Let's Catch Some Crooks with a safety PIN

Let's use the automated teller machines against the criminals.

For all the crime that includes forcing people to go to an ATM and withdraw money for criminals, a secondary, emergency (safety) PIN would be a wonderful thing the financial system could do to help victims.

If customers had the option to create a safety PIN that would access their account, BUT also alert police to the location and keep the video, we could save people, catch criminals, and enhance the community image of financial institutions.

I read too many news articles about people being forced to go to the ATM with crooks to get money or to give their PIN and bank card to criminals. This would at least give law enforcement a better chance to catch crooks.

When you get an account or bank card, you create a PIN. For example purposes say it is 1234. You also need an option to create an emergency PIN to trigger safety protocols, for this example - 5678. If you ever use the 5678 safety PIN, your account “works” to the outside world, but it triggers actions behind the scenes. The customer has a better chance to survive. Law enforcement has a better odds to capture the criminals. Once the process becomes widespread, it is another deterrent to crime. If you want to go a step further, when the emergency PIN is entered, put a message on the screen that withdrawals are limited at this time due to some technical issue.

One rule for customers, no safety PINs with 911 in them. It's a little too obvious.

Law enforcement should have additional ideas to close the loop on the crooks, but this would be a start. Bankers, let's make safety PINs!

Would a township solve Sandtown's issues for the average citizen?

In most political issues, we try to boil it down to two sides. Much like a debate, we want to be for or against an issue. The reality of life in unincorporated south Fulton county is not that way. There are people who want to be annexed into existing cities, there are people who want to create their own, new city, and there are people who want things to remain as they currently exist.

Whenever one option is brought to the surface, the other two options are naturally cast against it. In the case of annexation, opponents either want their own city or prefer to be left alone. In the case of a new city, opponents prefer an existing city or want to be left alone. In the case of being left alone, both city options state that this cannot happen; at some point you have to choose or one of the city options will force your hand.

If am confident that the most prevalent opinion of the residents if forced to make a choice and stick with it would desire to be left alone. That option doesn't serve either of the city groups well. However, that opportunity did exist in the Georgia Legislature in 2007-08. The Georgia Township Act was legislation that would allow something more than unincorporated lands, but less that a full fledged city. It would have given some level of protection against annexation. It would have had elected offices, but not at the level of a mayor and city council. The key services would still be handled by the county. Town taxation would have been very limited.

To see the old township legislation for yourself, go to http://www.legis.ga.gov/Legislation/en-US/Search.aspx …and under session, select 2007-2008 Regular Session. In Keywords, type township. You should see HB 651, HB 925, and SB 89. Clicking on these bills, you will see a First Reader Summary that will give you a basic idea of what is in the bill. You can see the entire (old) bill in PDF at the bottom of the page.

These days, there are more than enough activists telling the citizens of unincorporated south Fulton, what you should want. The challenges of annexation versus a city have been officially active in this community since 2006, yet we still have no resolution. It is well past the time for the citizens to push back and make their demands for a town, be known. Push your political representatives to accomplish the things that you want…or find new people to do those jobs.

If you want to stay as close to the way you are without external threats, demand it. Let’s take actions to get township laws in Georgia. Otherwise, people will make decisions for you.

Atlanta Annexation Attack - April 2015

Big issues can bring one back from blog retirement. This is one of those issues.
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I give credit to my neighbors who zealously advocate for annexation into the city of Atlanta. While I may not agree with their stance, they have awakened a community that has been too comfortable for too long with inaction.

When all of this was just talk, it was easier to let the activists on either side show their passion and keep walking. Now that something actionable is happening, you get interest and a sense of urgency. One reality is this particular action has a limited action window which is much briefer than allowing a citizen vote, so the fervor increases.

Whichever side you are on, recognize that this issue has been languishing for at least 8 years. After Sandy Springs, south Fulton once led the efforts to address unincorporated areas in Fulton County, now we are the last people to figure it out, Shame on us. If you daydream long enough, people mistake it for a coma.

This process has made me focus on multiple frustrations. As mentioned above, we as citizens contributed to this mess with our uncertainty. At the same time, our politicians also have had years to agree on some plan/course of action--it didn't happen. It's like they are practicing to be federal politicians. Both locally and statewide, politicians have contributed to the gridlock.

My longest standing frustration, comes from a very basic concern. If living in the Atlanta city limits is that important, why not buy or rent in the city? You can live 5 minutes from your current location and have a very similar lifestyle inside or outside of the city limits. I know people who have made the short move to be in or out of the city. Why drag entire communities into a personal decision?

My most important frustration--it is very offensive that the Sandtown Annexation map was drawn to take the schools and the park in between them. This wasn't a requirement to get the people, it was a choice. The vast majority (about 90%) of the kids that go to those schools are not in the annexation zone. Atlanta Public Schools (APS) has excess school capacity; they don't need the space. APS has been closing schools for awhile. Their only growth is in charters. The annexed kids will not go to those schools.. If annexation goes through as currently drawn, Fulton County Schools will need to move heaven & earth on very short notice because of a political ploy. There isn't enough current capacity in south Fulton to absorb the 90% that would not be annexed. In the end it won't help any of the kids that currently attend those schools.

The adults didn't do a decent job of looking out for the kids. THAT disturbs me more than any city/no city/annex/no annex/stay/go BS that all these adults have put on the table. I will fight for those schools, those kids and their families.

Sandtown Annexation Map

The people behind the Sandtown annexation map should be ashamed of what they have done.

Whoever you are, wherever you are, you are bad for kids and bad for communities.

So much for the old fashioned "Will you..."

From the Washington Post Education Section.

Helicopter stunt creates buzz at Patriot High School

I'm thinking this young lady could incorporate the ways she has been asked out into a college application essay. Good for her. The young man has already demonstrated his creativity. I expect to to show when it is his time to apply to college.

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I needed to test dropping a blog post via email today. Without a particular topic of primary importance I went to the most unusual thing I read this morning that made me chcukle & shake my head.

Best Wishes for an unsorted day!

STEM-ulating Action

It's been awhile since I have stopped to blog. However, my recent concern about the need to expose more students to Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics (STEM) options moved me to act. Kids need to be exposed to different things before high school & college. Exposure helps students to gain clarity on things they like and things they don't. It's easy to locate interesting things via the internet. It's tricky to get those things in front of interested students. After trying some traditional routes to share information, I realized someone new needed to put a plan into action.

No one stopped me, so I'll be responsible for the content of a 6 session STEM class for middle schoolers in Atlanta. Thanks to the help of people that understand educational rigor more than I do, we should bring some insight and STEMergy to the class.

I'll even share some of my thoughts here just in case someone else wants to try this in the future.

At a minimum, the students will be exposed to some physical science, robotics, project management, and the ups and downs that come with innovation & creativity. I know I'll learn something (k)new during the journey.

Preparing for the class, I needed to come up with a way to inflate a balloon in approximately one minute. Some ways work better than others. This was the 3rd method attempted.

A bit too quick, but it does get better...just cannot show that yet. The kids need to figure it out.

We've got work to do, but I take inspiration from the letter Q & some quadcopters.

Bye Blackberry

This weekend I let my Blackberry go. After years of wating for better options where Apple (iOS) & Google (Android) had passed them by, I finally stopped waiting.

I loved having the biggest screen on my monochrome Blackberry 6200. It was cool when the RIM team gave me color. I went to the little Pearl & back to a full QWERTY keyboard. However, the dominant team in the early 2000s slowed down as the new guys came to market. As I got older, and I wanted a larger screen. Apple & Google responded with bigger screens. RIM finally put a large, touch screen Blackberry into play with Verizon, but at that time I was on a contract with another...and all the major carriers had non-RIM, large screen options.

CNET does a great job showing Blackberry through the years.

Debate Kids Need Your Help

I have found debate to be one of the most diverse, powerful, learning experiences that students can have.


I volunteer as a middle school debate judge for the Atlanta Urban Debate League (AUDL - atlantadebate.com). When I started, I had zero experience with debate. The AUDL needs more adults to volunteer as judges for their monthly debates. That means you, your alumni group, fraternity, sorority, and friends.


AUDL debates are on these dates
(2011) November 12 (Tri Cities HS), December 3 (McEachern HS)
(2012) January 21 (South Cobb HS) , February 11 (Tri Cities HS), March 3 (Tri Cities HS)


We will have a judge training session at 8:45 a.m. to help along any of the reluctant potential judges acclimate themselves to the activity.


Interested parties should email atlantadebate@gmail.com.


Thanks.




You can also find the AUDL on Facebook.  http://www.facebook.com/atlantadebate

Another Education Idea?

I pay attention to many people who speak about K-12 education. As a parent, I recognize that the topic touches many of us--most as parents, and more as taxpayers.  Because almost all adults have experienced at least some of the K-12 Amercian education adventure, most people have an opinion on education. Without digging in on a particular side, I would say that parents want a good education for their kids. What defines a good education is very subjective, depending on your view. Different people want different things that are usually better fit for some, but not all kids. I'd prefer that the discussions have some common, easy to understand points that we all can look at during the evaluation of these ideas.

Once we work through the schools, school boards, local & state politicians, parents, communities, & local businesses, there isn't much space left for the advocacy of 5, 10, & 15 year olds that don't have jobs or vote. We have to do right for them, not take advantage of them. If you expect retirement money in your 70s, someone has to keep the economy moving in a positive direction. The generations of students that grew up after you will have to fuel the future economy.

I would ask those that push an agenda to help the average person understand basic things in the educational pitches for the ideas you advocate.

1. How does it help the students? Which students? (All, elementary only, disabled, economically disadvantaged, etc.)
2. Where do the consumers of those students weigh in? (employers, colleges, next level of K-12 education)
3. What do you expect of the parents & K-12 schools to get your proposal done?
4. How long to implement?
5. What's the cost? How do we pay for it?

As I see news that highlights lack of preparation for college or the work force, I have to question--are we doing the right things to help our kids succeed? When I see proposals that tell us to do more testing, but the results seem more impactful to the principals & teachers than the kids--I question the focus on testing. When school budgets continue to get cut and we lose certain subject areas, I ask, why these? Were they the least valuable? When it takes 5 years to make a change, what happens to the kids that will graduate in the next 4 years? As schools lose funding due to loss of property taxes, how do we afford anything new? Should there be a different way to fund schools? I see lot's of controversy around charter schools. Is the competition good? Should the competitor (local school board) determine if you can exist? Can local schools take ideas from charters & implement them in ways that help some students?

Answering the 5 questions will help us understand the next education proposal.

unFAIR disADVANTAGES

One way to get an idea of school involvement in higher level thinking is the number of students involved in school fairs. Regardless of the fair/festival type--science, technology, social studies, art, media, etc.--the effort involved in working on a project gets students to think beyond their basic education...and that's a good thing.


While many are not moved by Obama's Sputnik moment, the country doesn't have as strong an interest in STEM (Science Technology Engineering Math). However, the increased use of technology tools has led to a larger separation between the creators and users of technology. The cash register has gotten much more sophisticated. However, I suspect that the average fast food worker had more math competence 40 years ago than one does today.

As a result, the high end of technology creators need to evolve and innovate faster than ever before. That means the low end is falling farther behind.

Let's get the kids into the fairs.

It doesn't matter what level of skill they show at the start. Just get the kids to work on an appropriate idea or topic of interest. Guide them through the steps required to participate. A parent can add a level of discussion as the student works through the process. Help make the adventure of learning enjoyable.

Make sure that the student owns the process. Parent, if you want the display to look good, let the student use premade shapes, letters, pictures, etc. It is their responsibility to create the materials. Sure you can help younger kids print the information, but let it be the student's information. Here is your test--if the judges took the student into a room without you, what could the child explain about the project?

Let's learn from the experience and get better next time. The students will improve critical thinking and project skills by working on school fairs. Kids begin to learn how the school assignments relate to real life.

More complete version in link of Prepare for the Science Fair with instructions on HOW to do a science fair project by Kevin Temmer, talented HS student who may have won a media festival award.

Recently, I helped to judge a science fair. We needed more volunteers to judge these events. There were several students who really showed a flair for science. The key is to get those with a flair for the subject to continue to learn & grow.

Ultimately, I want the kids to figure out what they like to do and to do well in those areas. Part of that discovery is both trying to do things and learning how to take what they know to higher levels of insight.

HOPE that politicians do their job

A recent opinion piece in the AJC suggested that ACT/SAT scores be added to the criteria for HOPE scholarships in GA. Arguments were made to address a need to recognize merit, limit the impact of grade inflation, and for the state to be fiscally responsible with this scholarship program.

In tough economic times, we may have to find ways to stretch our dollars, but adding SAT/ACT requirements to the HOPE program is not the way to do it. Beyond the case that the Fairtest folks would make against using the SAT, I would add that K-12 grade competitiveness is localized. You compete with students in your classes and school for grades. The rigor in your course selection is limited  to your school, not your county or state. So class rank is the more tangible quantitative value for academic performance.


The responsible focus of providing HOPE is to provide within our means to those that are most deserving within the pool. That does not mean to only promote opportunity for the poor or rich, so I'll leave it to others to make this a class warfare fight.

Let's focus HOPE scholarships on the top percentage of a class based on what we can afford as a state. The people that manage the HOPE finances can make an annual estimate that identifies there will be HOPE scholarships for the top X% of students in the next school year. At every high school, the top X% of graduating seniors will get the merit based scholarships.

For example, if there were 100,000 HS seniors, and estimated HOPE scholarship per student costs were $7,000, it would cost $700,000,000 (= 100,000 x $7000) to give them all scholarships. If the HOPE budget for the new class was $105,000,000, then you could provide HOPE to the top 15%  (= 105,000,000/7000,000,000) of the senior class.

No more worries about grade inflation within one school giving it extra HOPE scholars. No more worries about how the student in Dougherty County compares with the student in Rockdale. The number of scholarships is linked to being in the top X% of your class. Students are encouraged to keep working because the cut off level can vary each year due to the financial state of the program. Not necassarily popular, but a reasonable way for all to share the fiscal load.


Now if we can only get beyond the politics...

Your Values & Your Cuts - An Educational View

As school districts, state & local governments figure out how to balance their budgets, many things are getting cut. It could be called hindsight to say save a little in good times and the cuts are less severe in bad times. However, politicians often seem to miss that message.

Going forward, there are tough choices to make about where we cut. Individuals have made these decisions with personal and household budgets. Now the government organizations have to step up. While there will always be people to lobby against cuts to their programs, I alwys think back to one simple question--If not this program, where would you make the cuts?

Individuals within large groups rarely step up to answer this challenge. Their focus is to save their favorite programs. In reality, the save also requires a method to reduce costs in some other area. When forced to choose, that choice says a lot about what you value more.

These decisions are often messy in misaligned industries. My definition of a misaligned industry is one where the customer that gets the service has a very limited or indirect association with the source of revenue/payment. Public schools have issues because funding comes from taxes and other government funds that loosely link to the student. In contrast, private schools have a more direct link of payment from the students' families. State & local governments also get taxes to fund their services, but rarely would an individual or family use all of the services of government. Some will be important to a family while others will go unused.

How do I link cuts to values? Some activities will never be valued by the majority, but the outcomes of those services ultimately lead to a better situation for all. I don't know people that are excited to pay taxes. Nevertheless, without taxes coming in, the government cannot provide their other services. For example, I would always take care of the potholes along the routes I travel. Places where I rarely travel would be at the bottom of the pothole repair list. I think pothole repair has a better priority list than where I drive.

Bringing all this back to real world examples...governments are always looking for businesses to add jobs within their state/local borders. Businesses often have interest in things like transportation, quality of workforce and housing, and tax benefits. When we cut things that negatively impact these business interests are we giving our municipalities a slow acting poison pill?

Here's an example of a state using education to attract business.

Now here's one of the many conflicts that comes up with cuts in education which started a few years ago. 

Public education budgets are being cut around the country. What does it mean relative to those businesses that are considering relocation? Don’t move or move to a place where the areas that were cut are not that important to you/your business.

I am sure that we will revisit this later as people react to cuts…because some folks get active when their valued programs are cut. Do you?

Closing Words on College Cash-ketball 2010

There was pleny of excitement as college basketball pools around the country went bad this spring. There was also talk of all the deserving teams that did not make the field of 64+1. Now there is considerable chatter about expanding the field to 96 teams. With the emergence of the Butler University there were comparisons to the movie Hoosiers and the role of the small school in the big tournament.

This is where I would like to say two things.


1. Good for Butler


and to the schools that didn't make the field of 64+1...


2. You reap what you sow. Deal with it!


Here's why. Butler is a school of less than 5000 students. Their licensing revenue more than doubled to $85k last year. Due to this year's performance that number will grow significantly. Duke spends more on one player's expenses than Butler does on all of theirs. I am not bashing the big guys, but I am giving credit to a small school that seems to have gotten the most bang for their basketball bucks. The catch is that the big schools are less ikely to play small schools that are on the rise. Too much to lose if they don't win and not enough to gain if they do win. The best recent example is Gonzaga University. They have improved their program to a level that recognizes them as a big time small basketball school. The catch is that good teams will meet them in tournaments or possbily at neutral sites, but rarely do they go to Gonzaga (where the 'Zags would potentially make more profit.)


On the 2nd point, teams from big conferences get more TV money, more exposure, and greater NCAA money even when they don't make the tournament. For example, St. John's finishes last in the Big East. Because 8 teams from the Big East made the NCAA tournament, every team in that league gets a cut of that money. This doesn't even count that all 5 teams that didn't make the NCAA tourney, played in the NIT. More moeny to share. When you have the conference advantage to get exposure and money, it helps with recruiting. If you cannot win after taking those advantages along with the visibility that allows you to cut favorable deals when you do play smaller schools, YOU DON'T DESERVE TO GO TO THE NCAAs!


The Most Profitable NCAA Tournament Teams - CNBC


...and if all that didn't convince you that this is really about money, this link is my last try to quantify how much it IS about the $$$. Thanks to Darren Rovell for much of the linkage that puts the money behind the sport into perspective.

He Stood, He Delivered, He Will Be Missed

Almost everyone has a teacher in their formative years that made school special. I was fortunate enough to have several special teachers. Sometimes we are even moved by teachers we never had, but heard about. For me, Jaime Escalante was one of those teachers. I never met him. I never knew him. I did see his movie, Stand and Deliver. It really made me appreciate in a broader sense what it means to be called to share your passion.

Mr. Escalante died on March 30th. He will be missed by many.




It also leads me to ask the average person, have you used your passion to have a significant, positive impact on someone? Mr. Escalante touched the lives of many through teaching.

zomm

Earlier today, I was listening to the radio. The guy mentioned how some things just strike you as special pretty quickly. It doesn't take days for it to sink it, you see it and you get it. It is the stuff of great ideas. Not too fancy, not too complex, just good stuff.

While wandering about the internet today, I got knocked over by one of those great ideas.

I have ZOMM love!

Even though I cannot even get one yet, I saw the slickest useful technology idea. I need one. I want to give one to some folks I know because they often cannot find their mobile phones.

Without working all the bells & whistles, just imagine a bluetooth device for your phone that is part speaker phone and part phone locator. Now I can find the dumb thing when it slips between the sofa cushions and I don't notice.

I even had to tweet about this. I hear that you can see something about it on the Today Show this Thursday (1/28), but this CNN video did enough to confirm my interest...and it includes some other fun stuff from the Consumer Electronics Show.


Now why didn't I (or you) think of this!

Burst and Pace

Is it better to be quick or steady?

There are many things that we can categorize into the burst things and pace things. Sprinters, surgeons, and firefighters are roles that rely on bursts of excellence. Distance runners, family doctors, and police officers are more pace roles.

I don't believe one style is better than the other, but they both come with different expectations. You want your pace folks to be on their game all of the time. Parts of their roles may become automated because technology can do some roles all the time. One example is the role of surveillance cameras in police work. They watch all the time, even when people are not there to observe.

Burst roles require a high level of competency in small periods over the day. The tricky part may be the political perspective of the non burst periods. The firefighter needs to be very good when beating back the blaze. When the firefighter is at the station, we are not getting the bang for the buck.

More Burst & Pace to come. It's a long year, I'll have to pace myself ;-)

Parents--Let your children grow

Hiatus over...the unsorted thinker is back with a lot on his mind!


I came across the embedded video at Edutopia. It is a part of their Digital Generation Project. I encourage you to dive in and learn more about it. I am doing the same. I like the basic message. The next generation will usually understand more about future technologies than the current one. Now it is social media and video games. Once upon a time it was television, radio, telephony, moving vehicles, air travel, or getting information from a printed page instead of word of mouth. Think of how you life would be different without these things.

I understand that there are downsides to the brave, new world. I also see that there are opportunities that older generations may never have imagined. Your Spidey sense will tell you that with great power comes great responisbility. Share that lesson with the next generation and let's see where they grow.

Note the links on the right side of the page. I strongly urge you to browse the content and particularly the share link. It provides ways that you can get involved.

These are the discussion questions that followed on the website. Find a tech savvy youth and have a thought swap meet.

Discussion Questions

1. What is the cultural shift that technology is enabling? How has technology changed your life and the life of your kids?

2. Are adults really afraid of technology? Why, or why not?

3. Why do adults need to be actively involved with the digital-media habits of the kids around them?

4. What does it mean to be a citizen of the world? What are practical ways we can prepare kids for this role?

What could educators do with a Flip Video Camera?

Not really a post as much as an idea from a tweet.
isteconnects Digital Wish is offering 2 for 1 Flip Ultra camcorders for your classroom! Cool deal w/no catch. Info here: http://bit.ly/6xSiA

Giving credit where credit is due...Let's get 10 ideas from across the pond.

Taking to another level, the easy starting point is letting the kids tape themselves in class. However, taping yourself is not as revealing as seeing others in new and interesting ways.

Put the kid reporters to work. I know an elementary school that does a newscast in the mornings. They limit their stories to the studio. Let those kids go find stories in assemblies, trips, after school/community sports, science & technology fairs, and anywhere else they normally go.

How about a video pen pal program? Teacher--send your video camera to a friend teacher that works in another school, town, state, or country. It should have some interesting facts about your class and the things you like to do. That teacher can share the information with his/her class. They can do a similar thing and send it back for your class to see.

Bring the business partners to the school level. Many public schools seem to have challenges attracting good business partners. It should not always be about the money. The school can use vide to show what gaps additional products and services can fill. The video could almost be an add on to the school's strategic plan. On the other side, a business partner could be interviewed by a student. This helps the school community understand what the partner does for the school and why they contribute. It would not hurt to let them do a little pitch for their business as well.

One take away that I would like you to get your hands around...how many of these things were even possible (at a reasonable cost) when you were in school? It's a different world; let the kids prepare to be productive in it!

Finally, here are more ideas that come from Mark Belinsky and Tom Barrett.

Forty Interesting Ways* to use your Pocket Video Camera in the Classroom

View more presentations from Mark Belinsky.

Teacher Communications

I am interested in the happenings at my child's school. This is particularly true of the classroom activities. We get paper updates about once a week and grade level updates about once a month. I want better, more modern communications.

The school has a website, but it really doesn't communicate much current, dynamic information. The likely method of communication is multi colored tree killer piles of paper on Thursdays. Twitter has Follow Fridays and the school has Tree Trunk Thursday. Interestingly, in this era of tightening school budgets, we still have not made better progress with free communications.

Here's my suggestion. Each teacher should have a page on the website and a school approved twitter account. The webpage should be simple enough to let parents know what the teacher thinks is important. It could be a combination of pictures, assignment & activity dates and class highlights. You can omit pictures of the students for security, but the basics of what the teacher would want the students' families to know would go up on the page as soon as the teacher chooses. This eliminates the long lag for any good things that happen the day after the weekly push of printed material. One way for teachers to do this without cost would be to use a blog. In the case of educators, they might try Edublogs. Another option would be to get the students involved and start a wiki. You can expand your page to include multi media, but for now it is sufficient to recognize it as a great way to communicate with the extended school family.

Once the teachers have a method of putting their information into a webpage or blog, the next step is sharing that information with the parents. Twitter is an easy way to do it. When the teacher updates the webpage/blog, they send a tweet. This would alert all the followers to check the page. The followers should be the student families. It could also include peer teachers and interested administrators. Here is an example of a school district twitter feed.

There are several upsides. There is less paper purchased and used. This is another step to save the planet and teach the kids about options that are environmentally friendly. The school website becomes more useful once it includes the active teacher pages. There should be an increase in traffic which may allow them to better monetize the website. This increased traffic could also make it easier to recruit business partner advertising.

The burden on those that want to keep up with student information is small. It can be done via computer (at home, work or a free one in the library) or your mobile phone by receiving text messages. If you want to print the information, you can.

Twitter is now on the menu

Earlier this year, there was a Why I Don't Twitter post.

All of those facts are still valid for me. However, I have discovered that there is an entire business opportunity that aligns well with social media.

Without sending a single tweet, you can find all sorts of information, including coupons, special deals, customer service, and professional tools.

For me, Twitter is not about the question, What are you doing, but it is about the question What do you know that might be useful to me.

As you will see in the near future, it also allows me to blog more often. Twitter helps with one of my basic business rules. You have to meet people where they are. The younger, more technologically adept customer is hanging out in social networks.

Twitter is definitely a part of my evolving Technology Action Plan (TAP)

Healthcare in small chunks, part 3

How are WE paying for healthcare?

Some of the terms below (red plan, green plan) originated earlier in this series of healthcare posts. If you are not familiar, just jump back and check them out.

I could go uber policy wonk and dive into the federeal budget. But let's be real, the average person does not want that level of detail. Here's an extremely short version of health care cost savings from the White House. You can determine how much you believe the numbers and your interest level. Consequently, I wanted to think about funding health care in simpler terms. It's about money from inside the system and outside the system.

Inside money comes from cost savings based on things that we do within the healthcare system. If you used to buy a medicine for $3/pill and you now get it for $2/pill, there is a $1/pill cost savings. You multiply that by the number of these pills used in a year and that is your annual cost savings. The trick is to only count the real cost savings and not the fake ones. A fake one would be a savings of $1 per interoffice call if the price of the call truly stays inside of the hospital. If the cost savings does not show in a reduced cost from the phone company that provides the service, it is a false savings.

There is a lot of money to be saved inside the system. While I prefer that the government stay out of competitive, private industry things, when they do get involved, the Feds MUST get cost savings inside of the healthcare system based on the large quantities they control. This is true for medicines, medical tests, and all sorts of activities that support the basic (previously called red level plan) healthcare. The same is true for all of the current medicare & medicaid level healthcare.

Here is an example of how that inside savings can work for private companies. I need a medical test and for some reason get a 2nd opinion. Let's use the same information when possible instead of running the tests again. If the test are run again, let's have a follow up step to determine the value of the additional testing. If it is a low value test, the reimbursement for that testing is split--some to the testing organization and most to the red level fund. Now wasted tests are helping to pay for basic levels of healthcare. Either the testing becomes more efficient and effective or it helps to fund healthcare for those that cannot afford it. Either way, the system gets better.

One other area that could save money and improve healthcare in the long run is centralized patient information. Instead of relying on the memory of a sick person, let's put all of that healthcare information in a centralized place where medical professionals can access it. We would save money on record keeping. The severe downside is privacy and how the information might get (mis)used. If you want an extreme example, see the movie, Gattaca. You could let people opt out of the system, but they would be responsible for the storage, cost, and accuracy of their own records. No chance to sue the doctor who got the wrong medical information from you.

On the public side, few if any people want to pay more taxes. In reality, the people that have the most resources are probably least in need of healthcare reform. It is politically unpopular to put the burden of healthcare expenses on people with fewer funds. We often turn away from the fact that it is easier to get $1 from the average family than it is to get $1 million dollars from a rich person. There are only so many rich people to go around. How do we balance these concerns for a shared sacrifice? I'd suggest a combination of a consumption tax that impacts everyone and a tax on the high end (green level plan) medical services that are more optional than necessary.

That's my 2 cents on paying for healthcare. Is it enough to make change? Ask your congressperson and senators--soon.