Sad Times

It is sad what has happened and is happening to Greece. That they did it to themselves does
not make it any less sad. I wish them spiritual recovery and eventual financial health.

It is a different type of sadness that I read that French youths, largely college kids, had rioted
because the government is raising the retirement age from 60 to 62. Gee. I found it mind
blogging that the 20ish something kids would be so concerned about retirement some 35‐40
years away.

It would appear that some of the better concepts of life have no interest for them;

1. Love what you do so retirement is not a concern.
2. Set aside and invest some money over the years from college to 62. Modest savings with
compounding and reasonable investments can grow to a large amount over 35‐40 years.
(I wish I had done so).
3. Be an entrepreneur. Strive to better your life and that of your loved ones while doing
something you enjoy.
4. Regrettably, perhaps, but one of the results of college education is to create and train
the political and social leaders of tomorrow. Youth is to have the best visions of the
future. The French riots imply a lack of great expectations by this generation.

No age is too old to dream, and never stop working on your dreams.

Let Me Call You Sweetheart

Do you notice that the fraud in the home health care industry is largely being done by men and foreigners? Check out the OIG most wanted fugitives and also view captured fugitives and you will see my point. http://www.oig.hhs.gov/fraud/fugitives/index.asp. Also more DME than HHA. Of course we have a lot of reputable men (me too I hope) and foreign nationals in the industry. The government has gotten suspicious of “foreigners” which is one of the reasons that origin of birth has to be disclosed as part of the Provider Revalidation.

I love the home health care industry. How could one not with company names like Caring, Heartfelt, Loving, Tender Care, At Home, Family and other loving terms? Beats the hospital names like Memorial, City, Northside, …

More importantly the people in home health care, for the most part, are caring people believing in the mission of home health while knowing of the concept “no margin no mission.” Frankly, I relate this to being an industry started, and largely run by women.

To all the nice honorable ladies of home health care: Let me call you sweetheart.
To all the honorable men of home health care: Hey dude, how’s it going?

“We should all be like Pollyanna”

Be glad, be happy

If you haven’t seen Disney’s Pollyanna with Haley Mills as Pollyanna you have missed a great movie.

Pollyanna plays The Glad Game http://youtu.be/7bhyKS_SWPM which calls for thinking of the positive aspects of your situation.

For personal examples, my knees hurt but I have a friend with only one leg, or while my grandchildren are two hours away I know of those with no grandchildren or have them 3,000 miles away.

Karl Malden is the preacher who always preaches “hell and damnation” to his flock. One day Pollyanna meets the preacher in the field and tells him of the Abraham Lincoln quote; “If you look for the bad in people expecting to find it, you surely will.” She also tells him of the bible’s many glad and
happy passages. http://youtu.be/sJW_k0WGb_A . He changes his ways and begins to preach the happy passages.

I am a fan of Joel Osteen who certainly practices The Glad Game and quoting the bible’s glad and happy passages.
http://www.joelosteen.com

Joel’s recent sermons include;

1. Seeing people through eyes of love
2. Appreciating the people in your life
3. Staying Passionate about life
4. Having the right perspective
5. The power of I AM

Nothing wrong with any of that is there? Check out his Sunday TV program, or download his audio or video podcasts.

Be A Thorough Housekeeper

Recently an industry list serve had much discussion of an agency having to pay unemployment insurance benefits to an RN employee who was fired for falsifying the clinical notes. They reported that fact to their state employment office but were still charged for the unemployment claim.

We had a client who fired their contracted PT because she was having some of her visits done by her cousin who was a PT assistant and licensed in another state. The client did not bill Medicare for any of her visits.

In both of the above cases the agency properly fired the caregiver and did not bill for services the caregiver had provided.

The agency should also check out the employee and the independent contractor on the Office of Inspector General exclusions list http://exclusions.oig.hhs.gov/.

“No program payment will be made for anything that an excluded person furnishes, orders, or prescribes. This payment prohibition applies to the excluded person, anyone who employs or contracts with the excluded person, any hospital or other provider for which the excluded person provides services, and anyone else.” (OIG)

The list is updated monthly and every provider should be checking all their employees and contractors upon hiring and on a regular basis thereafter. (See http://oig.hhs.gov/newsroom/video/2011/heat_modules.asp for 4 1/2 minute video if wanting more information.)

Why stop there? I suggest that both parties should also;

1. Report the matter to the caregiver’s license board.
2. Report matter to CMS.
3. Report the matter to Medicaid.
4. Report the matter to the local authorities as criminal acts.

The caregivers who were terminated will go to work for other health care providers. They likely will contiue their illegal practices. Their practices may cause health problems or complications and even death for the patients they treat.

And if I was a successor employer and found myself sued for malpractice or investigated I would look back at the history of the caregiver and involve former employers to share the responsibility, the blame and the costs.

When engaged in house cleaning you don’t sweep the dirt under the rug (so my wife tells me).

Growth of Medicare Advantage (MA) Plans Enrollment

Comments by Tom Boyd

I have read a couple of articles that estimate the growth in the MA enrollment for 2011 to be from 580,000 to 650,000. They imply or state that isn’t this amazing or great growth.

The US census bureau states that approximately 10,000 A DAY became Medicare eligible in 2011, about 3.6 million. This would suggest that the “growth” in MA enrollment is less than 20% of the growth in the total Medicare enrollment. This must mean that the rest, more than 80%, have opted for traditional Medicare or something other than MA.

MA plans have about 25% of the national Medicare enrollment. Does anyone see that increasing?

My Bucket List

In 2007 there was a movie starring Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman. The main plot follows two terminally ill men on their road trip with a wish list of things to do before they “kick the bucket.”

At this time in my life I decided on my own bucket list. It does not include skydiving, a lion safari, or seeing the Great Pyramid as they did in the movie.

1. World War One memorial. More than 116,000 Americans died in WWI, twice the number that did in Vietnam. We have memorials for WWII, Vietnam, the Korean War. Why not WWI? I suspect because no WWI veteran is alive and we don’t have Tom Hank’s advocacy. I would like to start or join a campaign to establish a WWI memorial. It would be great to have the memorial dedicated on 11/11/18, the hundred year anniversary of the end of WWI. While I am better looking than Tom Hanks I know that this “cause” will need to find a known and reputable national spokesperson.

2. National chess tournaments on aircraft carrier museums. The cities of Oakland, New York, Corpus Christi, San Diego, Los Angeles, and Charleston have aircraft carrier museums, some of which are having financial problems. Dances, weddings, and memorial services have been held on these ships. Can you imagine a chess tournament for hundreds of people, mostly kids, being held on all the carriers on the same 4th of July? What a way to honor the ships and promote them and chess.

Clearly the above ideas will require a great number of volunteers.

3. I have three grandchildren. I would like to see them go to college, or arrange for them and any more that may come, go to college. Olympic swimmer and fashion model are also options for the two girls. As is being the offensive line for the 49ers for the two year old boy, C. Thomas Boyd.

4. I would like to take my wife to Ireland, New England, Scotland, Germany, New Mexico (ugh) and some other places as time, health and money permits.

5. I would like to get a small, four person, sail boat. The San Francisco bay is often lovely for sailing. Some technical problems, aside from cost, is that my wife wouldn’t let me take the grandchildren or her along until I take and pass an approved course for both sailing and swimming (not having done either).

You should have your own bucket list started and try to do some of them before time runs out on you. My best wishes for your success.

Another reason Why I like Warren Buffett

Mr. Buffett is viewed as a great and wise man for his comments and what he has done with Berkshire Hathaway (BRK). And rightly so. Recently BRK bought the Santa Fe railroad for $26.5 billion and Lubrizol for close to $9 billion, largely using cash on hand for both. It has been said that any possible acquisition would have to be in excess of $5 billion to catch the attention of Mr. Buffett.

Mr. Buffett has also been quoted as saying the business model for newspapers in this country is flawed. “Imagine that someone came along saying, ‘I have a great idea: Let’s chop trees down, buy expensive printing presses, and buy a fleet of delivery trucks, all to get pieces of paper to people to read about what happened yesterday.’”

On 11/30/11 BRK bought his hometown ( Omaha Nebraska) paper for $200 million. This acquisition both in price and any possible profit will hardy matter to BRK which had $136 billion in revenue and $13 billion in profit in 2010. Whatever “spin” BRK needs to put on the acquisition because they are a publicly traded corporation is fine by me.

The truth is he bought the hometown paper to save it from going under. And I like him for that. We have all seen business in our community fail and we may have bought them to prevent that were we rich ( at least I would have).

Happy New Year Mr. Buffett and everyone, and Mr. Buffett, please consider moving to Petaluma, California.

“Walk” a mite in the shoes of a poor person.

Game Highlights Tough Choices for Poor

The player is assigned a job and a paycheck. Every financial decision ricochets through the monthly budget, often in unexpected ways. Lives, children, and work choices are affected — poverty even creates unique ethical decisions.

The game, Spent, is so powerful, because its creators interviewed clients of Urban Ministries of Durham in North Carolina, which operates a food pantry, clothing closet, and homeless shelter. A local advertising firm, McKinney, designed the game in conjunction with Urban Ministries.

http://playspent.org/

Lighthouses in a Storm!!!!!

There’s a great 3 minute video at the end and you might enjoy the pictures…

http://www.lovethesepics.com/2011/04/power-of-the-storm-44-ferocious-waves-attacking-lighthouses/

Interesting World Ranking

I. 2011 Index of Economic Freedom
www.heritage.org

1. Hong Kong
2. Singapore
3. Australia
4. New Zealand
5. Switzerland
6. Canada
7. Ireland
8. Denmark
9. United States
16. England
20. Japan
23. Germany
64. France
87. Italy
135. China

II. 2010 CORRUPTION PERCEPTIONS INDEX
www.transparency.org

1. Denmark
2. New Zealand
6. Canada
8. Austria
15. Germany
17. Japan
20. England
22. United States
25. France
67. Italy
78. China