Zane Safrit

Healthcare Cost-Shifting

In a preview of things to come, Joe Paduda at Managed Care Matters makes us stare right in the face of the coming perfect storm with our healthcare system and our economy. Health Care Costs are Headed Up and So Are Premiums.

Growing numbers of unemployed will lose their employee health insurance benefits. Unemployment first hits big companies who until now were able to afford that benefit for their employees (unlike small companies, the ones creating jobs).  Other companies, moving down the food chain, will be forced to cut back on the benefit.

And the situation's further aggravated when many will need to forgo care and treatment and meds. When treatment can no longer be denied, they have two choices:

they will either have to rely on the understanding of their current providers, or go to hospital emergency rooms for treatment. Either way, the folks who provide care have to recoup their loss on charity care by charging their paying customers more.

I have a statistic in my head without attribution. That statistic is that $80-$90 per month of every health insurance plan is the cost to cover those without health insurance. I know it's from a credible source. I just can't find it right now.

Regardless, our health insurance premiums will rise. The cost of our health care will rise.

Now for those who boast about tax credits for health care and no tax increases to pay for social programs...I say you're being intellectually dishonest. You've subjected us to these hidden taxes as a result of your unwillingness to create a healthcare system affordable for all.  You've hidden it with your confusion and obfuscation and ideology-driven pablum. That tax is in the higher costs for health care and higher premiums for health insurance that you claim is the work of free markets. Please...

This is a preview of things to come. And it's another reason why it's unfathomable to me why any talk about an universal healthcare plan is buried under talk about socialism or a betrayal of free-market principles. Those who can already pay for those who need. And very poorly, too, judging by the quality of care of those who need.

Let's get it out in the open. Discuss the true costs of healthcare, who's paying it, who's making a lot of money from it, who's not getting the quality care we claim we provide and find out why they're not getting it. And build a system that works.

Intel's Health Guide for the Home

No one knows a market opportunity like Intel, so it's good news, I guess, that they've jumped into the fray with in-home, medical, monitoring market. (It's good that they're bringing a solution. It's not so good that they see home health care as a growth market.)

According to Engadget, it's not ready for in-trial use but...

it should be good to go by the time you start forgetting things and kvetching about the taste of your tap water.

Healthcare and Priorities- November 12

* The Safety Gap.( NY Times) Or as I put it, profits and ideology trump safety inspections.

The F.D.A. regulates more than $1 trillion worth of consumer goods, which amounts to about 25 cents of every consumer dollar spent in this country.

But with fewer than 500 import inspectors and computer systems so old that repairmen must be called out of retirement to fix them, the agency is increasingly beset by a sense of futility.

Futility's not good in the agency responsible for the safety of our drug supplies.

* States Forced to Cut Healthcare Coverage for the Poor. (USAToday) Or, we want to spend our limited resources, finding solutions and money, elsewhere.

Economic troubles are forcing states to scale back safety-net health-coverage programs — even as they brace for more residents who will need help paying for care.

Many cuts affect Medicaid, which pays for health coverage for 50 million low-income adults and children nationwide. " Medicaid programs across the U.S. are going to be severely damaged," says Kenneth Raske, president of the Greater New York Hospital Association.

* Patients Skip Medicine, Doctor Visits. (USAToday) The trickle-down effect.

Recent respondents to a survey conducted by the Kaiser Family Foundation who said they or a family member have put off needed care climbed to 36% in the Oct. 8-13 telephone poll, up from 29% in April. Almost one-third had skipped a recommended test or treatment, up from 24%. In both cases, about one-fifth said their condition got worse as a result.

* Patients Forced to Choose Between Gas, Food and Prescriptions.

There's plenty more. They all reflect a disconnect between what we say is important and how we spend our money, how we demand others spend our tax money.

The common theme of these posts is money.  In the healthcare arena, it's the lack of money that's the common theme. And that lack reflects its priority in our lives. As much as we claim healthcare is a priority....we don't vote with our dollars in the same way.

I know some will say well if you don't have the money for food, you can't have the money for your prescriptions. They're right. I'm not denying that reality or its pain.  What I am saying is that...the squeaky wheel gets the grease. We haven't been squeaky enough to get the grease that reflects healthcare truly is a priority for us, for our neighbors.  Squeak a little louder.

The dark side of digital health records

Extortion Plots Threatens to Divulge Millions of Patient Records.

Express Scripts said it has received an anonymous letter containing the names of some 75 clients that includes dates of birth, Social Security numbers and their prescriptions. The letter threatens to expose millions of patient records if Express Scripts does not pay an undisclosed amount of money.

What if those records included their DNA map? Mapping a person's DNA keeps getting cheaper. Soon, that will be the least expensive manner to examine a patient. And then you have complete medical records, historical and future.  That's a lot of knowledge.

Try A Little Tenderness: Otis Redding

Link from Crooks and Liars.

Our economy's failing: Let's deny it

Yes. Let's pretend Uncle Johnny doesn't have a drinking problem, isn't falling down at Thanksgiving, doesn't now need our money to bail him out...and won't drag us all down. Let's hide it. Shhh. The neighbors might notice.

There's lots of talk wondering if should we admit our economy's in bad shape. And how did we get here? And who's the Uncle Johnnies in our leadership. The thinking is that if we just ignore the problem, keep it a secret for a long long time, it'll go away...of its own accord and we'll never ever see it again.

How's that work with the 800 lb gorilla in the living room? Ever see it get up and leave of its own volition?

No. You have to admit its there, admit its size, in order to gather the needed resources to push it out the front door or through the wall. Otherwise, it never leaves or it comes in the back door or through the back door.

And you have to talk together, with each other, find out what door was left open, who left it open to learn how to create a system to not leave those doors open. Find out who fed it, why, so you can create a system that won't feed the beast again.

Then you have a nice monkey that entertains you, makes you laugh, brings you money, goes to bed at night when YOU want it to, leaves the living room when you want it to.

Michael Arrington of techcrunch, who I rarely agree with, posts Ignoring Downturns is Unhealthy and Dangerous...

And media in all its forms (social, digital, mainstream) is needed for the discussion. Sure, some of its adherents (me, sometimes) bring more emotion or hysteria to the discussion. Some bring data (me, sometimes). Some bring thoughtfulness and a focus on solutions. But how'd they know what solutions were needed? And yes, once solutions are presented, we need to focus on them.

Our economy's failing. Let's celebrate. Let's find out why, how'd we get there, laugh a little bit. And then let's fix it.

Are you content with your failure?

My great concern is not whether you have failed, but whether you are content with your failure. Abraham Lincoln

Our Economy's Failing: Let's Celebrate

I'm not talking about the kind of celebration where we live it up, dance in the streets, pat each other on back and say 'great job, what a year' or 'great game'.

I'm talking about the kind of celebration that's open and honest, shared among colleagues who trust each other, who're there to help each other, know that their success depends on each other. You share what you did, why you did it, what happened as a result...you find the common elements ( I think it's already found us), you see how those common elements unite you, you laugh about your failures....and you come out of that 'celebration' charged up with solutions created from your failures and what those failures taught you and together with a renewed commitment to go out and make it right, fix things, turn things around, get moving...And you know you're in this together, your colleagues have your back, you theirs.

Our economy's failing: let's celebrate and turn this thing around. We got each other's back. And we have the solutions. Let's go.

WilsonNg asked this question in a tweet on Twitter recently. He linked to an article at TheStreet.com: Times are Tough - But should we talk about it?

And one [site] to rule them all

Digital/social media is becoming like the fabled rings of power in Lord of the Rings. There's a ring or site for video, for audio, for text, for short texts, to share songs, to share pictures...but no one site to host them all (and in that light...rule them.)

Facebook and MySpace are like the BIG rings for Men and Elves. But their leaders weren't strong enough to use that power wisely.  I find only chaos and clutter at their sites...and way-y-y-y too much advertising of no meaning. Kinda like middle earth...back in the day.

Enter Andy Brudtkuhl and his consulting firm, 48web,  and his new resource, SocialCard.me. Andy describes it as a way to bridge the social networking gap between offline and online interactions.

It's a simple, user-managed, personal-branding resource for social media users to share all their content in one place. Here's my site: YouMetZane.com.

The skin isn't finished. And I realize I have a few more feeds to add.

But what I liked is this is one site where I can insure a consistent personal brand, where people I meet can quickly get to know me, that will build traffic to my primary sites, it's a richer experience than using Friendfeed (granted  FF shows more than one...Andy, what about a group feed?) and it was fast to create. Ok, at this point, Andy created it. But soon, he'll open up for us users to create our own.

Andy, the more I sit and write and digest what I like about SocialCard.me...the greater mission I see for it. Given the movement towards personal branding, the greater time spent online networking, the resulting leverage with offline/in-person networking, the mobility of talent, the chaos in the job-market/economy...the possibilities and audience here only grows.

For readers, I'd say get a site now. Contact Andy at  SocialCard.me.

Disclaimer: Time is short, today, hence:

1. Apologies for the loosely-articulated metaphor with Lord of the Rings. You, the reader, and the book deserve better.
2. And the vision of possibilities  deserves a more thorough articulation.

Both are added to future projects.

GM - Cutting Back on Innovation

(Given GM's track record on meaningful innovation, that might be a good thing.)

GM announced last week that in order to lower their cash burn rate...they're cutting back on their R&D efforts for models 3+ years away from production.

Oct 30, 2008 (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) --  General Motors' future product development spending in 2009 and 2010 will be restricted to products with the highest priority -- small cars, crossovers and similar vehicles -- officials at the company say. - Pittsburgh Post - Gazette/Trading Markets

Ok...so, what have they been doing in recent years? Well, the Corvette was a primary focus.

One of the victims is the next-gen, C7 Corvette. All development on the new version of GM's flagship sports car has been put on hold. Link.

See my earlier point about meaningful innovation. GM Flagship - Corvette. Compare that to Toyota whose flagship is their Prius. It's not because Toyota designated the car their flagship. It's because so many customers drive that flag. Their customer designated the Prius THEIR flagship.

Given that GM had lost touch with the American consumer, and its workers, and had arrogantly continued to pursue innovations on ...Camaros and Corvettes, it makes sense for them to close their R&D.

Still, it's interesting that America's premiere corporation (until now) suspends investing in its future with R&D and innovations.  And new, innovative, high-mileage models like the VOLT  aren't due to be available until...2010. 

What are they doing in the meantime?

1. I guess they expect the market to suspend itself and wait for GM to catch up. 

2. They want us, the American consumer/taxpayer, to bail them out with federal funds.

I love irony, don't you?

GM's current status came from dismissing our desires for higher mileage, smaller, less expensive models. Now, they're asking us, the sames one they ignored for so many years, for our tax dollars to bail them out.

I'd say yes to the bailout only for the jobs. There's no reason to punish their workers for the arrogance of their leadership. On the other hand, we can't expect better results from that same leadership, can we? You can't give free money to the leaders who created the situation where they have to ask for money from the same people whose wishes they ignored...and in so doing created their need for our handout.  If we do allow a federal bailout of GM and not demand a change in leadership then we should expect to be back in this same position in...less than 20 years. And along the way we'll face more handout requests from companies following the same path.

Innovation Resource: Jack's Notebook

I'm into the 2nd chapter of Jack's Notebook. Gregg Fraley wrote it, sent it to me to read in preparation for our interview on November 19th? Gregg?

I like it. As the title says it's a business novel about creative problem solving.  We need some solutions. We're all clear on the problems and challenges. Now we need some solutions and a methodical means to find them and deliver them. After 2 chapters, I think Jack's Notebook might be one of those resources we can use to find just that.

Heresy IS Progress

Fitting in and following generally accepted views on most matters may produce a quiet life—you will rarely upset anyone that way—but it won’t give you a life that includes much real progress or any fresh ideas. Heresy is progress.

Excellent article, Heresy and Progress, by Adrian Savage. I have to share one more section of this article.

What I see happening is a growing imbalance in our lives, because “doing well” (in the economic and financial sense) is pursued to the detriment of “living well” (in the sense of enjoying all those other aspects of life). That imbalance is the source of most of the stress, frustration, and dissatisfaction that currently plagues us. Conventional thinking won’t show the way to find a new balance. Such progress as we can make will only come from heresy on a grand scale. It is time to make a start.

Yes it is. This article was written 2 years ago. We're running behind.

The article has links to others writing on this timely topic. Read it. Read them.

Inspiring Infectious Innovation

From Don the Idea Guy

  Unlocking Cool - By Jeremy Gutsche, TrendHunter.com    

View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own. (tags: innovation marketing)

Your Product: Whose Definition is Most Important?

Whose definition of your product is the most important?

From Tom Fishburne

 This is the last in a series of cartoons Tom generously allowed my to share on this site. Here are links to the others:

Survival of the Safest

Attack of the Feature Creep

Survival of the Safest

Death By 1000 Cuts

And Tom shared his thoughts on branding, innovation, agencies, clients, word-of-mouth on my BlogTalk Radio show.

Tom's one of the people you can learn a lot from: smarts, listening skills, integrity, great thoughts on branding and innovation. Check him out.

The Collaborative Hiring Process

This is my first published ebook. Download it for free. (PDF)

Let me know your thoughts. Did it help? Do you have better ways, better resources, better tips? Do you have stories to share of successes or...learning experiences? 

Dan Schawbel: Read Him

I read a lot. Honestly, I always have. And now with digital media, I read a lot more.

The more I read the less I find authors and content that really wows me. There's some very good writers. And they write some very good posts,  far better than mine.

But, it's increasingly rare that I give a blanket endorsement for a blog or blogger. 1% or less of the blogs get the blanket endorsement.

Dan Schawbel's blog, Personal Branding, is the most recent one. I interviewed him earlier this year on my BlogTalk Radio show.  You can listen at this link. I found him great, motivated, sharp, passionate about...Personal Branding. He's also very successful at it.

But it wasn't until I saw his blog that I saw he's the real deal. He's a resource you should use every day. You should start with his blog. I read it this morning and ...every post was one a I bookmarked to revisit again this weekend. And much of it was about...others's success building their personal brands.

That phrase building their personal brands makes me squeamish. So does personal brand.  It's so...vague, squishy. Why should I care about someone's personal brand?

Dan showed me we all should care about ours, theirs, yours.

He shows you the cash. ( I know we're all about passion, missions and following our dreams. As we should be. But our success with these is measured by the willingness of others to share our dreams. We communicate the value of others' dreams with the vote from our wallets and then our time sharing that same dream with others.) 

And by cash I mean the resources that allow us to communicate, connect,  sustain and expand our dreams with those of others. He and his guests describe the success of building personal brands in terms of quantifiable, measurable, meaningful metrics. These are metrics like clients, money left on the table, contracts, new business, new jobs, new partnerships, new opportunities, new markets...tangible metrics. He shows you the money from building personal brands, your personal brands. He shows you how to increase it. He does this by showing how to add value to your personal brand and communicate it in ways that are meaningful to others, with tools that are easy to use (and mostly free).

Dan Schawbel's blog, Personal Branding. Read it.

Advertising: Is this the best you can do?

Why must I click through an ad for BestBuy products when I click on an article link from USAToday's home page about unreported fires in nuclear weapons' silos?

Semantic web, schmenatic web. Is this the best advertising's got to offer?

You track us with cookies. Your promise is to spy on us understand our interests and so better serve our buying needs. And yet, you offer  (insist I look at ) a consumer electronics ad when I click on an article about a fire in a nuclear weapons silo.

Huh? Is this the best you can do?

Keep your cookies. Give me back my privacy. And stop interrupting my day.

To Sell More, Listen More?

Consider this sales approach:

4 steps that sales people must go through before they begin” doing sales.”

1. Close their mouth.
2. Ask questions.
3. Find out the customer’s problem.
4. Ask “Did they try ________ solution?”  “Did they try ________ solution?”

What do you think? Will it work? What would your reaction be if a salesperson took this approach?

From Chris Brown.

Marketing Secret #6. (Shhh. It's a Secret)

Marketing Secret #6 - The best marketing is a really great product. - Seth Godin, The Little Book of Marketing Secrets.

This book comes with the Seth Godin, Marketing Guru, Action Figure, kinda like a toy surprise in the old Cracker Jack boxes. Cool.

(It's an action figure, 'k? It's not a doll. )

PS: My friend, Imal, sent it to me. She's cool, too.

Focus: Tips to Keep Focused in Tough Times

Today's a perfect day to talk about focus, or its lack. That's for 2 reasons.

1)  Today's election day.

It's one of the most important elections in...decades. Stop reading this post right now if you haven't voted yet. Go vote. Then return and finish reading this post.

2) Recession. We're in a recession. Recessions are just the means to end excesses in the economy. It happens. It's a regularly phase in any economy. All good things come to an end.

Hidden in a recession are the opportunities for the future economy. What areas of the economy are not burdened by excesses. There's our opportunity.

The only question is how long's it last and what can we do to minimize its impact on our families and communities and business. That brings us to...focus.

Here's some links to tips and resources that will help you stay focused to find that opportunity and find it fast. I've listed my favorite, one that I already follow, culled from each link.

* Seven Tips for Staying Focused

1. Create some "unavailable" time. 
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
It's great to be that person co-workers can come to
with questions,
but it can also keep you from getting your own work
done. Give
yourself some time to be unavailable. Close the door
to your office
and put up a "do not disturb" sign.

* 18 ways to Stay Focused at Work, David Cheong

Apply time boxing. In a previous article, I wrote about the benefits of time boxing. Instead of working at something till it is done, try working on it for a limited period, say 30 mins.

* Tips for Staying Focused and Productive, by Liz Bywater, PhD

Stop trying to be perfect. There’s very little in life that has to be done to the point of perfection. Few people notice the difference between a job well done and a job perfectly done. Do it well and then move on.

* 5 Tips for Staying Focused, an Eclectic Mind by Maria Langer

If you don’t need an Internet connection to work on your project, turn it off.

(note: The bolded text above is my homage to honoring the previous tip: Stop trying to be perfect. I can't find a quick way to change the font. I don't want to fuss with Html.)

* Five 5-Minutes Tips to Staying Focused by Business Pundit

5) Vent
Talking to someone else about your concerns absolves you of the shame, guilt, and self-doubt that fester inside of undiscussed problems. Discussing your issue with another person puts it in perspective—and gets you ready to work again with a fresh mind.

* 11 Ways of Staying Focused, David Cheong again. David's focused on staying focused, and helping us stay focused. Facetiousness aside, this is another great list and includes links to even more tips, including a link to an interview with David Allen, Getting Things Done.

Rewarding myself when warranted.  Whenever I accomplish a logical piece of work, I always reward myself. It really does help with maintaining motivation.

Each of these links includes steps we can take, right now, to help bring focus and organization to our life.

Here's my plan. I'm not taking them all at once. See above point about skipping perfection. I'll just take one**. Then take another one next week. Maybe 2 more in two weeks. I can see by then I'll have incorporated naturally 2-3 more without looking.

I don't know about you (you're welcome to tell me in the comments section) but I'm more productive when I'm focused and I'm a lot happier to be around, too, when I'm focused. So, let's be productive AND happy moving forward.

** Which one? Maria Langer's post includes the tip Don't run your email application. I like that one. If it's urgent, people will call me on my cell phone. That leaves me free to focus on work until lunch. The morning's often the time I'm clearest and most productive. Instead, I'll check email during the dull part ofthe day, mid-afternoon. That's when I'm least receptive, for the activities that could prove most distracting. And then with a non-receptive attitude for distractions, I'll look at emails.

I'll set a time limit to handle them. 15 minutes.   

I just closed my email ap. I'm feeling better already without that number of unread emails staring at me.