seeprogress asked:

www.americanprogressaction.org The Medicare program has successfully offered health insurance coverage to all Americans over age 65, as well as many people with disabilities, for more than 40 years. While the health reform debate has focused on changes to the health insurance market to offer a choice of private and public health plans, and Medicare exemplifies a universal, public approach to coverage, Medicare nevertheless offers a number of key lessons for health reform. According to a …

DOTSON

Fly in the Ointment asked:


Conservatives on Yahoo point to medicare when The Insurance Reform Bill is brought up and how much of a failure it is. Conservatives would like to get rid of Medicare, yet they offer nothing in the way of anything new to cover the millions of elderly who are in need of health care. What would they do without Medicare, just let the rich elderly get care?

FREY

Charles Jacobs asked:


It’s so easy to start up and doesn’t cost a penny. Thousands are doing it…many of them retirees…and having the time of their lives. How about you?

First, let’s lay to rest the principal myths that are holding you back:

• I don’t have the technical skills or knowledge

• It probably costs more than I can afford

• I’m not a real news junkie

• I don’t have the time to spend adding new items

Hogwash! Anyone with a modicum of intelligence, a bit of curiosity and two or three hours a week can turn out a fine blog and have an enriching experience doing it. And it’s free. With easy-to-follow guides like Google’s www.blogger.com, you can have your blog up and running within an hour. What a great way to keep your mind active by writing after retirement and to develop contacts with others who share your interests.

Write on Your Favorite Subject

Blogs are circulated on almost any subject you can imagine. At the end of this article, you will find a listing of several blog directories that will show you the broad cross-section of topics discussed. It will also help you find and view other blogs that deal with the subject you’ve chosen. That way, you can get a better idea of how others are presenting information. Some blogs are simply personal ramblings and diaries. Others tackle serious issues from politics to hobbies. There are no restrictions. It’s up to you.

Today there are in the area of 30 million active blogs worldwide. In addition to personalized diaries, they represent a key source of news, knowledge and opinion. They are stealing readership from newspapers and print magazines. They have become major selling tools for businesses and excellent sources of information for surfers.

The blogosphere is magical. Despite the massive number of blogs in existence, you can attract large numbers of readers to your own. You have the opportunity of competing with your biggest and wealthiest competitors because with this great, no-cost innovation, the playing field has been leveled.

Obviously, it requires a good deal of time and effort to make yours one of the leaders of the blogosphere. The top bloggers constantly research current events and trends and post daily. Some do it hourly to compete with other news media. But unless yours is a news or political blog, there is no need to post that frequently.

You can reach out to literally millions of viewers on the World Wide Web with a schedule of one posting a week or better yet two or three. But you have to be willing to maintain that routine meticulously.

For example, I post once a week to my blog www.retirement-writing.com/blog and include four posts covering news of the publishing industry plus an instructional column in writing and publishing. If I preferred, I could have reduced the number of articles I add at a single posting, but increase the number of times I post to three or four a week. I tell you this only to demonstrate the flexibility you have as a blogger. But whatever schedule you select, you must follow it exactly.

Setting It Up

As I pointed out earlier, launching a blog can be simple and cost free. Click onto www.blogger.com to find Google’s do-it-yourself guide. With just the few easy steps, you can create your own unique blog. If you’re unsure of your ability to do this or want your blog to have a more professional appearance, you can choose to hire a professional designer to set it up.

Enter “Blog Designers” on your favorite search engine to find professionals to assist you. I have used Premiss Design (Philadelphia, PA) and My Computer Guy (Tampa, FL) for some of my work. They are very cooperative, highly skilled and their fees are modest.

Ten Ideas to Help You Gain the Most from Your Blog

Content Rules No matter what else you do to make your blog appealing, the key is the quality of your content. Keep it relevant or you’ll lose readers. As an expert in your field, you should have no problem finding ideas for articles. As an author you should have no difficulty presenting them in an interesting and easy-to-read manner.

Provide the Information Readers Want The blog is an amazing place to find information because posts are archived. But it is up to you, the writer, to be sure the information you include has real meaning.

Keep it informal The key is to relate personally to your readers, try and keep your copy relaxed and informal as you write. It should reflect you and the way you think and talk. No hard sell even though one of the principal reasons for maintaining your blog may be to sell books (or e-books, coaching, etc). The blog is not the place for heavy promotion. It is more a center for information, exchange of ideas and a link to your web site.

Brand Yourself The blog is a great tool to establish your credibility and demonstrate your expertise on the topic you have chosen to discuss.

Personalize Your Business The purpose of what I suggest in the above paragraphs is to personalize your business, to create an intimacy, to break down the barrier between the reader (potential buyer) and you (salesperson). The result should be a greater degree of confidence on the part of the reader for your integrity and knowledge.

Offer Interactivity Make sure your blog offers your readers the chance to comment on your post. I also encourage readers to send in questions on any aspect of writing, publishing or promoting either through a post or by writing to one of my e-mail addresses charles@retirement-writing.com. We try and answer within 24 hours.

Send Potential Buyers to Your Web Site Mentioning your products in places where they relate to the subject you are writing about is fine. But keep it soft sell, and refer your readers to your web site for the heavy push. You can promote on your blog, but do it with a light touch, not a hammer. As an example, when I moved a large box promoting my new book The Writer Within You from the main section of my blog, decreased the size and boldness appreciably and relegated the promo to a column on the side of the page, sales increased. That may conflict with many of advertising’s basic premises, but the blog is a unique place where readers are looking for opinion and information.

Post Often Regardless of how difficult it may be to add content continuously to your blog, it is essential if you are to keep readers coming back. Major blogs update throughout the day. But this isn’t necessary if you aren’t aiming your blog at news junkies. Three times a week is a very comfortable schedule. I post a new blog weekly.

Don’t Wander People reading your blog are specifically interested in the subject you cover. Don’t wander off to other issues. Stay on topic. However, whenever you can, hook your topic to some current happening to make it even more interesting to your reader. The hook may be the result of an event of major importance, it may be the weather, a holiday, whatever. But it must be relevant.

Become Active Now that you are a member of the blogging community, participate actively. Make a list of blogs that relate to your topic, and periodically view them and post comments. (Find them by perusing the list of blog directories at the end of this article.) As you participate, you’ll find your own blog will gain more attention. Having your name on a comment in a highly successful blog with a wide audience will motivate a portion of that blog’s readers to see what you are all about.

Follow these suggestions and when you become more skilled, you can install an RSS feed and even bookmark some of your posts with sites like Digg or Del.icio.us.

To help you locate blogs that cover your subject, try these blog search engines.

www.blogsearch.google.com,

www.globeofblogs.com,

www.blogcatalog.com



SEELEY

Alan T asked:


I saw this show on FSN Rocky Mountain, they said it was breaking news, and they even interviewed John Elway about it.

HONEYCUTT

Tracy A’Hearn asked:


I feel sad and disappointed becuase I love her so much and seeing her modelling career increase.

The good news is that she is going to be an actress, palying wonder woman in justice league of america. Good luck to her!

CARBONE

tpmtv asked:

more at cnn.com July 28, 2009

CARBONE

Jeffrey Roh asked:


So you got the notice…the Medicare RAC is coming to your practice. No big deal? Think again. The Medicare audit

of all beneficiaries of Medicare payments ( i.e. - those who file claims with Medicare ) is here to stay and if your

practice is out of compliance, it could end up costing you thousands of dollars. It’s not all gloom and doom, however.

Follow a few simple steps to help get your practice prepared.

First, a little about the RAC. In 2005 Congress authorized the Recovery Audit Contractor (RAC) program to do a demonstration

in California, New York, Florida and 3 other states. The purpose - to discover areas of fraud and waste and recover overpayments made by Medicare

due to improper coding and compliance with Medicare guidelines. The result - over $900 million in overpayments recovered and returned

to the Medicare Trust Fund. With the success, Congress authorized the RAC program to be rolled out to all 50 states and Puerto Rico

no later than January 1, 2010.

Don’t expect it to go away either…this program is to be permanently in place.

Anyone who files claims with Medicare, physicians, hospitals, home health agencies and durable medical equipment providers are all affected. What does this

all mean to you? If you fall into one of the above categories, expect a notice soon from the contractor in charge of the audit in your region. Don’t expect

them to tell you what they are looking for, however. That is left up to you. The RACs are compensated on a contingency basis based on the amount of

overpayments that they find. You think they are going to be aggressive? You betcha! The penalties for overpayments? At the very least, overpayments

will have to be returned. And Medicare isn’t going to send you an invoice and wait for the money…they will just take a portion of your current and future

claims payments until the overpayment is paid in full. In extreme cases, Medicare may suspend a practices claims privileges all together.

Protect yourself by following a few easy procedures.

First, consider conducting an internal assessment of submitted claims to make sure they follow Medicare guidelines. Either you, your staff, or a third-party

auditor can do this. However, a qualified third-party auditor may be the best option as this allows for someone outside your practice to give you a second

opinion. If you do choose to do it yourself, look for claims that have been denied in the past and and review the RAC’s website.

Consider having a certified coder review a sample of your files and help you identify any pattern of inconsistent or improper coding. Again, a third-party audit

service is an excellent option. A qualified auditor should have certified coders on staff, preferably with governmentt auditing experience as well.

Comply with Medicare’s request for medical records in a timely manner. Failure to do so may cost you the right to appeal any decisions by the RAC that you disagree with.

Finally, implement corrective actions to ensure compliance with Medicare guidelines prior to the RAC visit to your office. The sooner you do this, the less money you

will cost yourself when the RAC finally gets around to you. If you choose to use a third-party auditor to assist you, they should provide you with a report on areas

for improvement as well as consult with you on other areas of compliance as well.

With the right preparation and implementation of processes, you don’t have to fear the RAC. Besides, some good may come out of your audit. During the same demonstration

in the above mentioned states, $38 million in underpayments to providers was made. You may find areas where you have been underpayed, so it isn’t all bad news.

For detailed information about the RAC you can visit the official Medicare website at www.cms.hhs.gov/RAC.



FLOWERS

DemRapidResponse asked:

October 17, 2008, Roanoke, VA Obama: Senator McCain’s been eager to share some details of his health care plan — but not all of them. It’s like those ads for prescription drugs, you know they start off everybody’s running in the field and everybody’s happy, then there’s the little fine print that says, you know, ’side effects may include…’ Now first of all, we found out that Senator McCain wants to pay for his plan by taxing your health care benefits for the first time in history, just …

KEEFER

PAUL BOWLEY asked:


Retiring just got a lot more interesting! That’s because many retirees are considering retirement employment as an activity rather that just riding off into the sunset.

Some have to consider retirement employment as a financial necessity. Others see it as a way of staying active and alert. Or as a way of saving for that vacation of a lifetime.

Whatever your status or motivation, the news is very good!

According to AARP, the mature work force is one of our greatest national assets. Two important trends are making a big difference in today’s work force.

1. More and more people are expressing a desire to continue working later in life well past the normal retirement age.

2. Boomers are starting to turn 60 this year. Many of them are taking advantage of early retirement or looking to make other shifts in their careers. As a result, some industry sectors are experiencing labor shortages. Retiring workers often take with them irreplaceable institutional knowledge and experience.

Increasingly, companies are viewing retiring or retired employees as a solution to their workforce needs. Many are developing an effective retirement jobs strategy for appealing to older workers.

This coincides with the major reasons for working in retirement (according to research by AARP):

–need the money (61%)

–desire to stay mentally active (54%)

–need the health benefits (52%)

–desire to stay physically active (49%)

–desire to remain productive or useful (47%)

Older workers offer a potentially attractive solution to both short- and long-term staffing challenges. Making use of this growing pool of talent, of the collective experience and knowledge of retiring workers, is sound business–a plus for employers and employees alike.

So, what should you do if you’re at the point where you’re entertaining retirement jobs? Here are 4 important preliminary steps:

1. Take the time to explore all your options. This is the time in your life to think outside the box.

2. Identify a variety of desirable employment opportunities. Don’t think only in terms of your resume.

3. Get introduced to decision-makers to discover firsthand what’s going on. Those non-interview, informal discussions can lead to job offers.

4. Establish and follow a success plan. Look, things have changed a lot since the last time you were in the job market. More than ever you have to understand and master the ins and outs of today’s fast-paced marketplace.

The problem is that, even though you’re retiring with loads of experience, you’re up against some very tough (and younger) competition. So you need a job search system that can walk you through the job process step-by-step. That way you can turn your job search into the career adventure of a lifetime!



BARROWS

spoongentry asked:


I’m a high school student who earned only $1000 at McDonald’s last year. 8% of my earnings always came directly out of my paycheck (social security and medicare taxes). As a Minnesotan, can I get any of this money back?

HALCOMB