Here are the Blogs in the Fee Based Consultant-No Sales category.
Monday, 2 April 2012
If you are a Republican...WAKE UP!
Here's where we are. The Supreme Court is deliberating and will tell us some time in June if the mandate is constitutional. Let's assume it is not. There goes the fix for healthcare financing. Let's assume that it is. There goes the fix for for healthcare financing. Yes, it is the same.
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Posted on 04/02/2012 6:49 PM by Bob Shupe
Monday, 8 August 2011
End of Life-Not End of Discussion
I recently lost my father to a fight with multiple medical problems. While he would be considered young at 80, there comes a point when the human body must surrender. That was the case with my dad. In his honor his children could not have had a more loving and instructive set of parents. Mom died at
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Posted on 08/08/2011 11:46 AM by Bob G. Shupe
Tuesday, 2 August 2011
Maybe It's Just Me?
Okay, we have this debt thing. The reason we have it is because the government cannot control it's spending, right? So let's turn over 18% or so of our country's gross national product to the government, right? Did I get that right? Am I understanding all of the details?
Let's
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Posted on 08/02/2011 8:01 PM by Bob G. Shupe
Thursday, 2 December 2010
Where is the safety director when you need them?
I attended a regular safety meeting with one of my clients this week. This county has one of the most comprehensive programs of all my clients, big and small. The safety director handling the meeting distributed a piece of paper that made me wonder why it should only apply to property and
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Posted on 12/02/2010 2:42 PM by Bob G Shupe
Thursday, 4 November 2010
Where Have All the Flowers Gone
Back in the 60s and 70s there was a popular song performed by Peter, Paul and Mary called,Where Have All the Flowers Gone. Now the question is, where have all the insurance companies gone?
Capitalism is a paradox. It allows things get big through consolidation only to eventually
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Posted on 11/04/2010 11:28 AM by Bob G. Shupe
Friday, 22 October 2010
Robin Hood, Robin Hood, riding through the glenn...
If only this was about a slick haired Brit with a bow and arrow wearing green tights. It is not however. It is about a group of people, not a political party ( many of their own are now disavowing any knowledge ) that truly believe that if they say it enough that it will become a fact. Maybe in Wikipedia,
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Posted on 10/22/2010 3:54 PM by Bob G. Shupe
Thursday, 21 October 2010
...and then someone with the government said
Yes, blind squirrels do stumble over nuts. And, yes, occasionally some government bureaucrat gets it right. Such was the case reported by several news sources on October 19th announcing that the Administration through the Justice Department had filed suit against Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan on
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Posted on 10/21/2010 2:24 PM by Bob G. Shupe
Wednesday, 6 October 2010
ROI - ABC's
ROI, Return on Investment. This term is often used in industry to justify a continued investment in a product or project. Oddly enough it is just now making a screaming entrance into the healthcare cost crisis debate. It is particularly interesting in which sector of the debate; wellness. In over thirty
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Posted on 10/06/2010 11:48 AM by Bob G. Shupe
Thursday, 23 September 2010
In General the Assessment is Generally General
Check out this article from the Denver Post. This time the NAIC and the feds got it right. Stop with the carrier whining! Stop with the sound bites! Demand numbers to back up these ridiculous assertions that these basic reforms are going to cost billions. Say it ain't so. Well, it ain't. According to
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Posted on 09/23/2010 3:53 PM by Bob G. Shupe
Wednesday, 15 September 2010
I guess you have to work there
Well, the man who is currently employed as the head of Medicare and Medicaid Services, Donald Berwick, in an article in the Washington Post, says that the former person employed to run Health and Human Services, Michael Leavitt, doesn't know what he is talking about. So, the guy who has a job wants
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Posted on 09/15/2010 5:43 PM by Bob Shupe
Friday, 20 August 2010
Good Things Come to Those Who Wait
I am not so self consumed that I think I am the only one who was speaking out against the current healthcare reform. However, I have had a perspective that most ignored or even laughed at. Well guess what? Yes, I have to say it, I've been waiting patiently for over six years. Yes, even back in
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Posted on 08/20/2010 9:16 AM by Bob G. Shupe
Friday, 20 August 2010
NAIC - naive?
As I often do, I recently attended a public meeting of our Department of Commerce and Insurance, moderated by our Commissioner. As a member of the NAIC and an appointee to their executive committee, she was very proud of the work they were doing. The feds charged them with overseeing the suggested writing
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Posted on 08/20/2010 8:42 AM by Bob G. Shupe
Monday, 16 August 2010
Campaign Reform - Fixed...no really I can fix it
Here is one of my shorter rants. Campaign financing reform has all but been lost in the wilderness of all of the other "reforms" being bantered about. It came to me in a vision the other night as I stared at my retirement account. There was a zero in the "what did I gain this month"
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Posted on 08/16/2010 5:05 PM by Bob G. Shupe
Wednesday, 11 August 2010
Jerk Off the Covers - a fresh look at transparency
I attended a Tennessee state department of insurance meeting this morning. It was two hours of my life that I will never see again. All of the usual players were there, Blue Cross wanting to know the new definition of certain terms included in the "minimum loss ratio" calculations, attorneys
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Posted on 08/11/2010 2:52 PM by Bob G. Shupe
Friday, 6 August 2010
Financing Healthcare - The Art of Deception
Deception is an art form, a very ancient art form. It is what a magician does when they make things appear and disappear. The art is getting you to look at the wrong thing long enough to make the other thing look believable. If some of the long-tooth politicians in DC do get their walking papers I suggest
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Posted on 08/06/2010 11:08 AM by Bob G. Shupe
Saturday, 6 March 2010
What Happens When...
A lot has transpired and expired over the past couple of weeks. I have not posted for a while waiting on the last shoe to drop; and I believe it will. Democrats are-some Democrats-are overwhelmed by a desire to make history; what ever the cost. They want to be known as the ones who... Well, what
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Posted on 03/06/2010 9:43 PM by Bob Shupe
Friday, 15 January 2010
Who's Next In Line?
TAKE A NUMBER and have a seat!
One after another, states, lawmakers, union officials, anyone who has an ax to grind, steps up to the negotiation table and gets what they want in exchange for their support and the vote of their respective democratic representative or senator. The latest,
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Posted on 01/15/2010 10:21 AM by Bob G. Shupe
Wednesday, 30 December 2009
Remember the "Choice" Thing?
In the early 1990s Clinton health care reform died because people understood that their right to choose was going to be removed. Health Maintenance Organizations or HMOs fell from grace when people realized that their right to choose was in jeopardy. So what is different in the current debate?
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Posted on 12/30/2009 1:04 PM by Bob G. Shupe
Wednesday, 23 December 2009
Minimum Loss Ratio Requirements - And Other Things Not To Do Into the Wind
There is a phrase - I will leave it to your imagination - that many have heard and, several males have experienced; once. There are just some things that do not work well when facing the wind. For instance, trying to fly a kite in front of you while facing into the wind, holding the underside of
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Posted on 12/23/2009 12:11 PM by Bob G. Shupe
Tuesday, 22 December 2009
A Leaky Faucet
According to a U.S. Geological Survey there is no scientific definition of the volume of a faucet drip, but after measuring a number of kitchen and bathroom sink faucets, the volume seems to be between 1/5th and 1/3rd of a milliliter (mL). Drips from bathroom tubs come in a bit more, though, at about
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Posted on 12/22/2009 3:08 PM by Bob G. Shupe
