What Our Reading Might Look Like Not Too Far in the Future

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If you have any interest in the publishing biz or are a fan of magazines then you really need to read Rex Hammock's blog.  Of all the people I follow he seems to have the best grasp of where the industry is going and, more importantly, he's one of the few who seems to know what he doesn't know.  A recent post included a video about how traditional magazine content might be presented on what Rex has dubbed "pad devices." Here's the video, but read Rex's post as it has links to a couple of other interesting and related pieces.

Mag+ from Bonnier on Vimeo.

Good for the Goose, Good for the Gander

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Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Carolina says it's going to reimburse primary care physicians more money if they can prove they're providing higher quality care.  From the article:

The Chapel Hill-based insurer, which with nearly 152,000 enrollees
is the largest health insurer in the Triad, has invited about 4,000
primary care physicians across the state to apply to join its Blue
Quality Physician Program. The program is designed to reward quality
over quantity. Physicians who meet the program’s criteria are eligible
for double-digit percentage increases in standard reimbursements on
some of the most commonly billed procedures.

BCBSNC will score applicants based on clinical quality outcomes, as
measured by the National Committee for Quality Assurance, use of
electronic prescribing, administrative efficiency and the physician’s
ability to care for patients after-hours or electronically, among other
criteria. Those who have scored high enough will qualify, while those
who do not qualify can reapply.

Couple of things:  I'm curious as to how I'm going to be cared for electronically.  I'm tempted to get sophomoric and start talking about sticking electronic probes in interesting places, but I'll resist.  Maybe they think the doctor can have me go "ahhhh" into a webcam and he can look at my tonsils online.  Whatever.

What I'd really like to know is if I can base my reimbursement to BCBSNC on their quality of service?  For every disputed claim we'll knock off double-digit percentages and for every drug not in their schedule we'll knock off even more.  For every letter I get from my doctor saying my bill hasn't been paid and it's been, oh, 90 days we'll just waive the payment completely.  Who will be our arbiter, our very own NCQA?  Well, we'll found the Carolina Association of Righteously Pissed Patients (CARPP) and it will judge each claim based, in part, on BCBSNC's ability to care for patients at all without sucking over 15% of their gross income out of their pockets.  Sound good?

10 to 15 Inches and Maybe a White Christmas?

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AMR emailed to let me know about a cool weather blog he's found that called for a significant weather storm here well before the local weather experts did.  In reading his most recent update about tomorrow's projected storm I was stunned to find this:

A major winter storm is about to slam Virginia and North Carolina as a
s/w trough diving down the front range partially or potentially fully
phases with a an area of low pressure in the Gulf of Mexico and
produced a rather potent storm which will move just of the southeast
coast tomorrow and Saturday. It is still unclear as to how much phasing
will occur and exactly who gets the snow. The idea I am working on is
that much of Virginia and western and northern North Carolina see a big
snow, perhaps 10-15 inches in parts of those states.

A little later in the post he writes this:

Beyond this Christmas week looks cold for most of us and like I have
been saying all week the Christmas storm is a threat for the southern
and eastern US. I didn’t like the lakes cutter idea and still don’t
thanks to the massive block over eastern Canada. I still think we could
see a disruptive winter storm Christmas Eve and Christmas Day
potentially for the southern and eastern US.

A white Christmas…in NC?  Methinks hell hath frozen over.

Why Maybe Progressives Aren’t Bat—t Crazy

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Lex offers a detailed assessment of why the progressives might not be bat—t crazy. I'm so confused.

Here's just a taste of what Lex had to say:

Just how bad has Joe Lieberman crapped all
over the whole debate on health-care reform? Bad enough that right now,
I think it’s time he not only gets no health care, it’s time he gets
intestinal cancer in a part of the world where morphine is as yet
undiscovered. I mean, really, what kind of sociopath do you have to be
to disregard those 45,000 annual deaths and singlehandedly chop up a
bill to create something that:

  • Mandates that every American buy expensive insurance from private
    companies without the choice of a public option and lets the IRS fine
    you if you don’t
  • Severely taxes middle-class health care plans, rather than wealthy individuals
  • Increases insurance premiums about $1,000 a year
  • Increases health care costs
  • Continues to exempt health-insurance companies from antitrust laws, inhibiting competition
  • Provides a sweet deal for pharmaceutical manufacturers while
    denying the government the ability to negotiate for lower drug prices
    for Medicare, something Democrats actually promised three years ago.
  • Apparently won’t let the government import drugs from cheaper foreign sources. I’m told my own junior senator, Kay Hagan, was arguing tonight that this was a “safety” issue, which must come as a surprise to the dozens of other countries that do this every day.
  • Grants monopolies on new biologic drugs so they will never become generics
  • Offers NO public option
  • Offers NO Medicare expansion, even in return for payment, for 55- to 64-year-olds.
  • Limits insurance-company payouts, contrary to President Obama’s promise in September
  • Raises taxes in January while not beginning benefits until 2014.

Really, I'm sooooo confused which makes me believe that the powers-that-be have us just where they want us. 

Why Progressives are Bat—t Crazy

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Via Ed Cone comes this interesting piece with an even more interesting graphic about the Senate's health care reform proposal. The graphic compares the projected annual costs of health care (defined as premiums and cost sharing) to a family of four making $54,000 a year in 2016 under three different scenarios: If the Senate Bill is passed, the Status Quo (nothing changes from today's system), Status Quo + SCHIP (the cost of insurance under the status quo if you qualify for SCHIP subsidies).  Basically the annual out of pocket expense for the family under the Senate Bill would be $9,000 while under the status quo it would be over $19,500. The difference is due to a $10,000 subsidy the author identifies in the Senate bill.  He also says that progressives, who generally don't have a problem with "big government," should be all over this thing instead of railing against it.  Here's an excerpt from his breakdown of the "Status Quo" figures:

In 2009, the average premium for a family in the individual market was $6,328, according to the insurance lobbying group AHIP.
However, this figure paints an optimistic picture for two reasons.
Firstly, the average family size in the AHIP dataset is 3.03 people;
for a family of four, that number would scale upward to $7,925, by my
calculations. Secondly, the CBO's estimates are based on 2016 figures,
not 2009, so to make an apples-to-apples comparison, we have to account
for inflation. According to Kaiser, the average cost of health coverage
has increased by about 8.7 percent annually
over the past decade, and by 8.8 percent for family coverage. Let's
scale that down slightly, assuming 7.5 annual inflation in premiums
from 2009 through 2016 inclusive. That would bring the cost of the
family's premium up by a nominal 66 percent, to $13,149. And remember:
these are based on estimates of premiums provided by the insurance lobby. I have no particular reason to think that they're biased, but if they are, it's probably on the low side.

I'm glad to see someone finally putting some digestible figures out there.  While the figures might just be estimates the author at least puts the argument in the proper context.  As someone who has an average healthy family of five (two adults, three children) and who has been in the individual insurance market for years I can tell you that the $19,500 estimate is definitely in the ballpark since we've been dancing in the $12,000-$14,000 a year territory for quite a while.

Out of curiosity I decided to see how this health expense compares to a yearly mortgage expense.  I went to an online mortgage calculator and put in $150,000 for a 30 year loan at 7% interest.  The monthly mortgage payment would be $997.50 which my middle-school level math tells me is a little under $12,000 a year. So the projected "status quo" premium of $13,149 in 2016 is over a $1,000 than the annual mortgage expense on a $150,000 note.  That's truly insane. 

Oh, and the more the insurance is the higher the monthly expense the insured has to report on his loan application and that lowers the amount that he'll qualify for.  That means he and the other average folks like him buy less house, which means the developers have to build smaller/cheaper houses, which means the developer's suppliers sell him less stuff, which means they employ fewer people, and so on.  All so average people can pay out the nose for a piece of paper which tells them that they might not be bankrupted by a horrible illness as long as it wasn't some sort of preexisting condition or didn't happen during a full moon.  That's not just insane, that's bat—t crazy.

The Gift of Her Art

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My Aunt Debbie is a beautiful artist:

There are many days I lament my lack of time for artistic endeavors. I
want to curl up by the fire and write. I look longingly at stacks of
reed and oak handles and imagine the basket, I want to dust off my
guitar and play until my fingers are calloused. But truthfully my most
consistent art these days is found in the poetry of living. I have to
confess. I am more and more appreciative of the piece I’m sculpting.

Parents: The Onion Confirms What You Already Knew

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The folks at The Onion are geniuses.  Exhibit A is this piece entitled "New Study Reveals Most Children Unrepentant Sociopaths."  An excerpt:

According to Dr. Leonard Mateo, a developmental psychologist at the
University of Minnesota and lead author of the study, most adults are
completely unaware that they could be living among callous monsters who
would remorselessly exploit them to obtain something as insignificant
as an ice cream cone or a new toy.

"The most disturbing facet of this ubiquitous childhood disorder is
an utter lack of empathy," Mateo said. "These people—if you can even
call them that—deliberately violate every social norm without ever
pausing to consider how their selfish behavior might affect others.
It's as if they have no concept of anyone but themselves."

"The depths of depravity that these tiny psychopaths are capable of reaching are really quite chilling," Mateo added.

A Virtual Farmers Market in the Triad

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Rockingham County is launching a virtual farmers market for its farmers.  From the story:

The new Local Food Coalition hopes to open its virtual farmers
market for business by March 21 and sell to businesses and the public
in the Piedmont Triad.

A Web site will enable restaurants and other businesses to order
fruit, vegetables and other products from farmers who are members of
the coalition. Farmers will then deliver the food to businesses or
central locations for pickup.