Just sayin'

If you were to win the lottery and the first thing you would do involves quitting things, you're living your life all wrong and you wouldn't be happy with the winnings anyway.

what? the? hell? is? wrong? with? us? WHY CAN'T WE FIX HEALTHCARE?

So when workers unionize and bargin collectively it's part of what makes America great, but when Doctors do it with predatory insurance companies trying to lowball them on every little thing it's price fixing?

New Mexico Physicians' Association Agrees To Settle FTC Charges of Price-Fixing
Activities Allegedly Led to Higher Prices for Local Consumers

Carlsbad Physician Association (CPA), a New Mexico physicians' organization, along with its Executive Director and certain Board and Contract Committee members, has agreed to settle Federal Trade Commission charges that the organization and its members entered into agreements to fix prices and to refuse to deal with payors except on collectively agreed-upon terms. Through the proposed consent order, designed to address the allegedly illegal anticompetitive conduct, CPA will be dissolved, and the association and individual respondents will be prohibited from engaging in similar action in the future and from acting as the messenger or agent in other health plan contracting matters.

"CPA served no function other than to jointly fix prices on behalf of its members during the health plan contracting process" said Joe Simons, Director of the FTC's Bureau of Competition. "As a result, and because CPA includes most of the doctors in the Carlsbad area, health plans had no choice but to contract with them, ultimately to the detriment of the area's consumers."
The Commission Complaint

The FTC complaint states that CPA was organized in 1998 to serve as a vehicle for competing physicians to bargain collectively with health plans in an effort to obtain "favorable reimbursement" for its members. Its physician members represent more than three-quarters of all doctors practicing in and around Carlsbad, in southeastern New Mexico, and more than 80 percent of the primary care physicians in the area.

According to the complaint, CPA does not engage in any cooperative activities to benefit consumers in connection with health plan contracting, and instead has: 1) orchestrated collective agreements on fees and other terms of dealing with health plans; 2) carried out collective negotiations with several health plans, and 3) orchestrated refusals to deal and threats to refuse to deal with health plans who resisted their desired terms. These alleged actions, the Commission contends, are anticompetitive, harmful to Carlsbad consumers, and violate the FTC Act.

The complaint charges CPA members have refused to deal with health plans on an individual basis, and instead have acted collectively through CPA to obtain higher prices for their medical services. CPA leadership directly negotiated contracts with health plans and members voted on whether CPA should accept the contract. The individual physicians named in the Commission's complaint are alleged to have actively participated in negotiations with payors.

The complaint further states that CPA and the respondent physicians have succeeded in forcing numerous health plans to raise prices paid to CPA members and therefore raised the cost of medical care in the Carlsbad area. As a result of the agreements among CPA members to deal only on collectively-determined terms, the FTC states, the Carlsbad consumers have had to pay more for physician services, health plans have been forced to raise prices, and CPA's members are paid the highest prices in New Mexico.

The Proposed Settlement

The proposed consent order is designed to remedy the alleged illegal conduct described in the complaint. Accordingly, CPA and the respondent physicians will be prohibited in the future from entering into or facilitating any agreement between or among any physicians: 1) to negotiate with payors on any physician's behalf; 2) to deal, or to refuse to deal, or threaten to refuse to deal with payors; 3) to determine on what terms to deal with any payor; or 4) not to deal individually with any payor, or to deal with any payor only through an arrangement involving CPA. These prohibitions are similar to those put in place in other cases involving allegations of illegal collective bargaining by a physicians' group.

In addition to these core provisions, the order requires that CPA dissolve itself to ensure that it is not able to engage in unlawful collective bargaining activities in the future. The proposed order also contains fencing-in relief, which for three years bars all individuals named in the order from acting as an agent in health-plan contracting matters, and bars individual physicians named in the order from using a similar agent as any other physician to contract with health plans for three years from the date the order becomes final.

As in other cases of this type, the proposed order excludes certain kinds of agreements from the general bar on collective bargaining with health care purchasers. First, CPA and the individual respondents would not be precluded from engaging in conduct that is reasonably necessary to form or participate in legitimate joint contracting agreements among competing physicians, whether they are "qualified risk-sharing joint agreements" or "qualified clinically integrated joint agreements." Each of these terms is defined in the Commission's proposed order.

The proposed order, which CPA is required to distribute along with the complaint to all physicians who have participated in the association, expires 20 years from the date it becomes final.

The Commission vote to place the proposed consent agreement on the public record for comment was 5-0. An announcement regarding the proposed consent agreements will be published in the Federal Register shortly. The agreement will be subject to public comment for 30 days, until May 30, 2003, after which the Commission will decide whether to make it final. Comments should be addressed to the FTC, Office of the Secretary, 600 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W., Washington, DC. 20580.

NOTE: A consent agreement is for settlement purposes only and does not constitute an admission of a law violation. When the Commission issues a consent order on a final basis, it carries the force of law with respect to future actions. Each violation of such an order may result in a civil penalty of $11,000.

Copies of the complaints, proposed consent agreements and orders, and an analysis of each to aid in public comment are available from the FTC's Web site at http://www.ftc.gov and also from the FTC's Consumer Response Center, Room 130, 600 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W., Washington, D.C. 20580. The FTC's Bureau of Competition seeks to prevent business practices that restrain competition. The Bureau carries out its mission by investigating alleged law violations and, when appropriate, recommending that the Commission take formal enforcement action. To notify the Bureau concerning particular business practices, call or write the Office of Policy and Evaluation, Room 394, Bureau of Competition, Federal Trade Commission, 600 Pennsylvania Ave, N.W., Washington, D.C. 20580, Electronic Mail: antitrust@ftc.gov; Telephone (202) 326-3300. For more information on the laws that the Commission enforces, the FTC has published "Promoting Competition, Protecting Consumers: A Plain English Guide to Antitrust Laws," which can be accessed at http://www.ftc.gov/bc/compguide/index.htm.

odder

She decided recently that she liked softball.
And this... she remarked, was very odd, because softball held for her a particular distaste that went far beyond rational, and wallowed right down there with the tantrum-inducing injustices of her childhood.
Once, in the sixth grade, she had participated in a game against the teachers. It might have been a field day. It might have been very near the last day - ever - of elementary school. All she remembered now was the specific location on the playground where the field was located, and the uneasiness the memory brought up.
She would have told you that she slid... into a base. She remembers it as home plate, but it probably wasn't. She will tell you that she did not do it well, and that it felt awkward and hurt her. She will tell you that she wore the smallest most delicate hoop earrings and that the hoop pulled and the ear tore. She will tell you that it wasn't until after college that she'd had a new hole pierced in that ear so that the earrings would sit at the proper height and the torn lobe would not rip through completely.
She added to this visceral and gut-tightening dislike for softball the red-neck tendencies of its adult participants and she began to lose all semblance of intellectual thought. Blackness did, in fact, creep into her vision. Muscles in her jaw tightened. She. Hated. Softball.
And yet, oddly, she had covered it as a reporter with expertise and aplomb. Back in the day. The training to separate yourself from your subject had worked. And she had handled herself nicely.
Reporting long behind her, she mainly avoided the subject of softball these days... and all invitations to play.
In fact, she had never played again.
What she'd learned to like about softball was its universality and usefulness at the metaphorical level.
Odd, she knew, but then it didn't matter to her if anyone else understood. Now, when she said she liked softball, there was a glint in her eye and a smirk in her heart.
And it felt good to have a secret all her own, one that made people wonder at her oddness and the happiness she refused to share.
Yes.... she decided recently that she liked the game...
And if you ask her what she's thinking, she's likely to say, "play ball!"

odd.

Today, as randomly as anything else I've ever received, I got a call from a friend who asked me if he could move in this weekend. I happened to have an ad on Craigslist looking for another roommate and I don't even know if he knew that... so... we are all helping each other out. I can breathe a bit easier and work my new job rationally rather than in panic mode.. He doesn't have to scramble to find an apartment. And... mayhem and hilarity will ensue. Can you say hot-tubbing at our house?
But the truth is, it's been a long time since I've felt the presence of Universal Abundance. Today I feel lucky and grateful and very, very connected to the universe.
***
This weekend I went to a funeral. It wasn't like any funeral most of you have ever been to... it was one of the best funerals I have ever been to.... it was a hasher's funeral.
First, we all wore black dresses - even the men. With running shoes.
Then, we set off on a cross country orienteering event, following marks set by baking flour and ashes.
The baking flour is our tradition. The ashes mixed in; that is the highest form of flattery for a man who gave community and connectedness to so very many people. He created, from his will and his enthusiasm, an organization that stretches boundaries, breaks down barriers, increases joy and fosters lasting friendships... in fact, the very best friendships of my life.
After the run, we sang and drank and accused each other of blasphemy against the tradition he loved and the hash gods he worshiped. And then, we closed with Swing Low, Sweet Chariot. We spread the remaining ashes. And we wept.
2th Fairy - illustrious founder of the Oklahoma City and Savannah Hash House Harriers, would have wanted to know that we miss him. And that we thank him. And that we know he died too soon. He would have also appreciated the laughter, the flirting, the crude sexual innuendo and the hook-ups after the run.

Love BItes! No, really. It does.

So there I was... hanging out at Stevie Wonder's, watching some perfectly pompous and inane former NFL stars jabber away and the channel got changed to HBO.
Now I might, possibly, maybe have squeeked something about not liking "insert name of pompous former NFL star here," or maybe I just got up and wandered around... but still - all of a sudden we were watching the worst bit of television I've been witness to in a long time.
I can begin, and believe me I am going to, to tell you all about the myriad things that were OFF in this show, but suffice it to say I don't think I can do its general badness justice.
Still, let me try.

So first of all, it's called True Blood and it's about vampires. They now have synthetic blood and they have no need to kill humans or drink their blood. All very nice and maybe even a bit sweet - what with the rehabilitation of vampires to show their softer, gentler sides, and all.

But the first thing you must know is that there are 10,000 sub-plots. And they all seem to intermingle. Never mind that... let's begin by saying that the leads, Suki and Bill, are completely horridly portrayed by two people who can't act. The acting is so bad that the accent Suki has (which happens to be the star's real accent) sounds faked.
The teeth popping out is just so 1960s Star Treknolicious.
The sets are abhorrent, the supporting roles are also badly acted, the plot makes no sense, the soundtrack is wrong and confused and jarring, the lighting and camera work is amateurish and heavy handed....
Oh, and the writing. Yes, the writing... which comes from none other than the writer who did Six Feet Under. Now see, that was brilliant. This... this is ape-shit-wouldn't-make-this-less-palatable bad. Not quick. Not whitty. Not mysterious...transparent, actually. Not smart. Not quite campy enough.

Anyway, where I lost it completely and began to regret the hour I put in was the last sex scene between Bill and Suki (after he gave her possibly the worst line ever written)... they are tearing clothes off and it's all very need-driven and animalistic and then all of a sudden camera cuts and it's stylized and moody and then...well, then he bites her.

Yeah, Um, NO! That's not erotic.

Having flirted my way through dinner, I was suddenly really glad I was going home alone to sleep by myself.

I mean, I have some odd tastes.... Hugh Laurie, for instance. And Mark. But coitus with a corpse-like being who bites me.... (with bad directing to boot) - well that's just not my thing.

Arrgh, I don't have time for this...

So I'm on the phone with Stevie Wonder and I finally get it... I get how frustrated my friends must have been back when I didn't text and you had to call and talk to me - or leave me a message.
Wow... when was that, like three years ago?
Anyway... when you get on the phone you have to have a real conversation, when all I really want to is find out if he's got rice. And I want to do it while sitting at my desk with my coworkers right alongside me...
In the Facebook era, I wonder, I do, if soon it will be too much trouble for me to actually send email....
What will we find too time-consuming next?

A day outside of reality

I am writing this from Zale Lipshy, which is the hospital connected to UT Southwestern Medical Center here in Dallas. Annie has had her mastectomy, but the reconstruction surgery was not an option as there was too much skin removed during the first part of the surgery.
Time seems to fly these days, but no more so than here in the hospital, where I have been contained since 9 a.m. this morning. Lunch was actually a bearable plate of chicken enchiladas and Spanish rice. The temperature is moderate, the floor we're on is quiet and the people here are all pretty nice, so except for the jerk who brought his DVD player to the waiting room and didn't have earphones, things have gone well.
Being in the hospital is a little bit like being in a cocoon. No one wants to bother you. Only Mark seems inclined to "trouble" me with his thoughts.
Drs Cumbie and Euhus were just here. Everything looks good.
Dr. Euhus told Annie she was cured... she giggles when he's in the room.
They're not supposed to use the C word... cured... with cancer, but he said he believes she is... so I guess next week we can plan our ski trip.

Good Article about how Social Media affects Business

Business reputations often take years to develop, but can be undone with a single Tweet. Solution providers should engage with the same social media as their customers to both promote and defend their reputation.

There has been a lot of discussion about how businesses and individuals need to participate in social networks to get their messages out, but there is little discussion related to managing online reputation.

Vehicles such as Angies List, Facebook and YouTube are prime locations for your customers to share their positive or negative experiences related to your company. There are also thousands of blogs that are sharing information with customers every day on what they liked or disliked about their experiences with businesses.

If you are still not convinced that your online presence is important consider that women are nearly twice as likely to use blogs than social networking sites as a source of information (64 percent), advice and recommendations (43 percent) and opinion-sharing (55 percent), according to a recent 2009 Women and Social Media study.

From somScore, the data figures for video views from November 2008 finds more and more people are watching videos—about 146 million or 77 percent of the U.S. Internet audience. This is up over one-third year over year.
Resource Library:

Employee Web Use and Misuse: Companies, Their Employees and the Internet
IT's Critical Role in Enabling Mobile Work
Can Heuristic Technology Help Your Company Fight Viruses?
Solutions and Tactics for Financial Services Compliance

Your customers are online and not just looking at your Web site and Facebook page for information about your company. What took you years to develop in local reputation can be brought down in a day with negative commentary. Therefore, it pays to protect your brand where ever consumers are offered a degree of interaction.

It’s important that either you have an employee who conducts comprehensive online reputation management to ensure that your brand attributes are protected across all social channels. Another option is to hire an outside company to regularly monitor for negative commentary and, if any is found, combat it by researching the situation, discerning if any action is required, and then engage the problem.

A good response will provide facts and ask for corrections if required. This is where your company blog or those of your employees and customers can be invaluable. Opening the conversation to as many sides as possible and broadening the discussion.

Some key areas to consider when dealing with your online reputation management:

Do not get defensive: Even if your customer is not correct in what they wrote, you cannot criticize them. You need to reach out, listen, try to understand their perspective and then work to resolve their concerns. How you handle a situation is often more important that the actions that caused or resolved the situation. In the social networking world, style counts.

The best defense is a well executed offense: You do not wait for a virus to attack your network, so why would you wait for negative postings to protect your online reputation? Begin with your customer service. It is always easier to work with a happy customer than it is to negate and unhappy one. Proactive postings on a regular basis through blogs, Twitter, and other social mediums can go a long way. Don’t forget to share good news as it happens as well. When appropriate a shared press release between you and a customer goes a long way to bolstering your reputation in the marketplace.

Hire an objective source: It is hard to be objective when it comes to your own brand and reputation. Just as it is difficult to evaluate your own work, it is challenging at best to understand outside perceptions of your business. Many outside companies assist with keeping your business top of mind with existing and potential customers.

You do not need to invest millions, or even thousands of dollars in your online reputation management, but you do need to pay attention to what is being said about your business. An investment of just a few thousand dollars can go a long way to building and protecting your brand and business.

Kathleen Martin is the special projects coordinator for Channel Inside