Nonprofit public interest law firm, Advocacy & Benefits Counseling for Health, Inc., creates online, YouTube-style video hub about government health programs

MADISON, Wis. — December 16, 2013 — With coverage in the Health Insurance Marketplace set to begin Jan. 1 under the Affordable Care Act and open enrollment closing in March, the Madison, Wis. Public interest law firm Advocacy & Benefits Counseling for Health, Inc. (ABC for Health) is helping Wisconsin families navigate the changing health care system with informational webcasts for advocates recorded via Mediasite by Sonic Foundry, Inc. (NASDAQ: SOFO), the trusted leader for video content management and webcasting solutions.

“Policies and programs change constantly in the health care world. We can instantly do trainings and answer important questions in real-time with Mediasite using our HealthWatch Wisconsin training hub of on-demand webcast presentations,” said Bobby Peterson, founder and president of ABC for Health.

The membership-based ‘HealthWatch Wisconsin Teaching & Training Portal’ program provides training and information on public and private health insurance programs and health reform. HealthWatch Wisconsin Members — representatives from hospitals and clinics; parents; birth-to-3 coordinators; economic support workers; school nurses and counselors; advocates; employers and members of the faith community — complete a self-assessment, select the type of information they’re looking for, view training modules via Mediasite and then take a post-assessment about what they learned. 

A few publically available presentations include:

·         Health Benefits Advocacy Overview

·         Key Aspects of the Affordable Care Act: Navigators and Consumer Assistance in the Marketplace

·         Lifeline and Link Up Services in Wisconsin

Mediasite makes reaching thousands of members across Wisconsin easy and affordable. Peterson and his team use an in-house studio to record weekly live and on-demand webcasts to enhance their established in-person educational offerings, reducing travel costs and meeting the growing demand for online health care training events. HealthWatch Wisconsin has created nearly 300 presentations using Mediasite technology.

“Mediasite provides tremendous flexibility and it exponentially expands our audience and allows us to efficiently teach and train Wisconsin advocates that serve families,” Peterson said, adding that the next step is to implement a pay-per-view model to generate revenue with the webcasts.

The organization has a satellite office in rural Northwest Wisconsin that will use the new Mediasite Desktop Recorder in My Mediasite to record, upload, manage and publish videos anywhere using a laptop’s built-in camera. Because the tool is backed by Mediasite Enterprise Vid