Rants, Ramblings, Raves, and Other Signs of Mental Illness

Transparency

rantsramblingsravesandothersignsofmentalillness — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 05:07:14 +0000

The government, the insurance companies, and the hospitals don’t have it. Our legislative process has gone horribly awry. Our Congressmen can’t agree to something unless it’s a 1,000 pages long. Trying to interpret an insurance policy? - needs a little transparency or at least a little chart or diagram or something. And why don’t hospitals have a price list at the front desk – they know what they charge. I guess they don’t want us to run screaming out of the building.

Obama pushed transparency in his campaign – bring it on already!

But while we all patiently wait on the government, here are a few resources if your interested:

Kaiser Family Foundation: Lots of interesting information on healthcare

http://www.kff.org/healthreform/sidebyside.cfm

OpenCongress.org: Summaries of legislation and its status in Congress

http://www.opencongress.org/

Rants: Dirty Santa

rantsramblingsravesandothersignsofmentalillness — Sun, 13 Dec 2009 04:48:00 +0000

I hate Dirty Santa; it’s such a stupid game. I haven’t played it in years until today, and now I remember why. I always try to find a gift I like thinking some other woman there will like it (and I’m always wrong). On the otherhand I always have a gift I like at some point in time, but it always gets stolen. This year my boss’s wife took it! Yeah, I know that’s the point, but even if I got the chance to steal it back, I wouldn’t have felt like I could.

Bah humbug!

Random Thought: Education

rantsramblingsravesandothersignsofmentalillness — Sat, 12 Dec 2009 06:01:05 +0000

If there continues to be private health insurance after/if any healthcare reform is passed, maybe a mandatory insurance class should be required right up there with a mandatory personal finance class in high school. This stuff is complicated and young people need to understand it – if they are currently going to their parents and friends for help on these issues, are parents prepared for that? A lot of experts say that healthcare consumer behavior is partially to blame for the mess we’re in now (in addition to fraud, excessive medical costs, insurance company policies such as limiting coverage of pre-existing conditions, etc.) so do we want friends and family to be the only information source for people coming into the workforce? For that matter just make it an elective, so students at least have the option.

Ok, it’s one more class that the school systems have to pay for, but maybe finance and insurance (healthcare, car, home) could all be rolled into one course that would replace another required course???

Just a thought…

Healthcare Reform: Price Exchange

rantsramblingsravesandothersignsofmentalillness — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 06:00:30 +0000

One of the reform ideas that is floating around, I believe Obama was the most recent person to revive it, is a healthcare price exchange where comparable pricing data for different insurers would show their negotiated prices for a variety of services and the cost of the plan. If done properly (not that we can’t find some way to screw it up), this would be a great tool to allow American consumers to select a plan that best weighs their healthcare needs with the money their are willing to part with. In theory this should also increase competition between insurers resulting in lower prices.

If this exchange could be extended to individual hospitals and doctors services, American healthcare ‘consumers’ could really see the price difference at various local hospitals without hours of research calling each facility.

Cost is only one part of the value of healthcare though – we also need quality data to review. Isn’t there some type of measure of the doctor’s patient outcomes? Or at least we need a central place for consumers to “review” their physician’s service – kind of like an online purchase: 2 stars – I waited half an hour, he only spent five minutes with me, and I didn’t fee like he listened at all.” Yes, I know happy customers rarely go out to write positive reviews, but if a physician has hundreds of negative reviews, that is a red flag to potential patients. This would allow an excellent physician to get more for his services than a mediocre physician – without government price controls.

If we have easily accessible quality and cost data for our healthcare choices, I think we could make some headway in controlling costs ourselves. If this pricing database, quality database, and a move to coinsurance were implemented I think it would be a step towards “free market” competition that would still keep insurance companies and hospitals honest.

Rant: Understanding Legislation…

rantsramblingsravesandothersignsofmentalillness — Sun, 06 Dec 2009 22:29:37 +0000

I tried to read some of the proposed healthcare reform legislation, trying to trudge through thinking it would eventually make sense, but all the cross references to other bills and legal speak left me completely lost.

When the news anchor reports that a proposed bill is 1000+ pages, I have to wonder if our legislators (on either side of the aisle) are reading all that before voting. If not, how can they truly represent us? Why can’t a bill be written in less than 50 pages of language that a high school graduate (or even a college graduate) can interpret? I don’t want the talking points from a legislator or a political pundit. I want to read it myself without having to get a law degree or quit my full time job in order to have enough time.

In a Memorandum for the Heads of Executive Departments and Agencies, President Obama said that government should be transparent and participatory. All I see is the same political shouting and yelling. I have written the President and my Congressmen, and I occasionally receive a canned response back.

This is not a new problem specific to the Obama administration but given his verbal commitment to transparency and citizen participation I hoped to see the legislation process updated.

I know it’s futile, but we have to keep writing our elected officials until they start listening.

1st Post – Random Thoughts:Getting Laid Off

rantsramblingsravesandothersignsofmentalillness — Sun, 06 Dec 2009 19:59:47 +0000

No, I didn’t get laid off, but I have been laid off before (2004 to be exact) and it really, really sucks. A coworker of mine was recently struggling to assist a neighbor in updating her resume after the neighbor and her husband were both laid off. This lady had several years of clerical experience, but her resume was not in the “standard” format. In case you are in the market for a job again or just new to the job market, here are a few tips…

RESUMES

One page – Companies posting job openings will, most likely, be receiving many responses, so unless you are a senior executive with LOTS to talk about keep your resume down to one page. In most word processing programs, you can adjust the margins, font sizes, and layout of your resume to give you more or less room.
Action Verbs – After listing an employer, the dates I worked for them, and my job title, I typically list my responsibilities with that employer in bullet points. All of the bullets should have the same grammatical format, for example, the points can all start with an action verb in the same tense: *Generated financial reports, *Created…., *Managed….
Keep It Relevant – If you are applying for a few different types of positions, create a few different resumes where you focus on relevant skill sets. For example, after I was laid off, I was applying for everything and anything from administrative assistant to analyst. The companies hiring analysts probably don’t care that I’m good at ten-key, but those hiring administrative assistants might.
Use Spell Check - Get your mom, a friend, or significant other to read over your resume for you (including your contact information).
Hobbies? – Unless your hobbies somehow show skills relevant to the position you’re applying for, you may want to exclude the “Hobbies” section on your next resume.
Cover Letters – When mailing in a resume, I always include a cover letter. Yes, it’s just one more thing to do, but I believe it helps. Search for “Cover Letters” on the internet and you can find lots of examples.

INTERVIEWS

How Can Your Skills Work for Them? - Some companies ask very straight forward questions while others leave you feeling like you just left a psychiatric evaluation. I’m not going to try to list all of the possible questions (just do a search for “Interview Questions”), but practice answering interview questions while focusing the answers on how your skills can help their business.

P.S. I’ve never actually worked in HR, so if you have and have some additional tips post away!