Fun fact: Duke University Hospital has 900 beds and 900 billing clerks.

The Senate Finance Committee has heard about the problem of overhead. On Nov. 19, Professor Uwe Reinhardt, who is also on the board of trustees of the 900-bed Duke University Hospital, used Duke to illustrate the problem: “We have 900 billing clerks at Duke. I’m not sure we have a nurse per (each) bed, but we have a billing clerk per bed… Read more…

Annoyingly sloppy, David.

Look, there's one thing that the blogosphere can and should do well: provide the details. It's really great that David put up this anti-Clinton screed (and if it's not, it's a bad attempt not to be) at a site that allows comments; at least we get the chance in the comments to remind him that it's important to put his money where his mouth is. But now is the time when Hard Data is really necessary, and really useful, and he doesn't give us any.

Unlike a lot of people, I tend to enjoy much of David's work. As I said in the comments, I can understand, ahem, "both sides" of the argument. On the one hand, I don't believe that many Establishment Villagers can or want to do what it takes to solve the real, pressing problems this country is facing. Many "permanent Villagers" really are too concerned with Insider Baseballism and the pecking order in the Beltway to work hard for the policy change we desperately need. On the other hand, I think that there are *some* experienced, decent, actually liberal or progressive former Clintonians, and just because they worked for the last Democratic president doesn't mean they shouldn't work for the newest one.

Data is good. Facts are good. It's not that fucking hard to make a list, and back it up with links. As they used to say in journalism skoolz: Who? What? Where? When? Why? It would've been really great if David had answered any of those questions, rather than just making a throwaway claim about his evelope backsides, or whatever. You really should've tried harder, D. You're not living up to the High Standards of the Blogosphere, but instead acting like the very Village Insiders you claim to dislike. Read more…

Retiree Hires Attorney to Keep Her Coverage

“I was promised lifetime insurance by my employer (USA Today). In May, my employer farmed out billing to Aetna and refused to take my check,” said Coline George of Camarillo, California. “Aetna had no record of me. The only informed person I talked to said that Aetna only did my employer's COBRA account.” ... Read more…

Ah geez, John McCain has lost another of his inner circle to diarrhea of the mouth. This time the victim is Carly Fiorina. And what sin has Carly, the former head of HP, committed? She called Sarah Palin unqualified to run a large company and then later when asked for clarification said that John McCain couldn't do it either.

Asked by a St. Louis radio station whether she thought Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin could run a company like Hewlett-Packard, Fiorina responded: "No, I don't.

Then our heroine goes on MSNBC and promptly says:

"I don't think John McCain could run a major corporation. Read more…

The Medical Quack explains some of the ins and outs of the insanity induced in our health "care" system by corporate bureaucracy. To try to sum up a bizarre situation, it seems the HMOs want to reward or punish doctors based on their effectiveness at getting patients to take their medication. The purchase of $4 generic prescription drugs through outfits like Wal-Mart destroys the paper trail that makes it possible to apply the incentives. So there are some efforts by the bureaucrats to get this information out of the patients: Read more…

or, Why Does Aetna Hate Ruth Kaufman's Toe?

There are two strands here: denial of care, and lack of transparency.

My health insurance, for which I pay $395 per month, will not cover the foot surgery my doctor says I need: a toe joint replacement that is supposed to last 20 years and which will restore mobility and reduce pain. Read more…

Because if it has, here's a story that some investigative journalist might want to look into. Read more…

Medicare's Poison Pill Read more…

I'm just all about linking and not saying anything tonight. Still...Your Prozac Army:

One in six American soldiers in Afghanistan and one in eight in Iraq are taking daily doses of prescription antidepressants, sleeping pills or painkillers to help them cope with the stresses of combat, according to figures contained in a US Army mental health advisory team report seen by The Herald.

The findings mean that at least 20,000 troops are on medication such as Prozac or diamorphine while serving in the front line or on equally dangerous convoy escort or driving duties in conflicts where insurgents regularly target the supply chain.

While the vast majority would have been barred automatically from combat roles in earlier wars on medical and safety grounds, the pressure to provide up to 200,000 soldiers at any given time for the two major deployments has led to a relaxation of the rules.

Keep reading, it gets "better."

McClatchy:

Parents tempted to treat Junior's misbehavior with a lashing from a tree switch out back or Dad's leather belt are being urged to think again.

A study released today by doctors at UNC-Chapel Hill finds that parents who spank their children with an object — such as a belt, switch or paddle — are nine times more likely to abuse their child through more severe means.

Also, parents are much more likely to beat, burn or shake their children if they spank frequently, according to the study, which is being published by the American Journal of Preventative Medicine.

"Parents get angry when they're spanking, and it's not working," said Adam Zolotor, lead author of the study and a pediatrician at UNC-CH's Department of Family Health. "If a child gets spanked so often, they just don't care anymore and will misbehave anyway."

It's the latest finding in a growing body of research suggesting that parents should use their voices, not their hands or household tools, to keep children in line. This study rests on anonymous admissions of 1,435 mothers of children from North and South Carolina randomly selected to share details of the discipline they and other caregivers use in the privacy of their homes.

Well done, Mullah Dobson! You certainly recommended the right tools for the job: Read more…

How hospitals are killing E.R. patients:

Keep in mind that divert status has nothing to do with being insured! Some of the reasons are: 1. Because emergency rooms can't refuse treatment, they lose money on the uninsured, and many hospitals are closing their emergency departments; 2. Patients who are uninsured or underinsured use emergency rooms for primary care and/or wait until their conditions get serious, thus ending in emergency. Read more…

I want to give major creds to Lambert, for approving me. And I want to cred the rest of the Corrente folk, for being who they are.

I'm about down to TalkLeft and CorrenteWire for my blog feeds aanyway.

If I ever, ever have things to say, you bet I'll say them here.

Stock prices of Aetna and other health insurers are up. How nice for them and their shareholders.

Meanwhile, the lowly life-forms who actually need health care abandon all hope in the health (couldn't) care (less) system: Read more…

Why was Caitlin White's $113,000 brain surgery delayed for more than two months? Would she ever have had the surgery without the intervention of TV news?

It's really not clear from the linked story, but this much is clear: Caitlin's mother believes the "claim came in too late" for her to have the surgery scheduled for May. She also believes that the insurer denied coverage altogether when she rescheduled the surgery. The insurer, Aetna, disputes the circumstances, but according to the story it took pressure from a local TV station and a four-day investigation to get Aetna to "change its tune" and "partner" with Tampa General Hospital to fully cover the costs. Read more…

Matt Stoller writes:

Not one Democratic candidate for Congress or current member of Congress - save Russ Feingold - would lay the blame for the FISA debacle where it belongs, not just with Bush but also with the House Democratic leadership. Powell would, and did, and did it in movement terms, bringing this debate back to the Democratic capitulation to the right starting with Reagan.

Nope. Last I checked, the United States had a bicameral legislature at the Federal level, and in the upper chamber, called the Senate -- that is, not the lower chamber, the "House" of Representives -- the presumptive Democratic nominee for President, and hence the putative leader of the party, one Barack Obama by name, cast his vote in favor of the "debacle." Read more…

George Carlin, forgive us all. This shit has grabbed my sparkly, light heart by the scruff of the neck, shaken it and tossed its limp carcass under the bus.

(And for the record, Clinton wore god-damned pantsuits because if she wore a god-damned tailored SUIT, she'd be "acting like a man" or lesbian. When she tried god-damned DRESSES, her ankles and cleavage were mocked. What the fucking HELL are women supposed to DO if they want to run for god-damned office without a god-damned perfect FIGURE?! Message received: they should stay the fuck HOME so Americans won't have to fucking even LOOK at them.)

Feds have seized, closed, and frozen all of its assets. Depositors will have access to ATMs ONLY.
via Bloomberg

July 11 (Bloomberg) -- IndyMac Bancorp Inc. became the second-biggest federally insured financial company to fail today after a run by depositors left the California mortgage lender short on cash.

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. will run a successor institution, IndyMac Federal Bank, starting next week, the Office of Thrift Supervision said in an e-mail today. Customers will have access to funds this weekend via automated teller machines. Read more…

Good Morning fellow Travelers. So it occured to me that I haven't asked you Good People, as I've been asking my neighbors and clients. What kind, if any, of health care do you have? I think I'm in the very bottom 5% in the blogosphere, in terms of my income, and so my answer right now is "none." Not that I haven't been trying, mind you. But fitting a plan that actually does something into my pauper's budget has been, let's call it "challenging." I like food, and what little I make comes over the intertubes so I can't really give those things up. Foolishly, I had thought that there may be some sort of state program, even temporary assistance, which could fill in this period when I'm between "employer provided plans." Well, I was wrong. This state is experiencing budget nightmares, and they are throwing orphans and the disabled off the roles, so "healthy" people like myself have zero chance at qualifying for what little is left. I find this pathetic and typical of what is wrong with our legislators. I don't blame about 75% of the Dems in this state, many of whom I know and know to be good people honestly trying hard to change things for the better. But their Rethug counterparts here are some of the most soulless, venal, downright evil people I've ever known. To them, it's a big game, a game in which the only thing that matters is scoring 'gotcha' points and humiliating the other side. Never mind the dying children and starving elderly people and crumbling roads. Or the fact that by not helping people like me now, when our health care needs are relatively minimal, they guarantee greater later cost when I'm rushed to the ER for chronic conditions resulting in my inability to have them treated earlier on, and for less.

Anyway, I'd love to hear about your health care solutions in this age in which insurance company profit is more important than our lives. I think I'm going to break down and get a PPO, or some other wholly inadequate and overpriced plan that provides barely any benefit and costs me greatly in terms of what I'll have to sacrifice to afford it. But I'm getting to that age where I really cannot go without one, so hey! I can sell some blood twice a week and still have enough energy to work. Or something like that...

So, I guess I have to do this one in a blog post, seeing as the hubby in question has a wife who reads, filters, and discards emails in *his* box she doesn't want him to read. But for his sake, because he's a sweet and dear man who deserves to know it's (for once) Not his Fault:

Goodbye, Dear Friend. It was nice knowing you. Thank you for being there for me when it mattered, so long ago. You are a Good Man, perhaps the greatest of str8 men I've ever known when it comes to your kids and compassion, and I love you in the way I love everyone like you: decent, hardworking, honest person that you are and always will be. But it's her choice, and her right. And one I don't want to be a part of, not in any sense. She threw down the gauntlet, and I refused the challenge. I wish you both, and your kids, the best.

It'll all work out well for you all, I'm sure, and in time she'll see: I'm not and never was a threat.

I'll use a term I don't like in the way I don't like "sheeple," but which every once in a while I fail to think of a better substitute for the sentiment. Breeder Games are so Boring. Really, they're boring in the way "white trash" or "ghetto" games are dull to those with wealth, education and opportunity. Sad, sick, unhealthy people trapped in sad, sick, unhealthy and unprofitable relationships are to be pitied. And so I do. But I also don't include them in my life, not as counselor, nor as friend, unless (brually speaking) I'm paid. I'm an Adult, for better or worse, and my definition of that includes an intolerance for what I perceive to be childish games. Get over yourself, get over projection and obession with other people who aren't the cause of your problems. Bottom line to the Breeder female: someone like me, well, I'm not even thinking about men like your husband. I could produce 0000 blog pages explaining why, but that fact that you don 't know this already tells me it would be a waste of my time. So I won't waste it! He's yours, honey, always has been, always will be. Perceive and believe that, for the sake of your children. Because now, I won't be there to help you with them, and believe me, there will come a time when you wish you had all the help you could muster when they hit toddler stage and you have repeated 'Calgon' moments. Ask my sisters; they've enjoyed knowing that having a competent and concerned nonbreeder woman/friend is very, very valuable, at times. Don't cut us all out of your lives, that's all I'm Sayin.

Sigh. Str8 marriage games are just so tired. At least we queerfolk have good shoes; they make playing our games a tad more Fabulous, yo?

...and then there's a tangential "CD encounters the Str8 World at the Bar" moment that I'll share, Lambert-like, later when I have a chance to come back to this post. But let me say in the blogger way: I'm bitter I just wasted 2/3 a day on some other people's crap; when I could've (and would've) just said, "Hey, that's fine! No problem, call me in ten years!" and been done with it. Instead, the morning/workday is gone, and all I have to show for it is bitterness about educational standards in this country ("your" = "you're;" "here" = "hear;" etc.) Jeebus Krist we're fucked. I know because the insanely, foolishly jealous woman I've been dealing with all morning is 1) preventing a liberal Brilliant Scientist from focusing on his work in alternative energy with her jealousy about the non-threat that is me and 2) will pass on many of her issues/problems to their kids, thus fucking another generation of taxpayers/schoolfunders/you and me, Faggot/whatever. Bah. At least they are an "integrated" Southern couple, there's that much progress, I suppose.

Can't we just all grow up already? Is that really too much to ask? Don't tell me; I've read this blog enough to know: the answer is, sadly, No. Feh, such is life.

Bush opened his mouth today before the Israeli Knesset, and said this little gem:

Some seem to believe we should negotiate with terrorists and radicals, as if some ingenious argument will persuade them they have been wrong all along. We have heard this foolish delusion before. As Nazi tanks crossed into Poland in 1939, an American senator declared: "Lord, if only I could have talked to Hitler, all of this might have been avoided." We have an obligation to call this what it is – the false comfort of appeasement, which has been repeatedly discredited by history. Read more…

Highly credible Cheetopia Obama uber-fan Kid Oakland's gone off the deep end (again). Sad, really:

against Hillary: this is personal

Oh, this is new? Film at 11...

Why has the gas tax pander set me off so much?

Let me give you five reasons: Dominic, Louise, Catherine, Will and Oliver. They are ages 6, 4, 4, 2 and 9 months respectively. I happen to care about them a great deal.

Let me guess. Hillary's going to kill them and eat them? Nice work on the subliminal trope, there, kid.

My nieces and nephews are truly children of the 21st Century. They will see the legacy of the environmental policies we enact...right now. They will also live to see the legacy of all that we don't do, as well.

We don't have time for a "gas tax holiday." We all know that's true.

What you mean "we," Obama Fan? Here's what the dull normals "know" is true: Read more…

Let's peer into the future and say "What if?"

What if we Democrats work out our differences, unite behind two candidates for President and Vice President, and head for victory in November? Let's assume we increase our majority in the House of Representatives, and gain an unlikely six net seats in the Senate, giving us an effective 55-45 majority. "Your" candidate is now President. Will we all live happily ever after?

Not hardly. Read more…

If I read one more otherwise smart person* confuse "elite" with "elitism," I'm going to scream. I don't care which side of cling-gate** you come down on, there's no need to mangle the English language.

From the online Oxford Dictionary (because I don't have my awesome hardback available):

elite:

• noun 1 a group of people regarded as the best in a particular society or organization. 2 a size of letter in typewriting, with 12 characters to the inch (about 4.7 to the centimetre).

elitism Read more…

Or not.

Kid Oakland, he of the "casual poetry" of Obama-fame (see example) is shocked, shocked that purging all the [not Obama] supporters from The Obama 527 Formerly Known As Daily Kos could have real life consequences:

There was a moment that gave me pause. I was having a friendly conversation with three SoCal kossacks in the hallway on Saturday when two Los Angeles-based delegates approached. These women, both experienced delegates and friendly Clinton supporters, were happy to chat about what we had in common: blog reading, support for Debra Bowen, curiosity about the Migden/Leno battle and the 2010 governor's race. One of the women, wearing a Hillary button, went out of her way to compliment our group of younger delegates (wearing Obama buttons aside from me...a press pass guy) for attending the convention. I asked her if she read DailyKos and she replied curtly:

"I'm on strike from that blog."

That surprised me.

That would be because you're not talking to half the party--and you're only reading the rec list at Kos. (It's also likely that she only spoke to you because you weren't wearing an Obama badge. Because otherwise why invite the abuse. Eh?)

I've met thousands of kossacks whether at Las Vegas or Chicago or events here in California, and I've never once had a negative experience asking if someone reads DailyKos. ... Obama's line about "Friends before and friends afterwards" is true.

That's what struck me with that comment. I think we've all got to take a step back and think about that for a second. This was a woman who was cordial and welcoming and yet she felt estranged from DailyKos. The strike shut down the conversation.

Oh, it was the strike that shut down the "conversation"? What is this, the management perspective? I don't think so. Maybe I got the title of the post wrong, 'cause I left out the "not" before "getting it." I guess traffic must be down, after all, though, for this post even to have been written. Read more…