|
By Ron Culberson. With a master’s degree in social work, Ron Culberson spent the first part of his career working in a large hospice organization as a clinical social worker, middle manager, and senior leader. As a speaker, humorist, and author of "Do it Well. Make it Fun.The Key to Success in Life, Death, and Almost Everything in Between", he has delivered more than 1,000 presentations to associations, government agencies, non-profit organizations, and corporations. His mission is to change the workplace culture so that organizations are more productive and staff are more content. He was also the 2012-2013 president of the National Speakers Association and is a recognized expert on the benefits of humor and laughter.
The largest non-profit children’s literacy organization in the U.S. is Reading is Fundamental, Inc. When I was a child, however, I found reading fundamental-ly frustrating. You see, I was a slow reader and every assignment felt like drudgery. I remember lying on my bed one Sunday afternoon trying to finish Tom Sawyer so I could complete a seventh-grade book report that was due the following morning. It felt as if I had to read each word individually and then think about its meaning before I could go on to the next. As a younger child, I recall spending ten minutes trying to figure out what the word “between” meant. I kept thinking, “What the heck is bet ween.” Thus, I avoided reading whenever I could. Then, something changed. In the late 70’s, I read The Amityville Horror. I remember being completely enthralled while at the same time terrified by this Jay Anson novel. In fact, it scared me so much, I could only read it during daylight hours so I could actually see anything that was lurking behind the closet door before it could come after me. What seemed to be different about this book was that the story activated my imagination in ways no other book had. I’d like to say that I became an avid reader after reading The Amityville Horror but the transition didn’t occur until a decade later. When I was in college and graduate school, I had too much required reading. Then, while working as a hospice social worker and keeping up with my family at home, I did not usually want to read during the evening. Instead, I would click on the adult babysitter (i.e. the television) and become hypnotized until it was time for bed. The next night, I would rinse and repeat. When I became a hospice manager however, I realized that I needed additional training to be a good supervisor. So, I immersed myself in management and leadership books. Our CEO was also continually recommending the most recent bestsellers so as a “several-minutes manager,” I learned to take my “seven habits” from “good to great” while “winning friends and influencing people.” Needless to say, I was hooked on improving my life by reading professional development books. For years, I read these business oriented books until I made an alarming discovery. They were all the same. Well, not really, but the themes were pretty similar from one book to the next. They were just packaged differently. After this unexpected realization, I had a hard time being engaged by most professional development books. I kept thinking, “I know this. I’ve heard that. I’ll never do those things.” During this same time, I was working with my friend and colleague, Lou Heckler, on improving my presentation skills. He had a great knack for sorting through all of the clutter in my outline and helping me hone the material, stories, and humor. During one discussion, he said, “If you want to be a better storyteller, read more novels.” It was as if a light went off in the library of my brain and illuminated new possibilities for my ever-developing reading muscle. I realized that professional development was not limited to the business section of the bookstore. Today, I rarely read professional development books unless I need specific information. For instance, I’m working on a film about my college band and have immersed myself in several fantastic books on creating documentaries. But most of my reading now focuses on the human condition and how we, as people, manage this journey of life. Here are my primary interests: Mindfulness. I think one of the greatest regrets I have is not learning about mindfulness until a few years ago. Essentially, our minds want to create drama in our lives and to battle these theatrics, we must become more present and more aware. This has totally changed how I now deal with stress, anxiety, and adversity. In particular, the following books were instrumental in helping me understand these concepts: The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle Full Catastrophe Living by Jon Kabat Zinn The War of Art by Steven Pressfield Novels. I’ve always been a fan of Stephen King novels (probably due to some residual fear from the TheAmityville Horror) and as I’ve gotten older, I’ve expanded my collection to include other authors of fiction. The cool thing about novels is that the authors create engaging stories by painting vivid pictures in our minds. This allows us to tap into our own creativity. And as Lou Heckler reminded me, a novel can improve my own storytelling. Here are a few of my favorite novels: 11/22/63: A Novel by Stephen King To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee Atonement by Ian McEwan Biographies/True-Life Stories. Some of the most valuable lessons in life come from other people. We can be inspired by mountain climbers and olympic athletes as well as those who have experienced overwhelming adversity. I am particularly drawn to comedians and entertainers because so often, the way they see the world resonates with me. I enjoy seeing how people use both their strengths and weaknesses to get through life. Sometimes, their flaws are what make them stronger and other times, the flaws become their undoing. Either way, we can learn from their experiences and apply the information to our own lives. Here are a couple of my favorite true-life books: Into Thin Air by Jon Kraukauer Born Standing Up by Steve Martin Just Kids by Patti Smith I have come to understand that reading is fundamental. It not only forces our mind to work, rather than being transfixed by an electronic screen of some sort, but it gives us a window into someone else’s ideas and perspectives. Plus, when an author tells a great story through a beautiful command of the language, it helps us to use our own words more effectively. In my opinion, there is nothing better than having my mind entertained and expanded at the same time. That’s the essence of Do it Well. Make it Fun. which, by the way, is another a great book! Haha. So, what’s on your reading list? Looking for your next healthcare speaker? Get in touch with us at the Capitol City Speakers Bureau today to make your healthcare event a success!
0 Comments
By John O'Leary. This was originally posted on JohnOLearyInspires.com. When John O'Leary was 9 years old, he suffered burns over 100% of his body and was expected to die. He is now an inspirational speaker and bestselling author, teaching more than 50,000 people around the world each year how to live inspired. John's first book, ON FIRE: The 7 Choices to Ignite a Radically Inspired Life was published March 15, 2016. John is a contributing writer for Huff Post and Parade.com. John is a proud husband and father of four and resides in St. Louis, MO. Order John’s book today anywhere books are sold.
It’s that time of year. Everyone is posting their vacation pictures on social media or sharing them via text. Their toes are dug into the sand, their sunset is magical, their smiles are big and their skin is perfectly, freshly sun-kissed. It makes the room you’re staring at this Memorial Day (or on this typical Monday if you’re reading outside the U.S. today…) feel cold, dank and depressing. Or maybe it makes you feel lonely, because you are the ONLY person in the WORLD without someone to vacation with! Or, potentially the most devastating, long-term consequence, is that it causes you to begin planning your own too-extravagant vacation… even though the current state of your bank account begs you to cut expenses. My friend, the thief of joy is comparison. When we compare ourselves to the Instagrammed lives of others: What we have could never be enough; we will always feel the need for more. If we don’t stop comparing ourselves to the unrealistic “reality” others post on social media – it won’t matter how much we get or how far we come. It will never be enough. (Years ago, on a hiking trip, I experienced this truth about unmet expectations. I had a clear, epic picture in my mind of what I would see on this trip. I hiked and hiked and hiked…. and no vista could live up to the mighty expectation I’d set. Ultimately, I missed out on experiencing the glorious view that I did have, because I was distracted looking for the one I’d imagined. Get the full story on my Truth about False Summits blog here.) Rachel Cruze Helps Us Refocus on ALL We Have My friend, Rachel Cruze, who recently wrote Love Your Life, Not Theirs, is an expert at helping us to love the life we have by better managing our finances and ending the comparison game. During our time together on my podcast, Rachel shared that, “We need to see that the stuff we’re gathering up with credit cards is not making us happy.” Isn’t this so true? We see happier people, posting photos with bigger cars, boats, vacations, engagement rings, five-year-olds’ birthday parties… and it makes us feel like what we have isn’t enough. And as long as we continue comparing, the truth is, it never will be. Today, I challenge you to end the comparison game, remember what you have is enough and choose to love the life you lead. And remember that Today is your day. Live Inspired. Looking for your next healthcare speaker? Get in touch with us at the Capitol City Speakers Bureau today to make your healthcare event a success! By Karyn Buxman. This was originally published on Karyn's blog.
It was a dark and stormy night…(really) and I was waiting to board a flight along with around 200 fellow passengers. We were already delayed an hour and a half and the mood was as dark inside the terminal as it was outside. We were finally cleared to board, and folks—while anxious about the delay—were relieved to finally be moving out of the gate area and onto the plane. The flight attendant sprinted through her safety routine while I and others nervously calculated if there was any way we were going to make our connections. We rolled onto the tarmac and the pilot announced we were #17 in the lineup—seems there were a LOT of folks trying to get-the-heck-out-of-Dodge that night. Slowly we taxied closer to the runway. #15…#12…#8—the pilot periodically would announce our progress. But the next time we heard his voice, it was anything but progress. “Ladies and gentlemen, this is your Captain speaking. While we were waiting for clearance, another band of storms has moved into the area. There’s a high degree of lightning and we’re grounded until further notice. We can’t go back to the gate so we’ll have to sit it out here on the tarmac. We’ll be dimming the lights. Please remain in your seats. We’ll keep you posted.” A cacophony of curses and groans filled the plane. My stomach sank. My shoulders tightened. A stream of worst-case-scenarios flashed through my mind. Would I be stuck here overnight? Would I miss my speaking engagement tomorrow? Would the client be able to find another speaker? The more I thought about it, the sicker I felt. I pulled out my phone to review my itinerary. And then it occurred to me that I had downloaded an audio of one of my favorite funny authors onto my phone. I fumbled for my headphones and turned on “David Sedaris Live at Carnegie Hall.” I scrunched back in my seat (exit row, aisle: everybody follow me if the plane goes down!) and listened as Sedaris read hysterical yet poignant stories of his life. I began to smile. Then he got to one story that has become a traditional favorite in our house (Santa and The 6-8 Black Men—the story is so far from what you’re probably thinking). I began to laugh. As the story became more outrageous, I began to laugh harder. Then he came to the climax of the story and I began to guffaw—now totally unaware of the people and circumstances that surrounded me. I laughed so hard tears ran down my cheeks. As the flight attendant walked down the dimly lit aisle, she misconstrued my belly laughter for uncontrollable sobbing. She knelt beside me and tried to console me. When I realized what she was doing, the absurdity of the situation combined with the cleansing release of laughter created the ultimate catharsis—and I lost it. I laughed so hard, tears ran down my leg. Did the distraction of the funny audio change my situation? No. But it did distract me from focusing on circumstances that were beyond my control. It provided a brief respite in the midst of a stressful trip. I could sit in my seat and worry about what might happen, or I could sit in my seat and be amused. It would be the same amount of time either way. I keep a number of humorous distractions within reach at all times. I suggest you do the same. You’ll enjoy the journey a lot more. You have a choice. Choose humor. Looking for your next healthcare speaker? Get in touch with us at the Capitol City Speakers Bureau today to make your healthcare event a success! By Kristin Baird
In our coaching work, we often team up with managers who need support in becoming better leaders. They often have mastered managing, but need support learning how to lead. Managers vs. Leaders A very simplified version of the distinction is that leaders have followers and managers have people who work for them. I think that one other key distinction is that managers are task-oriented. Managers do things like: Set and manage the budget, schedule people and resources, and directs activity. Leaders on the other hand coach, inspire, challenge and create transformation. It’s not unusual to have to help managers to make the distinction between managing and leading. At the same time, it’s important that they recognize there is a need for both. The budget needs to get balanced, schedules must be created, and payroll documents submitted. The two don’t have to be mutually exclusive. Managing vs. Leading – Rounding One example of managing vs leading happens when managers thrust a tactic at subordinates without first engaging them. They see it as a task and present it as a task. Let’s take hourly rounding for example. I’ve seen managers announce that nurses will be required to do hourly rounding because it is now the hospital standard. Nurses are given rounding logs or software on ipads. and instructed how to check the boxes to document the task. Boxes are checked and the task is managed by both the nurses and managers. That is task management. A leader engages the team and discusses the “why” behind hourly rounding. She gets input on the tools and meaningful data collection. They discusses how rounding will benefit both the nurses and the patients and gives data to support the benefit claim. She spends time demonstrating meaningful rounding and offers shadow/coaching to support individual learning. They share outcomes and gives positive reinforcement while holding everyone accountable. She focuses on teamwork. And, while all that is happening, the nurses are engaged, the boxes are being checked and they are eager to see the impact of their efforts. A good leader creates owners. Are you managing or leading? Looking for your Nurses Week healthcare speaker? Get in touch with us at the Capitol City Speakers Bureau today to make your healthcare event a success! By Laurie Guest
If you are a member of a team, working with your team is essential. Team building is one of the most frequently requested topics in my work with organizations. I always ask the client to first reflect on what teamwork means in his or her environment. Does it mean that the staff get along and are mostly tension free? Does it mean everyone knows his or her position and how it fits into the big picture? What kind of work environment are you looking to create? Knowing where you currently stand and where you aspire to be is the critical first step. Start the conversation with your team’s definition of teamwork. Teamwork means two or more people committed to working together to achieve a common goal. That sounds like a simple definition, but when we break it down a bit, it’s obvious that it’s harder than it seems. First: a team consists of two or more people. I always say wherever two or more are gathered, there’s trouble. Think about it. Different personality styles and different ways of communicating. What about the listening issue? I may think I’m being very clear with my words, but you hear something totally different. I think we can all agree that getting along with other people can be tough sometimes. The solution is to be understanding, forgiving, and nonjudgmental with your co-workers. Though I wasn’t very good at this in the early years of my career, I learned to be more tolerant by not making everything about me. Just because a co-worker doesn’t offer an enthusiastic “good morning” with a smile, doesn’t mean they’re mad at me. Odds are good it has nothing to do with me. Next: a team commits to working together. When I’m invited to an organization to help with teamwork issues, the first thing I do is try to figure out what things all parties agree about. For example, do we all agree that we want to be known as the premier place to buy our product? Do we agree that we can provide better service if we work together for a seamless delivery and stop airing our dirty laundry to customers? Yes? Okay, then what do we have to do to make these answers a reality? If we cannot agree to commit our efforts for the good of the guest, the company, or our co-workers, then cohesive teamwork is impossible to achieve. We will have to start at the foundation and work up to strength. Finally: a team strives to achieve a common goal. This is where we can dive in and make progress when we’re trying to improve comradery. Do we have attainable goals as an organization? Are the goals written down and reviewed on a regular basis? Does everyone understand his or her role in helping us achieve these goals? Is there a reward for all of us in achieving the goal? In other words, what’s my incentive? If you can’t answer yes to all these questions, then examining goal setting and incentives will be an important first step in getting everyone to work on the same page. A team consisting of two or more people working together to achieve a common goal is essential in a successful organization. Looking for your next healthcare speaker? Get in touch with us at the Capitol City Speakers Bureau today to make your healthcare event a success! By Kenneth Kaufman
Warren Buffett famously said that if a farsighted capitalist were present for the Wright brothers’ first flight, that person “would have done his successors a huge favor by shooting Orville down.” Historically, operating an airline profitably has been one of business’ biggest challenges. Between 1979 and 2016, 57 airlines filed for bankruptcy. Southwest Airlines has been the exception to this grim track record, as pointed out in a Slate article. For 44 consecutive years, Southwest has been profitable. The reason: Southwest thinks about running an airline in a very different way from its competitors, and the foundation of that thought process is containing costs. Where competitors use a hub-and-spoke model for their routes, Southwest uses direct flights, resulting in shorter travel times. Shorter travel times allow higher density seating, which results in lower per-seat costs. Where competitors use a variety of aircraft, Southwest uses only variants of the Boeing 737, which reduces costs for training and maintenance. Where competitors use major airports, Southwest prefers less-expensive secondary airports. Where other airlines book flights through third parties, Southwest sells directly to consumers. Each of these choices radically lowers the airline’s cost structure, allowing lower fares, a more streamlined consumer experience, higher market share, and higher profitability. No Regrets The degree of uncertainty in healthcare is higher than ever. Under the Trump Administration and the 115th U.S. Congress, uncertainty surrounds health policy, tax policy, and payment levels. Uncertainty surrounds the trajectory and structure of value-based payment. Uncertainty surrounds the influence of new healthcare models such as direct primary care and medical homes. Uncertainty surrounds the effect of new technology such as artificial intelligence and genomics. Uncertainty surrounds the potential influence of new competitors, from giants like IBM and Apple to digital health start-ups. It is natural for people to want to reduce uncertainty, to base strategy on a clear sense of the future. Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos says that people frequently ask him what will change in the next 10 years. A more important question, he says, is what’s not going to change, “because you can build a business strategy around the things that are stable in time.” For example, Bezos said, “It’s impossible to imagine a future 10 years from now where a customer comes up and says, ‘Jeff, I love Amazon, I just wish the prices were a little higher.’” What will not change in healthcare is the need for lower costs—dramatically lower costs. The central role that healthcare plays in the U.S. budget deficit demands dramatically lower healthcare spending. Constrained government budgets demand dramatically lower healthcare expenses. Employers burdened by double-digit increases demand dramatically lower health insurance premiums. And consumers, who are experiencing premiums and out-of-pocket expenses rising far faster than wages, demand dramatically lower healthcare costs. These demands will only get more intense as healthcare’s share of the gross domestic product—already at record highs—continues to increase. As one small-business owner recently told The New York Times, “People can’t afford the healthcare they need, and that’s becoming a crisis.” In a time of uncertainty, a no-regrets strategy for hospitals is to reduce costs—dramatically. Imagine the competitive advantage of a provider being able to approach a large employer and offer, for example, direct contracting for treating their highest-cost conditions along with top-quality outcomes at 30 percent lower costs. However, for an industry that has been working on costs for decades with limited success, the question is: how? A Legacy Company Tackles Costs Southwest shows that low costs are best achieved when they are built into the company’s mission, business model, and operating model. However, Southwest had an advantage that legacy organizations, including America’s hospitals, do not have. Southwest built the company from the ground up around the principle of low cost. In contrast, legacy organizations need to make major changes in culture, structure, processes, skills, and technology to achieve a dramatically lower cost position. For large organizations in complex industries, this degree of change is incredibly difficult both to conceptualize and execute. The experience of Ford shows what is involved. In 2006, Ford lost $12.7 billion. Testifying before Congress in 2008, Ford’s then-CEO Alan Mulally presented a veritable tutorial in how a legacy organization can transform its costs. It used to be that we had too many brands. Now we have a laser focus on our most important brand: the Ford blue oval….It used to be that our approach to our customers was: If you build it, they will come. We produced more vehicles than our customers wanted….Now we are aggressively matching production to meet the true customer demand. It used to be that we focused heavily on trucks and SUVs. Now we are shifting to a balanced product portfolio, with even more focus on small cars and the advanced technologies that will drive higher fuel economy in all of our vehicles. It used to be that our labor costs made us uncompetitive. Now we have a ground-breaking agreement with the UAW to reduce labor costs….It used to be that we had too many suppliers and dealers. Now we're putting in place the right structure to maximize the efficiency and the profitability for all of our partners….We have moved our business model in a completely new direction, in line with the most successful companies—and competitors—around the world. Between 2006 and 2008, Ford did the following:
In 2016, Ford’s net income was $4.6 billion. Implications for Healthcare The Southwest and Ford examples present three key lessons for healthcare:
The kind of dramatic cost reduction needed requires a more fundamental approach: Reconfigure the portfolio. Health systems need to do a top-to-bottom review of demand and performance for every one of their facilities and services. They must be willing to make tough decisions about selling, converting, or closing facilities that do not have sufficient volume or are otherwise unable to perform up to necessary financial or clinical standards. They must be willing to divest service lines that are not delivering value for the organization and community. They must be willing to consolidate services that are performed at multiple locations in close proximity. Radical approaches to facility design should be considered to ensure a match between patient needs and appropriate levels of care. Older facilities have inherent inefficiencies and an inability to evolve with changes in care delivery, while newer facilities often are designed based on backward-looking perspectives. For most hospitals and health systems, facilities and services grow over time, often without a governing plan. Hospitals need to ask themselves what a completely redesigned system would look like—one that meets demonstrable community needs in the most streamlined manner possible. Then they must be willing to take action based on these insights. Redesign the care model. Waste resulting from problems with care delivery design, coordination, and standardization cost the U.S. between $285 billion and $425 billion annually, according to a study by Donald Berwick and colleagues in JAMA. For healthcare organizations, redesign of care delivery holds great promise to both reduce costs and improve quality. This redesign should include the sites of care, who delivers the care, and standardization of clinical protocols and operations. For example, at Kaiser Permanente, more than half of primary care visits are performed virtually. Kaiser sees many hospital services in the future being performed in the home. The result of clinical care redesign will be greater efficiency and a better experience for both caregivers and patients, and reduction in unwarranted variation that can undermine quality and increase costs. These are perhaps the most difficult changes for a provider organization to make, but are at the core of making leaps in improving quality, patient experience, and efficiency. Reconfigure use of labor. Hospitals need to leverage the highest cost (per unit and in total) resources to their highest and best use. The clinician workforce is highly trained and expensive. Unfortunately, the application of its skills often is inefficient at all levels (for example, physicians doing excessive paperwork, nurses transporting patients). Optimally matching expertise to the tasks at hand is inherently difficult in such a complex system, but the potential payoff is enormous. A New Mindset The existing culture of not-for-profit healthcare tends to value incrementalism, avoid political sensitivities, and allow autonomy. The kind of radical shift in costs that will truly distinguish an organization requires a new mindset. Health systems need to function as operating companies, rather than holding companies, with system executives having the authority necessary to implement changes and influence performance at the facility level. Throughout the organization, executives and physicians need to be held accountable to transparent measures of performance. Hospitals should be run as cost centers, with tight focus on operations. As with Ford and Southwest, there needs to be a leadership commitment to thinking differently about the purpose and design of the organization, and to making the major changes necessary. In a time of great uncertainty, a no-regrets strategy for hospitals focuses on core principles. And for healthcare, the dominant principle is the need to reduce costs—dramatically. Looking for your next healthcare speaker? Get in touch with us at the Capitol City Speakers Bureau today to make your healthcare event a success! By Courtney Clark
Your alarm goes off. You roll over and bury your head under the comforter. You pinch your eyes shut and wish for it to be Saturday. But it isn’t. If you hate your job, every day feels never-ending. Because we spend so much of our lives at work, it’s better to at least like what you do, even if you don’t love it. So how can you stop hating work, if you and your job just can’t get along anymore? Remember What You Used to Love About ItMy dad used to work as an investor. He was so good at his job, they promoted him to manager. He was flattered, except… he hated managing people. He’d rather hole up in his office researching stocks all day. He started to wish he could just go back to his old role, until he got better about protecting his time, and scheduling blocks on his calendar devoted to stock research, where he wouldn’t be interrupted about management issues. If there was something about your job you used to love doing, make time to prioritize that work. There’s probably SOME reason you took this job in the first place, hopefully more than just money (because research shows that thanks to a process called “habituation” or “hedonic adaptation,” the happiness we get from money wears off pretty quickly). Whatever the reason you chose this profession, and accepted this job offer, remind yourself of what your hopes and expectations were, and take steps to build those activities back into your day. Even if, like my dad, you’ve been promoted to new tasks, you can still keep one hand in the activities you love. Plug In To a New Arena Maybe your job hasn’t changed… maybe you’ve changed. Maybe since you started this job, you’ve discovered new passions or skills, and you’d like your work to incorporate some of those new interests. Especially these days, there are lots of creative ways to step outside your normal work functions, like volunteering on the committee for an interest group. You could also spearhead some of the community and volunteer initiatives, or take on training the interns if you’re passionate about teaching. Getting involved in a different part of your company should have you seeing your work and your workplace in a different light, and give you the opportunity to fall in love all over again. Ditch a Complaining Crew Could your work buddies be fueling your bad mood at work? Most likely, yes. If you’re burned out and disillusioned at work, the odds are good that your office friends feel the same way. And the odds are really good that you talk about it together. While sharing your struggles can be a good way to get emotional support, “venting” has been proven to be an unhelpful form of coping, because it keeps the anger simmering right at the surface. To get rid of on-the-job anger, top hanging around people who are burned out and find a new crew. Seek out a completely different friend-set; in fact, hanging with the interns might remind you of how inspired and excited you felt when you first got into the industry Remember the Purpose I was seventeen pages into editing the annual report, and I was about to give up. If I spelled a single donor’s name wrong, it could cost us a future donation. My eyes were starting to cross and I hadn’t even eaten lunch yet. On my way to the kitchen, I veered off course. I headed out the door and across campus, straight to the shelter where the animals were housed. Ten minutes later, covered in slobber and a pile of cocker spaniel-mix puppies, I was ready to finish the annual report and raise even more money to find homes for those puppies. I just needed to be reminded why my work was so important. In so many roles, we’re buried in our own little piece of the puzzle, and we don’t get to see how our piece fits into the larger mission. But when we pop our heads up from our desk and take a look around, we see how our piece is important to our customers, our colleagues, and the world. We see why we do what we do, and we’re reminded that it matters. Maybe your job is horrible. Maybe your boss is rotten, the pay is terrible, and your coworkers are jerks. Or maybe you’ve just lost your passion, and you can find it again. Hating your job takes a toll on your mental health, so before you write up that resignation letter, try these 4 steps and see if you can fall in love all over again. Looking for your next healthcare speaker? Get in touch with us at the Capitol City Speakers Bureau today to make your healthcare event a success! By Joe Flower
Will this great red, white and blue country of ours ever find a way to do what every other advanced economy in the world manages to do, that is, make sure that everyone’s medical needs are taken care of? Since the midterm elections in November 2018, everyone is talking about it again, for three reasons:
Myth #1: Universal healthcare, “Medicare For All,” “single payer,” they’re all the same. Not! Let’s start with “universal.” It means only that: Everybody’s healthcare needs are taken care of, one way or another. But there are lots of ways to do that. It isn’t just one thing. Medicare for All is just one way to do universal coverage. Medicare is a “single payer,” the government, paying private providers for our medical care. And even “Medicare For All?” isn’t just one thing. The new Democratic House has before it eight different plans for expanding coverage, including 3 different Medicare-For-All plans. Then we come to “single payer.” Again, it means only that: One payer for any of these plans that we, as a country, might choose. When we hear that someone picked up the tab at dinner, that doesn’t tell us anything about where the folks ate, what they ate, and how the meals were prepared. Single payer doesn’t indicate anything about the type of healthcare we’ll get, and it certainly doesn’t, by itself, tackle the cost problem. Myth #2: Universal healthcare has to cost way more. People assume that the amount paid in taxes for healthcare will inevitably be greater than the amount people and their employers pay in healthcare premiums now. It could cost more, but it doesn’t have to. Every other advanced country has universal healthcare, and they all cost about half what we do. Now, it’s true that if we simply covered everyone for everything all the time, without changing anything else about our system now, then yes, it would cost way more. But there are huge opportunities to drive the costs of healthcare down. If the same universal health plan also took those opportunities, then no, universal healthcare does not have to cost more. Myth #3: Controlling costs of a universal system will have to mean rationing. No. That would seem to make sense—if you’re spreading some commodity around to more people, you’re going to have to limit how much they all get, or it will cost way more, right? But not in healthcare, simply because there is already so much waste, and so much being done that does not need to be done, so much done in the most inefficient, expensive way possible, that the way we do it now costs at least twice as much as it needs to. We can mine that waste and redirect those resources to help people who are not getting help now without rationing anything. Myth #4: Universal healthcare will cost way less. Bless our little American hearts, but: A lot of the people against universal healthcare just think the government screws everything up, everything is a $3000 coffee cup, everything is a billion-dollar overrun, so of course it’s going to cost more, way more. And a lot of the people for universal healthcare believe the exact opposite: Put the government in charge, and we won’t have to put up with all this stupid over-pricing and ridiculous costs, the government can just dictate all that, so of course it will cost way less. Every plan being considered by the new Democratic House claims that the government will control costs, but it’s not clear how they propose to do that: What’s the mechanism? How’s that going to work? If it doesn’t have some radically new way of paying for healthcare, we don’t have to speculate what Medicare-For-All would look like, because we already have Medicare-For-Some, it’s just limited to people over 65 and people with certain medical disabilities. It does attempt to control costs. Does it actually cost less? Only somewhat less, per person. It’s only somewhat more efficient, not massively so. The folks at Medicare do good work most of the time. But Medicare is still massively prone to funding overuse, waste, and higher than necessary prices. Why? Here is the core truth, the most important thing to know that is usually missing from analyses and reports to the general public but which is common knowledge inside US healthcare. So pay attention: What makes us way more expensive than everyone else on the planet really doesn’t have to do with whether we are covering everyone. I know that’s surprising, but it’s true. What makes us way more expensive than everyone else is how we pay for healthcare. We don’t pay for results. Instead, we just pay for the healthcare system to do stuff to us. We pay fees for services. Think about it. We pay for a lab test, a doctor’s visit, a drug, surgery, not to fix us, or to keep us healthy. When you pay people do stuff to you instead of paying them to make you healthy, what do you think happens? The system tends do as much stuff as possible, to do it the most expensive way possible, and to charge as much as it can get away with. It’s normal. It’s how systems work. Now, in this system there are plenty of folks in the healthcare system who are trying to do good work and make people healthy. But they are trapped in a fee-for-service system that only pays them for doing more stuff faster, and penalizes them financially and career-wise for doing what would truly be best for you, the patient, often at much lower cost. So this situation creates a lot of waste, overtreatment, and insanely high prices in every single part of healthcare. Obvious when you think about it, right? If we changed all that, if in a number of different ways we paid for results instead of stuff, we could easily take care of everyone for half or less of what healthcare costs us now. We could all get what we really need and want at a cost we can all live with. If we don’t change what we pay for, it won’t be cheaper than what we have now. If we changed how we pay for things in the same universal healthcare plan, if we stopped paying for waste and overtreatment, stopped paying high prices that have no real basis, and stopped dealing with chronic disease in the most expensive way possible, then universal healthcare would not have to cost more, it could cost way less. Myth #5: Universal healthcare means “government-run healthcare,” it means “socialism”. Nope. Medicare, for instance, doesn’t own any hospitals or clinics. It doesn’t employ any doctors or nurses. That’s what “socialism” would mean: Nationalized, state-run bureaucracies. Medicaid, our sort-of universal system for the poor, doesn’t employ docs and nurses either. The services are almost all delivered by private systems. Around the world we see a wide variety of ways to provide healthcare to everyone. For instance, Canada, Denmark, Norway, and Sweden have “single payer” systems, like our Medicare. Their governments pay for care that’s delivered privately. Great Britain and Spain, on the other hand, have national health services. The government pays the doctors and owns the hospitals. Germany and France have multiple payers. They have private insurance companies, and public ones for the poor and disabled, all tightly regulated and paid out of various funds. But one way or another everyone is covered. There are lots of ways to do it. Myth #6: Universal healthcare means turning over our lives to a massive bureaucracy. Wait, what? As opposed to now? Have you ever tried to get a health plan to pay a bill that they have rejected? It’s worse than one massive bureaucracy, it’s multiple massive competing bureaucracies. The hospitals have huge staffs to try to get paid by the health plans, the health plans have massive bureaucracies that try to not pay a dime more than can be ripped out of their clutches, states have bureaucracies regulating hospitals and insurance plans, the feds have multiple bureaucracies. Here’s a key point in this debate: Medicare, the largest government healthcare program, spends far less per person on bureaucracy than the private health plans—and the amount Medicare spends per person has been going down since 2005. There are all kinds of ways of providing universal healthcare. Done right, it could actually mean less bureaucracy, not more. Myth #7: Universal healthcare would mean abandoning today’s “free market” healthcare. Um, no. Today’s market is not free, it’s highly regulated. It’s a constricted market in which the ultimate customer, you, have no power. It’s not really a private system or a government system. It’s a private system that is constrained by government under all kinds of legal and licensing requirements which have been haphazardly built up by the healthcare industry itself over the last century, not only to protect the patient, but also to protect its own rights and privileges. And now they are in such a tangle that hospitals have whole huge compliance departments dedicated to making sure that they follow all the regulations The people who run those departments will tell you that it’s ultimately impossible, since the regulations and the definitions from all these different directions contradict one another. No, we don’t have a “free market” in healthcare today. Myth #8: A universal system cannot work, it cannot sustain itself if people who are not working (and therefore not paying taxes) are able to use it. Of course it can. That’s what a universal system is for, to make sure people can get help whether they are in a position right now to pay into it or not. It spreads the cost across generations, across rich and poor parts of the country. This is what Medicare, Medicaid, Federally Qualified Community Clinics, CHIP funds for children’s healthcare, and other such programs are for, to help people who are not working, retired, or otherwise too low-income to be paying into the system. Myth #9: Immigrants inevitably draw more out of a universal healthcare system than they pay into it. This is provably false. There have been multiple studies, looking at the question in different ways. Even recent immigrants are desperate to make a living, build a business, provide for their families. They want to be taxpayers as soon as possible, and most of them succeed. It’s a very American story. And the studies show that not only do they pay into the tax system and Social Security system, they pay more than their share because they actually tend to use Medicaid and Medicare less than other Americans. Myth #10: Research and innovation are what make U.S. healthcare expensive. If we reduce the amount we pay for healthcare, we will get less research and innovation. No, research and innovation are not what make U.S. healthcare expensive. There are no data supporting this notion. The claim of pharmaceutical companies that it costs them all these billions to develop new drugs is a simple assertion that they have not backed up with facts. Moreover, research and innovation does not need to be funded only by higher and higher costs for patient care. There are many other ways, such as direct government grants, private funding for startup companies, pharmaceutical companies and device manufacturers funding their own research. And if you think about it, you’ll see that much research and innovation could actually be used to lower the cost of healthcare rather than raise it, the way CT scans and MRIs have taken the place of a great deal of exploratory surgery, and laparoscopic surgery gets you out of the hospital faster. Research into emerging areas of medicine such a functional medicine can treat chronic diseases at a much earlier and more manageable stage. The right kinds of research and innovation can actually lower costs. So what does cause high prices? A fee-for-service payment system that encourages and even demands
Will this Congress bring us universal healthcare? No, not this Congress, since it’s still a partisan issue (though there is no need for it to be) and we still have a Republican Senate. What can happen, and will happen, is that by considering and debating the possibilities, and possibly actually passing a bill, the Democrats in the House will manage to re-open the discussion, and re-focus the political discussion to, “How can we do this? What would actually provide healthcare to more Americans, maybe all Americans? What would actually lower costs? What would actually widen the definition of what is covered to emerging new modes of medicine that are lower cost and more helpful at the same time? Can we do this?” That’s the good news of the present moment: We can actually have the discussion that has been denied us for most of the last decade: What would work? Looking for your next healthcare speaker? Get in touch with us today to make your healthcare event a success! By Christine Cashen
Whenever I text “On my way,” it somehow becomes, “In my way.” Interesting. Could be the proximity of the O and I on the keypad. My giant thumbs, perhaps? Or, could it be a sign? How many of us are in our own way? Why aren’t we where we want to be? Many of us blame circumstances, spout excuses, or put off what we really want until later (like later ever comes). You may think you will get serious about your goals, “when the kids are grown,” “when you have more money,” or “when you have more time.” But will you??? PUT UP OR… What are you waiting for? Are you in your own way? Guess what?! You are the boss of you! It is time to stop making excuses and do what needs to be done to get where you want to go. If not, you are no longer allowed to complain about it. Period. PARENTAL CONTROL As a little girl, I distinctly remember thinking how much I wanted to grow up so that I could make my own decisions. No more parents telling me what to do, making me do things I didn’t want to do, and bossing me around…YAY! Well, that grownup time has come – and then some. Talk about underestimating that responsibility! Being the boss of your own life is challenging. It is so much easier to do nothing than something. With stress and responsibilities, adulting is hard enough without adding the extra pressure of taking steps towards accomplishing those long-term or bucket list goals. Most times, we are just trying to get through the day, get food on the table, pay the bills, get to the gym, answer those emails. But somehow, I still find time to clickbait my way to useless articles and mindless videos. GETTING BY WITH A LITTLE HELP Yes, the Beatles knew what they were talking about. We all could use a little help from our friends. How nice it would be to have someone parent and push you – someone to help you accomplish your goals? Someone to make sure you get enough sleep, make sure you eat clean, control your screen time (maybe not that last one). But alas… as adults, we are supposed to be doing this for ourselves. SWITCH ON You must become your own motivator and coach. Don’t wait for someone else to do it. That is why accountability partners are so effective. Make that angel on your shoulder louder than the devil on the opposite one. Whenever you “don’t feel like it,” let that fuel you to act. Be your own critical parent and listen to that advice. If you are sick of that extra weight, get up 20 minutes early to exercise. Get it over with! Start with 15 minutes at your bedside just stretching and gauge how you feel afterward. Guaranteed you will feel better, refreshed and recharged. Flip the stretch to a plank or pushups. Yell, “Angels Rock!” afterward. Unless your loved one is still snuggled in bed. Then, say it quietly. HIRE TO GO HIGHER My book editor, Debbie Johnson, figured me out pretty fast. I wanted to get my book done by last October. So, we worked backward and committed to a chapter a week. And what did I do? Nothing. I blew her off. No, not once…time after time. She’d call, email, text. Finally, she sent a note, “Hey…I’m signing off. Get back to me when you’re ready to get this book done.” What?! That was a wake-up call. I called. We discussed. I told her I needed her to “nag” me (her words) for another chapter, week after week. It worked. There is no way my books would have been completed without her. Maybe you are already driven? Or maybe, like me, you need a driver. If you’re serious about making something more of your life, consider hiring a life coach, voice coach, personal trainer, editor. Heck, it doesn’t have to cost anything… find an app, set alarms on your phone, count your carbs, count your steps. Grab a friend with like-minded goals and mastermind together to make them a reality. Search out the tools you need to get the job done! TREAT YOURSELF Just like kids and dogs, give yourself a treat. Reward yourself for good behavior. If you crush your onslaught of emails, only then can you cruise social media. If you yelled, “Angels Rock” in the morning, then, and only then do you get to have dessert. Watch Netflix once you have (insert goal-related task here). By the way, if the Netflix message pops up, “Are you still watching?” pretend it says, “Why the heck are you still watching!? ENOUGH!” In the epic Parks and Recreation show episode, TREAT YOURSELF, this only applies once you have put a giant checkmark by a completed list item. You do have a list, right? Place some limits on yourself and the sky is the limit. UNLOCK THE BLOCKS Promise yourself that you will quit complaining and act. If your relationship is dull, spice it up. Try to make your partner feel special. If your job sucks, find the joy in what you are doing or get out (some of you know what BOOGIE really means). If you are tired, go to bed, and go to sleep. Sounds simple, but it is not. We are in our own way. Many of us are not good parents to ourselves. No more excuses. Rock your life. You are responsible and accountable to YOU. If you knew how much longer you had to live, what would you do? Don’t wait. Create a legacy. Finish that project. Attain that goal. The world is waiting. Looking for your next healthcare speaker? Get in touch with us today to make your healthcare event a success! |
Archives
June 2024
Categories
All
|
RSS Feed