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may be found over at doulicia , who's done a terrific job of culling and organizing a lot of interesting posts . BTW, she describes herself as a " labor doula; " I'd never heard the term before. Turns out, " (t)he word Doula comes from the Greek meaning ''in service". A Doula is a Professional Labor Assistant who understands the emotional and physical needs of a woman in labor, and provides continuous support and care for a woman throughout labor and deliver. " Interesting.

We�ve looked before at the issue of genetic testing and employment, most recently here and here . Now, at least one company, IBM , has committed to protecting its employees� privacy by explicitly avoiding the use of genetic information. In a (very) recent New York Times article , IBM announced its decision to ignore such results in both its hiring practices and when dealing with its various workplace benefits. On the one hand, genetic testing can be a valuable tool in assessing risk, diagnosing conditions, and finding cures. The concern is, of course, that the information can also be used to discriminate against folks who have markers for certain illnesses or proclivities, but of course have no control over their genetic makeup. By being the first out of the gate on this issue, IBM has set the bar. It�ll be interesting to watch how other companies in the tech sector, and then in the business arena in general, choose to address this now high-profile issue. Kudo�s to IBM. UPDATE: Jack

WooHoo! Carnival of the Capitalists turns two today. Rob over at BusinessPundit hosted the very first CotC, and shares some of its history, as well as some thoughts on where to go from here. And Hello Dollar's Frank has done a great job with this week's Carnival of Personal Finance . Mosey on over.

We�ve talked before about transparency in regard to health care costs. Recently, though, Aetna has really taken this concept to a new level. A new pilot program currently underway in the Cincinnati, OH market aims to make real numbers available to Aetna insureds who choose the Consumer Driven Health Care (CDHC) model, such as HSA or HRA. We all know that carriers negotiate prices with providers, and we have some vague notion that these prices are significantly less than the �street rate� that doctors (and others) charge patients who either don�t have insurance, or aren�t in-network. Until now, though, we had no idea what those costs really are. The primary idea behind CDHC is that insureds will make better health care choices if they have the tools to decide what is and what isn�t covered, and how much their out of pocket�s going to be for a given service or procedure. And that�s great on paper; the problem is that we consumers have never really had the one tool that would be most he

Thanx to Jeff over at Tusk & Talon , we learn that Dr David Hogberg (with whom this blogger has corresponded) has a new study out on a number of issues regarding HSA's. He discusses some of the problems of state mandated benefits, and how these interefere with the HSA market. Recommended . Helpful InsureBlog HSA posts here and here .

Dr Donnell over at The Haversian Canal has done a really nice job, breaking down a LOT of posts into interesting categories. Check it out .

Happy New Year 5766 to my (fellow) Jewish InsureBlog readers. May the New Year be one of health and happiness for you and your families. Blogging will (of necessity) be light the next few days...but your patience will be rewarded.

JD over at Drakeview has done an outstanding job with this week's Carnival of the Capitalists . He's even created a chart of posting history for the past two years of CotC's history (and you thought I was a geeek!). Our friends up north host this week's Carnival of Personal Finance at the Canadian Capitalist . I for one really appreciate the easy to read, straight ahead style. If you participate in a Deferred Compensation plan, then you'll definitely want to check out Joe Kristan's post on some new regulations that are in the mill . UPDATE: Joe's been quoted in an article in Forbes Online today about these new regs. Congratulations!!

Turns out there�s real dollars at stake for overweight employees. That may seem like a �dunh� moment, but it�s backed up by some hefty numbers: According to a new study , obese employees are costing their employers hundreds, and sometimes thousands, of dollars a year. These losses come in the form of increased health care costs and higher absenteeism. The study defined obese based on one�s � body mass index .� BMI is a measure of body weight relative to height, and seems to correlate with body fat. According to the National Institute of Health, a BMI of 30 or higher puts you in the obese category. What�s particularly interesting is that these costs grow directly in proportion to one�s BMI: for example, the study found that the heaviest 3% of employees accounted for over 21% of health are costs. Ouch! As this blog has previously mentioned , making healthy lifestyle choices not only makes one, well, healthy, but it also helps to hold down healthcare costs.