard Betterment provides an all-in-one financial dashboard that makes it easy to see your net worth, connect outside accounts, view performance, and track savings progress.  You can also add shared accounts and track deposits, spending, and transfers.  Betterment pricing and fees Betterment offers three pricing plans, including a free model and two paid plans.  Betterment Checking and Cash Reserve (no fee) $0 minimum balance  No-fee checking account and Visa debit card  ATM fee reimbursement  FDIC insurance up to $250,000 Cash Reserve  Financial goal setting and advice  Retirement planning tools Advice for third-party bank accounts Betterment Digital Investing (0.25% annual fee)  $0 account minimum  Management fee of ~$2.50/ year for every $1,000 Digital investing with managed portfolios  Socially responsible investing Multiple account options (joint accounts, IRAs, and trusts)  Automatic tools like automatic rebalancing Dividend reinvestment Add checking and Cash Reserve for no extra cost Betterment Premium Investing (0.40% annual fee) $100,000 minimum balance  Management fee of ~$400/year for every $100,000 Access all

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[ad_1] Biden looks to reshape Fed with historically diverse slate [ad_2] Source link

[ad_1] Amid the chaos recurring waves of the pandemic have created, pharma marketers are shifting their focus to newer and innovative solutions to engage Physicians, apparent from the phenomenal rise in programmatic messaging technologies. Telehealth platforms are leveraging programmatic solutions to better engage healthcare experts, creating a huge opportunity for pharma brands As the latest report by Doceree, the first global network of physician-only platforms for programmatic messaging, suggests around 43% of pharma marketers in India now prefer programmatic messaging platforms to reach out to physicians, utilizing its ability to segment healthcare experts and align their communication for optimization and better business outcomes. To understand how programmatic is evolving, Doceree delved into inventory and campaign behavior trends of its multiple partners, studying over 1,100 campaigns. These were run on a mix of 165 physician-only publisher platforms via Doceree by 102 advertisers – consisting of consumer healthcare and medical devices companies, life sciences brands, hospitals, and diagnostics, covering 100+ specialties. The report – ‘Programmatic Trends in Pharma HCP Marketing 2022’ – points that pharma’s digital ad spending has risen considerably worldwide and the trend is expected to grow further on the back of programmatic fueling its growth. “The trend looks promising as we see pharma brands earmarking a significant budget to programmatic marketing,” said Harshit Jain MD, Founder & Global CEO, Doceree. “We are seeing 5 out of ten dollars spent on digital being set aside for programmatic messaging,” he added. Besides, the report captures popular trends that are shaping the programmatic pharma physician marketing space:  1. Programmatic gains prominence among endemic publishers  In 2021, there was a jump up to 53% in the exposed programmatic inventory of endemic publishers – HCP-only digital platforms such as medical education sites, HCP networking sites, medical associations, and medical journals that HCPs visit to advance their professional knowledge or to connect with their peer group – on the back of their partnership with specialized ad exchanges. 2. First party data makes contextual marketing valuable Piqued interest of pharma brands in first party data and significant surge in performance campaigns on endemic walled-garden, and point of care platforms – e-prescribing (eRx),  telehealth, and electronic health record (EHR) platforms – where data is collected directly from the physicians via log-ins. There has been a 39% year-on-year increase in the usage of such platforms.  3. Big opportunity in physician’s clinical workflow Point-of-care networks are valuable assets for pharma marketers to enrich communications during a physician’s workflow – from lab test to the stage of diagnosis going to the point of writing a prescription – and deliver informative messages at decision-making moments while they are in a professional mindset. Further, 29% of marketers globally are mulling boosting budgets for trigger-based campaigns on Point of Care channels as they are in dialogue with partners for planning and activation. 4. Account-based marketing creates a buzz Brands are eager to keep up their spending across secondary-based institutions like hospitals, nursing homes and research institutes going into 2022 when targeting physicians of a particular specialty. The data analysis of the report disclosed a 135% increase in spending on account-based campaigns by brand marketers handling medical devices in 2021 over the previous year. “When executed properly, programmatic is a powerful tool to bring targeted scale for pharma marketers,” adds Jain. “For publishers, it offers promise to align relevant messaging and platform experience for physicians visiting the respective sites.” Doceree is the first global network of HCP-only platforms for programmatic messaging. It facilitates messaging between life sciences brands and healthcare professionals through an extensive global network of digital endemic and point-of-care platforms to programmatically deliver at scale accurate and transparent messages to HCPs. [ad_2] Source link

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[ad_1] Robert F. Kennedy’s assassin Sirhan denied parole by California governor  Reuters Gov. Gavin Newsom rejects parole for Sirhan Sirhan, convicted assassin of Robert F. Kennedy  Los Angeles Times California Gov. Gavin Newsom denies parole for RFK assassin Sirhan Sirhan  CNN Gov. Gavin Newsom was wrong to deny parole to Sirhan Sirhan  Sacramento Bee RFK assassin Sirhan Sirhan denied parole by California Gov. Gavin Newsom  Fox News View Full Coverage on Google News [ad_2]

[ad_1] Exclusive-Poland asks EU to hold off fines for disciplining judges – letter [ad_2] Source link

[ad_1] Former Uttar Pradesh Cabinet minister Swami Prasad Maurya, along with state minister Dharam Singh Saini, joined the Samajwadi Party on Friday, days after quitting the BJP just a month ahead of the assembly polls. Five BJP MLAs and Apna Dal (Sonelal) legislator Amar Singh Chaudhary also joined the SP in the presence of Akhilesh Yadav. The five BJP MLAs who joined the SP are Bhagwati Sagar (Bilhaur in Kanpur), Roshanlal Verma (Tilhar in Shahjahanpur), Vinay Shakya (Bidhuna in Auraiya), Brijesh Prajapati (Tindwari in Bahraich) and Mukesh Verma (Shikohabad in Firozabad). Chaudhary is MLA from Shohratgarh. Addressing the public at the event, Maurya said that the BJP leadership was having sleepless nights because of the resignation by him and others. “BJP leaders didn’t have the time to talk to us when in government are now having sleepless nights,” he said. After quitting BJP, MLAs Swami Prasad Maurya, Dharam Singh Saini, Bhagwati Sagar and Vinay Shakya join Samajwadi Party in presence of SP chief Akhilesh Yadav pic.twitter.com/Dz6M7yiRSk — ANI UP/Uttarakhand (@ANINewsUP) January 14, 2022 “January 14, on the occasion of Makar Sankaranti, the end of BJP is being written,” Swami Prasad Maurya said as he joined the Samajwadi Party on Friday.  “The BJP has deceived the poor, Dalits and OBCs to seize power,” he claimed. He went on to state that the BJP had earlier discussed that either Swami Prasad Maurya or Keshav Maurya would be made the chief minister of the state, but later they instated Adityanath. “The BJP has misled the people of the country and the state and has thrown dust in their eyes and exploited the people. Now, Uttar Pradesh has to be freed from BJP’s exploitation by eliminating BJP,” Maurya said claiming that the BJP will be thrown out of the power at the hands of the Samajwadi Party. Earlier this week, Maurya stepped down from the post of Cabinet minister and said he was quitting the BJP, accusing it of neglecting the OBC community and farmers of the state. Maurya’s exit led to a flurry of resignations in the following days which included ministers Dharam Singh Saini and Dara Singh Chauhan, who cited similar reasons for quitting the party. The resignations by three ministers in the Yogi Adityanath Cabinet came along with nine MLAs quitting the party while accusing it of neglecting the Dalits, backwards, farmers and businessmen of the state. The induction of these leaders into the Samajwadi Party comes as a shot in the arm for Akhilesh Yadav who claims that his party will win 400 seats in the state elections this time. The leaders quitting the BJP belong to the OBC community and so the major political drama tends to cement the Opposition’s claim that the BJP government in UP is a pro-upper caste regime. [ad_2] Source link