Mitch’s Blog

First, the latest T. T. Mitchell Consulting Newsletter, Credibility, and the latest Healthcare Newsletter, Three Things, are now available.

Because I’m in health care, I’ve been reading a lot of things lately that talk about how health care is going to take a tumble in these bad economic days, and how many people are falling into debt because they can’t pay their bills, hospital bills being big among those debts. There are many truths in what I’ve been reading, along with some things that aren’t close to being true. I guess that’s pretty standard, because a lot of what we’re hearing about our financial crisis is the same type of thing.

However, I’m going on record to make one specific point: there isn’t a single person in trouble because of a hospital’s charge master. A charge master is a list of charges that hospitals and physicians charge for. They’re comprised of procedures, pharmaceuticals, and supplies. The reason hospitals and physicians have them is twofold. One reason is because it makes the capturing of charges on patients easier to do because of reason number two, every item that can be captured and billed has to have some kind of codes attached to them in order to get them paid by insurance companies.

Here’s the thing, though. A charge master is only a tool used by medical entities to handle the financial side of their business. A retail business has its list of prices also, but when you go to the store you see either a price tag on an item or above an item. Many other places you go that sel only a few specific things may have their fees listed. In today’s world, there are more hospitals that are going to what’s known as price transparency, which means they’re trying to set up ways for patients to see how much services may cost them. I say “may” because, in health care, the diagnosis you go to see someone for may not be the same diagnosis later on, in which case sometimes the procedures change midstream, and then the prices change. One rarely hears of a patient complaining, especially if the procedure helped them feel better or save their life.

What affects prices, and therefore patient’s responsibilities, isn’t the charge master, but the hospital’s financial position and financial policies. Hospitals and physicians in general work hard to base pricing policies on reimbursements from insurance companies and the actual expenses they have. Those decisions are what ends up on a charge master as it pertains to prices. It’s not the charge master specifically, though, and anyone who states this either doesn’t have any understanding of how health care finance works, or is trying to find a tool to inflame the public in some fashion.

Want to know a truth? It seem that most people don’t care anyway, so those people trying to vilify the charge master are beating a dead horse.

True, the price of health care keeps going up, and there does need to be some reform that, unfortunately, I’m predicting isn’t going to happen for a very long time. But let’s blame the right sources.

After four years I have finally decided it was time to update my theme, and so I present the new theme to the world this evening. Okay, it’s 2:30 in the morning, but I haven’t gone to bed yet so it’s still evening.

The other theme was the original theme of Wordpress, and it’s served its purpose in life, but times have changed and I needed more room and a totally different look to try to bring myself into this new age. My other theme was fairly thin, and with only one sidebar, things just tended to look messy and, well, it made the page longer.

Anyway, I owe big thanks to Paul, who created this theme, and a guy known as Copyblogger, who created the original theme, which only had two columns. I had taken the theme and made a few changes to it, and I expect I’ll be making more changes as I go along.

I hope you like the theme and find it more pleasant to view.

Well, this certainly was an interesting day. Because of server issues, I spent a big part of the day reviewing many blogs, just to see what was out on the blogosphere that might interest readers of my blog.

I came across this post on the Electronic Village blog called This Week In Blackness that caught my attention, mainly because of the video that I’m going to share below. The person in the video is a comedian named Elon James White, who supposedly has a series of videos on the topic of “White Privilege.

Personally, though it’s done in a comedic tone, I feel it’s pretty important stuff because I’ve heard some of the same sort of things he talks about, such as this impression that, because Barack Obama actually has a chance to become president this year, that racism is dead in America. Since I don’t feel like quoting statistics to try to prove that comment isn’t close to being correct, instead I’ll just share this video, which has a little bit of bad language, but very little:

I have found that sometimes the best way to get a point across is to couch it into or around a story. When I first started writing my newsletter, I was coming up with a point and then going right at it, pretty straightforward stuff. It wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t all that much fun to read either.

The one day I started off with a story first, and came back around to the topic of the newsletter. Out of the blue, it seems like I was touching people on some emotional level, and that particular newsletter garnered 20 comments back to me, which was, well, amazing.

It shouldn’t have been anything new to me. I’ve been writing stories of my adventures for a very long time. When email came along I found that it was easier to write it once and send it out in an email rather than having to type up a bunch of envelopes. And the audience grew with the emails, as, it would seem, some of my friends decided they just had to share those stories with other people. One of these days I may put online the story of my first time trying to paint in my present house; it seems to be the most popular thing I’ve ever written.

I bring this up because I’ve just finished reading a wonderful book called Squawk by Travis Bradberry, Ph.D. It was sent to me by a reader of my blog and newsletter who wanted to know my opinion of it. I’d heard the term “seagull management” before, but this is the first book that actually put a full story together to present it to the masses, along with some suggestions on how to solve those types of problems. It’s not a big book, nor is it a difficult book to read; I read it in less than an hour, as it told the story about Charlie, the seagull manager who has some big lessons to learn in how to continue being a star manager after succeeding in the past.

This isn’t a book review, though, but a tale of how, sometimes, it only takes a different way of presenting information to someone to help them understand the concepts you’re trying to teach. Managers can be under a lot of pressure sometimes, and if they have a lot of people they’re responsible for, they’ll usually be so direct and to the point in trying to solve the issue that they leave more confusion than help. Sometimes, taking a little bit more time in coming up with a different way of communicating, something everyone can identify with, might be more beneficial.

Sometimes, though. I wouldn’t want to tell managers that they should sit around writing stories to present to their employees. Instead, I’d say to try to come up with creative ways to educate and teach concepts that might not be easily grasped. It benefits everyone in the long run.

Yesterday I went with a friend of mine to the Syracuse University football game. It was my first game since 1991, where I can’t say I had the best experience of my life. Not that anything bad happened, but I had no idea where the ball was because I couldn’t see it from where I was sitting. I just figured that was how it was always going to be, so I hadn’t been back. However, my friend Josh had a free ticket, and my wife is out of town, so I figured why not.

I have to say I had a good time. We had great seats, so I only lost the ball a few times. Syracuse won for the first time this year, which was shocking even though they beat a Division II team (that happened to be 0-3, and they barely beat them), and most of the fans enjoyed that, including me. One thing I’d forgotten, since it’s been awhile, is how all of us can get caught up in a group mentality, because I went into the game thinking I was just going to take in the surroundings to have something to talk about later on, and pretty quickly I found myself instantly reacting to plays and bad calls and the like. It was fun, though.

However, there was one fan in the crowd (I use that term lightly, as the stadium holds at least 50,000 for football, announced 34,000+, but was probably closer to 15,000 inside) who just couldn’t contain himself. He was loud and easily heard in the cavernous stadium. Wearing his Crocodile Dundee hat, he just couldn’t find anything to be happy about; I’m sure the beer helped fan the flames some. He started on the coach after the other team scored its first touchdown too easily. There was more piling on of the coach, then individual players. He took a couple of shots at the referees also, but that’s to be expected. At a couple of points during the game, he got up and tried to walk down towards the bench to voice his displeasure, and his friends grabbed him and pulled him back. My friend and I wondered if it was part of a planned act, because, miraculously, he never spilled or sloshed any of his beer. However, near the end of the game, when Syracuse needed a field goal to finally put the other team away, he got away from his friends and was standing directly behind the bench, waiting to unleash a tirade I’m sure if the kicker missed; he didn’t, thank goodness.

As I said, we wondered if the guy was out of control, but I’m not so sure. He was drinking a lot of beer, but I learned that he’s a season ticket holder, so obviously he knows there are some limits. He also never uttered a single curse word, and that was surprising to me because, in today’s world of lax language, if he’d really been out of control, nothing could have stopped him.

Or, maybe he was actually a good example of something I often say, that being that most people, when they say they’re losing control of themselves, are actually capable of being in control of bad behavior when it’s expected of them. For instance, if someone utters bad words as if it’s water, you know they’re not doing that where they work, or in front of their parents (most of the time anyway). In essence, they know when it’s not allowable, and even if they’re in the mode where they’d normally let go, they don’t.

I believe this is the difference between someone who does something because it’s convenient at the time, and someone who really does have a problem controlling their behaviors. You can tell smokers are addicted when they have to take a break every hour to get a few puffs, especially if they’re working in a no smoking environment. Addictions are a totally different thing than other control factors. Some people are addicted to anger, and when it manifests itself all the time, then they need help. For everyone else, though, they do it because they can, not because they should.

Control of yourself is a good thing to have. If you can’t control it, work on getting some kind of help. Remember, there’s always someone who cares.

First, my latest T. T. Mitchell Consulting Newsletter, Dealing With Grief, is available.

Back in March 2005, I introduced something that my friend Sue T hooked me onto. It was called the Reserve Index, which can be downloaded at the link above.

Basically, it’s a personal survey you “should” take which will give you an idea of things you might want to achieve towards the goal of reaching your inner peace. The thing is, it’s not as easy as it looks when you first start taking it. When I first took it in 2005 I could only check off 11 items out of 100. When I took it the second time and wrote about it back in 2006, I was up to 27 items, which felt pretty good. Unfortunately, taking it today, two years later, I’m back down to 18, which means I’m not progressing anymore, but at least I still have the list to look at.

Anyway, I hope all of you have the guts and take the opportunity of trying out this test for yourself to see where you are on the scale, and how you might improve yourselves, which is still my goal.

Back in April, I wrote something called Mitch’s List, which was my “thank you” list to all the people who had helped me through the past year in achieving my goals, both professionally and personally.

Something prompted me to revisit that list today, and I’m really glad I did. Seems that, when I wrote it originally, two things occurred that weren’t necessarily great. One, I wrote it in Word, and the way it formats quotation marks aren’t the same way that quotation marks are usually written when creating posts or HTML code. Therefore, things don’t always show up on a page as they should; I wish there was a way around that other than possibly having to re-copy everything into notepad, but I’ll deal with that issue in some fashion.

The second thing is that I left out a lot of links to people and their websites that I wanted to highlight. While I was writing the piece, I set it up so I could go back and paste the links in, but I missed q few, unfortunately.

So, I’m writing this one, hoping people will go back and read it, and think about creating their own list of thanks to all the people who have been crucial in their past year. Yeah, it’s a little self serving, but if one can’t be self serving while thanking others, when is there a good time for it?

I keep wondering why people don’t see things like this and always understand why it’s racist.

In this case, the two perpetrators were Mark Whitlock and Bob DeMoss, two writers from Franklin, TN. They decided to put this together and sell it at the Values Voter Summit in Washington, D.C., where both Newt Gingrich and Mitt Romney were among speakers at the forum.

The organizers of the forum asked these two guys to stop selling the item after it had been a hot seller on day 3, saying they hadn’t realized the boxes displayed “offensive material.” The summit was sponsored by the lobbying arm of the Family Research Council; yup, this was really family material, wasn’t it?

It’s kind of a misnomer for me to say that I’ve been in mixed company when there’s been a caricaturist around, as I’ve always been the only black person in the group, but i’ve had people wonder if I had a sense of humor because I’ve never had a caricature of myself done. I know that if someone thought that they should make my lips bigger, if only in caricature, that it’s all in good fun. No, it’s not all in good fun, and no, I can’t allow that, and it’s reinforced by the picture above.

Someone please tell me why some people are missing the point, that things like both of these are racist and insulting, not funny or fair.

I first met Beverly Mahone on Ryze a couple of years ago, in one of their many networks. We didn’t talk often, and then we hooked up on Twitter and now we talk all the time. She has quite a background in media relations, and has some fairly high powered clients, who are doing well these days.

1. What is BAM Enterprises Media Consulting?

I am a media expert whose purpose is helping others learn how to gain media exposure.

2. What made you decide to go into this business?

It was only logical that I would go in this direction since I spent more than 25 years in radio and television news. I know what the journalists are looking for when it comes to people seeking publicity. I still have quite a few friends in the industry who can help me help my clients.

3. What types of challenges have you had along the way?

The hardest challenge has been getting people to trust me and believe that I can deliver. Sadly, there are a lot of folks passing themselves off as media experts and some of them give a bad name to the REAL professionals. Some people also charge way too much for a “possibility.” My rates aren’t cheap but I do make guarantees and my clients will tell you they get what pay for.

I’d be lying if I said being an African-American hasn’t been a challenge because it has. But once my clients get to know me and my work ethic, they see that I’m no different than someone else they may have considered. You just have to get them to see through their own blindfolds.

4. Have the positives outweighed the negatives, and if so, how?

The positives have, by far, outweighed the negatives. Through word of mouth my business has skyrocketed in the last year! Not only have I gained new clients but I have also formed partnerships and made numerous valuable connections along the way. Having a wonderfully supportive husband also helps because when the money wasn’t coming in, he was still by my side encouraging me and picking up the financial slack.

5. What would you recommend for anyone looking to go into business for themselves?

The one thing I tell people is to find something you have a sincere passion for—something you wouldn’t mind doing for FREE. I know that when you love what you do and do what you love, you’re going to reap huge rewards in the long run. Another thing is, there is no such thing as an overnight sensation–no matter what the media tells you. It takes hard work, determination, perseverance and a few tears to make it work and that won’t happen in a day, a month or maybe not in a year. But don’t give up.

Also, don’t go into your business “blindly.” Have a plan. You only fail if you fail to plan.

A few days ago, my wife was in my office talking to me when all of a sudden she starts swatting at herself, jumps out of the chair, and starts stomping on the floor. I pretty much knew what had happened, but I had to ask anyway: “Was it a spider?”

Of course she said yes, and in a couple of minutes later we were laughing about it. For me, that’s a major step because I hate, absolutely hate bugs, any bugs, with a passion. The day we bought our house, the first call we made was to an exterminator, and it’s one of the most consistent calls we make, at least once a year.

The thing about spiders and bugs in general, though, is that you can never totally get rid of them. You do the extermination and feel pretty confident for a long time, to the point that you forget that you ever called them in the first place. Then suddenly, out of nowhere, you see something: a spider, an ant, a fly, or some other type of buy that you’ve never seen before. After all, you have to go in and out of your house, and unless you live in the clouds bugs will always be an issue; you just have to hope to keep them at a minimum, be vigilant, and be prepared for whatever comes your way.

It’s the same type of thing that happens in the workplace. No matter how well you’re running and how good everything seems to be, something is going to happen that’s going to be negative. Maybe someone gets sick and is going to miss some significant time, and now you have to scramble to get that position covered in some fashion. Maybe your computer system crashes and it corrupts some of the most crucial files your firm has.

The worst thing you could ever do is just assume that everything will always be perfect at all times. You always need to be proactive in looking at the performance of yourself and your department, checking reports, having conversations, and keeping up on the latest news, technology, or processes that will help your department not only keep working properly, but helping it grow stronger.

In essence, leaders and managers need to remember to check the ceiling for spiders every once in awhile; you never know when one may fall on you and possibly ruin your day.