msb-0075 Care to share

msb-0075 Care to share

Feedback comes first so...

Dave, okay you don't like country and you didn't like "Lars needs Women."

Well what do you like?

Seriously. Its your show too.

Give me a genre and I'll look for it on the Podsafe Music Network.

They've growing their collection so they're growing the pool I can swim in.

You don't like country music. I do. I like anything thats well played.

You didn't like "Lars needs Women I did. It thought was funny. Like I sad, I like anything thats well played. (Even "ThrashMetal" but its never well sung. On purpose. :-)

----

Here again is my advice on podcasting, on iTunes (or some other podcatcher) and the iPod.

"You don't need an iPod. (which is also the title of a song by "Uncle Seth" which you encountered on msb-0068 Memes, Words, Phrases and Sentences.)

That's only good if you want to carry the show around.

You don't even need iTunes (though you can get it for free at http://www.apple.com/itunes/download/ )

Its not the only podcatcher out there. (There's also iPodder at http://www.ipodder.org/directory/4/ipodderSoftware )

Its just that its extremely convenient to use iTunes.

If you had it, you could just open a web page on my podcast (at http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?id=120932170
) and say yes to all the questions until you see my late, great cat Wiki and then simply subscribe.

Its the easiest way really."

----

There were a couple of good articles in the music section of the Sunday New York Times. You might want to check it out...

----

We are the proud slaves of a fifteen pound, female "Maine Coon" cat.

We let the cat scratch out her name to us: "Aixe la Chapelle!" (Okay, she only scratched out an "X" in the sand of her litter box. Give her a break, eh...)

Lord help us....

We have a cat who wants to bring a balanced equilibrium to ruling.

She's not dealing with the issues of this millenium.

"Le traité d'Aixe la Chapelle" was designed to ... oh shit ... it dealt with the place of Turkey in Europe in 1818. Now they're in; only 200 years late...

Maybe our "Euro Kitty" knows more than she's letting on. :-)

----

Kee'rist. I've been going over my posts and some of the comments I've been leaving on my blog ( http://multiplesclerosisblog.blogspot.com/ ) and on other people's blogs (all linked to from my blog,) and I'm such a blow hard; they read well but I sound/read like some kind of freak :-)

I really must thank mdmhvonpa for providing the initial list of bloggers.

I'd love to be doing this show with him.

He seems to have a presence and provides quick, pithy aphorisms to everybody. (Hey! Want to try it? Drop me an email: charles [at] MSBPodcast.com. We could do something that would relieve my poor listeners out there. )

----

Erik Kjelland recorded an album called "Everybody Falls" for the Multiple Sclerosis Association of America that "deserves" your support. ( http:/www.everybodyfalls.com or http://www.brightercd.com/purchasethecd.html )

You should "buy" it, and I'm not saying that just because I did.

Since its for the MS Society, I don't think they'll mind if I play a snippet.

You are more likely to tell your friends about it and get them to "buy" it.

They can even come and play the snippet off of this show, for free, and get the ordering into off of the show notes of directly from the show links.

Actually, it sounds pretty darn good.

Its well produced.

Its got nice, straight-forward vocals.

But I do take some exception to labeling the tunes as Rock.

They are simply too melodic for that and the guitar is definitely not "heavy." (Not a bad thing. :-)

----

PBS just ran a fascinating special called "Remaking American Medicine." ( http://www.pbs.org/remakingamericanmedicine/care.html )

It states that, like all human endeavours, our health care suffers from the same basic systemantic flaw, and that flaw is that systems oppose their own function.

(To read more about systemantics head to http://www.generalsystemantics.com/Systemantics.htm or buy the book
Systemantics™. 2d ed. 319 pages. 1986. ISBN 0-9618251-0-3 [Softcover])

Just like Social Security would perhaps be better labeled as Social inSecurity, our health care would perhaps be better labeled as Health don't Care.

Its run, by the state or for profit, by healthy people, and consists of as many hoops as they can think of to place in the way. They're just doing their job, its nothing personal...

It also consists of a myriad of systemic obstacles, and therefore systemantic constructs, to the actual delivery of healthcare.

First and foremost of these is that doctors are not paid to take care of you when you're healthy. They are paid only for treating you for something, (and honestly, you're not guaranteed of anything as they're only practicing medicine.)

(Go for an annual check up twice a year and see how much of that will be covered by your insurance.)

----

Next comes with the duplication of record keeping.

If and when you move, none of your records are available unless you specifically request their transfer, in writing.

(Good luck in getting transfered without an expensive power of attorney if you can't write for any reason. If you can't pay, roll up your arm and bend over.)

In my travels across America (both through Canada and through the United States) and in Europe, I have seen dozens of doctors, dentists, clinicians, pharmacists, therapists and specialists none of which know about any of the rest.

I have seen the inside of far more clinics to confirm what I already knew than my legs can now manage in a single trip.

And none of the records acquired in one place are available in the next place.

I have had to fill out the same damn forms over and over and over.

(I have given gallons of blood unnecessarily, just because none of the doctors had access to another's doctors results. [And I hate getting stuck and bled. It increaces my chance for an infection and potentially for an exacerbation every single time.])

Curiosity killed the cat, and I'm not taking any bets on the longevity of this reluctant patient.

Basically, we have to start keeping and transporting our own medical records in a USB dongle because if Doctor A doesn't know about what Doctor B's doing, he's likely to reorder a test uselessly, or to do something counter-indicated (read stupid) and possibly kill us.

We can put multiple megabytes of information on there and the doctor can add his new info, or save us all a lot of pain and waste of both time and money re-ordering tests.

If you hear any guff about patient confidentiality from any wise-ass, just tell them you're the patient and you demand that you be provided with a machine readable copy of your records.

There's CPT and IDC-9 data on you, prescription and medication interaction information and you're not leaving without a machine readable copy of your information.

And the next time you're handed one of these stupids forms to fill out, just hand them the dongle and tell them that they can copy all of the info there. (I figure if enough of us treat them like they were poor, stupid and ignorant, they'll eventually get the message.)

----

Now that we've got our end of this handled; (we want our records damn it and we're going to make their lives easier if it kills them,) how do we get the poor (*cough* *cough*) doctors to stop having to fight with the public and private plans out there.

Shared care implies shared funding.

That implies a single payment point. Given the reticence of the Federal gummint to do anything not involving shifting rubble in foreign parts, I wouldn't count on them for a thing.

Next best thing, implies 50 payment points, State by State medical plans, with coordination on expenses by CPT and ICD-9 code.

The health care providers have got to be stopped from playing their stupid friggin' games; calling the same part or procedure by different names and/or numbers and having different price structures depending on what they can get away with charging by using the old divide and conquer technique. (The term ripping off the unsuspecting comes unbidden into my mind.)

Just look at three different hospital's records from just three different parts of the country. (I have,) and check out the myriad of inventory part numbers for the same part and the myriad of prices for the same part too.

Each hospital has its own price list from each manufacturer. Each manufacturer has its own price lists for each hospital.

Enough of that shit.

If its a procedure or part, I want it to be called the same thing and to cost the same.

I don't want a price based on whether I buy it in one state or the next.

----

Then we'd only have one worry left; getting ripped off by less that scrupulous health care administrators.

That's what regulators are for, with stiff prison terms if they fail to regulate.

Honestly, we have got to start making these companies play fair, on a level playing field.

The problem with Adam Smith's "invisible hand of the market forces" is that its attached to an arm that is getting twisted into a pretzel.

Companies never play fair.

They're always trying to get an advantage not based on the quality of their products or their services.

They never want to compete.

Fine.

They already have a patent system to take care of that.

But that doesn't seem to be enough, does it?

Lets set the prices and take competition right out of it, or at least to another level entirely.

----

Medicare mobility devices cutbacks on the 15th, bad, our votes on the 7th, good.

Go and bug your representatives.