Latest news with #consumerempowerment
Finextra
02-06-2025
- Business
- Finextra
Payments NZ declares beginning of new era for open banking
We've reached a major milestone for open banking in Aotearoa New Zealand. Today, the four largest banks – ANZ, ASB, BNZ, and Westpac NZ – are due to implement version 2.3 of our Payment Initiation API standard. 0 It's the third milestone in our Minimum Open Banking Implementation Plan and a pivotal moment in the evolution of a more connected, consumer-empowered financial ecosystem. This upgraded standard has been developed in close partnership with banks, fintechs, and broader ecosystem stakeholders. It introduces enduring payment consent and decoupled authentication - functionality that's been high on the priority list for third parties and developers. These features not only provide new flexibility for customers, but set a higher bar for what's possible in digital payments. As Phil Cass, our API Centre Manager, puts it: 'Enduring payment consent fundamentally changes the landscape. It brings us closer to a secure, transparent alternative to direct debit - giving consumers greater visibility and control. This milestone proves what industry collaboration can achieve, especially when it's anchored in strong technical foundations and trust.' Kiwibank is also on track to implement the same standard by May 2026, ensuring broad coverage and consistency across the major retail banks. This achievement comes just weeks after the Customer and Product Data Act 2025 came into force, and we're committed to working with MBIE to achieve a sustainable open banking ecosystem that finds the right balance between regulation and ongoing industry leadership. Growing together: our expanding ecosystem The momentum doesn't stop with implementation. Our community is growing - we now have 7 API Providers, 27 Third Parties, and more than 500 Community Contributors. Already this year, we've welcomed several new third parties into the fold. Our four cross-industry working groups - Business, Technical, Accreditation & Partnering, and Customer & Safety - are contributing hundreds of hours of combined expertise, co-designing the future of open banking in Aotearoa. A key piece of this is our Partnering Framework. Authorised by the Commerce Commission in August 2024, this initiative is focused on making it easier and faster for third parties to establish partnerships with banks. Together with 19 Standards User organisations, we've been defining fit-for-purpose accreditation criteria, classes, and risk settings that ensure both safety and ease of access. Data handling guidelines The API Centre has partnered with Māori data scientists from Nicholson Consulting - world leaders in indigenous data sovereignty - to develop best practice guidelines for data handling, grounded in the Māori Data Governance principles and framework. Our data handling guidelines provide a universal framework that supports all users, including Third Parties and permitted users, to align their data practices with broader principles of good data governance. We look forward to publishing the guidelines in mid-June. What's next? This year we're also delivering a performance standard to ensure consistent availability, service quality, and outage management. Our new customer experience guidelines are already live, offering safer, more intuitive pathways for customer interaction, including for intermediary journeys. Consultation is imminent on version 3.0 of our standards and we will continue to support implementation of version 2.3 of the Account Information API across the major banks, expected by 28 November. And of course, we're looking forward to celebrating six years of the API Centre with The Hub | Pulse event in mid-June. We'll be reflecting on the incredible progress we've made together, while looking ahead to the next phase of industry-led open banking in a regulated world. Open banking is here. Customers are using it. And together, we're just getting started.
Free Malaysia Today
16-05-2025
- Health
- Free Malaysia Today
Pharmacists call for drug price display rule to include supply chain
Malaysian Pharmacists Society president Amrahi Buang said pricing transparency empowered the people to take control of their health. (Freepik pic) PETALING JAYA : The Malaysian Pharmacists Society has backed a law compelling private healthcare facilities to display prices of medicines and called for the policy to be extended across the whole supply chain. MPS president Amrahi Buang said pricing transparency empowered the people to take control of their health, which was why it stood with the coalition of 21 consumer associations in support of the government's policy. Amrahi Buang. But such 'transparency' is also needed across the whole supply chain to discourage anti-competitive behaviour and protect the standards of practice, he said. 'We believe that information is power and by sharing it, we can deliver a more sustainable healthcare system,' Amrahi said in a statement. Private general practitioners (GPs) have been against the mandatory display of drug prices under a law unrelated to the health sector. Earlier this month, over 200 GPs gathered to protest the policy near the Prime Minister's Office. The gathering was organised by the Malaysian Medical Association's (MMA) private general medical practitioners section. MMA has repeatedly said it is not against the mandatory drug price display rule in itself but its implementation under a non-health related law. The doctors argue that the rule should fall under the Private Healthcare Facilities and Services Act 1998, not the Price Control and Anti-Profiteering Act 2011. In February, MPS had joined the calls for implementation of the policy to be deferred. The society's call for the mandatory price display policy to be extended to include the whole supply chain is among the 10 proposals submitted to the prime minister. This is aimed at strengthening the role of independent community pharmacies. Other proposals include a national health financing scheme, a mandatory prescription policy and regulation of online and cross-border medicine sales.
Forbes
13-05-2025
- Health
- Forbes
3 Quick Ways For Oz To Reach CMS ‘Power To The People' Goals
Dr. Mehmet Oz, recently confirmed to lead the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, has made ... More empowering the American public a major goal. (Photo by) Dr. Mehmet Oz, the new administrator of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, has said he wants to give 'power to the people.' Well, OK, he didn't use those exact words, but healthcare consumer power was the core idea behind his stated goals of 'empowering the American people' to 'better manage their health' and holding providers 'accountable for health outcomes.' Although achieving those objectives won't be easy, I'd like to suggest three quick actions that together would constitute a giant step forward. 1. Order Medicare Advantage plans to disclose truly local quality ratings The CMS star rating system for Medicare Advantage plans is controversial due to its high stakes and ever-evolving methodology. A five-star rating not only attracts members, it also boosts government bonus payments. At least five large insurers have sued the government over its latest changes. Although MA now covers 54% of all Medicare beneficiaries, or nearly 34 million people, there's a major flaw in its rating system that quietly blocks individuals from informed management of their health. Though you'd expect the rating of your local MA plan to reflect local experience, CMS actually rates plans by contract number. Health care isn't chain-restaurant hamburgers, delivered in comforting conformity everywhere. The quality of care can vary dramatically from place to place, yet the CMS approach allows one large insurer, for example, to aggregate quality information from 17 states as diverse as Rhode Island, Mississippi, Illinois, Colorado and California. That pooling has been known to open the door to statistical tricks designed to boost the star rating score. Health insurers know local results. To empower individuals to better manage their health, CMS should order insurers to share them. 2. Tell the 11 million elderly in 'accountable care organizations' about the board member representatives who are supposed to advocate for them While MA gets the lion's share of attention, another 11 million Medicare beneficiaries are part of so-called 'accountable care organizations,' whose core mission is maintaining the health of those for whom they're responsible; i.e., 'make America healthy again' before Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. coined the slogan. But as with MA, the disempowerment is in the details. Regulations require ACOs to place a Medicare beneficiary, and sometimes also a consumer representative, on the board. However, the organizations are not required to proactively disclose those individuals' names when enrolling ACO members or even to mention they exist. And if you can find the names, there's no contact information. Sustained sleuthing about my own ACO revealed that though it is owned by a nonprofit health system — by law, ACOs must be owned by providers — it's actually managed by an out-of-state company that's partially owned by a private equity firm. The Medicare beneficiary on the board listed as 'retired' sold a company to a different private equity firm for $2.2 billion. The consumer rep is the ex-mayor of the town where the managing company is based. Other ACOs have chosen beneficiary representatives who are elderly hospital volunteers or retired doctors. To make ACOs accountable to the public, not just to government, give consumers meaningful representation on the ACO board and ensure that representation is transparent. 3. Make Medicare's Compare website a place where information is easily findable and relevant to consumer decisions The first time there was a nationwide survey of care quality at U.S. hospitals, the surgeons' professional society conducting it found the results so upsetting they threw them into a hotel furnace at midnight and burned them so no one would find out. In the 100 years since, it's become only moderately easier to unearth accurate and timely provider quality information. For example, Medicare's Compare website supplies information on doctors, hospitals, nursing homes, home health and other providers, but it's both fragmented and 18 to 24 months old. Earlier this year President Trump issued an executive order ramping up price transparency by hospitals and insurers, whose foot-dragging has been rampant. Consumers need quality information that's as up-to-date as the information on cost. As measurement pioneer Walter Shewhart pithily put it, 'Price has no meaning without a measure of the quality being purchased.' Moreover, the site's detailed comparison information can't be directly accessed via a Google search or by ChatGPT. However, artificial intelligence chatbots will smoothly synthesize a compelling narrative on care quality that's derived from online press releases and provider websites, though perhaps directing you to the Medicare site if you want something more. CMS should make it a priority to fix Compare so that its information is relevant, timely and easy to find. Pro-consumer rhetoric comes easily to policymakers, but giving power to the public requires taking it away from powerful industry players. That won't be easy. There are always alluring arguments for the status quo and against the strengthening of health care consumer power inherent in the three quick actions I've outlined. But to rebuild trust in U.S. health care and root out unnecessary costs and mediocre outcomes, Oz, with the full backing of the administration, should politely listen to those arguments — and then ignore them.
