Dec 172012
 

In a fascinating article over the weekend, the LA Times reports on how beneficiaries in California’s Medi-Cal program have to wait many months for care from specialists.

“… a dearth of specialists available to low-income patients presents one of the bigger hurdles facing the country as it tries to bring spiraling healthcare costs under control. Doctors say meeting new government mandates to keep patients healthy and out of hospitals — a linchpin in reducing medical spending — will be virtually impossible without the ability to make timely patient appointments with specialists.

 Posted by at 10:46 pm
Nov 182012
 

This headline is staggering: “If you’re 27 or younger, you’ve never experienced a colder-than-average month.”

That headline comes from the Grist.org, a site devoted to reporting environmental news. In the article, the Grist’s writer, Philip Bump, quotes from a report by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration about temperatures last month (October 2012), saying,

The average temperature across land and ocean surfaces during October was 14.63°C (58.23°F). This is 0.63°C (1.13°F) above the 20th century average and ties with 2008 as the fifth warmest October on record. The record warmest October occurred in 2003 and the record coldest October occurred in 1912. This is the 332nd consecutive month with an above-average temperature.

The entire blog post is well worth reading.

 

 Posted by at 10:23 pm
Nov 132012
 

The percentage of U.S. workers enrolled in health plans with an annual deductibles increased significantly over time, according to the latest results from the Kaiser/HRET Survey of Employer-Sponsored Health Benefits, 2012, from the Kaiser Family Foundation.

In 2006, 52% of covered workers had a deductible for single coverage, compared with almost three-quarters (72%) this year, the survey shows.  “In addition to contributing more toward premiums, covered workers increasingly face higher cost sharing.  A larger proportion of workers are required to meet a deductible before using health care services and these deductibles are increasing in size,” the report says.  “Covered workers are commonly enrolled in plans with deductibles of a $1,000 or more. ”

“The growth in workers’ contributions and cost sharing may increasingly become a financial strain on some households,” the report concludes.

Source: The Prevalence and Cost of Deductibles in Employer Sponsored Insurance: A View from the 2012 Employer Health Benefit Survey, November 2012.

 Posted by at 12:05 pm
Oct 062012
 

More than 100,000 U.S. employees will enroll in a new health insurance exchange from human resources consultants Aon Hewitt, the company announced on Sept. 27. The employees can use the exchange to purchase health benefits through this multi-insurer, multi-employer exchange starting this fall. This rate of enrollment might be a record for a health insurance exchange, either public or private. Could the state exchanges being developed under the Affordable Care Act learn a lesson from Aon’s experience with a private exchange? I covered this topic in a Managed Care magazine cover story this summer.

“There are examples in every industry, including iTunes, Amazon.com and Orbitz, where the introduction of competition on a retail, consumer level has driven down prices and made the industry more efficient,” said Ken Sperling, Aon Hewitt’s national health exchange strategy leader. “The Aon Hewitt Corporate Exchange is a viable alternative for companies searching for solutions that can reduce cost, transfer risk to insurers, empower employees to make smarter health care choices and create a more sustainable health care benefit program.”

 

 Posted by at 1:07 am
Sep 192012
 

Saw these two quotes on Lifehacker today. They both apply nicely to the craft of writing:

“Enthusiasm is one of the most powerful engines of success. When you do a thing, do it with all your might. Put your whole soul into it. Stamp it with your own personality. Be active, be energetic, be enthusiastic and faithful, and you will accomplish your objective. Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm.”
–Ralph Waldo Emerson

This one is similar but goes a bit deeper:

“For me, pushing myself is way more about ‘It’s hard to make something that’s interesting.’ It’s really, really hard, and I’m sure we don’t succeed with every story on every show. Basically, anything that anyone makes…It’s like a law of nature, a law of aerodynamics, that anything that’s written or anything that’s created wants to be mediocre. The natural state of all writing is mediocrity. It’s all tending toward mediocrity in the same way that all atoms are sort of dissipating out toward the expanse of the universe. Everything wants to be mediocre, so what it takes to make anything more than mediocre is an act of will. Anyone who makes something for a living, or even not for a living, if they’re really excited about it…You just have to exert so much will into something for it to be good. That feels exactly the same now as it did the first week of the show. That hasn’t changed at all. That’s the premise of what it takes to make something.”
–Ira Glass, the host and executive producer of  This American Life

 

 Posted by at 11:12 pm
Sep 152012
 

“The case for extending the same rights to LGBT persons as those enjoyed by everyone else is neither radical nor complicated. It rests on two fundamental principles that underpin international human rights law: equality and non-discrimination. The opening words of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights are unequivocal: ‘All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights’.”

This quote from UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay is in the forward of a new publication, Born Free and Equal, from the UN Human Rights Office. This publication on sexual orientation and gender identity in international human rights law identifies the source and scope of the core legal obligations that countries have to protect the human rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people.  The booklet focuses on the obligations nation’s have to protecting people from homophobic violence,  preventing torture, decriminalizing homosexuality, prohibiting discrimination,  safeguarding freedom of expression, and allowing the association and peaceful assembly for all LGBT people, the UN’s announcement said. The booklet is available as a pdf.

Addressing the Human Rights Council in March 2012, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said, “Some say that sexual orientation and gender identity are sensitive issues. I understand. Like many of my generation, I did not grow up talking about these issues. But I learned to speak out because lives are at stake, and because it is our duty under the United Nations Charter and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights to protect the rights of everyone, everywhere.”

Source: UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights

 Posted by at 12:45 am
Sep 052012
 

In a cover story for Managed Care magazine, I explain the efforts of health insurers and consultants to develop private health insurance exchanges under the Affordable Care Act (ACA). As the article reports:

“Not yet fully operational, the Affordable Care Act is already having a significant effect on the sale and marketing of health insurance. Health plans are changing how they sell it, and employers are changing how they buy it. While continuing to sell to executives in human resources and finance departments at companies large and small, health plans also are developing relationships with private health insurance exchanges, thus providing a new way for consumers and businesses to buy health care coverage.”

It will be fascinating to see if these private exchanges develop more quickly than the public exchanges the states can develop under the ACA. As of September 2012, some states were resisting efforts to develop exchanges while other states were moving forward.

 Posted by at 1:48 pm
Jun 222012
 

Photo of the Martyrs Monument in Memento Park, Budapest, Hungary. The Martyrs Monument is one of 42 pieces of art from the Communist era in Hungary (1945 to 1989). A work done in stone by Kallo Viktor in 1960, it stood in Koztarsasag Square in Budapest until 1989. After the fall of the Communist regime in Hungary, it was removed from the city along with other Communist-era statuary. In 1993, it was displayed again in the open-air Memento Park along with statues of famous personalities such as Engels, Lenin, and Marx.
Photo credit: Joseph Burns, December 2010.

 Posted by at 12:09 pm