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This podcast is brought to you by Outcomes Rocket, your exclusive healthcare marketing agency. Learn how to accelerate your growth by going to outcomesrocket.com Children's health is at the forefront of healthcare transformation, driven by efforts to personalize experiences, ensure consistent coverage, and combat misinformation. In this episode of the Beat Executive Speaker Series, Leana Wen interviews Mark Del Monte, CEO of the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), about the organization's priorities and policies. Del Monte explains that AAP, with 67,000 members, prioritizes policies based on evidence and feedback from both its board and members, focusing on diverse issues like mental health, equity, and environmental health. He emphasizes the importance of Medicaid and CHIP (Children's Health Insurance Program) as vital coverage for children, noting concerns over 5.5 million children losing coverage post-pandemic due to procedural issues. Del Monte advocates for merging Medicaid and CHIP into a national program to eliminate variability between states, providing consistent healthcare for children. Tune in to discover how the AAP is championing child healthcare and fighting misinformation for a healthier future! Resources: Connect with and follow Mark Del Monte on LinkedIn. Follow AAP on LinkedIn and visit their website. Visit healthychildren.org to get valuable info for your family. Fast Track Your Business Growth: Outcomes Rocket is a full-service marketing agency focused on helping healthcare organizations like yours maximize your impact and accelerate growth. Learn more at outcomesrocket.com
Leslie is joined by Bruce Lesley, President of First Focus on Children, a bipartisan advocacy organization working to make children the priority in federal policy and budget decisions. With policy experts in the many areas that affect our nation's more than 70 million children, First Focus on Children offers thorough, bipartisan, achievable solutions to ensure the well-being of children in the U.S. and around the world. The two discuss how the budget resolution recently passed by House Republicans would force hundreds of billions of dollars in funding cuts to Medicaid and CHIP (Children's Health Insurance Program), which would decimate their ability to deliver health care to the more than 37 million children they currently serve. Medicaid and CHIP currently cover: - 80% of children living in poverty - 42% of all children under 6 - Over 40% of births in the U.S. - Nearly half of the 13 million U.S. children with special health care needs - 99% of children in foster care - More than 40% of children in rural and underserved communities - One-third of all school-age children (5-18 years old) Taking support away from children's health through Medicaid/CHIP cuts is a prescription for disaster that will: - Force states to cut services, eligibility, or provider payments that directly affect children - Create significant financial pressure on children's hospitals and pediatric specialty providers that depend heavily on Medicaid/CHIP - Threaten school-based health services that rely on support from Medicaid/CHIP - Jeopardize mental health and developmental services for children - Hit hardest in rural and underserved areas, exacerbating existing health disparities You can read more about why the cuts would be so disastrous here: https://firstfocus.org/update/prescription-for-disaster-the-impact-of-proposed-medicaid-and-chip-cuts-on-childrens-health/ The website for First Focus on Children is FirstFocus.org and their handle on BlueSky is @FirstFocus.bsky.social. Bruce's handle there is @BruceLesley.bsky.social.
About Mark Del Monte:Mark Del Monte, serves as the CEO and Executive Vice President of the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP). With an extensive background in law and advocacy, Mark has been instrumental in advancing pediatric health and well-being since joining the AAP in 2005. Under his leadership, the AAP supports 67,000 pediatricians and pediatric specialists, ensuring they have the necessary resources and guidance to provide top-notch care for children. His work is driven by a deep commitment to addressing various issues impacting children's health, such as mental health, equity, environmental health, and public policy. Mark is also a vocal advocate for policies supporting comprehensive healthcare coverage for children, particularly through programs like Medicaid and CHIP (Children's Health Insurance Program).Beyond his policy advocacy, Mark is dedicated to combating misinformation, especially around vaccine trust. He focuses on providing pediatricians with accurate information and reliable resources to build trust between healthcare providers and families. Mark believes in the power of the clinician-patient relationship in promoting healthy behaviors and informed decision-making. His combination of legal expertise and passion for child health advocacy makes him a leading voice in shaping the future of pediatric healthcare, striving to ensure that all children have the opportunity to thrive.Things You'll Learn:The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP)'s comprehensive approach to addressing diverse issues affecting children's health, including mental health, equity, and environmental health.The critical roles that Medicaid and CHIP play in providing essential healthcare coverage for children.The AAP's strategies to counteract vaccine mistrust and other misinformation, empowering pediatricians with accurate information.Insights into the advocacy for merging Medicaid and CHIP into a national program to ensure consistent healthcare for all children.The importance of the clinician-patient relationship in promoting healthy behaviors and delivering reliable information.Resources:Connect with and follow Mark Del Monte on LinkedIn.Follow AAP on LinkedIn and visit their websiteVisit healthychildren.org to get valuable info for your family.
—Here are 3 big things you need to know— One — Donald Trump is nominating TV's Doctor Oz to lead the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. CMS oversees Medicare, Medicaid, the Children's Health Insurance Program, and Healthcare-dot-gov, which currently provide coverage to nearly 50-percent of Americans. Two ---- President Biden has approved sending antipersonnel landmines to Ukraine in its war against Russia. Multiple reports said Tuesday that the U.S. expects Ukraine to use the mines in its own territory in a region where Russian troops have made significant advances. And number three — Most U.S. households will spend about the same or less on energy this winter, but some states may face higher costs due to colder weather. According to the Energy Information Administration, states like Michigan, Missouri, Ohio, Illinois, and Kansas might see natural gas bills rise by 10 to 15 dollars per month. Electric heating may see a 2-percent increase, while natural gas prices will vary, with some areas dropping and others, like the Midwest, expected to rise by 11-percent.
AP correspondent Jackie Quinn reports the First of November brings the start of open enrollment for the Affordable Care Act.
Send us a textIn this episode of The Incubator, hosts Ben and Daphna are joined by Dr. Shetal Shah and Stephanie Glier, Director of Federal Advocacy for the American Academy of Pediatrics, to discuss the critical issue of continuous Medicaid coverage for children. The conversation dives deep into how Medicaid and CHIP (Children's Health Insurance Program) support approximately 50% of all U.S. children, with particular emphasis on how these programs benefit children with complex medical needs, such as those in the NICU. Dr. Shah highlights the importance of reducing coverage "churn," where children lose and regain coverage repeatedly, which can severely impact their care. Stephanie explains the changes in federal and state policies, including the new requirement for states to provide a minimum of 12 months of continuous coverage for children under Medicaid and CHIP. The discussion also touches on the significant advocacy efforts required to protect and expand these programs, with practical advice on how healthcare providers can get involved in their states. This episode emphasizes the critical role Medicaid plays in ensuring continuous, uninterrupted care for the most vulnerable children and encourages neonatologists to advocate for better healthcare coverage on both local and national levels. As always, feel free to send us questions, comments, or suggestions to our email: nicupodcast@gmail.com. You can also contact the show through Instagram or Twitter, @nicupodcast. Or contact Ben and Daphna directly via their Twitter profiles: @drnicu and @doctordaphnamd. The papers discussed in today's episode are listed and timestamped on the webpage linked below. Enjoy!
We are past Labor Day and just 62 days from the 2024 election and children are on the ballot. We wanted to bring back this very relevant podcast for a SECOND LOOK. In this episode, our hosts Bruce Lesley and Messellech “Selley” Looby chat with pediatrician and former congressional candidate Dr. Annie Andrews and political strategist Renee Harvey about their new political action committee (PAC) for children, Their Future. Our Vote. Dr. Andrews, a children's hospital doctor, highlighted the invisibility of children in policymaking during her recent run for Congress. When the race didn't end the way they'd hoped, Harvey and Dr. Andrews created the PAC to offer financial support to urgently needed kid-first policies, such as improving the Child Tax Credit, Medicaid, the Children's Health Insurance Program, and child care while also opposing efforts to ban books in our public schools and libraries.Learn more about the political and policy challenges faced by children: Blog: The Invisibility of Children: The Other Form of Neglect, by Bruce LesleyArticle: Pediatrician launches new PAC focused on children, by Daniela AltimariStay up to date Dr. Annie Andrews and Renee Harvey on social media. Be sure to check out their PAC website and follow them on Twitter, @HReneeHarvey, @annieandrewsmd, and @Their__Future. To join the conversation, follow First Focus on Children on Instagram, LinkedIn, and Twitter. Connect with our hosts and tell us what you would like to hear on the podcast at: Email: SpeakingOfKids@firstfocus.orgTwitter: @SpeakingOfKids, @BruceLesley and @First_FocusAnd please rate and review this podcast and share it with friends and family.Want to be a voice for kids? Become an Ambassador for Children here. Connect with First Focus Campaign for Children for easy training on how to be a powerful advocate for children. Please consider donating to First Focus on Children to support our work and this podcast here. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Researchers, insurers, and health care experts continue to try to tackle improving maternal health care — and by extension, the health of children.In this episode, we hear from Dr. Johanna Vidal-Phelan, senior medical director, pediatrics at UPMC Health Plan, where she manages children's services in the Children's Health Insurance Program, among other initiatives. We also hear from Katie Domalakes, a licensed social worker and director of clinical programs at UPMC Health Plan who focuses on population health efforts for maternal, child, and special needs populations.Host Ellen Beckjord also speaks with Congresswoman Robin Kelly, an Illinois Democrat, who is advocating for measures to extend Medicaid coverage to women for up to one year after they give birth.The views and opinions expressed by the participants of this podcast are not necessarily those of UPMC Health Plan, Inc. or its affiliates.This content was originally published on February 2, 2021.
pWotD Episode 2669: Bill Clinton Welcome to Popular Wiki of the Day, spotlighting Wikipedia's most visited pages, giving you a peek into what the world is curious about today.With 342,902 views on Thursday, 22 August 2024 our article of the day is Bill Clinton.William Jefferson Clinton (né Blythe III; born August 19, 1946) is an American lawyer and politician who served as the 42nd president of the United States from 1993 to 2001. A member of the Democratic Party, he previously served as governor of Arkansas from 1979 to 1981 and again from 1983 to 1992. Clinton, whose policies reflected a centrist "Third Way" political philosophy, became known as a New Democrat.Clinton was born and raised in Arkansas. He graduated from Georgetown University in 1968, and later from Yale Law School, where he met his future wife, Hillary Rodham. After graduating from law school, Clinton returned to Arkansas and won election as state attorney general, followed by two non-consecutive tenures as Arkansas governor. As governor, he overhauled the state's education system and served as chairman of the National Governors Association. Clinton was elected president in the 1992 election, defeating the incumbent Republican Party president George H. W. Bush and the independent businessman Ross Perot. He became the first president to be born in the Baby Boomer generation.Clinton presided over the longest period of peacetime economic expansion in American history. He signed into law the North American Free Trade Agreement and the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act, but failed to pass his plan for national health care reform. Starting in the mid-1990s, he began an ideological evolution as he became much more conservative in his domestic policy, advocating for and signing the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Act, the State Children's Health Insurance Program and financial deregulation measures. He appointed Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Stephen Breyer to the U. S. Supreme Court. In foreign policy, Clinton ordered U. S. military intervention in the Bosnian and Kosovo wars, eventually signing the Dayton Peace agreement. He also called for the expansion of NATO in Eastern Europe and many former Warsaw Pact members joined NATO during his presidency. Clinton's foreign policy in the Middle East saw him sign the Iraq Liberation Act which gave aid to groups against Saddam Hussein. He also participated in the Oslo I Accord and Camp David Summit to advance the Israeli–Palestinian peace process, and assisted the Northern Ireland peace process.Clinton won re-election in the 1996 election, defeating Republican nominee Bob Dole and Reform Party nominee Perot. His second term was dominated by the Clinton–Lewinsky scandal, which began in 1995, when he had a sexual relationship with the then 22-year-old White House intern Monica Lewinsky. In January 1998, news of the affair made tabloid headlines. This scandal escalated throughout the year, culminating in December when Clinton was impeached by the House of Representatives, becoming the first U. S. president to be impeached since Andrew Johnson. The two impeachment articles that the House passed were centered around perjury and Clinton using the powers of the presidency to commit obstruction of justice. In 1999, Clinton's impeachment trial began in the Senate, where he was acquitted on both charges. During the last three years of Clinton's presidency, the Congressional Budget Office reported a budget surplus—the first such surplus since 1969.Clinton left office in 2001 with the joint-highest approval rating of any U. S. president. His presidency ranks among the middle to upper tier in historical rankings of U. S. presidents. However, his personal conduct and misconduct allegations have made him the subject of substantial scrutiny. Since leaving office, Clinton has been involved in public speaking and humanitarian work. He created the Clinton Foundation to address international causes such as the prevention of HIV/AIDS and global warming. In 2009, he was named the United Nations special envoy to Haiti. After the 2010 Haiti earthquake, Clinton founded the Clinton Bush Haiti Fund with George W. Bush and Barack Obama. He has remained active in Democratic Party politics, campaigning for his wife's 2008 and 2016 presidential campaigns.This recording reflects the Wikipedia text as of 01:37 UTC on Friday, 23 August 2024.For the full current version of the article, see Bill Clinton on Wikipedia.This podcast uses content from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.Visit our archives at wikioftheday.com and subscribe to stay updated on new episodes.Follow us on Mastodon at @wikioftheday@masto.ai.Also check out Curmudgeon's Corner, a current events podcast.Until next time, I'm neural Joanna.
The Friday Five for April 5, 2024*: Streamlining Enrollment in CHIP & Medicaid Medicaid Unwinding SEP Extended Short-Term Medical Insurance Changes Final CY 2025 Part D Redesign Program 2025 CY MA and Part D Rate Announcement *Note: This episode was recorded prior to the release of the CY 2025 MA and Part D Final Rule. Stay tuned for more information! Which social media app would you like to learn more about? Cast your vote! Have questions about marketing and sales? Ask the Agent Survival Guide Podcast! Email us ASGPodcast@Ritterim.com or call 1-717-562-7211 and leave a voicemail. Streamlining Enrollment in CHIP & Medicaid: Biden-Harris Administration Builds on the Success of the Affordable Care Act by Streamlining Enrollment in Medicaid and CHIP Coverage: https://www.cms.gov/newsroom/press-releases/biden-harris-administration-builds-success-affordable-care-act-streamlining-enrollment-medicaid-and Medicaid Program; Streamlining the Medicaid, Children's Health Insurance Program, and Basic Health Program Application, Eligibility Determination, Enrollment, and Renewal Processes: https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2024/04/02/2024-06566/medicaid-program-streamlining-the-medicaid-childrens-health-insurance-program-and-basic-health Medicaid Unwinding Extended: HHS Takes Additional Actions to Help People Stay Covered During Medicaid and CHIP Renewals: https://www.cms.gov/newsroom/press-releases/hhs-takes-additional-actions-help-people-stay-covered-during-medicaid-and-chip-renewals Medicaid Enrollment and Unwinding Tracker: https://www.kff.org/report-section/medicaid-enrollment-and-unwinding-tracker-overview/ Short-Term Medical Insurance Changes: Biden-Harris Administration Protects Consumers from Low-Quality Coverage by Limiting “Junk” Health Plans: https://www.cms.gov/newsroom/press-releases/biden-harris-administration-protects-consumers-low-quality-coverage-limiting-junk-health-plans Short-Term, Limited-Duration Insurance and Independent, Noncoordinated Excepted Benefits Coverage: https://public-inspection.federalregister.gov/2024-06551.pdf Short-Term, Limited-Duration Insurance and Independent, Noncoordinated Excepted Benefits Coverage (CMS-9904-F) Fact Sheet: https://www.cms.gov/newsroom/fact-sheets/short-term-limited-duration-insurance-and-independent-noncoordinated-excepted-benefits-coverage-cms#_ftn1 STLDI Final Rules to Affect Short-Term Medical & Hospital Indemnity Plans: https://ritterim.com/blog/stldi-final-rules-to-affect-short-term-medical-and-hospital-indemnity-plans/ Final CY 2025 Part D Redesign Program: Final CY 2025 Part D Redesign Program Instructions Fact Sheet: https://www.cms.gov/newsroom/fact-sheets/final-cy-2025-part-d-redesign-program-instructions-fact-sheet 2025 CY MA and Part D Rate Announcement: 2025 Medicare Advantage and Part D Rate Announcement: https://www.cms.gov/newsroom/fact-sheets/2025-medicare-advantage-and-part-d-rate-announcement CMS Finalizes Payment Updates for 2025 Medicare Advantage and Medicare Part D Programs: https://www.cms.gov/newsroom/press-releases/cms-finalizes-payment-updates-2025-medicare-advantage-and-medicare-part-d-programs Fact Sheet: 2024 Medicare Advantage and Part D Rate Announcement: https://www.cms.gov/newsroom/fact-sheets/fact-sheet-2024-medicare-advantage-and-part-d-rate-announcement Medicare Moves Toward Election Season Clash With Insurers: https://www.thinkadvisor.com/2024/04/02/medicare-moves-toward-election-season-clash-with-insurers/ Payers say MA rate cut puts affordable care at risk: https://www.fiercehealthcare.com/ai-and-machine-learning/medicare-advantage-rate-cut-remains-feds-keep-pressure Resources: 5 Alternative Apps to Replace Google Podcast: https://link.chtbl.com/ASGF20240329 BOI Reporting for LLCs & ACA Enrollment Updates: https://link.chtbl.com/ASGF20240105 Halfway Through Medicaid Unwinding: https://link.chtbl.com/ASGF20240216 Health Care Provisions in Biden's 2025 Budget: https://link.chtbl.com/ASGF20240315 References: Federal Register Website: https://www.federalregister.gov/ Medicare Advantage Communication Requirements: https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-42/chapter-IV/subchapter-B/part-422/subpart-V Medicare Marketing Guidelines: https://www.cms.gov/medicare/health-drug-plans/managed-care-marketing/medicare-guidelines Part D Communication Requirements: https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-42/chapter-IV/subchapter-B/part-423/subpart-V Follow Us on Social! Ritter on Facebook, https://www.facebook.com/RitterIM Instagram, https://www.instagram.com/ritter.insurance.marketing/ LinkedIn, https://www.linkedin.com/company/ritter-insurance-marketing TikTok, https://www.tiktok.com/@ritterim Twitter, https://twitter.com/RitterIM and Youtube, https://www.youtube.com/user/RitterInsurance Sarah on LinkedIn, https://www.linkedin.com/in/sjrueppel/ Instagram, https://www.instagram.com/thesarahjrueppel/ and Threads, https://www.threads.net/@thesarahjrueppel Tina on LinkedIn, https://www.linkedin.com/in/tina-lamoreux-6384b7199/
Closing the widening federal budget will require tough choices, possibly including new taxes and cuts to entitlement programs, such as Social Security and the Children's Health Insurance Program. American Enterprise Institute tax expert Alan Viard discusses some options with Dallas Fed economist Pia Orrenius.
Few people have had a closer look at the inner workings of our government than Andy Slavitt. In 2013, Slavitt oversaw the turnaround of healthcare.gov after its disastrous rollout. He then worked as Acting Administrator for the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) under President Barack Obama, which meant he was overseeing the Children's Health Insurance Program and the Health Insurance Marketplace, as well. In January of 2021, he was brought into the Biden administration as a Senior Pandemic Advisor to the Covid-19 pandemic response team — a role he stepped down from in June of 2021. A graduate of the University of Pennsylvania and Harvard Business School, Slavitt is now the founder and Board Chair Emeritus of United States Care, a national nonprofit health advocacy organization, and the founding partner of Town Hall Ventures, a health care firm focused on underrepresented communities. Perhaps most notably, Slavitt was one of the central figures of the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare, which will be 15 years old next year. I wanted to talk to Slavitt about that anniversary, the state of health care in the U.S., his experience during the pandemic, and whether we are prepared for the next one. You can watch our latest YouTube video, The Zionist Case for a Ceasefire, here. On Sunday, we released Episode 1 of our first ever limited podcast series: The Undecideds. We're following five voters — all Tangle readers — who are undecided about who they are going to vote for in the 2024 election. In Episode 1, we introduce you to those voters. You can subscribe to Tangle by clicking here or drop something in our tip jar by clicking here. Last week, we released more tickets to our New York City event on April 17th, and they got gobbled up quickly. Our general admission tickets are now sold out; but we still have some VIP seats left for purchase. Get them here. Tangle is looking for a part-time intern to work as an assistant to our YouTube and podcast producer. This is a part-time, paid position that would be ideal for a college student or recent college graduate looking to get real-world deadline experience in the industry. Applicants should have: Proficiency in Adobe Premiere — After Effects a plus. Minimum of one year of video editing (Adobe Premiere) Minimum of one year of audio editing and mixing (Any DAW) Good organizational and communication skills Understanding of composition and aesthetic choices Self-sufficiency in solving technical problems Proficiency in color grading and vertical video formatting (preferred, not required) To apply, email your resume and a few paragraphs about why you are applying to jon@readtangle.com and isaac@readtangle.com with the subject line "Editor opening" The job listing is posted here. Preference will be given to candidates in the greater Philadelphia area. Our podcast is written by Isaac Saul and edited and engineered by Jon Lall. Music for the podcast was produced by Diet 75. Our newsletter is edited by Managing Editor Ari Weitzman, Will Kaback, Bailey Saul, Sean Brady, and produced in conjunction with Tangle's social media manager Magdalena Bokowa, who also created our logo. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/tanglenews/message
Dr. Larisse Prinsen provides an overview of challenges, changes required, and implications of the NHI, from a legal perspective.
The Honorable Rahm Emanuel, U.S. Ambassador to Japan, visits the U.S. Naval War College (NWC) on board Naval Station Newport, Rhode Island Feb. 22, 2024. During the visit Amb. Emanuel met with NWC President Rear Adm. Pete Garvin before addressing students, staff, and faculty on U.S., Japanese relations. Ambassador Emanuel became the 31st U.S. Ambassador to Japan in December 2021, prior to his current role he served as the 55th Mayor of the City of Chicago.About the Speaker:Rahm Emanuel was confirmed in a bipartisan vote as the 31st United States Ambassador to Japan on December 18, 2021. Previously, Ambassador Emanuel was the 55th Mayor of the City of Chicago, a position he held until May 2019. During that time, he made the critical choices necessary to secure Chicago's future as a global capital.As Mayor, the Ambassador added four years to a student's education. He increased the school day by 75 minutes and added more than 200 hours to the school year, marking the largest single increase in educational time by any city and taking Chicago from having the least educational time of any large school district in the country to being on par with its peers. He implemented universal pre-kindergarten and full-day kindergarten for every Chicago child, and made Chicago the first city in America to provide free community college.The Mayor's comprehensive public safety strategy focused on expanded prevention programs for at-risk youth, smarter policing strategies, and empowering parents and communities to reduce violence. The Ambassador made it a priority to bring global companies to the city, helping Chicago to lead the U.S. in corporate relocations and foreign direct investment for seven consecutive years. His administration invested in infrastructure, public transportation, open space, and cultural attractions. From the $8.5 billion O'Hare International Airport modernization program that is cementing Chicago's status as a global leader in travel, tourism, and trade to the development of the iconic 1.25-mile Chicago Riverwalk, the City's investments are creating thousands of good-paying jobs and making Chicago a better place to live, work, and play.Prior to becoming Mayor, from November 2008 until October 2010, Ambassador Emanuel served as President Barack Obama's Chief of Staff. In addition to being the President's top advisor, the Ambassador helped the Obama administration secure the passage of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 and the landmark Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.Ambassador Emanuel was elected four times as a Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Illinois's 5th Congressional District (2002-2008). As Chairman of the House Democratic Caucus, Emanuel helped pass legislation to raise the minimum wage and authored the Great Lakes Restoration Act.From 1993 to 1998, Ambassador Emanuel was a key member of President Bill Clinton's administration, rising to serve as Senior Advisor to the President for Policy and Politics. During this time, Emanuel served as a legislative liaison to Congress and spearheaded efforts to pass several of President Clinton's signature achievements, most notably the Federal Assault Weapons Ban, the Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act, and the historic Balanced Budget Act, which created the Children's Health Insurance Program that expanded health care coverage to 10 million children. The Ambassador also worked closely with President Joseph R. Biden Jr., then a U.S. Senator, to shepherd the Violence Against Women Act of 1994 through Congress.As a former Senior Counselor at Centerview Partners and former Managing Director at Wasserstein Perella & Co., Emanuel brings a depth of financial experience to the post.Ambassador Emanuel graduated from Sarah Lawrence College in 1981 and received a Master's Degree in Speech and Communication from Northwestern University in 1985. He is...
Prof. Nicholas Crisp discusses South Africa's National Health Insurance, its potential, the reforms, changes, challenges, and the roles of the public and private sectors.
Prof. Roseanne Harris, Health Policy Actuary at Discovery Health, discusses South Africa's National Health Insurance, its potential, the reforms and changes, and the roles of the public and private sectors.
IQVIA South Africa General Manager Sandri Yssel presents an overview of the South Africa National Health Insurance Program and the podcast series.
In this episode, our hosts Bruce Lesley and Messellech “Selley” Looby chat with pediatrician and former congressional candidate Dr. Annie Andrews and political strategist Renee Harvey about their new political action committee (PAC) for children, Their Future. Our Vote. Dr. Andrews, a children's hospital doctor, highlighted the invisibility of children in policymaking during her recent run for Congress. When the race didn't end the way they'd hoped, Harvey and Dr. Andrews created the PAC to offer financial support to urgently needed kid-first policies, such as improving the Child Tax Credit, Medicaid, the Children's Health Insurance Program, and child care while also opposing efforts to ban books in our public schools and libraries.Learn more about the political and policy challenges faced by children: Blog: The Invisibility of Children: The Other Form of Neglect, by Bruce LesleyArticle: Pediatrician launches new PAC focused on children, by Daniela AltimariStay up to date Dr. Annie Andrews and Renee Harvey on social media. Be sure to check out their PAC website and follow them on Twitter, @HReneeHarvey, @annieandrewsmd, and @Their__Future. To join the conversation, follow First Focus on Children on Instagram, LinkedIn, and Twitter. Connect with our hosts and tell us what you would like to hear on the podcast at: Email: SpeakingOfKids@firstfocus.orgTwitter: @SpeakingOfKids, @BruceLesley and @First_FocusAnd please rate and review this podcast and share it with friends and family.Want to be a voice for kids? Become an Ambassador for Children here. Connect with First Focus Campaign for Children for easy training on how to be a powerful advocate for children. Please consider donating to First Focus on Children to support our work and this podcast here. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
In this episode Rachel Moon, MD, FAAP, associate editor of digital media for the journal Pediatrics, shares a research roundup from the November issue. Hosts David Hill, MD, FAAP, and Joanna Parga-Belinkie, MD, FAAP, also talk to Jenni Kusma, MD, MS, FAAP, and Jean L. Raphael, MD, MPH, FAAP, about a new policy statement recommending foundational reforms to Medicaid and the Children's Health Insurance Program or CHIP. For resources go to aap.org/podcast.
Welcome to the Friday News Flyover for November 3, 2023. I'm Sean Diller. This week: Medicaid chaos in red states around the country | Cannabis legalization on the ballot in Ohio | Pennsylvania Democrats have returned triple the mail ballots compared with their Republican neighbors | Colorado voters consider two statewide ballot initiatives, and | It's Britneyhttps://missouriindependent.com/2023/11/02/medicaid-unwinding-breeds-chaos-in-states-as-millions-lose-coverage/Medicaid ‘unwinding' breeds chaos in states as millions lose coverageBY: PHIL GALEWITZ, KATHERYN HOUGHTON, BRETT KELMAN AND SAMANTHA LISS - NOVEMBER 2, 2023 11:34 AM More than two dozen people lined up outside a state public assistance office in Montana before it opened to ensure they didn't get cut off from Medicaid.Callers in Missouri and Florida reported waiting on hold for more than two hours on hotlines to renew their Medicaid coverage.The parents of a disabled man in Tennessee who had been on Medicaid for three decades fought with the state this summer to keep him enrolled as he lay dying from pneumonia in a hospital.Since the expiration of COVID-era protections earlier this year, states have reviewed the eligibility of more than 28 million people and terminated coverage for over 10 million of them. Millions more are expected to lose Medicaid in the coming months.The Medicaid disenrollment rates of people reviewed so far vary dramatically by state, largely along a blue-red political divide, from a low of 10% in Illinois to a high of 65% in Texas.“I feel like Illinois is doing everything in their power to ensure that as few people lose coverage as possible,” said Paula Campbell of the Illinois Primary Health Care Association, which represents dozens of community health centers.Camille Richoux, health policy director for the nonprofit Arkansas Advocates for Children and Families said, “It's not just bad, but worse than people can imagine. This has not been about determining who is eligible using all possible means, but how we can kick people off by all possible means.”The unprecedented enrollment drop comes after federal protections ended this spring that had prohibited states from removing people from Medicaid during the three pandemic years. Since March 2020, enrollment in Medicaid and the related Children's Health Insurance Program had surged by more than 22 million to reach 94 million people in the U.S.The process of reviewing recipients' eligibility has been anything but smooth for many Medicaid enrollees, and some suspect particular states have used the confusing system to discourage enrollment.But gaps in coverage can jeopardize people's access to health services - or their financial security - if they get medical bills for care they cannot postpone.Pam Shaw, a pediatrician in Kansas City, Kansas, who chairs the American Academy of Pediatrics' state government affairs committee said, “Any type of care that's put off — whether it's asthma, whether it's autism, whether it's something as simple as an earache — can just get worse if you wait,”Doctors and representatives of community health centers around the country said they have seen an uptick in cancellations and no-shows among patients without coverage — including children. Nationwide, states have already disenrolled at least 1.8 million children in the 20 states that provide the data by age. Children typically qualify more easily than adults, so child advocates believe many kids are being wrongly terminated based on their parents' being deemed no longer eligible. In Texas, 68% of those disenrolled from Medicaid were children, compared with 16% in Massachusetts, according to KFF. In September, President Joe Biden's administration said most states were conducting eligibility checks incorrectly and inappropriately disenrolling eligible children or household members. The administration ordered states to reinstate coverage for some 500,000 people.Idaho, one of a few states that completed the unwind in six months, said it disenrolled 121,000 people of the 153,000 recipients it reviewed as of September because it suspected they were no longer eligible. Of those kicked off, about 13,600 signed up for private coverage on the state's ACA marketplace, according to Pat Kelly, executive director of Your Health Idaho, the state's exchange. What happened to the rest, state officials say they don't know.Nationwide, about 71% of Medicaid enrollees terminated during the unwinding have been cut because of procedural issues - meaning they could actually still qualify for Medicaid, but lost it anyway. ‘People are not getting through'In many states, enrollees have faced long waits to get help with renewals. The worst phone waits were in Missouri, according to a KFF Health News review of letters the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services sent to states in August. In the letter to Missouri's Medicaid program, CMS said it was concerned that the average wait time of 48 minutes and the 44% rate of Missourians abandoning those calls in May was “impeding equitable access” to assistance and patients' ability to maintain coverage.Some people are waiting on hold more than three hours, said Sunni Johnson, an enrollment worker at Affinia Healthcare, which runs community health centers in the St. Louis area. That's a significant hurdle for people with inflexible jobs and other barriers.In Florida, which has removed over 730,000 people from the program since April, enrollees earlier this year were waiting almost 2½ hours on a Spanish-language call center, according to a report from UnidosUS, a civil rights advocacy group. The Spanish versions of the Medicaid application, renewal website, and other communications are also confusing, said Jared Nordlund, the Florida director for UnidosUS.Some Medicaid recipients are seeking help through the courts. In a 2020 class-action lawsuit against Tennessee that seeks to pause the Medicaid eligibility review, parents of recipients describe spending hours on the phone or online with the state Medicaid program, trying to ensure their children's insurance coverage is not lost.One of those parents, Donna Guyton, said in a court filing that Tennessee's Medicaid program, called TennCare, sent a June letter revoking the coverage of her 37-year-old son, Patrick, who had been eligible for Medicaid because of disabilities since he was 6. As Guyton made calls and filed appeals to protect her son's insurance, he was hospitalized with pneumonia, then spent weeks there before dying in late July.“While Patrick was fighting for his life, TennCare was threatening to take away his health insurance coverage and the services he relied on,” she said in a court filing. “Though we should have been able to focus on Patrick's care, our family was required to navigate a system that kept denying his eligibility and putting his health coverage at risk.”TennCare said in a court filing Patrick Guyton's Medicaid coverage was never actually revoked — the termination letter was sent to his family because of an “error.”Phil Galewitz in Washington, D.C., wrote this article. Daniel Chang in Hollywood, Florida; Katheryn Houghton in Missoula, Montana; Brett Kelman in Nashville, Tennessee; Samantha Liss and Bram Sable-Smith in St. Louis; and Bernard J. Wolfson in Los Angeles contributed to this report.KFF Health News is a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues and is one of the core operating programs at KFF—an independent source of health policy research, polling, and journalism. Learn more about KFF.https://ohiocapitaljournal.com/2023/11/01/marijuana-legalization-would-add-260m-to-ohio-economy-study-predicts/Smoke ‘em if you got ‘em. Or when you get ‘em anyway.Issue 2, an initiative that would legalize recreational marijuana for people over 21 in Ohio, is on the ballot in next Tuesday's election. An economic analysis released last week found that the benefits of legalizing cannabis in Ohio would outweigh the costs by a quarter-billion dollars a year.A study by Columbus-based Scioto Analysis attempts to identify the pluses and minuses that would come with legalization.To do the analysis, the group used studies from states such as Washington and Colorado, where recreational weed has long been the law. To examine how the pros and cons identified in those states might play out in Ohio, the researchers looked at economic and census data, as well as crime statistics.with its 10% excise tax on top of Ohio's normal sales tax, passage of Issue 2 would produce $190 million a year, according to the report. Then there are the jobs the new industry would create.The report predicts that Ohio will add roughly 3,300 new jobs in the first year after legalization. Assuming these jobs are full time and pay matches the average wage across the state of Ohio, this will amount to about $190 million in wage benefits for workers across the state. And if weed is no longer illegal for adults over 21, it stands to reason that there will be fewer arrests.The report said using data from the FBI's Uniform Crime Report on the number of cannabis-related arrests in Ohio, they estimate there would be about 4,400 fewer arrests per year if recreational cannabis were legalized. Adding up the cost of those arrests, and assuming that 6% of those people would have been convicted of felonies, this amounts to over $38 million in savings for Ohio.”Overall, study estimated Ohioans would receive $260 million in annual benefits if Issue 2 passes this coming Tuesday. https://www.penncapital-star.com/blog/mail-in-ballot-returns-top-half-a-million-2023-election-mailbag/Dems far outpacing Republicans in mail and absentee ballots returnedMail-in ballot returns top half a million | 2023 Election MailbagBY: CASSIE MILLER - NOVEMBER 1, 2023 2:00 PM Here are the numbers: As of Nov. 1, Pennsylvania voters requested a total of 1,026,227 absentee and mail-in ballots.Of that number, 90% requested a mail-in ballot and 10% requested an absentee ballot ahead of the municipal election.Registered Democrats requested 723,746 mail-in and absentee ballots compared to 215,286 Republicans and 87,195 requests from “other” registered voters. So about 3 of every 4Of the 570,000 ballots returned so far statewide, 417,829 - or about 3 of every 4 - were ballots from registered Democrats and 114,149 were from those registered as Republicans. https://coloradonewsline.com/2023/10/01/proposition-hh-proposition-ii/Colorado voters will decide on two statewide measures this election, both of which were referred to the ballot by the state Legislature.First, Proposition HHIf approved, Proposition HH would lower property tax rates over the next 10 years and allow the state to keep more money than it would otherwise be obligated to return to taxpayers. If Proposition HH passes, the residential assessment rate would be reduced to 6.7% from 6.765% until 2032. Proposition HH would also raise the amount of tax revenue the state can keep — set by the Taxpayer's Bill of Rights — by 1%. The new revenue allowed would be used to backfill property tax revenue that local governments would miss out on, for things like public education. $20MM would also be set aside for a rental assistance program.The proposition is backed by the Democratic lawmakers who voted to put it on the ballot and by Demoratic Gov. Jared Polis, as well as by other liberal groups, unions, AARP and the League of Women Voters. They say the proposal is a responsible solution to rising property taxes while still keeping schools funded. https://variety.com/2023/music/news/britney-spears-memoir-the-woman-in-me-sales-publisher-1235768414/It's BritneyBritney Spears‘ long-awaited memoir “The Woman in Me” — which details her fight for freedom and tumultuous relationships with the men in her life — has sold 1.1 million copies in its first week across print, pre-sales, e-books and audiobooks in the United States.“The Woman in Me” was released on Oct. 24 and has officially been out for just over a week. The memoir is 275 pages long and the audiobook is read by actress Michelle Williams. The book featured a wild assortment of revelations that touched on Spears' career, family, conservatorship and high profile relationships. Among them, Spears revealed that she and her ex-beau Justin Timberlake had gotten an abortion and she also claims Timberlake cheated on her with unnamed celebrities. Spears landed the publishing deal for a tell-all last February, just a few months after her conservatorship was terminated. Simon & Schuster acquired the rights to Spears' book last year after a bidding war that involved multiple publishers, though the financial terms of the transaction have not been revealed. That's it for me, from Denver I'm Sean Diller. Stories featured in today's show were originally reported in the Missouri Independent, Ohio Capital Journal, Pennsylvania Capital Star, Colorado Newsline, and Variety. Thanks for listening, see you next time.
Welcome to the Friday News Flyover for November 3, 2023. I'm Sean Diller. This week: Medicaid chaos in red states around the country | Cannabis legalization on the ballot in Ohio | Pennsylvania Democrats have returned triple the mail ballots compared with their Republican neighbors | Colorado voters consider two statewide ballot initiatives, and | It's Britneyhttps://missouriindependent.com/2023/11/02/medicaid-unwinding-breeds-chaos-in-states-as-millions-lose-coverage/Medicaid ‘unwinding' breeds chaos in states as millions lose coverageBY: PHIL GALEWITZ, KATHERYN HOUGHTON, BRETT KELMAN AND SAMANTHA LISS - NOVEMBER 2, 2023 11:34 AM More than two dozen people lined up outside a state public assistance office in Montana before it opened to ensure they didn't get cut off from Medicaid.Callers in Missouri and Florida reported waiting on hold for more than two hours on hotlines to renew their Medicaid coverage.The parents of a disabled man in Tennessee who had been on Medicaid for three decades fought with the state this summer to keep him enrolled as he lay dying from pneumonia in a hospital.Since the expiration of COVID-era protections earlier this year, states have reviewed the eligibility of more than 28 million people and terminated coverage for over 10 million of them. Millions more are expected to lose Medicaid in the coming months.The Medicaid disenrollment rates of people reviewed so far vary dramatically by state, largely along a blue-red political divide, from a low of 10% in Illinois to a high of 65% in Texas.“I feel like Illinois is doing everything in their power to ensure that as few people lose coverage as possible,” said Paula Campbell of the Illinois Primary Health Care Association, which represents dozens of community health centers.Camille Richoux, health policy director for the nonprofit Arkansas Advocates for Children and Families said, “It's not just bad, but worse than people can imagine. This has not been about determining who is eligible using all possible means, but how we can kick people off by all possible means.”The unprecedented enrollment drop comes after federal protections ended this spring that had prohibited states from removing people from Medicaid during the three pandemic years. Since March 2020, enrollment in Medicaid and the related Children's Health Insurance Program had surged by more than 22 million to reach 94 million people in the U.S.The process of reviewing recipients' eligibility has been anything but smooth for many Medicaid enrollees, and some suspect particular states have used the confusing system to discourage enrollment.But gaps in coverage can jeopardize people's access to health services - or their financial security - if they get medical bills for care they cannot postpone.Pam Shaw, a pediatrician in Kansas City, Kansas, who chairs the American Academy of Pediatrics' state government affairs committee said, “Any type of care that's put off — whether it's asthma, whether it's autism, whether it's something as simple as an earache — can just get worse if you wait,”Doctors and representatives of community health centers around the country said they have seen an uptick in cancellations and no-shows among patients without coverage — including children. Nationwide, states have already disenrolled at least 1.8 million children in the 20 states that provide the data by age. Children typically qualify more easily than adults, so child advocates believe many kids are being wrongly terminated based on their parents' being deemed no longer eligible. In Texas, 68% of those disenrolled from Medicaid were children, compared with 16% in Massachusetts, according to KFF. In September, President Joe Biden's administration said most states were conducting eligibility checks incorrectly and inappropriately disenrolling eligible children or household members. The administration ordered states to reinstate coverage for some 500,000 people.Idaho, one of a few states that completed the unwind in six months, said it disenrolled 121,000 people of the 153,000 recipients it reviewed as of September because it suspected they were no longer eligible. Of those kicked off, about 13,600 signed up for private coverage on the state's ACA marketplace, according to Pat Kelly, executive director of Your Health Idaho, the state's exchange. What happened to the rest, state officials say they don't know.Nationwide, about 71% of Medicaid enrollees terminated during the unwinding have been cut because of procedural issues - meaning they could actually still qualify for Medicaid, but lost it anyway. ‘People are not getting through'In many states, enrollees have faced long waits to get help with renewals. The worst phone waits were in Missouri, according to a KFF Health News review of letters the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services sent to states in August. In the letter to Missouri's Medicaid program, CMS said it was concerned that the average wait time of 48 minutes and the 44% rate of Missourians abandoning those calls in May was “impeding equitable access” to assistance and patients' ability to maintain coverage.Some people are waiting on hold more than three hours, said Sunni Johnson, an enrollment worker at Affinia Healthcare, which runs community health centers in the St. Louis area. That's a significant hurdle for people with inflexible jobs and other barriers.In Florida, which has removed over 730,000 people from the program since April, enrollees earlier this year were waiting almost 2½ hours on a Spanish-language call center, according to a report from UnidosUS, a civil rights advocacy group. The Spanish versions of the Medicaid application, renewal website, and other communications are also confusing, said Jared Nordlund, the Florida director for UnidosUS.Some Medicaid recipients are seeking help through the courts. In a 2020 class-action lawsuit against Tennessee that seeks to pause the Medicaid eligibility review, parents of recipients describe spending hours on the phone or online with the state Medicaid program, trying to ensure their children's insurance coverage is not lost.One of those parents, Donna Guyton, said in a court filing that Tennessee's Medicaid program, called TennCare, sent a June letter revoking the coverage of her 37-year-old son, Patrick, who had been eligible for Medicaid because of disabilities since he was 6. As Guyton made calls and filed appeals to protect her son's insurance, he was hospitalized with pneumonia, then spent weeks there before dying in late July.“While Patrick was fighting for his life, TennCare was threatening to take away his health insurance coverage and the services he relied on,” she said in a court filing. “Though we should have been able to focus on Patrick's care, our family was required to navigate a system that kept denying his eligibility and putting his health coverage at risk.”TennCare said in a court filing Patrick Guyton's Medicaid coverage was never actually revoked — the termination letter was sent to his family because of an “error.”Phil Galewitz in Washington, D.C., wrote this article. Daniel Chang in Hollywood, Florida; Katheryn Houghton in Missoula, Montana; Brett Kelman in Nashville, Tennessee; Samantha Liss and Bram Sable-Smith in St. Louis; and Bernard J. Wolfson in Los Angeles contributed to this report.KFF Health News is a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues and is one of the core operating programs at KFF—an independent source of health policy research, polling, and journalism. Learn more about KFF.https://ohiocapitaljournal.com/2023/11/01/marijuana-legalization-would-add-260m-to-ohio-economy-study-predicts/Smoke ‘em if you got ‘em. Or when you get ‘em anyway.Issue 2, an initiative that would legalize recreational marijuana for people over 21 in Ohio, is on the ballot in next Tuesday's election. An economic analysis released last week found that the benefits of legalizing cannabis in Ohio would outweigh the costs by a quarter-billion dollars a year.A study by Columbus-based Scioto Analysis attempts to identify the pluses and minuses that would come with legalization.To do the analysis, the group used studies from states such as Washington and Colorado, where recreational weed has long been the law. To examine how the pros and cons identified in those states might play out in Ohio, the researchers looked at economic and census data, as well as crime statistics.with its 10% excise tax on top of Ohio's normal sales tax, passage of Issue 2 would produce $190 million a year, according to the report. Then there are the jobs the new industry would create.The report predicts that Ohio will add roughly 3,300 new jobs in the first year after legalization. Assuming these jobs are full time and pay matches the average wage across the state of Ohio, this will amount to about $190 million in wage benefits for workers across the state. And if weed is no longer illegal for adults over 21, it stands to reason that there will be fewer arrests.The report said using data from the FBI's Uniform Crime Report on the number of cannabis-related arrests in Ohio, they estimate there would be about 4,400 fewer arrests per year if recreational cannabis were legalized. Adding up the cost of those arrests, and assuming that 6% of those people would have been convicted of felonies, this amounts to over $38 million in savings for Ohio.”Overall, study estimated Ohioans would receive $260 million in annual benefits if Issue 2 passes this coming Tuesday. https://www.penncapital-star.com/blog/mail-in-ballot-returns-top-half-a-million-2023-election-mailbag/Dems far outpacing Republicans in mail and absentee ballots returnedMail-in ballot returns top half a million | 2023 Election MailbagBY: CASSIE MILLER - NOVEMBER 1, 2023 2:00 PM Here are the numbers: As of Nov. 1, Pennsylvania voters requested a total of 1,026,227 absentee and mail-in ballots.Of that number, 90% requested a mail-in ballot and 10% requested an absentee ballot ahead of the municipal election.Registered Democrats requested 723,746 mail-in and absentee ballots compared to 215,286 Republicans and 87,195 requests from “other” registered voters. So about 3 of every 4Of the 570,000 ballots returned so far statewide, 417,829 - or about 3 of every 4 - were ballots from registered Democrats and 114,149 were from those registered as Republicans. https://coloradonewsline.com/2023/10/01/proposition-hh-proposition-ii/Colorado voters will decide on two statewide measures this election, both of which were referred to the ballot by the state Legislature.First, Proposition HHIf approved, Proposition HH would lower property tax rates over the next 10 years and allow the state to keep more money than it would otherwise be obligated to return to taxpayers. If Proposition HH passes, the residential assessment rate would be reduced to 6.7% from 6.765% until 2032. Proposition HH would also raise the amount of tax revenue the state can keep — set by the Taxpayer's Bill of Rights — by 1%. The new revenue allowed would be used to backfill property tax revenue that local governments would miss out on, for things like public education. $20MM would also be set aside for a rental assistance program.The proposition is backed by the Democratic lawmakers who voted to put it on the ballot and by Demoratic Gov. Jared Polis, as well as by other liberal groups, unions, AARP and the League of Women Voters. They say the proposal is a responsible solution to rising property taxes while still keeping schools funded. https://variety.com/2023/music/news/britney-spears-memoir-the-woman-in-me-sales-publisher-1235768414/It's BritneyBritney Spears‘ long-awaited memoir “The Woman in Me” — which details her fight for freedom and tumultuous relationships with the men in her life — has sold 1.1 million copies in its first week across print, pre-sales, e-books and audiobooks in the United States.“The Woman in Me” was released on Oct. 24 and has officially been out for just over a week. The memoir is 275 pages long and the audiobook is read by actress Michelle Williams. The book featured a wild assortment of revelations that touched on Spears' career, family, conservatorship and high profile relationships. Among them, Spears revealed that she and her ex-beau Justin Timberlake had gotten an abortion and she also claims Timberlake cheated on her with unnamed celebrities. Spears landed the publishing deal for a tell-all last February, just a few months after her conservatorship was terminated. Simon & Schuster acquired the rights to Spears' book last year after a bidding war that involved multiple publishers, though the financial terms of the transaction have not been revealed. That's it for me, from Denver I'm Sean Diller. Stories featured in today's show were originally reported in the Missouri Independent, Ohio Capital Journal, Pennsylvania Capital Star, Colorado Newsline, and Variety. Thanks for listening, see you next time.
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette Digital News Desk, and I'm here with your update for September 22, 2023.Yet again we will have a day with a chance for rain all day, which may or may not actually materialize. Other than that, according to the National Weather Service it will be mostly cloudy in the Cedar Rapids area, with a high near 77 degrees. The chance for rain should increase as we head into Saturday. Iowa first gentleman Kevin Reynolds, the husband of Gov. Kim Reynolds, has been diagnosed with lung cancer, the governor announced Thursday.She said in a statement they are optimistic about the treatment he is undergoing. She did not announce details of what led to the diagnosis."Our doctor has assured us that significant advancements in lung cancer treatment have been very effective and we have every reason to be optimistic," Reynolds said. "We are confident in our team as we begin treatment, and we will beat this together."Kevin and Kim Reynolds married in 1982. They have three daughters and 11 grandchildren. He became Iowa's first-ever first gentleman in 2017 when Kim Reynolds became governor.A $220 million general obligation bond issue that would fund construction of a new middle school and improvements to high schools in the Cedar Rapids Community School District is heading to district voters Nov. 7.The Cedar Rapids school board unanimously approved a resolution Thursday ordering an election after the district received 6,909 valid signatures. The district needed about 6,300 signatures from eligible district voters to place the issue on the ballot.School board President David Tominsky said the number of signatures collected is a “real testament” to the community's support of the resolution. “I'm really excited about the community learning more about what exactly they're voting on and why,” he said.Thousands of Iowans may have been wrongly cut from the Medicaid and the Children's Health Insurance Program (a.k.a. CHIP) because of an error in determining eligibility as the state works to return Medicaid enrollment to pre-pandemic conditions.Iowa is one of 30 states where the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services determined eligible individuals — mostly children — were being disenrolled, even though the states had information indicating they remained eligible.The federal agency estimated 10,000 to 49,999 eligible Iowans were affected by the erroneous process. According to the Kaiser Family Foundation, the total Medicaid and CHIP enrollment in Iowa was 699,741 people in 2020.In a written statement, Iowa Health and Human Services spokesperson Alex Carfrae said the state will change its automatic renewal processes to comply with the new federal expectations.Iowa's Swarm Collective will now accept donations for athletes in any of the Hawkeyes' 22 intercollegiate sports, it announced Thursday morning.The name, image and likeness collective's financial support was previously exclusive to football, men's basketball and women's basketball since its founding in July 2022.Those who either make a $1,000-plus one-time donation or a $100-plus recurring monthly donation can now earmark their gift toward any Iowa sport.The Swarm Collective raises money for Hawkeye athletes through monthly memberships and larger one-time or recurring donations. Athletes then receive the NIL money as compensation for community service.
A bill signed by Gov. Greg Gianforte this week paves the way for the creation of Montana's largest school health insurance trust. Some of the state's largest districts are cautiously optimistic the trust could help keep its health plan affordable.
"It is such a point of pride. Every day we talk about our mission." Those words of Diana Kobus, the Program Director of CHIP. CHIP is the Children's Health Insurance Program that was started by Highmark Health in Pittsburgh 30 years ago. Kobus was a guest on the Rick Dayton Show on KDKA to talk about the humble beginning of the program that now has become a federal program to provide insurance to children and families in need.
John K. Ross is a nationally-recognized expert in estate planning, asset protection, and taxation. He runs one of the largest boutique estate planning and asset protection law firms in Texas, covering over 40 counties in Texas and Arkansas. His team helps families with a variety of needs, including designing asset protection strategies for high-risk individuals, helping the elderly protect their life savings from nursing home costs, and developing plans for disabled individuals including special needs trusts. On this episode of Rejuvenating with Dr. Ron Kaiser, John provides his insights and knowledge on how to better manage money and lead a high quality of life for as long as possible.John and Ron discuss the current state of the economy and how it is affecting retirees. They agree that inflation is out of control and that it is hitting retirees hard, as their Social Security checks and pensions do not go as far as they had anticipated. Additionally, many have seen their 401ks and IRAs drop 20-40%, meaning their savings will not last as long. John suggests ways for retirees to be less scared and make it to the end financially, such as budgeting and creating a plan as to what to do if something unexpected happens.This conversation focuses on people of all ages who are facing financial difficulty and explores the potential benefits of government assistance programs. The speaker notes that many people assume they won't qualify for government assistance programs, but that most of the time these assumptions are unfounded. For those raising a family, a Children's Health Insurance Program could be a big help in relieving the financial burden of health insurance for young children. For elderly people, food programs through the Area Agencies on Aging could provide much-needed relief on the cost of food. By taking advantage of these programs, people may be able to free up money to put back into savings.People tend to be unaware of the benefits available to them, especially seniors. To start, one can look into their state's Department of Health and Human Services website. Additionally, almost every metropolitan service area has an Area Agency on Aging which specializes in government programs specifically tailored to seniors. These can include meal programs, housing assistance, and other programs where Medicare premiums are paid for by Medicaid. Even a small savings of $160 per month on a Social Security check can make a significant difference for some seniors.Connect with John K Rosshttps://www.rossandshoalmire.com/bio/attorney-john-k-ross-iv.cfmUseful REJUVENAGING® ResourcesWebsite: https://www.thementalhealthgym.com/Book: Dr. Ron Kaiser -Rejuvenaging: The Art and Science of Growing Older with EnthusiasmEmail: ron.kaiser@thementalhealthgym.com TEDx Talk: Aging Enthusiastically to Make the World a Better Place Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Speak English Now Podcast: Learn English | Speak English without grammar.
Transcript: Are you curious about how the healthcare system works in the U.S.? In this episode, I will explain the basics of the American healthcare system. There is not one universal system, but a range of public and private insurance options. I will lay out how these plans work so that you can gain a better understanding. And yes. Contrary to what some people assume, public health care exists in the USA. There are several public systems, both federal and state. All Americans must have health insurance or face a federal offense. Therefore, everyone should be properly insured. If someone is unemployed, they may be eligible for federal or state public insurance programs to help them access the necessary health care services. Let's find out more about public health in the U.S. In 1965, the federal government created Medicare and Medicaid, which provided health coverage to the elders and the poorest segments of the population. What are Medicare and Medicaid? Medicare is a federal health insurance program primarily available to people 65 or older, certain younger people with disabilities, or people with End-Stage Renal Disease. Medicaid offers health insurance to countless Americans, such as eligible low-income adults, children, pregnant women, senior citizens, and people with disabilities. States must follow federal rules while running the program, which is funded by both state and federal money. Other programs, such as the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP), is a federal-state partnership program administered by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. Children's Health Insurance Program provides health insurance coverage to low-income children and pregnant women who do not qualify for Medicaid but cannot afford private health insurance. I hope you found this episode interesting. In the next one, I will continue talking about healthcare in the U.S. [END OF THE EXTRACT] Get the transcript here: SpeakEnglishPodcast.com/podcast
What are they doing on the hill? H.Res.69 — 118th Congress (2023-2024) Expressing the sense of the House of Representatives that the dedication and devotion of law enforcement personnel should be recognized and that calls to "defund", "disband", "dismantle", or "abolish" the police should be condemned.H.R.616 — 118th Congress (2023-2024)For the relief of Victoria Galindo Lopez.H.R.615 — 118th Congress (2023-2024)To prohibit the Secretary of the Interior and the Secretary of Agriculture from prohibiting the use of lead ammunition or tackle on certain Federal land or water under the jurisdiction of the Secretary of the Interior and the Secretary of Agriculture, and for other purposes. H.R.614 — 118th Congress (2023-2024)To amend the Department of Defense Appropriations Act, 2005 to provide for the inclusion of certain workers in the exemption from numerical limitations on H-2B workers, and for other purposes. H.R.613 — 118th Congress (2023-2024)To establish a process for the creation of minority impact assessments to determine whether pending bills, if enacted, are likely to create or exacerbate disparate outcomes among racial or ethnic minority groups, and for other purposes. H.R.612 — 118th Congress (2023-2024)To require a report on security cooperation with respect to Western Balkan countries.H.R.610 — 118th Congress (2023-2024)To provide for the rescheduling of marijuana into schedule III of the Controlled Substances Act.H.R.609 — 118th Congress (2023-2024)To amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to allow a refundable credit against income tax for tuition expenses incurred for each qualifying child of the taxpayer in attending public or private elementary or secondary school.H.R.608 — 118th Congress (2023-2024)To terminate the Electronic Health Record Modernization Program of the Department of Veterans Affairs.H.R.607 — 118th Congress (2023-2024)To direct the Secretary of Transportation to revise regulations relating to child restraint systems, and for other purposes.H.R.606 — 118th Congress (2023-2024)To prohibit the use of Federal funds to study, propose, establish, implement, or enforce any mileage tax, including through the funding of a mileage tracking program.H.R.605 — 118th Congress (2023-2024)To amend the Special Drawing Rights Act in order to strengthen congressional oversight with respect to allocations of Special Drawing Rights by the International Monetary Fund, and to prohibit such allocations for perpetrators of genocide and state sponsors of terrorism without congressional authorization, and for other purposes.H.R.604 — 118th Congress (2023-2024)To require the Secretary of Homeland Security to make available video conferencing for applicants for NEXUS.H.R.603 — 118th Congress (2023-2024)To require a study on Holocaust education efforts of States, local educational agencies, and public elementary and secondary schools, and for other purposes.H.R.602 — 118th Congress (2023-2024)To amend the VA MISSION Act of 2018 to expand the veterans healing veterans medical access and scholarship program to include more students and schools.H.R.601 — 118th Congress (2023-2024)To modify certain requirements to encourage the recovery of Puerto Rico and the United States Virgin Islands.H.R.600 — 118th Congress (2023-2024)To waive certain provisions in the case of an emergency declaration under the Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act.H.R.599 — 118th Congress (2023-2024)To designate the facility of the United States Postal Service located at 3500 West 6th Street, Suite 103 in Los Angeles, California, as the "Dosan Ahn Chang Ho Post Office".H.R.598 — 118th Congress (2023-2024)To ensure 100 percent renewable electricity, zero emission vehicles, and regenerative agriculture by 2030 to address global warming caused by human activity.H.R.597 — 118th Congress (2023-2024)To improve the collection of intelligence regarding activities by drug trafficking organizations in certain foreign countries.H.R.596 — 118th Congress (2023-2024)To amend the Anti-Border Corruption Act of 2010 to authorize certain polygraph waiver authority, and for other purposes.H.R.595 — 118th Congress (2023-2024)To extend the right of appeal to the Merit Systems Protection Board to certain employees of the United States Postal Service.H.R.594 — 118th Congress (2023-2024)To amend title 39, United States Code, to modify procedures for negotiating pay and benefits of supervisory and other managerial personnel of the United States Postal Service, and for other purposes.H.R.593 — 118th Congress (2023-2024)To rename the Department of Veterans Affairs community-based outpatient clinic in Hinesville, Georgia, as the "John Gibson, Dan James, William Sapp, and Frankie Smiley VA Clinic".H.R.592 — 118th Congress (2023-2024)To prohibit the Secretary of Veterans Affairs from carrying out certain activities under the Electronic Health Record Modernization Program until certification of system improvements and facility readiness.H.R.591 — 118th Congress (2023-2024)To provide for the development of a plan to increase oil and gas production under oil and gas leases of Federal lands under the jurisdiction of the Secretary of Agriculture, the Secretary of Energy, the Secretary of the Interior, and the Secretary of Defense in conjunction with a drawdown of petroleum reserves from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve.H.R.590 — 118th Congress (2023-2024)To amend title XXI of the Social Security Act to prohibit lifetime or annual limits on dental coverage under the Children's Health Insurance Program, and to require wraparound coverage of dental services for certain children under such program.H.R.589 — 118th Congress (2023-2024)To impose sanctions on the Supreme Leader of Iran and the President of Iran and their respective offices for human rights abuses and support for terrorism.H.R.588 — 118th Congress (2023-2024)To direct the Secretary of Homeland Security to transfer, without reimbursement, materials to construct roadways and physical barriers along the Southern border of the United States to the governments of the States in which such materials are located, and for other purposes.Support The Show: https://patreon.bpmg.usSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I'm here with your update for Friday, December 16.A little bit of Thursday's weather will bleed into Friday, with a chance for scattered snow showers during the day. According to the National Weather Service it will be cloudy in the Cedar Rapids area with a high near 30 degrees. The chance of snow during the day is 30 percent, then there will be a 20 percent chance Friday night into Saturday. The low will drop to 20 degrees Friday night.State revenue is projected to fall slightly — although not by as much as previously feared — during the current state budget year, a state panel said Wednesday.And revenue will increase only marginally — by just 0.1 percent — in the next state budget year, which begins July 1, the panel said.The latest estimates were presented Wednesday by the state's Revenue Estimating Conference, which meets quarterly to project state revenues.The panel estimated state revenue will be just more than $9.62 billion fiscal 2023, the current state budget year that ends June 30. That would be a 1.9 percent drop from the previous budget year, not quite as steep as the 2.7 percent drop the panel estimated in October.The panel's annual December projections are used by the governor and state lawmakers to craft the next state budget. That work will begin in earnest when the 2023 session of the Iowa Legislature begins next month.A small-town Iowa police chief has been indicted on federal charges that he abused his position to purchase more than two dozen machine guns.According to the Associated Press, Adair Police Chief Brad Wendt, 46, and Robert Williams, 46, were both charged with making false statements to the ATF about whether the police department wanted to buy the machine guns. Adair, a town of fewer than 800 people, is 55 miles west of Des Moines.Court documents say Wendt bought 10 machine guns for the police department and later sold several of them at a profit.The two men are also accused of holding public machine gun shooting events where people paid for the chance to shoot one of the fully automatic weapons.The nation's largest Medicaid insurer will pay $44.4 million as part of a settlement to resolve claims the company fraudulently overbilled Iowa's privatized Medicaid program for pharmacy benefits and services.Iowa Attorney General Tom Miller announced the settlement Thursday with St. Louis-based Centene Corp., one of three for-profit companies that help manage the joint federal and state program that finances roughly $7 billion in health care coverage annually for roughly 805,000 low-income and disabled Iowans.Centene, which operates as Iowa Total Care in the state, administers benefits to more than 350,000 Iowans through IA Health Link, Iowa's Medicaid managed care program, and Iowa's Children's Health Insurance Program.
Ryan Gorman hosts an iHeartRadio nationwide special featuring Chiquita Brooks Lasure, Administrator for the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, where she oversees Medicare, Medicaid, the Children's Health Insurance Program, and the Healthcare.gov health insurance marketplace. Plus, ahead of the kick-off to The Salvation Army's 132nd Red Kettle Campaign, National Commander of The Salvation Army Commissioner Kenneth Hodder joins the show.
Richland County to remain in pooled health insurance program through 2025: https://www.richlandsource.com/news/richland-county-to-remain-in-pooled-health-insurance-program-through-2025/article_064bff2e-3368-11ed-8bfe-a34174ec7946.html?block_id=1098581 Decision 2023: 8 Mansfield residents have already pulled petitions for elected office: https://www.richlandsource.com/news/elections/decision-2023-8-mansfield-residents-have-already-pulled-petitions-for-elected-office/article_acdca03a-304f-11ed-b1cf-ef5fde7a3805.html Today — Richland County commissioners have renewed the county's participation in the County Employee Benefit Consortium of Ohio through 2025.Support the show: https://www.sourcemembers.com/See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
In this episode of the Rural Voice, we are again joined by Dr. Lisa Costello. We discuss the changing landscape of COVID-19 and emerging viruses in the United States. We discuss data tracking approaches to determine changes in the infection rates and new challenges arising in a post-pandemic world, particularly for children, teachers, and administrators. We discuss some methods for addressing infections and protecting children from further diseases. This includes new vaccine boosters for COVID. Lisa M. Costello, MD, MPH, FAAP is a lifelong West Virginian who hails from Weirton, WV and currently resides in Morgantown, WV where she is an Assistant Professor in the Department Pediatrics at West Virginia University (WVU) and a Pediatric Hospitalist at WVU Medicine Children's Hospital. She is co-director of the Pediatrics Clerkship, leads a healthcare literacy and patient advocacy curriculum thread for the M.D. program, and is the advisor for the medical student group, Student Advocates Impacting Decision on Healthcare. Dr. Costello currently serves as the President-elect of the West Virginia State Medical Association, immediate past president of the West Virginia Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics, and on the Board of Directors for the WV Children's Health Insurance Program. She is a graduate of the Leadership WV Class of 2021. Dr. Costello is as an advisor to the WV Department of Health and Human Resources Bureau for Public Health during the COVID-19 pandemic response, and the medical lead for the Joint Information Center within the West Virginia Joint Interagency Task Force For COVID-19. At a national level, she is a member of the American Academy of Pediatrics Committee on State Government Affairs. Dr. Costello is on the Executive Council for the WVU School of Medicine Alumni Association and a past recipient of the Margaret Buchanan Cole Young Alumnus Award from the WVU Alumni Association. Her academic interests include advocacy, healthcare policy, social media, and improving communication with patients, healthcare professionals, and the public by utilizing technology and media to amplify advocacy and education. Connect with her on Twitter (@LisaCostelloWV), Facebook, and LinkedIn.
How can we improve health and reduce health inequity? By speaking to healthcare professionals, thought leaders, and entrepreneurs. In this episode, you will learn 1. The impact of social determinants on health 2. Racism as a public health threat 3. Disparities caused by social determinants of healthHere's a breakdown of what is covered:[00:00:00] - Corey from the healthy project.[00:00:56] - Welcome Dr. Andrea Willis.[00:01:23] - Getting up in the morning.[00:05:41] - How does racism impact health?[00:09:03] - How do we improve the healthcare system?[00:13:07] - Dismantling the narrative around race and health.[00:16:01] - Correcting social determinants of health.[00:19:54] - Being a black woman in leadership."You can't ask the person that's hurting to just heal themselves. You've got to turn to the system to say what has happened, that the very people that are hurting feel like they can't come get help."Dr. Andrea Willis is the Senior Vice President and Chief Medical Officer at Blue Cross Blue Shield of Tennessee. She is a board-certified pediatrician and has served in public health roles most of her career, including deputy commissioner of health for the state of Tennessee and starting Cover Kids, the state's Children's Health Insurance Program.This is Dr. Andrea Willis's story...I am a doctor, and I have seen firsthand the effects of systemic racism on people's health. It is a problem that we have to address as a system, and it starts with looking at the data and bringing in the right stakeholders. We need to be intentional about our message and make sure that we are representing the community in a way that is respectful and empowering. We also need to make sure that we are providing the right resources and support to people in order to level the playing field.In this episode, you will learn the following:1. The impact of social determinants on health2. Racism as a public health threat3. Disparities caused by social determinants of healthResources:Learn More about the My City My Health Conference!My City My Health Conference 2022Connect with me:InstagramFacebookYouTubeLinkedInWebsiteLoved this episode? Leave us a review and rating here: Apple | SpotifySupport the show
William Jefferson Clinton (né Blythe III; born August 19, 1946) is an American politician who served as the 42nd president of the United States from 1993 to 2001. He previously served as governor of Arkansas from 1979 to 1981 and again from 1983 to 1992, and as attorney general of Arkansas from 1977 to 1979. A member of the Democratic Party, Clinton became known as a New Democrat, as many of his policies reflected a centrist "Third Way" political philosophy. He is the husband of Hillary Clinton, who was a senator from New York from 2001 to 2009, secretary of state from 2009 to 2013 and the Democratic nominee for president in the 2016 presidential election.Clinton was born and raised in Arkansas and attended Georgetown University. He received a Rhodes Scholarship to study at University College, Oxford, and he later graduated from Yale Law School. He met Hillary Rodham at Yale; they married in 1975. After graduating from law school, Clinton returned to Arkansas and won election as state attorney general, followed by two non-consecutive terms as Arkansas governor. As governor, he overhauled the state's education system and served as chairman of the National Governors Association. Clinton was elected president in the 1992 presidential election, defeating incumbent Republican president George H. W. Bush and independent businessman Ross Perot. At 46 years old, he became the third-youngest president of the United States and the first president to be born in the Baby Boomer generation.Clinton presided over the longest period of peacetime economic expansion in American history. He signed into law the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act, but failed to pass his plan for national health care reform. The Republican Party won unified control of Congress for the first time in 40 years in the 1994 elections, but Clinton was still comfortably re-elected in 1996, becoming the first Democrat since Franklin D. Roosevelt to win a second full term. Starting in the mid-1990s, he began an ideological evolution as he became much more conservative in his domestic policy, advocating for and signing the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Act, the State Children's Health Insurance Program and financial deregulation measures. He appointed Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Stephen Breyer to the U.S. Supreme Court. During the last three years of Clinton's presidency, the Congressional Budget Office reported a budget surplus—the first such surplus since 1969. In foreign policy, Clinton ordered U.S. military intervention in the Bosnian and Kosovo wars, eventually signing the Dayton Peace agreement. He also called for the expansion of NATO in Eastern Europe and many former Warsaw Pact members joined NATO during his presidency. Clinton's foreign policy in the Middle East saw him sign the Iraq Liberation Act which gave aid to groups against Saddam Hussein. He also participated in the Oslo I Accord and Camp David Summit to advance the Israeli–Palestinian peace process, and assisted the Northern Ireland peace process.Clinton's second term would be dominated by the Monica Lewinsky scandal which began in 1996, when he began a sexual relationship with 22-year-old White House intern Monica Lewinsky. In January 1998, news of the affair made tabloid headlines. The scandal escalated throughout the year, culminating on December 19 when Clinton was impeached by the House of Representatives, becoming the second U.S. president to be impeached after Andrew Johnson. The two impeachment articles that the House passed were centered around Clinton using the powers of the presidency to obstruct the investigation and that he lied under oath. In 1999 Clinton's impeachment trial begin in the Senate. Clinton was acquitted on both charges as the Senate failed to cast 67 votes against him, the conviction threshold.Clinton left office in 2001 with the joint-highest approval rating of any U.S. president in the modern era, alongside Roosevelt and Ronald Reagan. His presidency has been ranked among the upper tier in historical rankings of U.S. presidents. However, his personal conduct and allegations of sexual assault against him have made him the subject of substantial scrutiny. Since leaving office, he has been involved in public speaking and humanitarian work. He created the Clinton Foundation to address international causes such as the prevention of HIV/AIDS and global warming. In 2009, he was named the United Nations Special Envoy to Haiti. After the 2010 Haiti earthquake, Clinton and George W. Bush formed the Clinton Bush Haiti Fund. He has remained active in Democratic Party politics, campaigning for his wife's 2008 and 2016 presidential campaigns.
In this episode of the Rural Voice, Drs. Allen Pratt and Christopher Silver interview Dr. Lisa Costello regarding her experience and expertise on the COVID-19 Pandemic and vaccines. We discussed the impact of COVID on schools and on children. We discuss the variants and the science behind treatment and invention measures. We discuss the impact of vaccine availability, particularly for children under the age of 5 as well as the comparative approaches to addressing the Pandemic. We discuss the effects of the virus on local communities and how culture may be related to policy and practice addressing the Pandemic. We discuss how these approaches have been addressed and received within rural communities. Lisa M. Costello, MD, MPH, FAAP is a lifelong West Virginian who hails from Weirton, WV, and currently resides in Morgantown, West Virginia where she is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Pediatrics at West Virginia University (WVU) and a Pediatric Hospitalist at WVU Medicine Children's Hospital. She is co-director of the Pediatrics Clerkship, leads a healthcare literacy and patient advocacy curriculum thread for the M.D. program, and is the advisor for the medical student group, Student Advocates Impacting Decision on Healthcare. Dr. Costello currently serves as the President-elect of the West Virginia State Medical Association, immediate past president of the West Virginia Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics, and on the Board of Directors for the WV Children's Health Insurance Program. She is a graduate of the Leadership WV Class of 2021. Dr. Costello is an advisor to the WV Department of Health and Human Resources Bureau for Public Health during the COVID-19 pandemic response and the medical lead for the Joint Information Center within the West Virginia Joint Interagency Task Force COVID-19. She is a member of the American Academy of Pediatrics Committee on State Government Affairs at a national level. Dr. Costello is on the Executive Council for the WVU School of Medicine Alumni Association and a past recipient of the Margaret Buchanan Cole Young Alumnus Award from the WVU Alumni Association. Her academic interests include advocacy, healthcare policy, social media, and improving communication with patients, healthcare professionals, and the public by utilizing technology and media to amplify advocacy and education. Connect with her on Twitter (@LisaCostelloWV), Facebook, and LinkedIn. https://directory.hsc.wvu.edu/Profile/35594 https://twitter.com/lisacostellowv
He defeated a popular Democratic senator, arguing that three terms were enough, and then proceeded to serve more than twice as long (seven terms) — longer than any Republican in Senate history. During those 42 years, this conservative loyalist teamed up with a liberal lion, Sen. Ted Kennedy, to create the Children's Health Insurance Program and the Americans with Disability Act. He eventually became among the staunchest defenders of Donald Trump, shepherding through a major tax overhaul and helping to shape the conservative majority of today's Supreme Court. These justices appear poised to overturn the landmark Roe v. Wade decision, which gave women a constitutional right to abortion. Through it all, Orrin Hatch, who died April 23 at age 88, often touted his membership in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and championed the cause of religious liberty. In fact, historian Benjamin Park says in a recent Washington Post piece, Hatch helped transform the nation's Latter-day Saints into one of the most reliably red voting blocs. On this week's show, Park discusses the late senator, his influence, his politics, his piety and his place in history.
You're listening to the Westerly Sun's podcast, where we talk about the best local events, new job postings, obituaries, and more. First, a bit of Rhode Island trivia. Today's trivia is brought to you by Perennial. Perennial's new plant-based drink “Daily Gut & Brain” is a blend of easily digestible nutrients crafted for gut and brain health. A convenient mini-meal, Daily Gut & Brain” is available now at the CVS Pharmacy in Wakefield. Now for some trivia. Did you know that Rhode Island native, Chester Nichols Jr. was a professional baseball player? He was a pitcher for nine seasons with the Boston and Milwaukee Braves, Boston Red Sox and Cincinnati Reds. In 1951, he was the National League earned run average champion as a 20-year-old rookie, and was the runner-up to Willie Mays for the league's Rookie of the Year Award. He was the son of former major league pitcher Chet Nichols Sr., a right-hander who appeared in 44 games for three National League clubs between 1926 and 1932. Now, for our feature story: Rural health care providers in Rhode Island are getting more than $650,000 in federal relief funds to help improve care and make up for losses incurred during the COVID-19 pandemic. According to Senator Jack Reed: “The federal grants, administered by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, can be used to pay salaries or recruit workers, purchase supplies or equipment, make capital investments, or cover other expenses related to preventing and responding to the pandemic.” The federal funding will make 88 payouts to local health care providers and suppliers who serve rural communities and deliver care to Medicaid, Medicare, and Children's Health Insurance Program beneficiaries. Reed said: “COVID-19 impacts us all and this federal funding will help ensure that health care practitioners who serve patients from rural areas can continue to reliably serve them and help combat this pandemic.” For more information on jobs and employment, check out this story and more at thewesterlysun.com Today we're remembering the life of Loretta Brown of Pawcatuck, beloved wife of Norman for 54 years. Loretta was born in Montville, Connecticut, and worked as a Certified Nurse's Aide for Mary Elizabeth Nursing Home for many years. In addition to her husband, she leaves her daughters, granddaughter, and two step-grandchildren. Thank you for taking a moment with us today to remember and celebrate Loretta's life. That's it for today, we'll be back next time with more! Also, remember to check out our sponsor Perennial, Daily Gut & Brain, available at the CVS on Main St. in Wakefield! See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Many towns in our region are under pressure to enact solutions to the affordable housing crisis. But how might college life fit into this particular puzzle? Today on the news, a report on Durango's Fort Lewis College, where both student and workforce housing is strained. Plus, snowpack numbers in every part of the Colorado River basin are lower than average for this time of year. And, Utah healthcare reform advocates are pressing the US Senate to approve the Build Back Better Act to improve Medicaid and CHIP, the Children's Health Insurance Program. Show Notes: Photo: Animas Hall, a recently-built residence facility at Fort Lewis College in Durango, Colorado. The college has housing needs for students and staff. Mark Duggan/KSUT.
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I'm here with your update for Thursday, September 30. There will be a chance for rain Thursday, although it appears to be much more likely on Friday. According to the National Weather Service there will be a 10 percent chance of showers in the Cedar Rapids area after 4 p.m. and a 30 percent chance after 7 p.m. Besides that it will be mostly sunny, with a high near 85 degrees. Thursday night it will be partly cloudy, with a low around 64 degrees. The availability of intensive care unit beds in Iowa is at the lowest level since the COVID-19 pandemic began in March of 2020. As of Wednesday, 163 ICU beds were available statewide, an all-time low according to new coronavirus data from the Iowa Department of Public Health. A week ago, there were 182 available beds. In slightly more positive news, while the state still continues to pile on new cases, the rate appears to have stabilized for the moment. Iowa reported 10,812 new COVID-19 over the past week, compared to the 12,163 new cases reported last Wednesday. The state's seven-day positivity rate was 9.5 percent, slightly lower than last week's 9.6 percent. Although the ICU bed situation remains dire, the number of people hospitalized with COVID dropped slightly. In total, 624 people were hospitalized with the virus as of Wednesday, compared to the 638 hospitalizations reported last week. Given the staffing concerns at a University of Iowa hospital facing the confluence of surging patient demand and a frazzled workforce, administrators announced Wednesday they're doubling extra shift premium pay for inpatient nurses and respiratory therapists over the next seven weeks. According to a message from UI Health Care's Chief Nursing Executive Kimberly Hunter and Human Resources Associate Vice President Jana Wessels, the extra shift premium differential will increase from $15 to $30 an hour beginning Sunday and going through Nov. 21. The boost in pay comes as health care employee burnout has emerged as among the biggest challenges of this wave of COVID-19 infections. The prolonged stress has led health care providers to struggle to adequately keep staff. An out-of-state company hopes to become the newest insurer for Iowans under the state's Medicaid and Children's Health Insurance Program, also known as CHIP. The Dayton, Ohio-based health care company CareSource announced its intent to submit a bid for consideration to join Iowa's $6 billion program as state officials conduct their search for another managed-care organization later this year. MCOs are private insurance companies that deliver health care services to poor and disabled Iowans through a contract with the state. Medicaid health benefits in Iowa currently are administered by two managed-care organizations — Amerigroup and Iowa Total Care. Even after a sometimes tumultuous five years of the privatized Iowa Medicaid program, CareSource officials say they are excited to help Iowa “re-imagine what Medicaid can do for Iowans.” A former Eldridge police officer has been arrested for allegedly sexually abusing a 14-year-old girl while on-duty. 24-year-old Andrew Patrick Denoyer resigned Monday and was taken into custody Tuesday night by agents with the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation. Denoyer was booked into the Scott County Jail with a $10,000, cash-only bond. The assault happened May 1, while Denoyer was employed and on-duty as an Eldridge police officer, according to an arrest affidavit. He's charged with third-degree sexual abuse, a Class C felony under Iowa law that carries a prison sentence of 10 years. Be sure to subscribe to The Gazette Daily news podcast, or just tell your Amazon Alexa enabled device to “enable The Gazette Daily News skill" so you can get your daily briefing by simply saying “Alexa, what's the news? If you prefer podcasts, you can also find us on iTunes or wherever else you find your Podcasts. Support this podcast
During the COVID-19 pandemic, millions of Americans have retained employer coverage through a 100% COBRA subsidy or moved to Medicaid, the Children's Health Insurance Program, and the Exchanges. This has kept America's uninsured rate from skyrocketing. But when the public health emergency declared for the pandemic ends as early as at the end of this year, the ranks of the uninsured could markedly increase unless federal and state officials think wisely about how to transition Americans to other coverage. Hear more about this threat and what can be done about it. Keeping people covered is crucial.
On this episode, we're talking with Dr. Lisa Costello about COVID-19 vaccinations and vaccine confidence. Dr. Costello is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Pediatrics at West Virginia University (WVU) in Morgantown, WV and a Pediatric Hospitalist at WVU Medicine Children's Hospital. Dr. Costello currently serves as the president of the West Virginia Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics, Vice-President of the West Virginia State Medical Association, and serves on the Board of Directors for the WV Children's Health Insurance Program. Dr. Costello is also an advisor to the state of West Virginia around the COVID-19 pandemic response. At a national level, she is a member of the American Academy of Pediatrics Committee on State Government Affairs.
To help combat the rising cost of healthcare and increase workers' access to affordable insurance coverage, Nationwide Marketing Group has launched the channel's first and only health insurance program exclusively for independent retailers and their employees.
In this edition of the Healthcare Revolution with MHK, Marc S. Ryan, MHK's President, explains the State Children's Health Insurance Program and why it is important to ensure all children have affordable access to healthcare. He also shares about how he helped create the program in Connecticut and gives his wife long-overdue credit for the naming of the program in the Constitution State.
This week marks the 11th anniversary of Barack Obama’s signing of the Affordable Care Act, something Joe Biden, then the vice president, now the president, famously described as a “Big F-ing Deal.” He was right. It is one of the signature moments in American health care policy, along with the passage of Medicare and Medicaid, the Children's Health Insurance Program and the Medicare prescription drug benefit. Political Theater host Jason Dick and CQ Roll Call Health Editor Rebecca Adams discuss those big moments and their public health and political effects in the latest podcast. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
This week marks the 11th anniversary of Barack Obama’s signing of the Affordable Care Act, something Joe Biden, then the vice president, now the president, famously described as a “Big F-ing Deal.” He was right. It is one of the signature moments in American health care policy, along with the passage of Medicare and Medicaid, the Children's Health Insurance Program and the Medicare prescription drug benefit. Political Theater host Jason Dick and CQ Roll Call Health Editor Rebecca Adams discuss those big moments and their public health and political effects in the latest podcast. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
The post Charlotte Center for Legal Advocacy attorney Doug Sea on North Carolina’s long-planned shift in how it delivers the Medicaid health insurance program appeared first on NC Policy Watch.
The post Charlotte Center for Legal Advocacy attorney Doug Sea on North Carolina’s long-planned shift in how it delivers the Medicaid health insurance program appeared first on NC Policy Watch.
Health insurance is an important issue for financial advisors considering independence. Among the primary concerns are how to navigate the process of establishing health insurance and the ultimate cost. To-date the choices and resources for establishing health insurance for independent financial advisors have been limited at worst and confusing at best, but that has all changed with the launch of a new health insurance program by the Financial Services Institute (FSI). In this episode, Elite Consulting Partners CEO Frank LaRosa is joined by Chris Paulitz, Head of Strategic Initiatives at FSI, for an in-depth discussion of the organization's new health insurance program and the benefits the program offers to advisors. Key discussion items related to the FSI health insurance program include:*the history behind FSI's development of this proprietary health insurance program and how it is a game-changer for advisors.*the qualifications for enrollment, most importantly that an advisor can register as an individual for major medical coverage for themselves and their families as long as they have a federal tax ID or CRD number.*the financial savings the FSI health insurance program offers advisors and the specifics of the program itself.*how to take advantage of the FSI health insurance plan, whether you are a sole practitioner or part of a team. There is no doubt that financial advisors will sit up and take notice of the FSI health insurance program and want to learn more. For those advisors wishing to explore the new FSI health insurance option, or receive a rate quote, information is available at www.AdvisorHealthPlan.org. For those advisors interested in other FSI programs, among them life insurance, long-term disability, short-term disability, individual and group policies, and more, visit www.FSIbenefits.com and enter access code FSI4ME.
Researchers, insurers, and health care experts continue to try to tackle improving maternal health care — and by extension, the health of children. In this episode, we hear from Dr. Johanna Vidal-Phelan, senior medical director, pediatrics at UPMC Health Plan, where she manages children's services in the Children's Health Insurance Program, among other initiatives. We also hear from Katie Domalakes, a licensed social worker and director of clinical programs at UPMC Health Plan who focuses on population health efforts for maternal, child, and special needs populations. Host Ellen Beckjord also speaks with Congresswoman Robin Kelly, an Illinois Democrat, who is advocating for measures to extend Medicaid coverage to women for up to one year after they give birth.
InsideTheBoards Study Smarter Podcast: Question Reviews for the USMLE, COMLEX, and Medical School
In the conclusion to this interview, ITB's new host Amy Schattel breaks down some pediatrics questions with Dr. Lisa Costello. Lisa M. Costello, MD, MPH, FAAP is a lifelong West Virginian who hails from Weirton, WV. She is an Assistant Professor in the Department Pediatrics at West Virginia University (WVU) in Morgantown, WV and a Pediatric Hospitalist at WVU Medicine Children’s Hospital. She is co-director of the Pediatrics Clerkship, leads a healthcare literacy and patient advocacy curriculum thread for the M.D. program, and is the advisor for the medical student group, Student Advocates Impacting Decision on Healthcare. Dr. Costello currently serves as the president of the West Virginia Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics, Vice-President of the West Virginia State Medical Association, Vice-Chair of WESPAC, and Board of Directors for the WV Children’s Health Insurance Program. She is a member of Leadership WV Class of 2020. Dr. Costello currently serves as an advisor to the WV Department of Health and Human Resources during the COVID pandemic. At a national level, she is a member of the American Academy of Pediatrics Committee on State Government Affairs. Connect with her on Twitter (@LisaCostelloWV), Facebook, and LinkedIn. ITB Audio Qbank and iOS Beta App The Audio Qbank by InsideTheBoards mobile app has both free and premium features and is available on both Android and iOS. To get started, first, create a Boardsinsider Account on our website insidetheboards.com Free Features All of our podcasts in one place organized into playlists for easy studying (also with less ads and exclusive content) Mindfulness meditations designed specifically for medical students A monthly offering of high yield content (questions dissections, audio qbank samples) available only on our mobile app. Premium Features Subscribe to an ITB premium account and get additional features Access to 500+ audio optimized board style practice questions in our Audio Qbank. The Step 1 version is powered by Exam Circle and the Step 2 Version is powered by OnlineMedEd. New questions added each month. High Yield Pharmacology (powered by Lecturio) with 100 of the top pharm questions you need to know for both Step 1 and Step 2 Audio Flashcards (coming soon) Our audio qbank is THE PERFECT companion for studying for the boards on the go. And we're adding content and improving it all the time. Learn more about the Audio Qbank by InsideTheBoards mobile app here USMLE Step 2 Secrets is now an InsideTheBoards Podcast As a book, USMLE Step 2 Secrets, by Theodore X. O’Connell, MD, ITB's Chief Content Officer and (among many other things) author of Crush Step 1: The Ultimate USMLE Step 1 Review, is recognized as an effective, high-yield study tool for the USMLE Step 2 and COMLEX Level 2. Plus....BONUS...it fits easily into a "short white coat" pocket. Check out all of ITB's Podcasts on our BRAND NEW Website Legal Stuff and Credits InsideTheBoards is not affiliated with the NBME, USMLE, COMLEX, NBOME or any professional licensing body. InsideTheBoards and its partners fully adhere to the policies on irregular conduct outlined by the aforementioned credentialing bodies.
In the conclusion to this interview (cross-posted from our Study Smarter Series), ITB's new host Amy Schattel breaks down some pediatrics questions with Dr. Lisa Costello. Lisa M. Costello, MD, MPH, FAAP is a lifelong West Virginian who hails from Weirton, WV. She is an Assistant Professor in the Department Pediatrics at West Virginia University (WVU) in Morgantown, WV and a Pediatric Hospitalist at WVU Medicine Children’s Hospital. She is co-director of the Pediatrics Clerkship, leads a healthcare literacy and patient advocacy curriculum thread for the M.D. program, and is the advisor for the medical student group, Student Advocates Impacting Decision on Healthcare. Dr. Costello currently serves as the president of the West Virginia Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics, Vice-President of the West Virginia State Medical Association, Vice-Chair of WESPAC, and Board of Directors for the WV Children’s Health Insurance Program. She is a member of Leadership WV Class of 2020. Dr. Costello currently serves as an advisor to the WV Department of Health and Human Resources during the COVID pandemic. At a national level, she is a member of the American Academy of Pediatrics Committee on State Government Affairs. Connect with her on Twitter (@LisaCostelloWV), Facebook, and LinkedIn. ITB Audio Qbank and iOS Beta App The Audio Qbank by InsideTheBoards mobile app has both free and premium features and is available on both Android and iOS. To get started, first, create a Boardsinsider Account on our website insidetheboards.com Free Features All of our podcasts in one place organized into playlists for easy studying (also with less ads and exclusive content) Mindfulness meditations designed specifically for medical students A monthly offering of high yield content (questions dissections, audio qbank samples) available only on our mobile app. Premium Features Subscribe to an ITB premium account and get additional features Access to 500+ audio optimized board style practice questions in our Audio Qbank. The Step 1 version is powered by Exam Circle and the Step 2 Version is powered by OnlineMedEd. New questions added each month. High Yield Pharmacology (powered by Lecturio) with 100 of the top pharm questions you need to know for both Step 1 and Step 2 Audio Flashcards (coming soon) Our audio qbank is THE PERFECT companion for studying for the boards on the go. And we're adding content and improving it all the time. Learn more about the Audio Qbank by InsideTheBoards mobile app here USMLE Step 2 Secrets is now an InsideTheBoards Podcast As a book, USMLE Step 2 Secrets, by Theodore X. O’Connell, MD, ITB's Chief Content Officer and (among many other things) author of Crush Step 1: The Ultimate USMLE Step 1 Review, is recognized as an effective, high-yield study tool for the USMLE Step 2 and COMLEX Level 2. Plus....BONUS...it fits easily into a "short white coat" pocket. Check out all of ITB's Podcasts on our BRAND NEW Website Legal Stuff and Credits InsideTheBoards is not affiliated with the NBME, USMLE, COMLEX, NBOME or any professional licensing body. InsideTheBoards and its partners fully adhere to the policies on irregular conduct outlined by the aforementioned credentialing bodies.
Dr. Alexandra Owensby is running for the Congressional seat in Kentucky's 4th district. In addition to that, she's working at her local hospital during the pandemic. After leaving an abusive marriage, Dr. Owensby put herself through nursing school as a full-time single mother of two, utilizing student loans. While working the night shift to make childcare more affordable, she was able to minimize time away from her children. After graduating and earning her RN Sstatus, Alexandra obtained a position as an ICU nurse. Though still struggling to make ends meet with a salary below $40,000.00 annually, she was able to make it with assistance from the Children’s Health Insurance Program, due to their zero-dollar co-pays for medicine, dental care, and clinic visits. Dr. Owensby believes strongly that this type of Healthcare is what all American families deserve access to. Alexandra’s journey through hardship and the American education system has inspired her to run for Congress as Kentucky’s 4th District Representative. She is not a politician born into money, nor is she a millionaire business owner looking to boost her image. Dr. Alexandra Owensby’s story is the spark that moves an average American citizen to ask for the opportunity to lead in a city where most do not. Listen in to hear Alexandra share: What inspired her to get involved in politics after being in the medical field The unexpected gifts of running for political office (and why you should do it) How moms are always dropping multiple balls and why it’s totally ok Why being a single mom who put herself through school to get multiple degrees makes her uniquely qualified to be a congresswoman How you can coach your kids to be more resilient during COVID Links mentioned: Connect with and learn more about Alexandra: Alexandra Owensby Thank you to our sponsor: Best Fiends: Download FREE on the Apple App Store or Google Play.
In this first part of this episode, ITB's new host Amy Schattel interviews Dr. Lisa Costello about pediatrics and advocacy. Lisa M. Costello, MD, MPH, FAAP is a lifelong West Virginian who hails from Weirton, WV. She is an Assistant Professor in the Department Pediatrics at West Virginia University (WVU) in Morgantown, WV and a Pediatric Hospitalist at WVU Medicine Children’s Hospital. She is co-director of the Pediatrics Clerkship, leads a healthcare literacy and patient advocacy curriculum thread for the M.D. program, and is the advisor for the medical student group, Student Advocates Impacting Decision on Healthcare. Dr. Costello currently serves as the president of the West Virginia Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics, Vice-President of the West Virginia State Medical Association, Vice-Chair of WESPAC, and Board of Directors for the WV Children’s Health Insurance Program. She is a member of Leadership WV Class of 2020. Dr. Costello currently serves as an advisor to the WV Department of Health and Human Resources during the COVID pandemic. At a national level, she is a member of the American Academy of Pediatrics Committee on State Government Affairs. Connect with her on Twitter (@LisaCostelloWV), Facebook, and LinkedIn. ITB Audio Qbank and iOS Beta App The Audio Qbank by InsideTheBoards mobile app has both free and premium features and is available on both Android and iOS. To get started, first, create a Boardsinsider Account on our website insidetheboards.com Free Features All of our podcasts in one place organized into playlists for easy studying (also with less ads and exclusive content) Mindfulness meditations designed specifically for medical students A monthly offering of high yield content (questions dissections, audio qbank samples) available only on our mobile app. Premium Features Subscribe to an ITB premium account and get additional features Access to 500+ audio optimized board style practice questions in our Audio Qbank. The Step 1 version is powered by Exam Circle and the Step 2 Version is powered by OnlineMedEd. New questions added each month. High Yield Pharmacology (powered by Lecturio) with 100 of the top pharm questions you need to know for both Step 1 and Step 2 Audio Flashcards (coming soon) Our audio qbank is THE PERFECT companion for studying for the boards on the go. And we're adding content and improving it all the time. Learn more about the Audio Qbank by InsideTheBoards mobile app here USMLE Step 2 Secrets is now an InsideTheBoards Podcast As a book, USMLE Step 2 Secrets, by Theodore X. O’Connell, MD, ITB's Chief Content Officer and (among many other things) author of Crush Step 1: The Ultimate USMLE Step 1 Review, is recognized as an effective, high-yield study tool for the USMLE Step 2 and COMLEX Level 2. Plus....BONUS...it fits easily into a "short white coat" pocket. Check out all of ITB's Podcasts on our BRAND NEW Website Legal Stuff and Credits InsideTheBoards is not affiliated with the NBME, USMLE, COMLEX, NBOME or any professional licensing body. InsideTheBoards and its partners fully adhere to the policies on irregular conduct outlined by the aforementioned credentialing bodies.
InsideTheBoards Study Smarter Podcast: Question Reviews for the USMLE, COMLEX, and Medical School
In the first part of this episode, ITB's new host Amy Schattel interviews Dr. Lisa Costello about pediatrics and advocacy. Lisa M. Costello, MD, MPH, FAAP is a lifelong West Virginian who hails from Weirton, WV. She is an Assistant Professor in the Department Pediatrics at West Virginia University (WVU) in Morgantown, WV and a Pediatric Hospitalist at WVU Medicine Children’s Hospital. She is co-director of the Pediatrics Clerkship, leads a healthcare literacy and patient advocacy curriculum thread for the M.D. program, and is the advisor for the medical student group, Student Advocates Impacting Decision on Healthcare. Dr. Costello currently serves as the president of the West Virginia Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics, Vice-President of the West Virginia State Medical Association, Vice-Chair of WESPAC, and Board of Directors for the WV Children’s Health Insurance Program. She is a member of Leadership WV Class of 2020. Dr. Costello currently serves as an advisor to the WV Department of Health and Human Resources during the COVID pandemic. At a national level, she is a member of the American Academy of Pediatrics Committee on State Government Affairs. Connect with her on Twitter (@LisaCostelloWV), Facebook, and LinkedIn. ITB Audio Qbank and iOS Beta App The Audio Qbank by InsideTheBoards mobile app has both free and premium features and is available on both Android and iOS. To get started, first, create a Boardsinsider Account on our website insidetheboards.com Free Features All of our podcasts in one place organized into playlists for easy studying (also with less ads and exclusive content) Mindfulness meditations designed specifically for medical students A monthly offering of high yield content (questions dissections, audio qbank samples) available only on our mobile app. Premium Features Subscribe to an ITB premium account and get additional features Access to 500+ audio optimized board style practice questions in our Audio Qbank. The Step 1 version is powered by Exam Circle and the Step 2 Version is powered by OnlineMedEd. New questions added each month. High Yield Pharmacology (powered by Lecturio) with 100 of the top pharm questions you need to know for both Step 1 and Step 2 Audio Flashcards (coming soon) Our audio qbank is THE PERFECT companion for studying for the boards on the go. And we're adding content and improving it all the time. Learn more about the Audio Qbank by InsideTheBoards mobile app here USMLE Step 2 Secrets is now an InsideTheBoards Podcast As a book, USMLE Step 2 Secrets, by Theodore X. O’Connell, MD, ITB's Chief Content Officer and (among many other things) author of Crush Step 1: The Ultimate USMLE Step 1 Review, is recognized as an effective, high-yield study tool for the USMLE Step 2 and COMLEX Level 2. Plus....BONUS...it fits easily into a "short white coat" pocket. Check out all of ITB's Podcasts on our BRAND NEW Website Legal Stuff and Credits InsideTheBoards is not affiliated with the NBME, USMLE, COMLEX, NBOME or any professional licensing body. InsideTheBoards and its partners fully adhere to the policies on irregular conduct outlined by the aforementioned credentialing bodies.
On August 18th, the Nashville Health Care Council and NashvilleHealth co-hosted a virtual conversation on Health Equity and Action to Eliminate Disparities, part 1 of a 3-part series. We're sharing this discussion with you today, where I'm joined by leading experts in the field: Cara James, President and CEO of Grantmakers in Health. Dr. James is a nationally recognized thought leader in health equity and improving health outcomes for vulnerable populations. She previously served as Director of the Office of Minority Health at CMS, where she developed the agency's first Equity Plan to Improve Quality in Medicare and its first Rural Health Strategy, and I know her from her time at the Kaiser Family Foundation, where she served as Director of the Disparities Policy Project and Director of the Barbara Jordan Health Policy Scholars Program. And Dr. Andrea Willis, Senior Vice President and Chief Medical Officer of BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee. A pediatrician by training, Dr. Willis previously served the State of Tennessee as the director of CoverKids, helped develop Tennessee's federally approved State Children's Health Insurance Program, and served as deputy commissioner for the Tennessee Department of Health. I have the privilege of regularly working with and learning from Dr. Willis on the NashvilleHealth Governing Board. In our discussion, we explore health inequity and its long-standing threat to business and community growth and vitality. And we outline actionable steps for individuals and organizations to take to reduce racial health disparities, and become part of the effort to turn this historic national moment into a movement.
At President Trump’s direction, and building on its recent historic efforts to help the U.S. healthcare system manage the 2019 Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services today issued another round of sweeping regulatory waivers and rule changes to deliver expanded care to the nation’s seniors and provide flexibility to the healthcare system as America reopens. These changes include making it easier for Medicare and Medicaid beneficiaries to get tested for COVID-19 and continuing CMS’s efforts to further expand beneficiaries’ access to telehealth services. CMS is taking action to ensure states and localities have the flexibilities they need to ramp up diagnostic testing and access to medical care, key precursors to ensuring a phased, safe, and gradual reopening of America. Today’s actions are informed by requests from healthcare providers as well as by the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act, or CARES Act. CMS’s goals during the pandemic are to 1) expand the healthcare workforce by removing barriers for physicians, nurses, and other clinicians to be readily hired from the local community or other states; 2) ensure that local hospitals and health systems have the capacity to handle COVID-19 patients through temporary expansion sites (also known as the CMS Hospital Without Walls initiative); 3) increase access to telehealth for Medicare patients so they can get care from their physicians and other clinicians while staying safely at home; 4) expand at-home and community-based testing to minimize transmission of COVID-19 among Medicare and Medicaid beneficiaries; and 5) put patients over paperwork by giving providers, healthcare facilities, Medicare Advantage and Part D plans, and states temporary relief from many reporting and audit requirements so they can focus on patient care. “I’m very encouraged that the sacrifices of the American people during the pandemic are working. The war is far from over, but in various areas of the country the tide is turning in our favor,” said CMS Administrator Seema Verma. “Building on what was already extraordinary, unprecedented relief for the American healthcare system, CMS is seeking to capitalize on our gains by helping to safely reopen the American healthcare system in accord with President Trump's guidelines.” Made possible by President Trump’s recent emergency declaration and emergency rule making, many of CMS’s temporary changes will apply immediately for the duration of the Public Health Emergency declaration. They build on an unprecedented array of temporary regulatory waivers and new rules CMS announced March 30 and April 10. Providers and states do not need to apply for the blanket waivers announced today and can begin using the flexibilities immediately. CMS also is requiring nursing homes to inform residents, their families, and representatives of COVID-19 outbreaks in their facilities. New rules to support and expand COVID-19 diagnostic testing for Medicare and Medicaid beneficiaries “Testing is vital, and CMS’s changes will make getting tested easier and more accessible for Medicare and Medicaid beneficiaries,” Verma said. Under the new waivers and rule changes, Medicare will no longer require an order from the treating physician or other practitioner for beneficiaries to get COVID-19 tests and certain laboratory tests required as part of a COVID-19 diagnosis. During the Public Health Emergency, COVID-19 tests may be covered when ordered by any healthcare professional authorized to do so under state law. To help ensure that Medicare beneficiaries have broad access to testing related to COVID-19, a written practitioner’s order is no longer required for the COVID-19 test for Medicare payment purposes. Pharmacists can work with a physician or other practitioner to provide assessment and specimen collection services, and the physician or other practitioner can bill Medicare for the services. Pharmacists also can perform certain COVID-19 tests if they are enrolled in Medicare as a laboratory, in accordance with a pharmacist’s scope of practice and state law. With these changes, beneficiaries can get tested at “parking lot” test sites operated by pharmacies and other entities consistent with state requirements. Such point-of-care sites are a key component in expanding COVID-19 testing capacity. CMS will pay hospitals and practitioners to assess beneficiaries and collect laboratory samples for COVID-19 testing, and make separate payment when that is the only service the patient receives. This builds on previous action to pay laboratories for technicians to collect samples for COVID-19 testing from homebound beneficiaries and those in certain non-hospital settings, and encourages broader testing by hospitals and physician practices. To help facilitate expanded testing and reopen the country, CMS is announcing that Medicare and Medicaid are covering certain serology (antibody) tests, which may aid in determining whether a person may have developed an immune response and may not be at immediate risk for COVID-19 reinfection. Medicare and Medicaid will cover laboratory processing of certain FDA-authorized tests that beneficiaries self-collect at home. Additional highlights of the waivers and rule changes announced today: Increase Hospital Capacity - CMS Hospitals Without Walls Under its Hospitals Without Walls initiative. CMS has taken multiple steps to allow hospitals to provide services in other healthcare facilities and sites that aren’t part of the existing hospital, and to set up temporary expansion sites to help address patient needs. Previously, hospitals were required to provide services within their existing departments. CMS is giving providers flexibility during the pandemic to increase the number of beds for COVID-19 patients while receiving stable, predictable Medicare payments. For example, teaching hospitals can increase the number of temporary beds without facing reduced payments for indirect medical education. In addition, inpatient psychiatric facilities and inpatient rehabilitation facilities can admit more patients to alleviate pressure on acute-care hospital bed capacity without facing reduced teaching status payments. Similarly, hospital systems that include rural health clinics can increase their bed capacity without affecting the rural health clinic’s payments. CMS is excepting certain requirements to enable freestanding inpatient rehabilitation facilities to accept patients from acute-care hospitals experiencing a surge, even if the patients do not require rehabilitation care. This makes use of available beds in freestanding inpatient rehabilitation facilities and helps acute-care hospitals to make room for COVID-19 patients. CMS is highlighting flexibilities that allow payment for outpatient hospital services -- such as wound care, drug administration, and behavioral health services -- that are delivered in temporary expansion locations, including parking lot tents, converted hotels, or patients’ homes (when they’re temporarily designated as part of a hospital). Under current law, most provider-based hospital outpatient departments that relocate off-campus are paid at lower rates under the Physician Fee Schedule, rather than the Outpatient Prospective Payment System (OPPS). CMS will allow certain provider-based hospital outpatient departments that relocate off-campus to obtain a temporary exception and continue to be paid under the OPPS. Importantly, hospitals may also relocate outpatient departments to more than one off-campus location, or partially relocate off-campus while still furnishing care at the original site. Long-term acute-care hospitals can now accept any acute-care hospital patients and be paid at a higher Medicare payment rate, as mandated by the CARES Act. This will make better use during the pandemic of available beds and staffing in long-term acute-care hospitals. Healthcare Workforce Augmentation: To bolster the U.S. healthcare workforce amid the pandemic, CMS continues to remove barriers for hiring and retaining physicians, nurses, and other healthcare professionals to keep staffing levels high at hospitals, health clinics, and other facilities. CMS also is cutting red tape so that health professionals can concentrate on the highest-level work they’re licensed for. Since beneficiaries may need in-home services during the COVID-19 pandemic, nurse practitioners, clinical nurse specialists, and physician assistants can now provide home health services, as mandated by the CARES Act. These practitioners can now (1) order home health services; (2) establish and periodically review a plan of care for home health patients; and (3) certify and re-certify that the patient is eligible for home health services. Previously, Medicare and Medicaid home health beneficiaries could only receive home health services with the certification of a physician. These changes are effective for both Medicare and Medicaid. CMS will not reduce Medicare payments for teaching hospitals that shift their residents to other hospitals to meet COVID-related needs, or penalize hospitals without teaching programs that accept these residents. This change removes barriers so teaching hospitals can lend available medical staff support to other hospitals. CMS is allowing physical and occupational therapists to delegate maintenance therapy services to physical and occupational therapy assistants in outpatient settings. This frees up physical and occupational therapists to perform other important services and improve beneficiary access. Consistent with a change made for hospitals, CMS is waiving a requirement for ambulatory surgery centers to periodically reappraise medical staff privileges during the COVID-19 emergency declaration. This will allow physicians and other practitioners whose privileges are expiring to continue taking care of patients. Put Patients Over Paperwork/Decrease Administrative Burden CMS continues to ease federal rules and institute new flexibilities to ensure that states and localities can focus on caring for patients during the pandemic and that care is not delayed due to administrative red tape. CMS is allowing payment for certain partial hospitalization services – that is, individual psychotherapy, patient education, and group psychotherapy – that are delivered in temporary expansion locations, including patients’ homes. CMS is temporarily allowing Community Mental Health Centers to offer partial hospitalization and other mental health services to clients in the safety of their homes. Previously, clients had to travel to a clinic to get these intensive services. Now, Community Mental Health Centers can furnish certain therapy and counseling services in a client’s home to ensure access to necessary services and maintain continuity of care. CMS will not enforce certain clinical criteria in local coverage determinations that limit access to therapeutic continuous glucose monitors for beneficiaries with diabetes. As a result, clinicians will have greater flexibility to allow more of their diabetic patients to monitor their glucose and adjust insulin doses at home. Further Expand Telehealth in Medicare: CMS directed a historic expansion of telehealth services so that doctors and other providers can deliver a wider range of care to Medicare beneficiaries in their homes. Beneficiaries thus don’t have to travel to a healthcare facility and risk exposure to COVID-19. For the duration of the COVID-19 emergency, CMS is waiving limitations on the types of clinical practitioners that can furnish Medicare telehealth services. Prior to this change, only doctors, nurse practitioners, physician assistants, and certain others could deliver telehealth services. Now, other practitioners are able to provide telehealth services, including physical therapists, occupational therapists, and speech language pathologists. Hospitals may bill for services furnished remotely by hospital-based practitioners to Medicare patients registered as hospital outpatients, including when the patient is at home when the home is serving as a temporary provider based department of the hospital. Examples of such services include counseling and educational service as well as therapy services. This change expands the types of healthcare providers that can provide using telehealth technology. Hospitals may bill as the originating site for telehealth services furnished by hospital-based practitioners to Medicare patients registered as hospital outpatients, including when the patient is located at home. CMS previously announced that Medicare would pay for certain services conducted by audio-only telephone between beneficiaries and their doctors and other clinicians. Now, CMS is broadening that list to include many behavioral health and patient education services. CMS is also increasing payments for these telephone visits to match payments for similar office and outpatient visits. This would increase payments for these services from a range of about $14-$41 to about $46-$110. The payments are retroactive to March 1, 2020. Until now, CMS only added new services to the list of Medicare services that may be furnished via telehealth using its rulemaking process. CMS is changing its process during the emergency, and will add new telehealth services on a sub-regulatory basis, considering requests by practitioners now learning to use telehealth as broadly as possible. This will speed up the process of adding services. As mandated by the CARES Act, CMS is paying for Medicare telehealth services provided by rural health clinics and federally qualified health clinics. Previously, these clinics could not be paid to provide telehealth expertise as “distant sites.” Now, Medicare beneficiaries located in rural and other medically underserved areas will have more options to access care from their home without having to travel Since some Medicare beneficiaries don’t have access to interactive audio-video technology that is required for Medicare telehealth services, or choose not to use it even if offered by their practitioner, CMS is waiving the video requirement for certain telephone evaluation and management services, and adding them to the list of Medicare telehealth services. As a result, Medicare beneficiaries will be able to use an audio-only telephone to get these services. In addition, CMS is making changes to the Medicare Shared Savings Program to give the 517 accountable care organizations (ACOs) serving more than 11 million beneficiaries greater financial stability and predictability during the COVID-19 pandemic. ACOs are groups of doctors, hospitals, and other healthcare providers, that come together voluntarily to give coordinated high-quality care to their Medicare patients. The goal of coordinated care is to ensure that patients get the right care at the right time, while avoiding unnecessary duplication of services and preventing medical errors. When an ACO succeeds both in delivering high-quality care and spending healthcare dollars more wisely, it may share in any savings it achieves for the Medicare program. Because the impact of the pandemic varies across the country, CMS is making adjustments to the financial methodology to account for COVID-19 costs so that ACOs will be treated equitably regardless of the extent to which their patient populations are affected by the pandemic. CMS is also forgoing the annual application cycle for 2021 and giving ACOs whose participation is set to end this year the option to extend for another year. ACOs that are required to increase their financial risk over the course of their current agreement period in the program will have the option to maintain their current risk level for next year, instead of being advanced automatically to the next risk level. CMS is permitting states operating a Basic Health Program to submit revised BHP Blueprints for temporary changes tied to the COVID-19 public health emergency that are not restrictive and could be effective retroactive to the first day of the COVID-19 public health emergency declaration. Previously, revised BHP Blueprints could only be submitted prospectively. CMS sets and enforces essential quality and safety standards for the nation’s healthcare system. It is also the nation’s largest health insurer, serving more than 140 million Americans through Medicare, Medicaid, the Children’s Health Insurance Program, and federal Health Insurance Exchanges. For additional background information on the waivers and rule changes, go to: https://www.cms.gov/newsroom/fact-sheets/additional-backgroundsweeping-regulatory-changes-help-us-healthcare-system-address-covid-19-patient For more information on the COVID-19 waivers and guidance, and the Interim Final Rule, please go to the CMS COVID-19 flexibilities webpage: https://www.cms.gov/about-cms/emergency-preparedness-response-operations/current-emergencies/coronavirus-waivers. These actions, and earlier CMS actions in response to COVID-19, are part of the ongoing White House Coronavirus Task Force efforts. To keep up with the important work the Task Force is doing in response to COVID-19, visit www.coronavirus.gov. For a complete and updated list of CMS actions, and other information specific to CMS, please visit the Current Emergencies Website.
0413 Korean Law Talk : National Health Insurance Program
This week is a replay of the show aired originally on 7 Mar 2020 Welcome! We are going to hit a number of topics today from the world of Technology. I am quite disappointed with Mozilla, they are letting marketers and politicians define their technology. Listen in to find out why I feel that way. Compliance is an issue for many companies and I have some solutions that will help you and it includes a diet but probably not the kind you are thinking. Do you ever get nostalgic for "the good old days?" Well, I have something that might help, listen in to find out more. I will tell you happened to one of the Sharks from Shark Tank? How you can prevent it from happening to you and more. For more tech tips, news, and updates visit - CraigPeterson.com --- Related Articles: Getting Your Fix of Nostalgia Don’t Store Data You Don’t Need Cryptocurrencies and Insurance Increases Ransomware Profitability Are you Secure -- Depends on Many Things You Don’t Have Much Time To Stop An Attack Hackers Target Large Databases Anyone Can Be A Victim - Business Email Compromise Does Not Play Favorites DNS over HTTPS (DoH) is not the Panacea the Marketers Are Leading you to Believe --- Automated Machine Generated Transcript: Hello everybody, Craig Peterson here on WGAN and, of course, online at Craig Peterson, dot com and heard streaming all over the world on your favorite streaming site. I'm so glad to be here today and be able to talk with you a little bit about what are the top news stories this week? How can you keep safe that's kind of one of my themes because I freaked out when my company got attacked some years ago. You know, just a regular business guy trying to run a small business and man did hurt me bad back in the day. I'm just trying to get all of the information I've put together over the years and learn, and I continue to study this stuff and continue to look at what are the best ways to defend ourselves. I try and get all of that and put it together into neat packages for you. One of them, of course, is the radio show. I also get on with Facebook Lives. YouTube lives, and also do various types of pieces of training and tutorials and things out there. Where in fact, for the next course I have coming up, we're going to have implementation calls, where we are talking specifically about what to do when you do it. So you try and implement something, you have some issues. I'm going to get on the phone with you guys. So I think that's going to be great. And then the upcoming class here in a few weeks. And then, of course, the tutorials leading up to that class where I'll take your questions live, sometimes those little tutorial sessions on, you know what it's webinar technology. On these webinars, sometimes we go a couple of hours so I can answer all of your questions. That's what it's about here. All right, because I understand most people, not I know I'm this way too. I get contacted by somebody, and they're trying to sell me something that happened just over the weekend. Last weekend somebody knocked at the door, trying to sell windows, right. I think it was like Renewal by Andersen or something like that. And they were walking around knocking on doors. I see you know, immediately just knee jerk said, No, No thanks, my windows are fine. It got me to thinking about the whole situation in the security realm. Because that's what we do, right? What we've been doing for years decades, sometimes we have the antivirus software, every once in a while when we hear about a real big vulnerability, we go ahead and apply patches. You know, it's been the same old, same old, but we just can't do that anymore. And because really, we see huge, huge problems and businesses going out of business because of them. So that's what this is all about. So if you're a new listener, welcome. If you've been listening to me for a while, of course, Welcome, Welcome to you too. And I want to get this information out. So one of the best ways to make sure you have all of the latest information you need is to go online go to Craig Peterson dot com slash subscribe, and that'll get you on my email list. Then once you're there, you will be able to keep up on up to date on things I do, try and get those out. I have a newsletter that's every Saturday morning. Then when I'm doing training, I'll send something that's a little out of the band if I'm doing a live or various other things. I thought because of the way it works with the emails I send out, if you want to unsubscribe, you will be guaranteed to never hear from me again. Maybe that's a great thing that is right for some people. But for other people, I came to realize that perhaps they didn't care about the training, they just wanted the newsletter, or perhaps they wanted the pieces of training but didn't want any emails. Some wanted on courses but not other courses, etc., etc. So I'm going to try and do something a little bit different right now, and there's a pretty nasty warning as a footnote. If you unsubscribe, I can't send you anything anymore. I won't send you anything even if you want a course, you'll not hear from me again, because you unsubscribed and marked as somebody that doesn't ever want to hear from me again. That's fine. I know we all have our lives, and maybe you think you're safe enough. Perhaps you're going to reach out to me when everything falls apart around you. At which point, I can't respond to you because I will have your email blocked. That is because I don't want to bother you. I want to comply with the can-spam app act. Although, you know, most people don't seem to care about that as well as the GDPR. Also, The New California regulations, the Massachusetts regulations, and new federal regulations that are going into effect. They all place requirements on when and where I'm not supposed to contact you. If you say No. Then No means no, right. I'm going to change things a little bit with these upcoming training and courses that I'm going to be doing. I'm going to make it so you can just unsubscribe from those, so you're not going to lose contact with me. I've had some people complain, and in the end, it becomes a bit of a pain to try and add them back in. We're going to try and make this a little bit easier for you guys, so keep an eye out for that. You already know right based on what I'm saying, as well as what I've done in the past that I won't spam you guys, I don't sell your name to other people your email address. Most of you I know are kind of the older generations, the younger guys they don't care we've already talked about that. They will sell their email address and name for a donut. But us older folk were a little bit more cautious about it. I think that's probably a good thing. We're less likely to get ripped off the senior population in some ways less likely to get ripped off, and other ways more likely get ripped off. It's interesting. Again, we tend to trust phone calls more. You know what I have, frankly, I don't answer my phone anymore. It just goes to voicemail. And I have somebody else look at it because there are so many scams coming in. But we tend to trust the phones more in the generation, you know, the men and women older than me, other baby boomers, they are a little bit more susceptible to those types of scams. So be careful with those types of scams as well just you know, be careful all the way around, frankly. And that brings us to our first story of the day today. And this is something I found that I thought was cool. So I thought I'd share it with you. It's a tech thing. I was just a few weeks ago talking on the radio. One of the radio shows I appear on as a guest. And we were talking about Betamax versus VHS. And I knew I knew that the radio host I was talking to there's no way he just loves tech. There's no way he did not have Betamax. And he did. He had hundreds, apparently of beta tapes in his closet. But this is all about that Era of the 1990s. I'm sure you guys had VCRs right back in the day. And of course, the winner of that war was VHS, and it wasn't because it was better technology, but we're not going to delve into that right now. And those VHS tapes, at this point, about 20,000 of them have been put into an online vault. Now, if you've never used the Wayback Machine, you have to check it out. You can find it online. At archive.org, that's the name of it. It is an Internet Archive, and it shows web pages going way back, you can look at my web page from back in the very, very, very early days of the Internet. When you know, love the not the Internet, but of when the whole web thing came about, which was 9293 is when it started to go. I didn't have a webpage back in 85. When I first registered my domain that's been around for a while. And then, of course, I was using other domains. Before that, I've used my ham radio call sign is my domain. And before that, but the Wayback Machine is this archive, you can browse the history of any major site, many miners sites that are out there. They have used it in court cases. It's used by me, just for kind of memories of things as the way they were. Now you can use it for something brand new. I didn't know that they had, and that is They've got something out there on the Wayback Machine that's called the VHS vault V-H-S just like the VHS tapes that we had or that ken didn't have because he had Betamax. Right now, I'm looking at says there are almost 21,000 results. So they've taken these VHS tapes that were submitted, and they have effectively ripped them. They've turned them into digital video, right. And some of these are just amazing, like a warm-up to Traci Lords. It's an exercise program. Of course, Traci Lords was involved in some adult films back in the day. Man, I love this mystery science theater. 3000 Timothy Leary is a guest on MTV with John Lennon, Les Miserables from 1935, rush to judgment. There are some many cool things The Lion King in full VHS tapes. Now some of this information is probably still copyrighted, but as a general rule, archive.org doesn't get nailed for copyright violations. SpongeBob SquarePants Oh, this is the Fairy Fairy Godmother I think is what this cartoon was called and trying to remember my kids used to like it. Some bootleg tapes, everything, but you can find it online I think you would have a gas looking through these. I want you to go to archive.org as you're listening to the show, or maybe some other time during the week, you're sitting there watching some TV with your smartphone or your computer. Archive.org and look for the VHS vault. The actual URL is archive.org slash details slash VHS vault. You will see all kinds of fun stuff that's in there. They have many different collections You can search this you can go in by year when They did it. They have Flemish dog collection. There's another one. There are collections I've used in some of the training videos I put together. There are collections of old black and white art, and pencil art, and engineering diagrams that are well, well auto copyright and you'll find all that stuff@archive.org Check it out, I think you will have a gas checking it out. If you're like me, it's certainly brought back a lot of memories. When we get back, we're going to be talking about something that you should be doing, whether you're a home user or business user. You know, the things that we have to be worried about are the things that can be stolen from us, right, in the online world. Okay, this is what we will be talking about. What can be taken from us, but also what can be used to kind of hold our feet to the fire in ransomware. So we're going to talk about how to reduce your risk with Craig Peterson here on WGAN Stick around. We'll be right back. Hey everybody Craig Peterson back here on WGAN online, and of course, at Craig Peterson dot com. Yeah, you know it by now, right? Well, hopefully, you had a chance to look@archive.org, definitely check it out. It's called the Wayback Machine, at least that was its original name. And they may still have that domain, the Wayback machine.com. But now it's known as archive.org. It is a wonderful, wonderful trip down memory lane, at least for me. If, if you are a little bit older, you might remember the Internet back in the days fun looking at some of the original search pages at AltaVista. Man, I miss AltaVista. I used to like to use the Boolean algebra that you could do in AltaVista. By the way, if you are a geek like me when it comes to searching and you want to be able to dig into it. There's a tool I use, and I think that you'd like it also. It's not cheap, that's for sure, but not that expensive either, but it's called DEVONthink, D-E-V-O-N T-H-I-N-K. It allows you to set up searches using all kinds of Boolean constructs, which is very, very, very handy, at least as far as I'm concerned. You can set it up to do automatic search sets every day looking for different things. It's one of the tools I use to find the information that we talk about here on this show because so much of it just isn't generally speaking, available. It certainly isn't spoken about by the mainstream media, right? You know that right. That's why you listen to the show and why you follow me. I am on LinkedIn. I'm on Facebook. I'm on Twitter, YouTube, and my website as well. I appreciate all you guys who do follow and who comment. Now, if you're a business person, this is for you, but there are some things that you can do as an individual as well that are going to make a big difference for yourself and your safety online. Businesses are concerned about the GDPR, which we've talked about on the show before. That's the European privacy regulation. We're also very concerned right now with CCPA. I just had a company that makes optics. I use their optics here in the studio if you have ever seen me on a webinar or one of these videos or pop up training or anything. I'm in the studio, and my cameras here the lenses use the glass made by this company. I had no idea, but they reached out to us due to their operations in California. They have a sales operation there because, again, they're selling their optical glass for use in lenses, and all kinds of other devices. They reached out because they were concerned about what is happening, what could happen with these new California privacy regulations? Is it going to mess up their business? How is it going to mess up their business? How is it going to make things better or worse? I think they had some outstanding questions. So they called us in, and they paid us to do an audit of the systems they have. How are the systems working? What is it that we need to be worried about? You know, it's something that takes a few weeks and a couple of on-site visits in New York? New York State, which by the way, is going to have their own set of privacy regulations that are going to affect them pretty dramatically. But basically, what it came down to was if they were compliant with the European regulations, they were probably most of the way towards the California regulations. So they think that they're compliant. But when we got in and started having to look at it, it turned out No, no, no. They are not anywhere near compliant with either set of regulations. Even though their IT people told them they are because they have full-time programmers who are programming their systems. They thought, Oh, no, no, we're fine. We're fine. No, they weren't. So what do you do if your regular business? Enough moaning and groaning about the optical manufacturer, who has fantastic optics, which is why I use them. Let's talk about you. Let's talk about your business, your small business, your larger business, this is true, you should be paying attention if you are a medium or large business as well. One of the best things you can do, and it is hard to get through to a lot of CEOs and other business owners. But one of the best things you can do to reduce your risks is to reduce the data that you are maintaining. Right? If you want to reduce the chance of getting shot at, don't go out in the streets where they're shooting, right? If you want to reduce the risk of having your data stolen, then don't have the data out there for them to steal. If you don't want to get nailed by one of these new regulations, that says, hey, personally identifiable information has to be maintained in this way and that way. If someone asks you what data do you have on me? Do you realize now you only have one week to respond? You must provide that data to them. If you have any sort of a California Nexus or European Nexus, in other words, doing business in either one of those places. Now, it's down to I think five days it's not a week to respond, saying, Here's all of the data that we have about you. That's what you have to be able to do. We have to be able to do it right now. You also have to be able to tell them, here are all of the people within my organization as well our contractors that saw your data and had access to your data. That is a very, very big deal, frankly. The landscape is constantly changing your obligations for that data, and the data disclosure and the data-keeping keeps getting more strict. What's the right thing for you to do? Ultimately, well, it's to get rid of the damn data, right? It's a very, very solid first step in reducing your risk. Now I'm going to be publishing next week, a little guide that you can use yourself, right, you don't have to have me involved, or anything else is just for you, that you can use to do an inventory of all of the data that you have in your business. What we've done is we've gone through and looked at different parts of the businesses that we've worked with over the years and evaluated the kind of data they often have. You have to do that first, right? You must identify what your risks are. You must determine what data you have. I'll make that available for those people on my email list. It will be part of this ramp-up here, a precursor to the pieces of training that I will be doing. There will be different free pieces of training and tutorials in my ramp-up to my courses. You don't have to be in the course to participate in the free tutorials, okay? You don't have to buy anything from me. It is all free, no hype or anything else. Okay. I'm not trying to hard-sell anybody I want to help you. That is the first step -- doing this inventory the data you have, and it is one of the best things you can do. Put your company on a data diet. Now, you know, last week we had Barry Friedman on the show, talking about a sugar diet. Right. It's a lot like that, and it's getting rid of these addictive pieces of data that we keep on our clients on our prospects, everything else that's out there, right. Let's look at it as a lens. When you're looking at your data when you're doing an inventory of these data assets, ask yourself, do I need this? Will this provide what I need? Think about maybe like a food diet as Barry does with sugar? Do I need sugar? We know is sugar going to provide us the nutrients that we need? The answer to that is no. When it comes to sugar, right. We found that out from Barry last week. But we need to work to minimize sensitive data and ask ourselves, do we need this sensitive data to conduct business right now? And will we need this sensitive data to conduct business in the future? If the answer's no, securely dispose of that data. It is the only way to comply with these regulations that are already in place here in the US and Europe as well. All right, when we get back, we're going to talk about how did we get here? How did we? How did ransomware grow to be a multi-billion dollar industry? What did we do to get here? What should we do to try and get beyond all of this? You're listening to Craig Peterson on WGAN. And of course online at Craig Peterson. dot com, live on youtube, live on Facebook everywhere out there. Stick around. We'll be right back. Hey, welcome back, everybody, Craig Peterson here on WGAN, and of course online at Craig Peterson dot com. In case you missed it. We've been busy today talking about the internet archives VHS vault. Again, that's archive.org. Check it out. It is kind of cool. We just talked about reducing risk using the cheapest mechanism possible. Data minimization will save you money and help you be compliant. Now I'm going to talk about ransomware. We've been warned recently about ransomware's rise. Many people thought it's kind of past. In some ways, it has. 2018 was kind of the banner year for the standard ransomware that out there, but it is back, and it is back with a vengeance. We talked about some of the statistics about a month ago and showed how it had gone up a bit almost doubled just between the third and fourth quarters last year, which is just absolutely dramatic. I had a course before, where we talked a little bit about backups. I've certainly talked about it here on the show before, and how backups help stop ransomware. Let's just spend a couple of minutes on that right now, although it's not 100% accurate anymore. It is essential to do for just a whole plethora of reasons. Backups are kind of the very first stage of what you need. I read an article yesterday from a guy who is in some of the highest circles in the country. He had the phone numbers, the direct cell numbers of presidents and you name it, really just anybody who's anybody was on his phone. It was an Android phone. He had assumed that it was backed up into the cloud or something. His phone broke. He got a new phone and realized at that point that his phone had that never, ever, ever, been backed up. He lost the phone numbers from all of these people. Good luck getting them back, cell phone numbers, other contact information. Think of all the things that are on our phones nowadays. Losing your phone, having a hard disk crash on your laptop, or your desktop computer. Losing those can be devastating, no question about it. If you're a larger business and you think that you're doing backups, double-check them. I'd say three times quarters of the time, and I can't think of an exception to this, your backups will not work correctly for that business. I've never seen a case where all backups are working correctly, ever, ever going into a business. I know you, Craig, you're just crazy. It's silly. You're trying to build a business and scare people. No, I have never walked into a company and found their backups to be working correctly. We see things like, and I don't mean, they're not working in a way that is ideal or optimal for the business. Right? Certainly that on top of it. I mean, they weren't working. We had one company that we went into, and they were dutifully doing backups, and the operations manager had five external hard disks. Every day he brought a hard drive in, he plugged it into the server and took it home at the end of the day. So we had Monday through Friday, hard disks that you brought back home with them. So they were off-site, which is, you know, great idea, by the way. The server itself had a RAID configuration on it and is called a raid five. It had three hard disks so that if a drive failed, they wouldn't lose all of their data. We went in because they wanted to do some upgrades. They hoped to move over to Apple infrastructure, where people could use iPads and iMacs on their desks to have a better working environment for everyone by moving away from windows. By the way, this is an excellent idea. They still had some Windows software that they had to run, so we helped them with that and got that all working running correctly. The backups you know, they were trying to do the right thing. But you know, you know what, there were a couple of problems one, their server had not written to any of those external disks for the last 18 months. They went a year and a half without ever having had a good backup. Think about that. What would happen to that business? What would happen to your company? After 18 months of no good backups and losing all your data? Oh, and their server, an HP server, that cute little HP server had that RAID array, right a raid five where you can lose a disk and not lose data. Well, they had lost a drive. We were estimating based on the logs about a year before. There they were with no backups and no redundancy in their server disks on their server. That's an example right now, and I could go on and on. We had a company division of a Fortune 100 company that had paid for backups, and they had a dedicated data line. We put some next-generation firewalls in place that monitored the data and watched for data exfiltration to make sure that the plans and designs and social security numbers and bank accounts and everything were not being stolen or taken off off-site, right. Guess what we found there? After six weeks of monitoring everything that's been going on because that's the first step right. Let's make sure we understand what the normal operations are. Didn't you tell us that you had an off-site backup of your mini computer going to another backup site? Oh, yeah, yeah, we do. It gets backed up in real-time. We're paying for the backups to go off-site. If something were to happen to our facility here, or to our computer, which is a big server, then they'd take over immediately we'd be off and running during those six weeks that we were in there we hadn't been involved with these operations. Ultimately, we were in there for decades. Guess what we found? Yeah, exactly. None of the backups were occurring. They were paying for all of these things, right? They were paying for them. What we ended up doing is we came in, and we made sure that backups were happening. Unfortunately, they didn't have us do those backups. The company doing it for them was incompetent. And yet they decided to have them continue to do it. It doesn't make sense. We took over the rest of the backups. We had equipment on site, which we do at most of our clients. In case there's a problem, there are failovers that can occur. In this case, we'd have them back online in four hours, a requirement of publicly traded companies and their divisions. Again, they're just not doing anyways. Ramble. Ramble. Wow, we've only got a couple of minutes left here in this segment. When it comes to backups, here's what you have to be careful of, and that is, make sure they are happening. Check the backups. Try and restore from your backups. Now, we're talking about ransomware. It is a seven and a half-billion-dollar industry. They are coming for you, and one of the best things you can do is have a backup. Still, there's another side to ransomware, nowadays, that backup won't help you with, and that is that they have your data, and they hold a ransom saying, if you don't pay us, we're going to release this onto the Internet. Then you're in real trouble. If you have personally identifiable information, or if you have your intellectual property out there, and it gets out to the Internet because you don't pay that ransom, you are in real trouble, plus if they encrypt your data, you'll need that backup. All right, stick around. We will be right back. And we're going to be talking about our next topic for the day, which is how do you answer a non-technical executive, who asks, how secure are we? Your listening to Craig Peterson on WGAN and online at Craig Peterson dot com. Hey, have you ever been asked that question? Well, we'll tell you about how to answer it, coming right up. Hey, welcome back, everybody, Craig Peterson here on WGAN and online, of course at Craig Peterson dot com. No surprise there. Our next one is an interesting article and poses an interesting question. It is one that I'm sure you ask or have been asked, right? How secure are we? You are the Calvary, is the bottom line. You're the person who your family comes to, or the business owner comes to, the business asks whenever they have a tech question, right? You wouldn't be listening otherwise. It is how you get ahead. It is how you learn. You listen to me and others, read articles. You are the Calvary. How does the Calvary answer that question, when you're asked, How secure are we? You know, there's the obvious answer. Well, you know, we got this, and we got that. We have an Anti-virus, and we have a firewall. Those, frankly, are buzzwords that many of us use just to obfuscate the real answer to that question. I know that many times when we go into a business, and we secure it, we put together a proposal. Most of the time, our recommendations are not accepted. Most of the time, when we go into a business, and we say, here's what you need. Here's what you need to do to stay secure, they say No, thank you, and prefer to run with blinders. Hopefully, they won't stumble in the middle of the night get or tossed by that horse, of just kind of ignoring it, right. Blinders or maybe you might want to call it ostrich-ing and to put their head in the sand or whatever, you want to call it, But most of the time, in reality, the businesses just don't do anything. Sometimes they do, right. That's how I stay in business. I stay in business because of the companies that want to remain secure. I stay in business because of the people that are the Calvary. They're like you who want to buy my courses to understand more to get step by step instructions know, not just the stories behind things, but the strategy in the exact tactics that they have to take. And that's you, I suspect, right? I think you're probably a lot like me in that way. That's how I like to learn, and that's how I teach as well. Well, this article is from our friends over Dark Reading. And the question is, uh, how secure are we? And how should we answer that? There's a great response by Kurtis Minder, the CEO, and Co-Founder of GroupSense. He says it depends. You've got to look at your executive team and qualify their level of understanding. Answering the question with the answer of well, we have antivirus, we have a firewall, and we have mail filters. You know, a lot of people nowadays say, "well, we're in the cloud," and there's nothing to worry about, which we already know, isn't true, right? There's way more to worry about if you're in the cloud than if you have a local server. For those of you who are the kind of computer security people for your organization addressing this requires finding out where they are coming from who they are comparing. For instance, is it to what the Payment Card Industry PCI-DSS says we're supposed to do? Are we supposed to compare ourselves to the HIPAA-HiTech regulations? In other words, we have some medical data, which by the way, every company does, if you have any sort of a Health Insurance Program, right? Are we supposed to compare ourselves to the NIST 171 standard? There's, even more, there is the CMMC. There's, there's a lot of different criteria that are out there. You must understand the HOW before you answer this question. How secure we compared to similar companies in our industry? Or companies that are similar in size to us? No matter how you're going to answer that question, when the boss comes a-knockin or the kids or your wife comes a-knockin saying, How secure are we? No matter who it is you're talking to, I think the one thing you have to make sure of is that they understand that the whole security threat landscape is fluid. It's always changing, and your security programs need to be fluid as well. That's the reason I have consulting clients, right. That's the reason I have a membership program. The people who are the Calvary can follow and understand what it is they need to know. Now I want to hop over to this other guy here. His name is Matt Combs. And he is a global cybersecurity practice leader for an executive recruiter called Russell Reynolds Associates. It is absolutely a phenomenal interview on CIO.com. He's saying many companies were blissfully unaware t, especially those that don't have credit card information. How many times have I said that, right? It takes at least six months for the average company to figure out a breach occurred. Why did Matt say, especially those that don't have credit card information? It's because if they have credit card information, that information is likely to be sold on the open market very quickly. Once sold, the credit card companies are going to notice, right? Many companies have only learned that a breach occurred after the FBI came knocking on the door and told them they had a problem. Look at Home Depot. What happened? The FBI traced the dots. Home Depot, was compromised through their point of sale equipment. Can you believe that? people sitting in the parking lot of Home Depot hacked them? They didn't even know it until the FBI knocked on the door. That's a pretty big deal, on a pretty big company. I think they are the second-largest retailer in the country? When it comes to dollar-to-dollar value? Are you sold? Okay. If you don't have the credit card information, how would you even know that a breach happened? It goes ties back into the fluidity of security. It seems so obvious. Now when you look back at Home Depot and say, What were they thinking? I look at the target the TJX companies, and their hack they had security equipment, and that security equipment was quite good. It was alerting them, "whoa, wait a minute, guys, we've got a breach, okay." Did they take care of it? No, because they didn't know how to read the output, and they didn't have enough people to look at the logs, which is something else we keep telling you all. You have to watch the logs. You have to watch them closely. It's a full-time job. It's a highly skilled job, a highly trained job. It is not cheap, okay. I know a hotel company with 500 hotels in the United States, of course, you can look that up to find out who it is. They have a chief information security officer who is an information security group of one. Think about that 500 hotels, just the business itself, all of the data that they have, the liability that they have, and he doesn't have anyone working for him. Not even a support person. He has to beg, borrow, and steal help from it, and from the CIO, the Chief Information Officer. So when the executive asks you how secure are we, you have to say, Hey, listen, you know we can lock down the doors, we can lock down the windows, but the odds are if someone wants to breach us, they will be able to. However, make sure you are locking down the doors and locking down the windows. You got to close it all up. There was one other thing I think you should do when this non-tech executive asks you about how secure we are. That is, what's your nightmare, Mr. Executive? Which systems? Are you most concerned about being compromised? You should go back to the question I asked a little bit earlier, which is, what data do we have that maybe we shouldn't have? What data do we have that we are most concerned about losing? What are the Family Jewels in our organization? What is the data that if we were to lose it, we'd be in a lot of trouble, either because we could not conduct business anymore, or maybe we would get nailed by the regulators out there? Anyway, a lot of really, really good questions to ask because you're never 100% secure. All it takes is for one employee to click on the wrong link on an email. What I was just talking about will come up a little later on today. I talked about it this week on several radio stations. What happened with Barbara Cochran, an investor from Shark Tank. Stay tuned as we'll talk about it a little bit later on. All it takes and frankly, employee negligence such as accidental loss of data, accidental clicking on things. Employee negligence is still the main cause of data breaches. In a report from ShredIT now, of course, they're in the business of shredding documents of getting rid of these things. Shredding hard disk drives when you take them out of a computer. Remote workers and external vendors are also now a major cause of the increase in data breaches. That's one of the things we're going to be covering here in my course coming up in a couple of weeks, and that is the upstream-downstream risk. And the US military is totally into this now, because they had two or three major breaches last year that came through vendors. So hackers are no match for human error when it comes to sheer numbers. You also have the insider threats of people who are stealing from you. So they can get a better job, take it with them to another job. You have people who are upset with you and are just making an absolute mess of things on the way out the doors. So be very careful about that because it's huge data breaches cost an average of $3.6 million globally average that was in 2017. Some of those prices have gone up. The faster you respond to a breach, the more money that you'll save. They found that if you can respond to a breach within 30 days, on average, you'll save over a million dollars. Think of that. The odds are good that you will get breached. You will save, on average, a million dollars. Yet you're not funding the security people either by going to an external contractor, like me, to take care of it for you. Or you don't provide the resources to the internal people they need to do it. It is a huge, huge job. All right, top of the hour course, on the radio stations, we've got the news, traffic, weather, all that sort of stuff coming up. Then when we get back, we're going to talk about a new metric in security. The next-gen security metrics. Stick around, and you are listening to Craig Peterson on WGAN and online. Hey everybody, welcome back. Craig Peterson here, on WGAN and, of course, online at Craig Peterson dot com. We have already covered a bunch today. I would refer you over to my website. If you'd like to find out a little bit more, of course, I'm also on the streaming services. You can find it there. We've covered the internet archive. They've got this cool, new VHS vault. We discussed ways to reduce your risk of data loss. It's all about identifying your data. and then minimizing your data, how we enabled ransomware to become a multi-billion dollar industry. And I also gave some good advice on backups and the fact that 100% of the businesses I've ever walked into have had a failed backup strategy and failed in a bunch of different ways. It is big for all of us who are out there who are members of the Calvary, who are trying to help our friends, our family with their computer issues, and the businesses for whom we work. Then we got to how to answer questions that we get that have to do with our level of security? How secure are we? How secure is the business? That's what we have covered so far today. I love our next topic. It's phenomenal. It's from Thread Post.com. But they're talking about different types of security metrics. Now, metrics, of course, our measurements, or the ways we measure things. We always have to measure progress to be able to know have we gotten to where we need to be, right. Progress can be difficult to measure. There are a lot of different types of measurements when it comes to our security. Say for Microsoft Windows, one of the big things is, are you ready every Patch Tuesday. Then a little bit more, as Microsoft sometimes comes with out-of-cycle patches. They got nailed a few years ago, through criticisms about them releasing new patches, like constantly, because they needed to release them. And so instead of fixing their problem, which would be almost impossible to do, and that is rewriting windows and making it much more secure design, they decided they would just go ahead and release patches once a month. And that way, of course, you're not getting them every day. So who's getting noticed that in fact, there are a whole lot of vulnerabilities and Windows. So that was another measurement that we had. Did you get your Patch Tuesday stuff done? That's been around a very long time? Well, we've got a new metric here, and it's called hardening. Now, I don't know about you guys, but my wife thinks that most people don't know what the name hardening is. So I'll explain it a little bit. Hardening is where we close holes in our networks and our Windows computers. That's really what our emphasis is going to be coming up here next week when we start our whole hardening series. By the time you finish this series and the courses, you'll be able to lock down any Windows or Mac computer yourself. You are going to be able to lock down your small business network, and you're going to stop worrying about being the victim of the bad guys. We're also going to train you on how to test everything yourself. That you can make sure that they can't get in, right. If not tested, how will you know it works. It's like I was talking about with backups. How do you know they are working? How do you know it's effective? How effective is it? So we're going to teach all of that, and I think that's just going to be amazing for you guys, man. We're looking to do something you guys are going to love. Hardening in the case of our computers includes our computers, browsers, firewalls, and routers. In other words, there, we're using all of the options, all of the available software to make sure that bad guys are not easily going to get in is our Windows Firewall harden on our computers? Did you even know you had a firewall on a Windows computer? Well, it's almost useless. Because Windows has a firewall, it is turned on by default, but they have all kinds of services turned on and available to be used. All of these things are kind of crazy. When we get down to it, there are things we can do. That's what we're going to be covering starting in about a week with some of these tutorials. And with our great course that we have coming up. Now, let's talk about what's holding us back and what mean time to harden means. We're looking at vulnerabilities, when we're talking about a zero-day-attack, it is one that no one has seen before and where there is not a patch or workaround for it. It's really kind of a nasty thing. When it comes to hardening, you want to make sure that you have as few services as possible on your computer, firewall, and browser. That again makes your attack surface smaller. But when we're talking about those types of zero-day attacks, it typically takes an organization 15 times longer to close a vulnerability than it does for the attackers to weaponize that vulnerability and exploit it. So basically, we're talking about one week for the bad guys to take a vulnerability one of those zero-day things. It takes one week to weaponize it, and it takes us about 102 days to patch it. Let that sink in for just a minute here. Once vulnerabilities get disclosed, It's a time-race here to either secure this hole before the bad guys to exploit it. Now we saw that with the Equifax breach where here's a major, major breach against a major company out there, and only happened because they hadn't applied the patches that they needed to apply. It's just really that simple. Microsoft has a patch let's give an example right now, BlueKeep. BlueKeep is a way to break into Microsoft machines. Microsoft released patches for BlueKeep in the May 2019 Patch Tuesday security fixes. Microsoft released it in May, and as of December 2019, seven months later, there were still over 700,000 machines at risk. Let me see here now May to June July, August, September, October, November, December. That, to me, sounds like seven months. That's huge. Sophos has some security software. In their recent report about WannaCry, which is ransomware. The patch against the exploit WannaCry was using has not been installed on a countless number of machines. Still despite being released more than two years ago. It's crazy, isn't it? Do you guys agree with me? Am I just being kind an alarmist? Now the average time to weaponize this is seven days. Many weaponization comes in less than seven days. Like the infamous ApacheStruts vulnerability. You have effectively 72 hours to harden new systems. Now the numbers are even worse. When we're talking about incident response. There's a new rule out from a company called CrowdStrike. You might have heard of them before, they've been in the news for some political stuff as well. But they are a security company. They do a lot of investigations after the fact and try to figure out what happened and try and clean things up. CrowdStrike has a new rule. It's called the 1-10-60 rule. And it's based on what they call breakout time. So here's what that is. Most nation-state actors, in other words, the more advanced hackers out there, move laterally from an initial attack within two hours on average. In other words, if there is a country that's coming after you say, for instance, China. Most say now it isn't like China is going to go after me. I'm not Military and not a military contractor. China comes after you to steal your intellectual property. Once they have gotten inside of your network, they will move around inside your system. What this means is it gives defenders of a network one minute to detect a breach, 10 minutes to understand what has happened and that it was a breach and one hour to contain that breach from the initial incursion. That is huge. Now, this is part of this meantime to hardening and goal response that we're trying to achieve. If you're a regular business, and it's six months before you even notice that a hack occurred, if you ever even notice, which is par for the course, and one that we see that quite frequently. We will come in and look for signs of hacking. Many times, companies don't want to know. They just want to know if there are any openings that they should be closing right now. Why? If you see a hack occurred, there are specific legal responsibilities that you have. Companies say, Listen, don't tell me, I don't want to know. Without monitoring and watching what our organizations are doing, if we're not at the very least, patching and hardening, we're in real trouble. Now, I know you guys know how to patch it's not that difficult to do. We're not going to spend a lot of time on that in the upcoming tutorials or courses, but we are going to spend a lot of time in the course on Hardening because it is one of your best defenses. It's kind of like having a package on the front porch that was just delivered by Amazon people, right? If there is no package on the porch, the porch pirates are not going to show up and to steal the box. It's the same type of thing here. If you do not have services available on your machines inside your network, there is no way for the bad guys to move laterally. There's no way for them to get in remotely. That is our goal in our hardening courses, how to harden your Windows machine. That's coming up in about a week, week and a half. So make sure you are on my email list. You get all of that free training. You can find out about the courses as well that we are putting together for this. All of that at Craig Peterson dot com slash subscribe. You're listening to me here on WGAN. You can always send questions to me -- me at Craig Peterson dot com. Hey, welcome back, everybody, Craig Peterson online at Craig Peterson dot com and right here on WGAN. I am also putting these up on Facebook and making them available on YouTube. For those that are interested. I want to talk a little bit right now about Clearview AI. You know, again, I've said so many times that we've got to be careful with our data online. Clearview AI is this company that we talked about a few weeks ago, that has been scraping all of the information it could get online, mainly related to photographs. All of the pictures that you posted on Facebook or that you put up on any photo sharing sites, all of that stuff, Clearview scraped. Now, they have this app that allows you to take a picture, and then it will do facial recognition to find all of the places online that that picture appears. And it has been used by looks like more than 2200 different organizations, many of them police department to track people down. So if you have a picture, even if it's not a great picture, that picture can then be put into the clear view AI app. And it'll show you here you go, here's where we found this guy or gal online. And even if you didn't take the picture, and you are in a photograph, it is going to show up in clear view is going to find it. Now, Clearview AI grabbed all of these photographs online without asking permission of anyone. I don't think they asked your permission, did they? They didn't get my permission. They scraped them from Twitter, who they didn't ask permission. They scraped them from Facebook. They scraped them from all over the internet. They ended up with billions of photographs. They logged it all along with where they found them online. That way, if the police department is looking for this person, they have a photo of them. They can put it into the Clearview AI app and can authenticate where online it was found. And then the police department just goes there and says, Oh, well, that's a Mary Jane's homepage. Here's more about Mary Jane, where she lives and everything else and now off they go to get Mary Jane. Now remember, of course, first off, these things are not 100% accurate. They could be false. There are false positives, although in many cases, they have been very successful at identifying people, and they have helped to solve some crimes, which is I guess a good thing, right. I think that's what you might want to say, okay. In a notification that The Daily Beast reviewed, Clearview AI told them that there had been an intruder that gained unauthorized access to its list of customers, and they got access to many accounts they've set up and the searches they have run. Now, this disclosure also claimed that there was no breach of Clearview AI servers and that there was no compromise of Clearview AI systems or networks. That puzzles me makes me wonder, well, maybe they were using a cloud service, and they had it stored up there, and that's how it got stolen. It's hard to say. Clearview AI went on to say that it patched the unspecified hole that let the intruder in and that whoever was didn't manage to get their hands on their customer's search histories. Now there's a release from a Clearview AI attorney, and his statement said that security is Clearview AI top priority, which is total crap, right? They did everything they could to breach ethics and security of the user agreements from all of these websites from which they scraped our information. Unfortunately, data breaches their attorney says are part of life in the 21st century. Our servers were never accessed. We patched the flaw and continue to work to strengthen our security. All of this is in a report on naked security dot com. Now, this, frankly, is very concerning to me from several different standpoints, right. First of all, Clearview AI had this massive database of facial images that they had sold to hundreds of law enforcement agencies. In many cases, it wasn't like the overall agency. It was just a police officer themself that subscribed. It may be a detective, etc. The New York Times ran a front-page article in January, saying that Clearview AI may end privacy as we know it and man, is that ever true. They have been quietly selling access to these facial images and facial recognition software to over 600 law enforcement agencies. Now with this data breach, it looks like it's more than 2200. Although we have not seen the list posted online yet, we may end up seeing the posted online. It depends on who did this and if it was a nation-state, which is entirely possible. They are trying to find out a little bit more about us or whether it was somebody else. It reminds me of a lot about the founding of Facebook and why I've been against Facebook over the years, right? Facebook had a very unethical at its start. They stole all the photos of women going to Harvard University and then had people be able to go to their little website and rate the women, right? Rate them? Yeah, on their looks using all stolen photos. That's the allegation behind it all. It certainly seems to be true. Microsoft, that's another reason I just, I don't use the word hate very often believe me, but I do hate Microsoft and the way they started. They unethically sued people and play games with trying to buy them by lying about the rights that they had. Bill Gates outright lying to IBM and others, back in the early days. I have a good friend of mine who says Craig if you didn't have any ethics, you would be one of the wealthiest people in the country. Your ethics kept you from doing them, yet you bent over backward to help people. Companies, like these need to go out of business and need to go out of business fast, it's crazy. We've got the Biometric Information Privacy Act that Clearview AI has violated. ClearView AI has also been told by Twitter, Facebook, Google, and YouTube to stop scraping. Those companies have ordered it to stop that. It is against the policies. The Times noted that there's a strong use case for ClearView AI technology finding the victims of child abuse. News. It makes a lot of sense. One, retired Chief of Police said that running images of 21 victims of the same offender returned nine or 14 miners identifications, the youngest of whom was 13. So where do we draw the law watch line, I should say, what should we be doing here? It goes back to the whole fruit of the poisoned tree principle that exists in the law. That you've seen on TV and in movies many times, any evidence illegally obtained can't be used nor anything that comes of that evidence. It is why some Federal investigators play games with where did you get this evidence? Russia? Did it come from Christopher Steele? Should we have something similar In this case, and I think that we should if they stole information from these companies, which they did. It's, frankly, intellectual property theft at the very least. That means it is of no use in any sort of a police case that started an investigation and any legal matters that follow. That's my opinion. I don't know what yours is. I'd love to hear from you email Me at Craig Peterson dot com. Thank God they were able to find some of these victims of child abuse. But at the same time here, we should have some rights to privacy. It may already be too late. I guess we'll know. Soon enough. Hey, when we get back, we're going to talk about Barbara Cochran. She's the star of Shark Tank, and she just lost 400 grand in a scam will tell you all about it. You are listening to Craig Peterson and WGAN. And make sure you sign up online at Craig Peterson dot com. Hi, everybody. Yeah, that means we're back. Craig Peterson here on WGAN. We're going to talk right now about a TV show that I have enjoyed watching over the years. There are a few shows that I watch pretty regularly. Of course, there are some sci-fi shows we won't talk about those right now. But a couple of them are The Profit I enjoy that show. I like the guy who is the main character on that show, and his name is Marcus Lemonis. He owns a considerable interest in Camping World, as well as GoodSam Club, and he invests in small businesses. I disagree with him almost 100% on politics, but he does try and help people out which I think is fantastic and, and he goes into these businesses that are struggling, that are trying to figure out how do we move to the next step or how do we even survive? Then he helps him out, and he frequently invests in them. When he invests, he takes a good chunk, usually enough so that he has a controlling interest in other words 51% sort of a thing. Then he's often running, and he helps build them into real successful companies. Now, I guess it goes back to the question of, would you rather have a small slice of a massive pie as an owner, or would you rather have 100% of a tiny pie, that may end up collapsing in on itself at some point in time. That's kind of the decision these people have to face as they are talking with him and trying to figure it out. So I like that show. He had a good episode, recently that I found very, very fascinating. Check that one out, The Profit. Another one that I've enjoyed over the years is Shark Tank. Now Shark Tank is if you haven't seen it, it is a show, and there are a number of them. It's called Dragon's Den overseas. There's one in the UK. There's a shark tank in Canada, and there's a shark tank in Australia, all called slightly different things. The idea behind Shark Tank is you go in there you make a pitch to these investors, and the investors decide if they're going to throw some money at you. They will make a deal saying okay, I'll give you 20% for 20% of your company, I'll give you this much money, or you know, I'll bring in people to help out, but I want controlling interest or whatever it is. Well, one of the business moguls on there that part of this whole judging team on Shark Tank just last week lost nearly $400,000. It was disclosed that the 400 grande loss came through an email scammer. Now, if she had been listening to this show, she would have known about it. She would have known what's happening. She has enough money that she kind of brushed it off. Oh well, she thinks that she'll never get the money back. And you know what? She's probably right. We've seen that happen many times, even with the FBI getting involved most of the time that money never, ever comes back to you. According to media reports, a scammer who was posing as Barbara Cochran's executive assistant forwarded to her bookkeeper an invoice requesting that payment. I'm looking at the email right now. Barbara released it, which is great as that way people can see what happened. It's an email it's from, Jake somebody. Sent on Friday, February 21, and addressed to Emily carbon copy Michelle. The subject was forward Invoice 873, and it's got the name of a German company. It begins, Hello Emily. Please see the attached invoice below for payment. We are ready to proceed, and we are shipping next week. Please ensure the invoice is paid on time, shipping charges are additional. It appears like a little real invoice. It's got the due date on it, which was due on the 27th, and the amount was $388,700 and 11 cents. And it looks as I said kind of like a standard invoice. Dear customer. Please see the attached invoice. Wire transfers should be directed to FFH concept GMbH address in Berlin, Germany. Bank details include the bank name, the account name, bank address As the IBN number, the swift number, thank you for your business, we appreciate it very much. The truth was, this email did not originate from Barbara Cochran's executive assistant. Instead, what happened here is that the scammers and created an email address that looked the same as her executive assistant. It had one letter different in it. At first glance, it seems legitimate, yeah, this is from the Executive Assistant. You and I look at 400,000 and say, Whoa, wait a minute now. I don't even have that much. In this case, Barbara Cochran, this was pretty normal for her. There's not only this amount because she is involved in so many real estate deals. That's how she made her money was in real estate. She gets these invoices from these companies all over the world. It did not look that strange. All the bad guys, in this case, had to do was a little bit of research. They found out what the executive assistant's name, they found out what the email address was. The bookkeeper did not spot this little spelling error, if you will, in the email address. When she asked questions about the purpose of the payment, all communication went straight to the scammer's and not to the assistant. What did she do? She hit reply, and the response went straight to the scammers, and the scammers gave him what looked to be or gave her what appeared to be a reasonable answer, right. On Tuesday last week, seemingly satisfied by the answers she'd received by the scammers posing as Barbara Cochran's executive assistant. The bookkeeper transferred almost $400,000 into the bank account contract controlled by the scammers. It was only one the bookkeeper manually CC'd Cochran's assistant directly with confirmation that the invoice had was paid. It became clear what happened. So, again, that tells you don't respond to emails, right? Look it up, use a contact list, use your autocomplete to try and reach out to somebody to verify it. I always go one more step further, and that is to get on the phone and confirm the transaction. Now in speaking to people magazine, Barbara Corcoran again apparently was pretty okay about the theft. She says quote, I lost the 400,000 as a result of a fake email sent to my company. It was an invoice supposedly sent by my assistant to my bookkeeper, approving the payment for real estate renovation. There was no reason to be suspicious. I invest in quite a bit of real estate. I disagree with that there was reason to be suspicious. Anyhow, I was upset at first, but then remember, it's only money good for her. Frankly, she posted on Twitter about it. Lesson learned. Be careful when you wire money. She retweeted something from TMZ about her getting hooked in this scam. I'm glad she has a positive attitude about it. It's very unlikely, as I said earlier, that she'll ever recover a dime from these fraudsters because of the way the money was wired. Ninety seconds later is all it takes for the cash to be gone and out of reach. And they probably went ahead and transferred it from German banks to other banks, and it continues to move the money around. It's kind of like what happened in Eastern Europe and Ukraine, with a billion dollars in aid that we sent that ended up bouncing around between multiple companies in multiple countries to hide whose pocket it ended up. It's just kind of crazy. It can happen to anyone, and it can happen to any of us. Every last one of us, business person or otherwise, needs to be on guard. Don't reply to emails. Always make sure you enter in the email address if it's anything that might be of concern. Remember that banks and other places are unlikely, including the IRS tax time, to be sending you emails about some of this stuff. Just double-check and phone them, look them up online, and phone that number. Ask a question from their help people over on their website. Well, we've got one last segment here, and we're going to be talking about new security features from Firefox that means insecurity to you. This is Craig Peterson on WGAN, and you know, I like Firefox, right? Hey, welcome back, everybody, Craig Peterson, here on WGAN and online Craig Peterson dot com. Well, that's Peterson with an -On dot com. Hey, thanks for joining us today we've had a great day, we've talked about where you find a little bit of nostalgia online over at the Internet Archive. We talked about reducing the risk through data minimization. I described how ransomware became a multi-billion dollar industry. We talked about the changes that have recently happened with ransomware that will require you to make a change in what you're doing to stop becoming a victim. Then we got into how should you answer a non-technology related executive who asks you, how secure are we? How do you answer that question to your family as well? Because we are all the Calvary, right? We're the people that our friends, family, our people from church, the business people, they all come to us. So I wanted to make sure we covered that the next generation here of security metrics, how long does it take to harden your systems, and we've got a course coming up on that here in a couple of weeks and a bunch of tutorials to help you out. The company that we talked about clear view AI, very, very bad guys, frankly, very unethical. They just lost their entire database of Facebook buying clients to hackers. And then they brushed it off like it's no big thing. Hey, you know, everybody gets hacked nowadays. Man is talking about a company with no ethics at all. We talked about them, and then, of course, most recently, we just talked about business email compromise. We gave you a specific example here of Barbara Corcoran. She is one of the business moguls over on Shark Tank. How she lost almost $400,000 in a scam, and what you can do to help protect yourself. And we gave away some actual clues here precisely what the bad guys are doing to try and get that information or get us to to to do that, right? What kind of information are they gathering about us? Well, I want to talk about Firefox here for a few minutes, all web browser thing. And this has to do with security. And this is an article over on we live security.com that made me think about what is going on with Firefox and Mozilla. Now, if you've been on any of my training courses, you know, the browser you absolutely should never use ever, ever, ever unless there is a gun to your head, and then it's okay. Is Internet Explorer is just one of the worst browsers ever? You know, it's just terrible. It's right up there with the original browser, the NCSA Mosaic, but at least it was changing the industry. Internet Explorer was just a huge security hole. I mean crazy. The things that allowed programmers to do, and it was such an avenue for hacking. You know that right, don't ever use Microsoft's Internet Explorer.
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid services uses the terms telehealth, telemedicine, and related terms generally refer to the exchange of medical information from one site to another through electronic communication to improve a patient's health. Telehealth applications include: Live (synchronous) videoconferencing: a two-way audiovisual link between a patient and a care provider Store-and-forward (asynchronous) videoconferencing: transmission of a recorded health history to a health practitioner, usually a specialist. Remote patient monitoring (RPM): the use of connected electronic tools to record personal health and medical data in one location for review by a provider in another location, usually at a different time. Mobile health (mHealth): health care and public health information provided through mobile devices. The information may include general educational information, targeted texts, and notifications about disease outbreaks. The Coronavirus Preparedness and Response Supplemental Appropriations Act, was signed into law by the President on March 6, 2020, declared an 1135 waiver on telehealth services during the covid- 19 crisis. Essentially this allows for clinic visits to be done via videoconferencing between patient and physician during the crisis, allowing the physician to bill for the services at the same level that they would an in-office clinic visit. This allows for both the delivery of services to patients in need but also allows physician offices, many of them small independent business to maintain a revenue stream during the crisis. I welcome this change because I have long thought that many of the services we deliver to patients should not require them to drive to the office, check in at the front desk, wait in the waiting room, and then sitting in an exam room for multiple minutes prior to a short visit to follow up on labs, or an x-ray review, or get some education, or discuss a medical problem that does not require a physical exam. When the President expanded the use of telehealth he used what is called an 1135 waiver. When the President declares a disaster or emergency under the Stafford Act or National Emergencies Act and the HHS Secretary declares a public health emergency under Section 319 of the Public Health Service Act, the Secretary is authorized to take certain actions. For example, under section 1135 of the Social Security Act, a secretary, or in this case the President, may temporarily waive or modify certain Medicare, Medicaid, and Children's Health Insurance Program requirements to ensure that sufficient health care items and services are available to meet the needs of individuals enrolled in Social Security Act programs. These 1135 waivers typically are time limited, ending no later than the termination of the emergency period, or 60 days from the date the waiver. The current 1135 waiver for covid-19 allows Medicare to pay for office, hospital, and other visits furnished via telehealth across the country and including in patient's places of residence starting March 6, 2020. Connect with me at whyurologypodcast.com.
Welcome! We are going to hit a number of topics today from the world of Technology. I am quite disappointed with Mozilla, they are letting marketers and politicians define their technology. Listen in to find out why I feel that way. Compliance is an issue for many companies and I have some solutions that will help you and it includes a diet but probably not the kind you are thinking. Do you ever get nostalgic for "the good old days?" Well, I have something that might help, listen in to find out more. I will tell you happened to one of the Sharks from Shark Tank? How you can prevent it from happening to you and more. For more tech tips, news, and updates visit - CraigPeterson.com --- Related Articles: Getting Your Fix of Nostalgia Don’t Store Data You Don’t Need Cryptocurrencies and Insurance Increases Ransomware Profitability Are you Secure -- Depends on Many Things You Don’t Have Much Time To Stop An Attack Hackers Target Large Databases Anyone Can Be A Victim - Business Email Compromise Does Not Play Favorites DNS over HTTPS (DoH) is not the Panacea the Marketers Are Leading you to Believe --- Automated Machine Generated Transcript: Hello everybody, Craig Peterson here on WGAN and, of course, online at Craig Peterson, dot com and heard streaming all over the world on your favorite streaming site. I'm so glad to be here today and be able to talk with you a little bit about what are the top news stories this week? How can you keep safe that's kind of one of my themes because I freaked out when my company got attacked some years ago. You know, just a regular business guy trying to run a small business and man did hurt me bad back in the day. I'm just trying to get all of the information I've put together over the years and learn, and I continue to study this stuff and continue to look at what are the best ways to defend ourselves. I try and get all of that and put it together into neat packages for you. One of them, of course, is the radio show. I also get on with Facebook Lives. YouTube lives, and also do various types of pieces of training and tutorials and things out there. Where in fact, for the next course I have coming up, we're going to have implementation calls, where we are talking specifically about what to do when you do it. So you try and implement something, you have some issues. I'm going to get on the phone with you guys. So I think that's going to be great. And then the upcoming class here in a few weeks. And then, of course, the tutorials leading up to that class where I'll take your questions live, sometimes those little tutorial sessions on, you know what it's webinar technology. On these webinars, sometimes we go a couple of hours so I can answer all of your questions. That's what it's about here. All right, because I understand most people, not I know I'm this way too. I get contacted by somebody, and they're trying to sell me something that happened just over the weekend. Last weekend somebody knocked at the door, trying to sell windows, right. I think it was like Renewal by Andersen or something like that. And they were walking around knocking on doors. I see you know, immediately just knee jerk said, No, No thanks, my windows are fine. It got me to thinking about the whole situation in the security realm. Because that's what we do, right? What we've been doing for years decades, sometimes we have the antivirus software, every once in a while when we hear about a real big vulnerability, we go ahead and apply patches. You know, it's been the same old, same old, but we just can't do that anymore. And because really, we see huge, huge problems and businesses going out of business because of them. So that's what this is all about. So if you're a new listener, welcome. If you've been listening to me for a while, of course, Welcome, Welcome to you too. And I want to get this information out. So one of the best ways to make sure you have all of the latest information you need is to go online go to Craig Peterson dot com slash subscribe, and that'll get you on my email list. Then once you're there, you will be able to keep up on up to date on things I do, try and get those out. I have a newsletter that's every Saturday morning. Then when I'm doing training, I'll send something that's a little out of the band if I'm doing a live or various other things. I thought because of the way it works with the emails I send out, if you want to unsubscribe, you will be guaranteed to never hear from me again. Maybe that's a great thing that is right for some people. But for other people, I came to realize that perhaps they didn't care about the training, they just wanted the newsletter, or perhaps they wanted the pieces of training but didn't want any emails. Some wanted on courses but not other courses, etc., etc. So I'm going to try and do something a little bit different right now, and there's a pretty nasty warning as a footnote. If you unsubscribe, I can't send you anything anymore. I won't send you anything even if you want a course, you'll not hear from me again, because you unsubscribed and marked as somebody that doesn't ever want to hear from me again. That's fine. I know we all have our lives, and maybe you think you're safe enough. Perhaps you're going to reach out to me when everything falls apart around you. At which point, I can't respond to you because I will have your email blocked. That is because I don't want to bother you. I want to comply with the can-spam app act. Although, you know, most people don't seem to care about that as well as the GDPR. Also, The New California regulations, the Massachusetts regulations, and new federal regulations that are going into effect. They all place requirements on when and where I'm not supposed to contact you. If you say No. Then No means no, right. I'm going to change things a little bit with these upcoming training and courses that I'm going to be doing. I'm going to make it so you can just unsubscribe from those, so you're not going to lose contact with me. I've had some people complain, and in the end, it becomes a bit of a pain to try and add them back in. We're going to try and make this a little bit easier for you guys, so keep an eye out for that. You already know right based on what I'm saying, as well as what I've done in the past that I won't spam you guys, I don't sell your name to other people your email address. Most of you I know are kind of the older generations, the younger guys they don't care we've already talked about that. They will sell their email address and name for a donut. But us older folk were a little bit more cautious about it. I think that's probably a good thing. We're less likely to get ripped off the senior population in some ways less likely to get ripped off, and other ways more likely get ripped off. It's interesting. Again, we tend to trust phone calls more. You know what I have, frankly, I don't answer my phone anymore. It just goes to voicemail. And I have somebody else look at it because there are so many scams coming in. But we tend to trust the phones more in the generation, you know, the men and women older than me, other baby boomers, they are a little bit more susceptible to those types of scams. So be careful with those types of scams as well just you know, be careful all the way around, frankly. And that brings us to our first story of the day today. And this is something I found that I thought was cool. So I thought I'd share it with you. It's a tech thing. I was just a few weeks ago talking on the radio. One of the radio shows I appear on as a guest. And we were talking about Betamax versus VHS. And I knew I knew that the radio host I was talking to there's no way he just loves tech. There's no way he did not have Betamax. And he did. He had hundreds, apparently of beta tapes in his closet. But this is all about that Era of the 1990s. I'm sure you guys had VCRs right back in the day. And of course, the winner of that war was VHS, and it wasn't because it was better technology, but we're not going to delve into that right now. And those VHS tapes, at this point, about 20,000 of them have been put into an online vault. Now, if you've never used the Wayback Machine, you have to check it out. You can find it online. At archive.org, that's the name of it. It is an Internet Archive, and it shows web pages going way back, you can look at my web page from back in the very, very, very early days of the Internet. When you know, love the not the Internet, but of when the whole web thing came about, which was 9293 is when it started to go. I didn't have a webpage back in 85. When I first registered my domain that's been around for a while. And then, of course, I was using other domains. Before that, I've used my ham radio call sign is my domain. And before that, but the Wayback Machine is this archive, you can browse the history of any major site, many miners sites that are out there. They have used it in court cases. It's used by me, just for kind of memories of things as the way they were. Now you can use it for something brand new. I didn't know that they had, and that is They've got something out there on the Wayback Machine that's called the VHS vault V-H-S just like the VHS tapes that we had or that ken didn't have because he had Betamax. Right now, I'm looking at says there are almost 21,000 results. So they've taken these VHS tapes that were submitted, and they have effectively ripped them. They've turned them into digital video, right. And some of these are just amazing, like a warm-up to Traci Lords. It's an exercise program. Of course, Traci Lords was involved in some adult films back in the day. Man, I love this mystery science theater. 3000 Timothy Leary is a guest on MTV with John Lennon, Les Miserables from 1935, rush to judgment. There are some many cool things The Lion King in full VHS tapes. Now some of this information is probably still copyrighted, but as a general rule, archive.org doesn't get nailed for copyright violations. SpongeBob SquarePants Oh, this is the Fairy Fairy Godmother I think is what this cartoon was called and trying to remember my kids used to like it. Some bootleg tapes, everything, but you can find it online I think you would have a gas looking through these. I want you to go to archive.org as you're listening to the show, or maybe some other time during the week, you're sitting there watching some TV with your smartphone or your computer. Archive.org and look for the VHS vault. The actual URL is archive.org slash details slash VHS vault. You will see all kinds of fun stuff that's in there. They have many different collections You can search this you can go in by year when They did it. They have Flemish dog collection. There's another one. There are collections I've used in some of the training videos I put together. There are collections of old black and white art, and pencil art, and engineering diagrams that are well, well auto copyright and you'll find all that stuff@archive.org Check it out, I think you will have a gas checking it out. If you're like me, it's certainly brought back a lot of memories. When we get back, we're going to be talking about something that you should be doing, whether you're a home user or business user. You know, the things that we have to be worried about are the things that can be stolen from us, right, in the online world. Okay, this is what we will be talking about. What can be taken from us, but also what can be used to kind of hold our feet to the fire in ransomware. So we're going to talk about how to reduce your risk with Craig Peterson here on WGAN Stick around. We'll be right back. Hey everybody Craig Peterson back here on WGAN online, and of course, at Craig Peterson dot com. Yeah, you know it by now, right? Well, hopefully, you had a chance to look@archive.org, definitely check it out. It's called the Wayback Machine, at least that was its original name. And they may still have that domain, the Wayback machine.com. But now it's known as archive.org. It is a wonderful, wonderful trip down memory lane, at least for me. If, if you are a little bit older, you might remember the Internet back in the days fun looking at some of the original search pages at AltaVista. Man, I miss AltaVista. I used to like to use the Boolean algebra that you could do in AltaVista. By the way, if you are a geek like me when it comes to searching and you want to be able to dig into it. There's a tool I use, and I think that you'd like it also. It's not cheap, that's for sure, but not that expensive either, but it's called DEVONthink, D-E-V-O-N T-H-I-N-K. It allows you to set up searches using all kinds of Boolean constructs, which is very, very, very handy, at least as far as I'm concerned. You can set it up to do automatic search sets every day looking for different things. It's one of the tools I use to find the information that we talk about here on this show because so much of it just isn't generally speaking, available. It certainly isn't spoken about by the mainstream media, right? You know that right. That's why you listen to the show and why you follow me. I am on LinkedIn. I'm on Facebook. I'm on Twitter, YouTube, and my website as well. I appreciate all you guys who do follow and who comment. Now, if you're a business person, this is for you, but there are some things that you can do as an individual as well that are going to make a big difference for yourself and your safety online. Businesses are concerned about the GDPR, which we've talked about on the show before. That's the European privacy regulation. We're also very concerned right now with CCPA. I just had a company that makes optics. I use their optics here in the studio if you have ever seen me on a webinar or one of these videos or pop up training or anything. I'm in the studio, and my cameras here the lenses use the glass made by this company. I had no idea, but they reached out to us due to their operations in California. They have a sales operation there because, again, they're selling their optical glass for use in lenses, and all kinds of other devices. They reached out because they were concerned about what is happening, what could happen with these new California privacy regulations? Is it going to mess up their business? How is it going to mess up their business? How is it going to make things better or worse? I think they had some outstanding questions. So they called us in, and they paid us to do an audit of the systems they have. How are the systems working? What is it that we need to be worried about? You know, it's something that takes a few weeks and a couple of on-site visits in New York? New York State, which by the way, is going to have their own set of privacy regulations that are going to affect them pretty dramatically. But basically, what it came down to was if they were compliant with the European regulations, they were probably most of the way towards the California regulations. So they think that they're compliant. But when we got in and started having to look at it, it turned out No, no, no. They are not anywhere near compliant with either set of regulations. Even though their IT people told them they are because they have full-time programmers who are programming their systems. They thought, Oh, no, no, we're fine. We're fine. No, they weren't. So what do you do if your regular business? Enough moaning and groaning about the optical manufacturer, who has fantastic optics, which is why I use them. Let's talk about you. Let's talk about your business, your small business, your larger business, this is true, you should be paying attention if you are a medium or large business as well. One of the best things you can do, and it is hard to get through to a lot of CEOs and other business owners. But one of the best things you can do to reduce your risks is to reduce the data that you are maintaining. Right? If you want to reduce the chance of getting shot at, don't go out in the streets where they're shooting, right? If you want to reduce the risk of having your data stolen, then don't have the data out there for them to steal. If you don't want to get nailed by one of these new regulations, that says, hey, personally identifiable information has to be maintained in this way and that way. If someone asks you what data do you have on me? Do you realize now you only have one week to respond? You must provide that data to them. If you have any sort of a California Nexus or European Nexus, in other words, doing business in either one of those places. Now, it's down to I think five days it's not a week to respond, saying, Here's all of the data that we have about you. That's what you have to be able to do. We have to be able to do it right now. You also have to be able to tell them, here are all of the people within my organization as well our contractors that saw your data and had access to your data. That is a very, very big deal, frankly. The landscape is constantly changing your obligations for that data, and the data disclosure and the data-keeping keeps getting more strict. What's the right thing for you to do? Ultimately, well, it's to get rid of the damn data, right? It's a very, very solid first step in reducing your risk. Now I'm going to be publishing next week, a little guide that you can use yourself, right, you don't have to have me involved, or anything else is just for you, that you can use to do an inventory of all of the data that you have in your business. What we've done is we've gone through and looked at different parts of the businesses that we've worked with over the years and evaluated the kind of data they often have. You have to do that first, right? You must identify what your risks are. You must determine what data you have. I'll make that available for those people on my email list. It will be part of this ramp-up here, a precursor to the pieces of training that I will be doing. There will be different free pieces of training and tutorials in my ramp-up to my courses. You don't have to be in the course to participate in the free tutorials, okay? You don't have to buy anything from me. It is all free, no hype or anything else. Okay. I'm not trying to hard-sell anybody I want to help you. That is the first step -- doing this inventory the data you have, and it is one of the best things you can do. Put your company on a data diet. Now, you know, last week we had Barry Friedman on the show, talking about a sugar diet. Right. It's a lot like that, and it's getting rid of these addictive pieces of data that we keep on our clients on our prospects, everything else that's out there, right. Let's look at it as a lens. When you're looking at your data when you're doing an inventory of these data assets, ask yourself, do I need this? Will this provide what I need? Think about maybe like a food diet as Barry does with sugar? Do I need sugar? We know is sugar going to provide us the nutrients that we need? The answer to that is no. When it comes to sugar, right. We found that out from Barry last week. But we need to work to minimize sensitive data and ask ourselves, do we need this sensitive data to conduct business right now? And will we need this sensitive data to conduct business in the future? If the answer's no, securely dispose of that data. It is the only way to comply with these regulations that are already in place here in the US and Europe as well. All right, when we get back, we're going to talk about how did we get here? How did we? How did ransomware grow to be a multi-billion dollar industry? What did we do to get here? What should we do to try and get beyond all of this? You're listening to Craig Peterson on WGAN. And of course online at Craig Peterson. dot com, live on youtube, live on Facebook everywhere out there. Stick around. We'll be right back. Hey, welcome back, everybody, Craig Peterson here on WGAN, and of course online at Craig Peterson dot com. In case you missed it. We've been busy today talking about the internet archives VHS vault. Again, that's archive.org. Check it out. It is kind of cool. We just talked about reducing risk using the cheapest mechanism possible. Data minimization will save you money and help you be compliant. Now I'm going to talk about ransomware. We've been warned recently about ransomware's rise. Many people thought it's kind of past. In some ways, it has. 2018 was kind of the banner year for the standard ransomware that out there, but it is back, and it is back with a vengeance. We talked about some of the statistics about a month ago and showed how it had gone up a bit almost doubled just between the third and fourth quarters last year, which is just absolutely dramatic. I had a course before, where we talked a little bit about backups. I've certainly talked about it here on the show before, and how backups help stop ransomware. Let's just spend a couple of minutes on that right now, although it's not 100% accurate anymore. It is essential to do for just a whole plethora of reasons. Backups are kind of the very first stage of what you need. I read an article yesterday from a guy who is in some of the highest circles in the country. He had the phone numbers, the direct cell numbers of presidents and you name it, really just anybody who's anybody was on his phone. It was an Android phone. He had assumed that it was backed up into the cloud or something. His phone broke. He got a new phone and realized at that point that his phone had that never, ever, ever, been backed up. He lost the phone numbers from all of these people. Good luck getting them back, cell phone numbers, other contact information. Think of all the things that are on our phones nowadays. Losing your phone, having a hard disk crash on your laptop, or your desktop computer. Losing those can be devastating, no question about it. If you're a larger business and you think that you're doing backups, double-check them. I'd say three times quarters of the time, and I can't think of an exception to this, your backups will not work correctly for that business. I've never seen a case where all backups are working correctly, ever, ever going into a business. I know you, Craig, you're just crazy. It's silly. You're trying to build a business and scare people. No, I have never walked into a company and found their backups to be working correctly. We see things like, and I don't mean, they're not working in a way that is ideal or optimal for the business. Right? Certainly that on top of it. I mean, they weren't working. We had one company that we went into, and they were dutifully doing backups, and the operations manager had five external hard disks. Every day he brought a hard drive in, he plugged it into the server and took it home at the end of the day. So we had Monday through Friday, hard disks that you brought back home with them. So they were off-site, which is, you know, great idea, by the way. The server itself had a RAID configuration on it and is called a raid five. It had three hard disks so that if a drive failed, they wouldn't lose all of their data. We went in because they wanted to do some upgrades. They hoped to move over to Apple infrastructure, where people could use iPads and iMacs on their desks to have a better working environment for everyone by moving away from windows. By the way, this is an excellent idea. They still had some Windows software that they had to run, so we helped them with that and got that all working running correctly. The backups you know, they were trying to do the right thing. But you know, you know what, there were a couple of problems one, their server had not written to any of those external disks for the last 18 months. They went a year and a half without ever having had a good backup. Think about that. What would happen to that business? What would happen to your company? After 18 months of no good backups and losing all your data? Oh, and their server, an HP server, that cute little HP server had that RAID array, right a raid five where you can lose a disk and not lose data. Well, they had lost a drive. We were estimating based on the logs about a year before. There they were with no backups and no redundancy in their server disks on their server. That's an example right now, and I could go on and on. We had a company division of a Fortune 100 company that had paid for backups, and they had a dedicated data line. We put some next-generation firewalls in place that monitored the data and watched for data exfiltration to make sure that the plans and designs and social security numbers and bank accounts and everything were not being stolen or taken off off-site, right. Guess what we found there? After six weeks of monitoring everything that's been going on because that's the first step right. Let's make sure we understand what the normal operations are. Didn't you tell us that you had an off-site backup of your mini computer going to another backup site? Oh, yeah, yeah, we do. It gets backed up in real-time. We're paying for the backups to go off-site. If something were to happen to our facility here, or to our computer, which is a big server, then they'd take over immediately we'd be off and running during those six weeks that we were in there we hadn't been involved with these operations. Ultimately, we were in there for decades. Guess what we found? Yeah, exactly. None of the backups were occurring. They were paying for all of these things, right? They were paying for them. What we ended up doing is we came in, and we made sure that backups were happening. Unfortunately, they didn't have us do those backups. The company doing it for them was incompetent. And yet they decided to have them continue to do it. It doesn't make sense. We took over the rest of the backups. We had equipment on site, which we do at most of our clients. In case there's a problem, there are failovers that can occur. In this case, we'd have them back online in four hours, a requirement of publicly traded companies and their divisions. Again, they're just not doing anyways. Ramble. Ramble. Wow, we've only got a couple of minutes left here in this segment. When it comes to backups, here's what you have to be careful of, and that is, make sure they are happening. Check the backups. Try and restore from your backups. Now, we're talking about ransomware. It is a seven and a half-billion-dollar industry. They are coming for you, and one of the best things you can do is have a backup. Still, there's another side to ransomware, nowadays, that backup won't help you with, and that is that they have your data, and they hold a ransom saying, if you don't pay us, we're going to release this onto the Internet. Then you're in real trouble. If you have personally identifiable information, or if you have your intellectual property out there, and it gets out to the Internet because you don't pay that ransom, you are in real trouble, plus if they encrypt your data, you'll need that backup. All right, stick around. We will be right back. And we're going to be talking about our next topic for the day, which is how do you answer a non-technical executive, who asks, how secure are we? Your listening to Craig Peterson on WGAN and online at Craig Peterson dot com. Hey, have you ever been asked that question? Well, we'll tell you about how to answer it, coming right up. Hey, welcome back, everybody, Craig Peterson here on WGAN and online, of course at Craig Peterson dot com. No surprise there. Our next one is an interesting article and poses an interesting question. It is one that I'm sure you ask or have been asked, right? How secure are we? You are the Calvary, is the bottom line. You're the person who your family comes to, or the business owner comes to, the business asks whenever they have a tech question, right? You wouldn't be listening otherwise. It is how you get ahead. It is how you learn. You listen to me and others, read articles. You are the Calvary. How does the Calvary answer that question, when you're asked, How secure are we? You know, there's the obvious answer. Well, you know, we got this, and we got that. We have an Anti-virus, and we have a firewall. Those, frankly, are buzzwords that many of us use just to obfuscate the real answer to that question. I know that many times when we go into a business, and we secure it, we put together a proposal. Most of the time, our recommendations are not accepted. Most of the time, when we go into a business, and we say, here's what you need. Here's what you need to do to stay secure, they say No, thank you, and prefer to run with blinders. Hopefully, they won't stumble in the middle of the night get or tossed by that horse, of just kind of ignoring it, right. Blinders or maybe you might want to call it ostrich-ing and to put their head in the sand or whatever, you want to call it, But most of the time, in reality, the businesses just don't do anything. Sometimes they do, right. That's how I stay in business. I stay in business because of the companies that want to remain secure. I stay in business because of the people that are the Calvary. They're like you who want to buy my courses to understand more to get step by step instructions know, not just the stories behind things, but the strategy in the exact tactics that they have to take. And that's you, I suspect, right? I think you're probably a lot like me in that way. That's how I like to learn, and that's how I teach as well. Well, this article is from our friends over Dark Reading. And the question is, uh, how secure are we? And how should we answer that? There's a great response by Kurtis Minder, the CEO, and Co-Founder of GroupSense. He says it depends. You've got to look at your executive team and qualify their level of understanding. Answering the question with the answer of well, we have antivirus, we have a firewall, and we have mail filters. You know, a lot of people nowadays say, "well, we're in the cloud," and there's nothing to worry about, which we already know, isn't true, right? There's way more to worry about if you're in the cloud than if you have a local server. For those of you who are the kind of computer security people for your organization addressing this requires finding out where they are coming from who they are comparing. For instance, is it to what the Payment Card Industry PCI-DSS says we're supposed to do? Are we supposed to compare ourselves to the HIPAA-HiTech regulations? In other words, we have some medical data, which by the way, every company does, if you have any sort of a Health Insurance Program, right? Are we supposed to compare ourselves to the NIST 171 standard? There's, even more, there is the CMMC. There's, there's a lot of different criteria that are out there. You must understand the HOW before you answer this question. How secure we compared to similar companies in our industry? Or companies that are similar in size to us? No matter how you're going to answer that question, when the boss comes a-knockin or the kids or your wife comes a-knockin saying, How secure are we? No matter who it is you're talking to, I think the one thing you have to make sure of is that they understand that the whole security threat landscape is fluid. It's always changing, and your security programs need to be fluid as well. That's the reason I have consulting clients, right. That's the reason I have a membership program. The people who are the Calvary can follow and understand what it is they need to know. Now I want to hop over to this other guy here. His name is Matt Combs. And he is a global cybersecurity practice leader for an executive recruiter called Russell Reynolds Associates. It is absolutely a phenomenal interview on CIO.com. He's saying many companies were blissfully unaware t, especially those that don't have credit card information. How many times have I said that, right? It takes at least six months for the average company to figure out a breach occurred. Why did Matt say, especially those that don't have credit card information? It's because if they have credit card information, that information is likely to be sold on the open market very quickly. Once sold, the credit card companies are going to notice, right? Many companies have only learned that a breach occurred after the FBI came knocking on the door and told them they had a problem. Look at Home Depot. What happened? The FBI traced the dots. Home Depot, was compromised through their point of sale equipment. Can you believe that? people sitting in the parking lot of Home Depot hacked them? They didn't even know it until the FBI knocked on the door. That's a pretty big deal, on a pretty big company. I think they are the second-largest retailer in the country? When it comes to dollar-to-dollar value? Are you sold? Okay. If you don't have the credit card information, how would you even know that a breach happened? It goes ties back into the fluidity of security. It seems so obvious. Now when you look back at Home Depot and say, What were they thinking? I look at the target the TJX companies, and their hack they had security equipment, and that security equipment was quite good. It was alerting them, "whoa, wait a minute, guys, we've got a breach, okay." Did they take care of it? No, because they didn't know how to read the output, and they didn't have enough people to look at the logs, which is something else we keep telling you all. You have to watch the logs. You have to watch them closely. It's a full-time job. It's a highly skilled job, a highly trained job. It is not cheap, okay. I know a hotel company with 500 hotels in the United States, of course, you can look that up to find out who it is. They have a chief information security officer who is an information security group of one. Think about that 500 hotels, just the business itself, all of the data that they have, the liability that they have, and he doesn't have anyone working for him. Not even a support person. He has to beg, borrow, and steal help from it, and from the CIO, the Chief Information Officer. So when the executive asks you how secure are we, you have to say, Hey, listen, you know we can lock down the doors, we can lock down the windows, but the odds are if someone wants to breach us, they will be able to. However, make sure you are locking down the doors and locking down the windows. You got to close it all up. There was one other thing I think you should do when this non-tech executive asks you about how secure we are. That is, what's your nightmare, Mr. Executive? Which systems? Are you most concerned about being compromised? You should go back to the question I asked a little bit earlier, which is, what data do we have that maybe we shouldn't have? What data do we have that we are most concerned about losing? What are the Family Jewels in our organization? What is the data that if we were to lose it, we'd be in a lot of trouble, either because we could not conduct business anymore, or maybe we would get nailed by the regulators out there? Anyway, a lot of really, really good questions to ask because you're never 100% secure. All it takes is for one employee to click on the wrong link on an email. What I was just talking about will come up a little later on today. I talked about it this week on several radio stations. What happened with Barbara Cochran, an investor from Shark Tank. Stay tuned as we'll talk about it a little bit later on. All it takes and frankly, employee negligence such as accidental loss of data, accidental clicking on things. Employee negligence is still the main cause of data breaches. In a report from ShredIT now, of course, they're in the business of shredding documents of getting rid of these things. Shredding hard disk drives when you take them out of a computer. Remote workers and external vendors are also now a major cause of the increase in data breaches. That's one of the things we're going to be covering here in my course coming up in a couple of weeks, and that is the upstream-downstream risk. And the US military is totally into this now, because they had two or three major breaches last year that came through vendors. So hackers are no match for human error when it comes to sheer numbers. You also have the insider threats of people who are stealing from you. So they can get a better job, take it with them to another job. You have people who are upset with you and are just making an absolute mess of things on the way out the doors. So be very careful about that because it's huge data breaches cost an average of $3.6 million globally average that was in 2017. Some of those prices have gone up. The faster you respond to a breach, the more money that you'll save. They found that if you can respond to a breach within 30 days, on average, you'll save over a million dollars. Think of that. The odds are good that you will get breached. You will save, on average, a million dollars. Yet you're not funding the security people either by going to an external contractor, like me, to take care of it for you. Or you don't provide the resources to the internal people they need to do it. It is a huge, huge job. All right, top of the hour course, on the radio stations, we've got the news, traffic, weather, all that sort of stuff coming up. Then when we get back, we're going to talk about a new metric in security. The next-gen security metrics. Stick around, and you are listening to Craig Peterson on WGAN and online. Hey everybody, welcome back. Craig Peterson here, on WGAN and, of course, online at Craig Peterson dot com. We have already covered a bunch today. I would refer you over to my website. If you'd like to find out a little bit more, of course, I'm also on the streaming services. You can find it there. We've covered the internet archive. They've got this cool, new VHS vault. We discussed ways to reduce your risk of data loss. It's all about identifying your data. and then minimizing your data, how we enabled ransomware to become a multi-billion dollar industry. And I also gave some good advice on backups and the fact that 100% of the businesses I've ever walked into have had a failed backup strategy and failed in a bunch of different ways. It is big for all of us who are out there who are members of the Calvary, who are trying to help our friends, our family with their computer issues, and the businesses for whom we work. Then we got to how to answer questions that we get that have to do with our level of security? How secure are we? How secure is the business? That's what we have covered so far today. I love our next topic. It's phenomenal. It's from Thread Post.com. But they're talking about different types of security metrics. Now, metrics, of course, our measurements, or the ways we measure things. We always have to measure progress to be able to know have we gotten to where we need to be, right. Progress can be difficult to measure. There are a lot of different types of measurements when it comes to our security. Say for Microsoft Windows, one of the big things is, are you ready every Patch Tuesday. Then a little bit more, as Microsoft sometimes comes with out-of-cycle patches. They got nailed a few years ago, through criticisms about them releasing new patches, like constantly, because they needed to release them. And so instead of fixing their problem, which would be almost impossible to do, and that is rewriting windows and making it much more secure design, they decided they would just go ahead and release patches once a month. And that way, of course, you're not getting them every day. So who's getting noticed that in fact, there are a whole lot of vulnerabilities and Windows. So that was another measurement that we had. Did you get your Patch Tuesday stuff done? That's been around a very long time? Well, we've got a new metric here, and it's called hardening. Now, I don't know about you guys, but my wife thinks that most people don't know what the name hardening is. So I'll explain it a little bit. Hardening is where we close holes in our networks and our Windows computers. That's really what our emphasis is going to be coming up here next week when we start our whole hardening series. By the time you finish this series and the courses, you'll be able to lock down any Windows or Mac computer yourself. You are going to be able to lock down your small business network, and you're going to stop worrying about being the victim of the bad guys. We're also going to train you on how to test everything yourself. That you can make sure that they can't get in, right. If not tested, how will you know it works. It's like I was talking about with backups. How do you know they are working? How do you know it's effective? How effective is it? So we're going to teach all of that, and I think that's just going to be amazing for you guys, man. We're looking to do something you guys are going to love. Hardening in the case of our computers includes our computers, browsers, firewalls, and routers. In other words, there, we're using all of the options, all of the available software to make sure that bad guys are not easily going to get in is our Windows Firewall harden on our computers? Did you even know you had a firewall on a Windows computer? Well, it's almost useless. Because Windows has a firewall, it is turned on by default, but they have all kinds of services turned on and available to be used. All of these things are kind of crazy. When we get down to it, there are things we can do. That's what we're going to be covering starting in about a week with some of these tutorials. And with our great course that we have coming up. Now, let's talk about what's holding us back and what mean time to harden means. We're looking at vulnerabilities, when we're talking about a zero-day-attack, it is one that no one has seen before and where there is not a patch or workaround for it. It's really kind of a nasty thing. When it comes to hardening, you want to make sure that you have as few services as possible on your computer, firewall, and browser. That again makes your attack surface smaller. But when we're talking about those types of zero-day attacks, it typically takes an organization 15 times longer to close a vulnerability than it does for the attackers to weaponize that vulnerability and exploit it. So basically, we're talking about one week for the bad guys to take a vulnerability one of those zero-day things. It takes one week to weaponize it, and it takes us about 102 days to patch it. Let that sink in for just a minute here. Once vulnerabilities get disclosed, It's a time-race here to either secure this hole before the bad guys to exploit it. Now we saw that with the Equifax breach where here's a major, major breach against a major company out there, and only happened because they hadn't applied the patches that they needed to apply. It's just really that simple. Microsoft has a patch let's give an example right now, BlueKeep. BlueKeep is a way to break into Microsoft machines. Microsoft released patches for BlueKeep in the May 2019 Patch Tuesday security fixes. Microsoft released it in May, and as of December 2019, seven months later, there were still over 700,000 machines at risk. Let me see here now May to June July, August, September, October, November, December. That, to me, sounds like seven months. That's huge. Sophos has some security software. In their recent report about WannaCry, which is ransomware. The patch against the exploit WannaCry was using has not been installed on a countless number of machines. Still despite being released more than two years ago. It's crazy, isn't it? Do you guys agree with me? Am I just being kind an alarmist? Now the average time to weaponize this is seven days. Many weaponization comes in less than seven days. Like the infamous ApacheStruts vulnerability. You have effectively 72 hours to harden new systems. Now the numbers are even worse. When we're talking about incident response. There's a new rule out from a company called CrowdStrike. You might have heard of them before, they've been in the news for some political stuff as well. But they are a security company. They do a lot of investigations after the fact and try to figure out what happened and try and clean things up. CrowdStrike has a new rule. It's called the 1-10-60 rule. And it's based on what they call breakout time. So here's what that is. Most nation-state actors, in other words, the more advanced hackers out there, move laterally from an initial attack within two hours on average. In other words, if there is a country that's coming after you say, for instance, China. Most say now it isn't like China is going to go after me. I'm not Military and not a military contractor. China comes after you to steal your intellectual property. Once they have gotten inside of your network, they will move around inside your system. What this means is it gives defenders of a network one minute to detect a breach, 10 minutes to understand what has happened and that it was a breach and one hour to contain that breach from the initial incursion. That is huge. Now, this is part of this meantime to hardening and goal response that we're trying to achieve. If you're a regular business, and it's six months before you even notice that a hack occurred, if you ever even notice, which is par for the course, and one that we see that quite frequently. We will come in and look for signs of hacking. Many times, companies don't want to know. They just want to know if there are any openings that they should be closing right now. Why? If you see a hack occurred, there are specific legal responsibilities that you have. Companies say, Listen, don't tell me, I don't want to know. Without monitoring and watching what our organizations are doing, if we're not at the very least, patching and hardening, we're in real trouble. Now, I know you guys know how to patch it's not that difficult to do. We're not going to spend a lot of time on that in the upcoming tutorials or courses, but we are going to spend a lot of time in the course on Hardening because it is one of your best defenses. It's kind of like having a package on the front porch that was just delivered by Amazon people, right? If there is no package on the porch, the porch pirates are not going to show up and to steal the box. It's the same type of thing here. If you do not have services available on your machines inside your network, there is no way for the bad guys to move laterally. There's no way for them to get in remotely. That is our goal in our hardening courses, how to harden your Windows machine. That's coming up in about a week, week and a half. So make sure you are on my email list. You get all of that free training. You can find out about the courses as well that we are putting together for this. All of that at Craig Peterson dot com slash subscribe. You're listening to me here on WGAN. You can always send questions to me -- me at Craig Peterson dot com. Hey, welcome back, everybody, Craig Peterson online at Craig Peterson dot com and right here on WGAN. I am also putting these up on Facebook and making them available on YouTube. For those that are interested. I want to talk a little bit right now about Clearview AI. You know, again, I've said so many times that we've got to be careful with our data online. Clearview AI is this company that we talked about a few weeks ago, that has been scraping all of the information it could get online, mainly related to photographs. All of the pictures that you posted on Facebook or that you put up on any photo sharing sites, all of that stuff, Clearview scraped. Now, they have this app that allows you to take a picture, and then it will do facial recognition to find all of the places online that that picture appears. And it has been used by looks like more than 2200 different organizations, many of them police department to track people down. So if you have a picture, even if it's not a great picture, that picture can then be put into the clear view AI app. And it'll show you here you go, here's where we found this guy or gal online. And even if you didn't take the picture, and you are in a photograph, it is going to show up in clear view is going to find it. Now, Clearview AI grabbed all of these photographs online without asking permission of anyone. I don't think they asked your permission, did they? They didn't get my permission. They scraped them from Twitter, who they didn't ask permission. They scraped them from Facebook. They scraped them from all over the internet. They ended up with billions of photographs. They logged it all along with where they found them online. That way, if the police department is looking for this person, they have a photo of them. They can put it into the Clearview AI app and can authenticate where online it was found. And then the police department just goes there and says, Oh, well, that's a Mary Jane's homepage. Here's more about Mary Jane, where she lives and everything else and now off they go to get Mary Jane. Now remember, of course, first off, these things are not 100% accurate. They could be false. There are false positives, although in many cases, they have been very successful at identifying people, and they have helped to solve some crimes, which is I guess a good thing, right. I think that's what you might want to say, okay. In a notification that The Daily Beast reviewed, Clearview AI told them that there had been an intruder that gained unauthorized access to its list of customers, and they got access to many accounts they've set up and the searches they have run. Now, this disclosure also claimed that there was no breach of Clearview AI servers and that there was no compromise of Clearview AI systems or networks. That puzzles me makes me wonder, well, maybe they were using a cloud service, and they had it stored up there, and that's how it got stolen. It's hard to say. Clearview AI went on to say that it patched the unspecified hole that let the intruder in and that whoever was didn't manage to get their hands on their customer's search histories. Now there's a release from a Clearview AI attorney, and his statement said that security is Clearview AI top priority, which is total crap, right? They did everything they could to breach ethics and security of the user agreements from all of these websites from which they scraped our information. Unfortunately, data breaches their attorney says are part of life in the 21st century. Our servers were never accessed. We patched the flaw and continue to work to strengthen our security. All of this is in a report on naked security dot com. Now, this, frankly, is very concerning to me from several different standpoints, right. First of all, Clearview AI had this massive database of facial images that they had sold to hundreds of law enforcement agencies. In many cases, it wasn't like the overall agency. It was just a police officer themself that subscribed. It may be a detective, etc. The New York Times ran a front-page article in January, saying that Clearview AI may end privacy as we know it and man, is that ever true. They have been quietly selling access to these facial images and facial recognition software to over 600 law enforcement agencies. Now with this data breach, it looks like it's more than 2200. Although we have not seen the list posted online yet, we may end up seeing the posted online. It depends on who did this and if it was a nation-state, which is entirely possible. They are trying to find out a little bit more about us or whether it was somebody else. It reminds me of a lot about the founding of Facebook and why I've been against Facebook over the years, right? Facebook had a very unethical at its start. They stole all the photos of women going to Harvard University and then had people be able to go to their little website and rate the women, right? Rate them? Yeah, on their looks using all stolen photos. That's the allegation behind it all. It certainly seems to be true. Microsoft, that's another reason I just, I don't use the word hate very often believe me, but I do hate Microsoft and the way they started. They unethically sued people and play games with trying to buy them by lying about the rights that they had. Bill Gates outright lying to IBM and others, back in the early days. I have a good friend of mine who says Craig if you didn't have any ethics, you would be one of the wealthiest people in the country. Your ethics kept you from doing them, yet you bent over backward to help people. Companies, like these need to go out of business and need to go out of business fast, it's crazy. We've got the Biometric Information Privacy Act that Clearview AI has violated. ClearView AI has also been told by Twitter, Facebook, Google, and YouTube to stop scraping. Those companies have ordered it to stop that. It is against the policies. The Times noted that there's a strong use case for ClearView AI technology finding the victims of child abuse. News. It makes a lot of sense. One, retired Chief of Police said that running images of 21 victims of the same offender returned nine or 14 miners identifications, the youngest of whom was 13. So where do we draw the law watch line, I should say, what should we be doing here? It goes back to the whole fruit of the poisoned tree principle that exists in the law. That you've seen on TV and in movies many times, any evidence illegally obtained can't be used nor anything that comes of that evidence. It is why some Federal investigators play games with where did you get this evidence? Russia? Did it come from Christopher Steele? Should we have something similar In this case, and I think that we should if they stole information from these companies, which they did. It's, frankly, intellectual property theft at the very least. That means it is of no use in any sort of a police case that started an investigation and any legal matters that follow. That's my opinion. I don't know what yours is. I'd love to hear from you email Me at Craig Peterson dot com. Thank God they were able to find some of these victims of child abuse. But at the same time here, we should have some rights to privacy. It may already be too late. I guess we'll know. Soon enough. Hey, when we get back, we're going to talk about Barbara Cochran. She's the star of Shark Tank, and she just lost 400 grand in a scam will tell you all about it. You are listening to Craig Peterson and WGAN. And make sure you sign up online at Craig Peterson dot com. Hi, everybody. Yeah, that means we're back. Craig Peterson here on WGAN. We're going to talk right now about a TV show that I have enjoyed watching over the years. There are a few shows that I watch pretty regularly. Of course, there are some sci-fi shows we won't talk about those right now. But a couple of them are The Profit I enjoy that show. I like the guy who is the main character on that show, and his name is Marcus Lemonis. He owns a considerable interest in Camping World, as well as GoodSam Club, and he invests in small businesses. I disagree with him almost 100% on politics, but he does try and help people out which I think is fantastic and, and he goes into these businesses that are struggling, that are trying to figure out how do we move to the next step or how do we even survive? Then he helps him out, and he frequently invests in them. When he invests, he takes a good chunk, usually enough so that he has a controlling interest in other words 51% sort of a thing. Then he's often running, and he helps build them into real successful companies. Now, I guess it goes back to the question of, would you rather have a small slice of a massive pie as an owner, or would you rather have 100% of a tiny pie, that may end up collapsing in on itself at some point in time. That's kind of the decision these people have to face as they are talking with him and trying to figure it out. So I like that show. He had a good episode, recently that I found very, very fascinating. Check that one out, The Profit. Another one that I've enjoyed over the years is Shark Tank. Now Shark Tank is if you haven't seen it, it is a show, and there are a number of them. It's called Dragon's Den overseas. There's one in the UK. There's a shark tank in Canada, and there's a shark tank in Australia, all called slightly different things. The idea behind Shark Tank is you go in there you make a pitch to these investors, and the investors decide if they're going to throw some money at you. They will make a deal saying okay, I'll give you 20% for 20% of your company, I'll give you this much money, or you know, I'll bring in people to help out, but I want controlling interest or whatever it is. Well, one of the business moguls on there that part of this whole judging team on Shark Tank just last week lost nearly $400,000. It was disclosed that the 400 grande loss came through an email scammer. Now, if she had been listening to this show, she would have known about it. She would have known what's happening. She has enough money that she kind of brushed it off. Oh well, she thinks that she'll never get the money back. And you know what? She's probably right. We've seen that happen many times, even with the FBI getting involved most of the time that money never, ever comes back to you. According to media reports, a scammer who was posing as Barbara Cochran's executive assistant forwarded to her bookkeeper an invoice requesting that payment. I'm looking at the email right now. Barbara released it, which is great as that way people can see what happened. It's an email it's from, Jake somebody. Sent on Friday, February 21, and addressed to Emily carbon copy Michelle. The subject was forward Invoice 873, and it's got the name of a German company. It begins, Hello Emily. Please see the attached invoice below for payment. We are ready to proceed, and we are shipping next week. Please ensure the invoice is paid on time, shipping charges are additional. It appears like a little real invoice. It's got the due date on it, which was due on the 27th, and the amount was $388,700 and 11 cents. And it looks as I said kind of like a standard invoice. Dear customer. Please see the attached invoice. Wire transfers should be directed to FFH concept GMbH address in Berlin, Germany. Bank details include the bank name, the account name, bank address As the IBN number, the swift number, thank you for your business, we appreciate it very much. The truth was, this email did not originate from Barbara Cochran's executive assistant. Instead, what happened here is that the scammers and created an email address that looked the same as her executive assistant. It had one letter different in it. At first glance, it seems legitimate, yeah, this is from the Executive Assistant. You and I look at 400,000 and say, Whoa, wait a minute now. I don't even have that much. In this case, Barbara Cochran, this was pretty normal for her. There's not only this amount because she is involved in so many real estate deals. That's how she made her money was in real estate. She gets these invoices from these companies all over the world. It did not look that strange. All the bad guys, in this case, had to do was a little bit of research. They found out what the executive assistant's name, they found out what the email address was. The bookkeeper did not spot this little spelling error, if you will, in the email address. When she asked questions about the purpose of the payment, all communication went straight to the scammer's and not to the assistant. What did she do? She hit reply, and the response went straight to the scammers, and the scammers gave him what looked to be or gave her what appeared to be a reasonable answer, right. On Tuesday last week, seemingly satisfied by the answers she'd received by the scammers posing as Barbara Cochran's executive assistant. The bookkeeper transferred almost $400,000 into the bank account contract controlled by the scammers. It was only one the bookkeeper manually CC'd Cochran's assistant directly with confirmation that the invoice had was paid. It became clear what happened. So, again, that tells you don't respond to emails, right? Look it up, use a contact list, use your autocomplete to try and reach out to somebody to verify it. I always go one more step further, and that is to get on the phone and confirm the transaction. Now in speaking to people magazine, Barbara Corcoran again apparently was pretty okay about the theft. She says quote, I lost the 400,000 as a result of a fake email sent to my company. It was an invoice supposedly sent by my assistant to my bookkeeper, approving the payment for real estate renovation. There was no reason to be suspicious. I invest in quite a bit of real estate. I disagree with that there was reason to be suspicious. Anyhow, I was upset at first, but then remember, it's only money good for her. Frankly, she posted on Twitter about it. Lesson learned. Be careful when you wire money. She retweeted something from TMZ about her getting hooked in this scam. I'm glad she has a positive attitude about it. It's very unlikely, as I said earlier, that she'll ever recover a dime from these fraudsters because of the way the money was wired. Ninety seconds later is all it takes for the cash to be gone and out of reach. And they probably went ahead and transferred it from German banks to other banks, and it continues to move the money around. It's kind of like what happened in Eastern Europe and Ukraine, with a billion dollars in aid that we sent that ended up bouncing around between multiple companies in multiple countries to hide whose pocket it ended up. It's just kind of crazy. It can happen to anyone, and it can happen to any of us. Every last one of us, business person or otherwise, needs to be on guard. Don't reply to emails. Always make sure you enter in the email address if it's anything that might be of concern. Remember that banks and other places are unlikely, including the IRS tax time, to be sending you emails about some of this stuff. Just double-check and phone them, look them up online, and phone that number. Ask a question from their help people over on their website. Well, we've got one last segment here, and we're going to be talking about new security features from Firefox that means insecurity to you. This is Craig Peterson on WGAN, and you know, I like Firefox, right? Hey, welcome back, everybody, Craig Peterson, here on WGAN and online Craig Peterson dot com. Well, that's Peterson with an -On dot com. Hey, thanks for joining us today we've had a great day, we've talked about where you find a little bit of nostalgia online over at the Internet Archive. We talked about reducing the risk through data minimization. I described how ransomware became a multi-billion dollar industry. We talked about the changes that have recently happened with ransomware that will require you to make a change in what you're doing to stop becoming a victim. Then we got into how should you answer a non-technology related executive who asks you, how secure are we? How do you answer that question to your family as well? Because we are all the Calvary, right? We're the people that our friends, family, our people from church, the business people, they all come to us. So I wanted to make sure we covered that the next generation here of security metrics, how long does it take to harden your systems, and we've got a course coming up on that here in a couple of weeks and a bunch of tutorials to help you out. The company that we talked about clear view AI, very, very bad guys, frankly, very unethical. They just lost their entire database of Facebook buying clients to hackers. And then they brushed it off like it's no big thing. Hey, you know, everybody gets hacked nowadays. Man is talking about a company with no ethics at all. We talked about them, and then, of course, most recently, we just talked about business email compromise. We gave you a specific example here of Barbara Corcoran. She is one of the business moguls over on Shark Tank. How she lost almost $400,000 in a scam, and what you can do to help protect yourself. And we gave away some actual clues here precisely what the bad guys are doing to try and get that information or get us to to to do that, right? What kind of information are they gathering about us? Well, I want to talk about Firefox here for a few minutes, all web browser thing. And this has to do with security. And this is an article over on we live security.com that made me think about what is going on with Firefox and Mozilla. Now, if you've been on any of my training courses, you know, the browser you absolutely should never use ever, ever, ever unless there is a gun to your head, and then it's okay. Is Internet Explorer is just one of the worst browsers ever? You know, it's just terrible. It's right up there with the original browser, the NCSA Mosaic, but at least it was changing the industry. Internet Explorer was just a huge security hole. I mean crazy. The things that allowed programmers to do, and it was such an avenue for hacking. You know that right, don't ever use Microsoft's Internet Explorer. Then they came out with the Edge browser, and they had problems
On today's episode of Loud & Clear, Brian Becker and John Kiriakou are joined by Dave Lindorff, an investigative reporter, a columnist for CounterPunch, and a contributor to The Nation, Extra! and Salon.com, whose writings are at ThisCantBeHappening.net.Voters will go to the polls tomorrow in New Hampshire to make their choice for the Democratic nominee for president as the Iowa Democratic Party remains mired in controversy after announcing official results that are sure to be challenged. And as Democrats attack each other on the campaign trail, polls are showing a more clearly defined race with Bernie Sanders in the lead, followed by Pete Buttigieg. Amy Klobuchar is third, with Elizabeth Warren and Joe Biden tied for fourth. No other candidates are in double digits. President Trump today proposed a $4.8 trillion dollar federal budget that includes massive cuts to social safety net programs, including huge cuts to Medicare, Medicaid, and the Children’s Health Insurance Program. The budget also calls for a 26.5 percent cut to the Environmental Protection Agency, a nine percent cut to the Department of Health and Human Services, and large reductions to the National Institutes of Health and the Centers for Disease Control. Democrats in the House will surely reject the proposals, setting up a fight over priorities, both on Capitol Hill and on the campaign trail. Julie Hurwitz, a civil rights attorney and partner at the law firm Goodman, Hurwitz and James, joins the show. The South Korean film Parasite last night became the first foreign language film ever to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards. Besides best picture, the film also won Best Director, Best Original Screenplay, and Best International Film. The comedy-thriller about class struggle in South Korea won at a time that the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has struggled against accusations that it is biased in favor of white men. So while writer-director Bong Joon Ho did well for himself last night, none of the actors in the film were even nominated for anything. Brian and John speak with Sputnik News Analysts, Producers, and Film Critics Walter Smolarek and Nicole Roussell. Ireland is in the midst of an historic election. With more than half of the 160 contested seats filled in the Doyle Eric, or Parliament, Sinn Fein, the political arm of the former Irish Republican Army, had won 24.5 percent, followed by 22 percent for opposition party Fianna Fail (Fina Foil), and 21 percent for the ruling Fine (Finna Gail) Gael. Prime Minister Leo Varadkar called the vote “a revolution at the ballot box” and said that forming a government would be “challenging.” Journalist Andy Brennan joins the show. Monday’s segment “Education for Liberation with Bill Ayers” is where Bill helps us look at the state of education across the country. What’s happening in our schools, colleges, and universities, and what impact does it have on the world around us? Bill Ayers, an activist, educator and the author of the book “Demand the Impossible: A Radical Manifesto,” joins Brian and John. In this segment, The Week Ahead, the hosts take a look at the most newsworthy stories of the coming week and what it means for the country and the world, including the New Hampshire primary, continued controversy over the result of the Iowa caucus, fighting in Syria, a political crisis in Germany, and more. Sputnik News analysts and producers of this show Nicole Roussell and Walter Smolarek join the show.Monday’s regular segment Technology Rules is a weekly guide on how monopoly corporations and the national surveillance state are threatening cherished freedoms, civil rights and civil liberties. Web developer and technologist Chris Garaffa and software engineer and technology and security analyst Patricia Gorky join the show.
Candidates for the 2020 Presidential race present various proposals for health care reform in the United States. Both Presidents Nixon and Johnson attempted to institute universal health care during their tenure but failed. We continue to struggle with providing a system which takes care of all this country's inhabitants even with the passage of the Affordable Care Act. I discuss my perspective of the health care system based on my current experiences and my educational background, to offer why Universal Health Care represents the best health care system in the United States for its citizens. Universal Health Care which could be termed Medicare For All or Single-Payer Heath Care despite current and past rhetoric ultimately is affordable.Please take a listen.DJD
The spiraling cost of health care is pushing more working families with employer-sponsored insurance to cover their kids through Medicaid or the Children's Health Insurance Program according to a recent study from the Children's Hospital of Pennsylvania. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.
The spiraling cost of health care is pushing more working families with employer-sponsored insurance to cover their kids through Medicaid or the Children’s Health Insurance Program, according to a recent study from the Children’s Hospital of Pennsylvania.
The spiraling cost of health care is pushing more working families with employer-sponsored insurance to cover their kids through Medicaid or the Children’s Health Insurance Program, according to a recent study from the Children’s Hospital of Pennsylvania.
On this episode of Pundits on the Porch, Sal Nuzzo interviews Florida's Agency for Health Care Administration Secretary Mary Mayhew. Secretary Mayhew is the the former Maine commissioner of Health and Human Services. Most recently, Mayhew served as the deputy administrator and director of Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program for the Centers for [...] The post Secretary Mary Mayhew appeared first on James Madison Institute.
In this episode of KHN’s “What the Health?” Julie Rovner of Kaiser Health News, Stephanie Armour of The Wall Street Journal, Margot Sanger-Katz of The New York Times and Anna Edney of Bloomberg News discuss the latest on the politics of rising premiums, GOP efforts to take back money from the Children’s Health Insurance Program and the controversy over new rules requiring calorie information on menus. Plus for extra credit, the panelists recommend their favorite health stories of the week.
We continue our series with a discussion about health as a component of the social contract. We take a step back from the hyper-partisan political debate around health care and instead explore whether there are ways to reimagine and reframe a social contract of health that challenges the status quo, adopts new tools for substantive change, and invites new voices and perspectives to the table. We hear from Lisa Costello, a pediatrician, internist, and assistant professor of medicine; Rebecca Onie, Co-Founder and CEO Emerita of Health Leads; and Anthony Iton, Senior Vice President for Healthy Communities at The California Endowment.For additional information on the issues we briefly examine, we recommend the following resources:Atul Gawande, Is Health Care a Right?, New Yorker (Oct. 2, 2017), https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/10/02/is-health-care-a-right.Editorial Board, Renew Federal Funding for Children’s Health Insurance Program, Newsday (Dec. 19, 2017), https://www.newsday.com/opinion/editorial/chip-future-1.15524256.Al-Rasheed Benton, et al., Inaction on CHIP Puts WV Children at Risk, Herald-Dispatch (Jan. 2, 2018), http://www.herald-dispatch.com/news/inaction-on-chip-puts-wv-children-at-risk/article_b3293341-7807-5ed7-92b7-304b8c1edbbd.html.Sandhya Somashekhar, et al., Americans Watch a Health-Care Bill That Could Upend Many Lives Again, Wash. Post (June 29, 2017), https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/americans-watch-a-health-care-bill-that-could-upend-many-lives-again/2017/06/29/29ba6542-5b4e-11e7-a9f6-7c3296387341_story.html?utm_term=.ed239cbe9977.Rebecca Onie, What If Our Healthcare System Kept Us Healthy?, TED (April 2012), https://www.ted.com/talks/rebecca_onie_what_if_our_healthcare_system_kept_us_healthy. Anthony Iton, Opioid Crisis is Only a Symptom of Deadly Epidemic, Sacramento Bee (Dec. 14, 2017), http://www.sacbee.com/opinion/op-ed/soapbox/article189630399.html.This episode was produced by Mareva Lindo.Thanks to Doctor Turtle for the music:"Lullaby for Democracy" (http://freemusicarchive.org/music/Doctor_Turtle/The_Double-Down_Two-Step/lullaby_for_democracy)"Go Tell It On the Molehill" (http://freemusicarchive.org/music/Doctor_Turtle/Flush_Your_Rolex_1416/go_tell_it_on_the_molehill_2)
Today, another edition of the Midday Healthwatch with Dr. Leana Wen, the Health Commissioner of Baltimore City. Lawmakers in Annapolis and Washington are wrestling with competing views on prescription drug affordability, the Children’s Health Insurance Program, legislation to stem the rising tide of opioid addiction, and changes to the Affordable Care Act, among other issues. What are the feds and the state willing to do to help cities like Baltimore, who are strapped for cash, and who have no shortage of people in need?And with influenza season in full swing, what can you do to protect yourself and the ones you love, particularly children and the elderly, who are most at risk for a disease that can be fatal?Baltimore's Health Commissioner Dr. Leana Wen spends the hour discussing how the city is responding to its most pressing public health concerns, and answering your questions and comments.
Its Monday, January 29th. The government has re-opened, bringing with it the renewal of the Children’s Health Insurance Program, or CHIP. An advance copy of a study from the US Bone and Joint Initiative shows that musculoskeletal conditions are on the rise in the US. South Dakota moved one step closer to green-lighting dry needling. An op-ed in the Huffington Post explains that pelvic health physical therapy is nothing like the monstrous abuses of the now-sentenced Larry Nassar. Last, we sit down with Justin Elliott, APTA VP of government affairs to talk the Medicare Cap--politics, partisanship, and process have delayed the permanent fix, but we're on a hard push for the February 8th deadline. Talus Media News is a subsidiary of Talus Media: PT Views & PT News. You can find all interviews mentioned in this newscast on our sister channel, Talus Media Talks. Check us out on Twitter & Facebook @TalusMedia, and head to our website at talusmedia.org for more information.
NEWS 00:26 Intro Satire– Government Shutdown, Russian Twitter bots 05:13 Why outsource fake news to Russia when we have so much here? 07:08 The politics behind the government shutdown 12:14 A unified Democratic party and their huge disadvantage in “bumper sticker politics” 15:11 CHIP (Children’s Health Insurance Program) pays for itself, and then some 18:05 Trump’s daily “evolving” positions and politics 20:48 A retort to a recent statement by Republican NYT Op Ed writer, David Brooks 25:42 The 2018 Women’s March – A global rebuke to Trumpism and the importance of Emily’s List 27:19 New information on the negative effects of the Republican Tax Bill 28:32 Listener Question: What will be revealed from the Mueller/Trump interview? *FORWARD NATION RADIO featuring David Leventhal RAW l INFORMATIVE l ACCURATE Also available on our YouTube channel -Please SUBSCRIBE Visit forwardnationradio.com for the videocast, all shows, fun toons, stats, and more. If you love what you heard, Like Us and share on Facebook - Instagram - Twitter
In this episode of “What The Health?” Julie Rovner of Kaiser Health News, Joanne Kenen of Politico, Alice Ollstein of Talking Points Memo and Paige Winfield Cunningham of The Washington Post discuss the short-term spending bill passed by Congress that reopened the federal government and funded the Children’s Health Insurance Program for six years. The panelists also discussed the health programs still awaiting funding, and the intersection of religion and women’s health services at the Department of Health and Human Services.
In this episode, we talk about USCIS, the Government shutdown,and how to contact your federal government representatives. The Government Shutdown does not affect Citizenship services. The USCIS will continue to process USCIS Form N-400 Applications for Naturalization and interview applicants for U.S. Citizenship. However, several USCIS programs will either expire or suspend operations, or be otherwise affected, until they receive appropriated funds or are reauthorized by Congress. These include: 1. EB-5 Immigrant Investor Regional Center Program. The EB-5 visa allows eligible Immigrant Investors to become lawful permanent residents by investing at least $1,000,000 to finance a business in the United States that will employ at least 10 American workers 2. E-Verify. This free internet-based system allows businesses to check the eligibility of their employees to work in the United States. 3. Conrad 30 J-1 doctors. This program allows J-1 doctors to apply for a waiver of the two-year residence requirement after completing the J-1 exchange visitor program. 4. Religious workers. This special immigrant category allows non-minister religious workers to immigrate or adjust status in the United States. Source: Lapse in Federal Funding for Certain USCIS Operations https://www.uscis.gov/news/alerts/lapse-federal-funding-certain-uscis-operations DACA is Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals. This is an American immigration policy that allows some individuals who entered the country as minors, to live, work, and go to school in the United States with out fear of deportation. Last September, the Trump administration tried to end the DACA program. In January 2018, a federal judge said that USCIS must continue to renew DACA applications. Further note: Last week, Trump rejected a bipartisan Senate immigration proposal, which included shielding DACA recipients from deportation. Source: USCIS: Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals: Response to January 2018 Preliminary Injunction https://www.uscis.gov/humanitarian/deferred-action-childhood-arrivals-response-january-2018-preliminary-injunction The government shutdown occured in part because the Democrats are demanding a congressional vote on an immigration reform package which includes path towards citizenship for DACA recipients. In response, the Republicans are demanding more money for national security which includes a wall along the US-Mexico border. The Democrats and Republicans are still meeting about the budget which will include funding for CHIP--The Children's Health Insurance Program and disaster relief for areas such as Puerto Rico. Please watch the news for updates. If you have an opinion about the budget, immigration, DACA, CHIP, disaster relief, or any other topic, you can contact your representative by phone or email via Senate.gov or House.gov. Frequently, the website will ask about your Zip + 4,which is your zip code plus your route number, which you can find by following the link to USPS.com and entering your street address https://tools.usps.com/go/ZipLookupAction_input You can also write or call the President https://www.whitehouse.gov/get-involved/write-or-call/ The White House 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW Washington, DC 20500 202-456-1111 Leave a simple message such as: "I support DACA" or "I support CHIP." Or you can exercise your right to peacable assembly by marching with thousands of women across America this weekend and in the months to come. Thanks to the students and staff of Milpitas Adult School. A special thanks goes out to USCIS SF Community Relations Officer Lucee Rosemarie Fan. Every single day, Officer Fan and her fellow USCIS officers, help new US citizens achieve their American Dream. Officer Fan--good luck on your retirement! Watch Officer Fan in action: Cantonese Public Engagement Event 2015 https://youtu.be/57UUZv9NGKo Watch more USCIS Officers in action: USCIS Civics Questions https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLpNZsaiyFfG0mZUx6aS8Tn2pANNymRDaJ Thanks for listening; I know that you Will be a great American citizen! LISTEN to US Citizenship Podcast US Citizenship Podcast Show website http://uscitizenpod.libsyn.com/ US Citizenship Podcast Daily blog: http://www.uscitizenpod.com/ Download our FREE Android app: https://goo.gl/d6rs9f Download our FREE Apple iPhone/iPad: https://goo.gl/dLiOAE Subscribe via Apple Podcasts: https://goo.gl/BVrqHQ Subscribe via Stitcher: https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/us-citizenship-podcast-2/us-citizenship-podcast Stream via Spotify mobile, iHeart.com, and SoundCloud. Watch our videos on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/uscitizenpod Order "US Citizenship Bootcamp: Exercises and Quizzes to Pass the Naturalization Interview" by Jennifer Gagliardi, http://eslpublishing.com/
A portion of our Young Turks Main Show from January 18th, 2018. For more go to http://www.tytnetwork.com/join. Hour 1: Cenk. President Trump's attorney Ty Cobb says the president is "very eager" to speak to special counsel Robert Mueller for his Russia investigation. In an interview with CBS News' chief White House correspondent Major Garrett on this week's "The Takeout" podcast, Cobb said Mr. Trump wants to put the matter to rest, and he told Garrett there are "active discussions" about a special counsel interview, but no formal request has yet been made. Donald Trump insisted Thursday that he has remained consistent in his plans for a border wall, a day after his chief of staff, John Kelly, told Fox News he has "changed his attitude" on it. Donald Trump said Thursday the Children’s Health Insurance Program should be part of a "long term solution," creating confusion around the efforts to prevent a government shutdown. “CHIP should be part of a long term solution, not a 30 Day, or short term, extension!” Trump tweeted. Trump visiting area of special election endorsing Rick Saccone. Trump scheduled to give speech at electricity plant. However, Trump tweets about saying the reason to go is to endorse Saccone and not for official reasons. Hour 2: “Prosperity Preacher” Pastor Kenneth Copeland got people to buy him a jet. Video of him thanking his donors for the jet. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
On today's episode of Loud & Clear, Brian Becker and John Kiriakou are joined by Coleen Rowley, a former FBI special agent who in 2002 was named Time Magazine person of the year along with two other whistleblowers, joins the show.A former C.I.A. officer suspected by investigators of helping China dismantle United States spying operations and identify informants has been arrested. The reported collapse of the US spy network in China is described by the New York Times as one of the American government’s worst intelligence failures in recent years.A newly drafted United States nuclear strategy that has been sent to President Trump for approval will permit an expanded use of nuclear weapons. This document is called the Nuclear Posture Review. The following is a 30-minute except interview on the issue of nuclear weapons. The program was recorded one week ago in the studio of Radio Sputnik. Brian and John speak with Greg Mello, the executive director of the Los Alamos Study Group, and Kevin Kamps, the Radioactive Waste Watchdog at the organization Beyond Nuclear.House Republicans are proposing another stopgap spending measure that would ignore Democratic concerns over DACA, but would fund the Children’s Health Insurance Program, or CHIP, for the next six years. They look at whether the Democrats will be forced to choose children over immigrants to get a budget deal. Dr. Scott Tyson, the CEO of Pediatrics South and an advocate for the right to healthcare, joins the show.For 16 years, fighting in Afghanistan between US troops and the Taliban has stopped when winter descends. Under the new rules of engagement for the third US president to administer the Afghanistan war, the US and Afghan forces conducted an average of 15 airstrikes a day this December, compared with an average of 2 last December. Ann Wright, a retired United States Army colonel and former U.S. State Department official in Afghanistan, who resigned in protest of the invasion of Iraq, join Brian and John.The value of the dollar is down more than 15 percent versus the euro in the past six months, making exports cheaper and imports more expensive. It also could fuel inflation and prolong the stock market rally. But is this a bubble, and are the Trump Administration’s policies just kicking the can down the road? Daniel Sankey, a financial policy analyst, and Steve Keen, the author of “Debunking Economics” and the world’s first crowdfunded economist, join the show.Momentum is building for the outdoor Virginia Prison Reform Rally to be held from 2-3 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 20, at the Bell Tower on Capitol Square in Richmond, Virgnia. Margaret Breslau, Chairperson of the Coalition for Justice, joins Brian and John.On the same day that he refused to answer questions before the House Intelligence Committee, former White House senior advisor Steve Bannon was subpoenaed to testify before special counsel Robert Mueller’s grand jury. He has now reportedly agreed to an interview with Mueller rather than testify. They look at whether Bannon is a witness or a target. Daniel Lazare, a journalist and author of “The Frozen Republic,” “The Velvet Coup,” and “America's Undeclared War” joins the show.
Right before Christmas, the government was temporarily funded for the fourth time this fiscal year, but this latest funding law came with a few surprises. In this episode, a feisty Jen outlines the law to expose a favor to the war industry, damage to the Affordable Care Act, a bad sign for the Children’s Health Insurance Program, a giant loophole that paved the way for a new mountain of government debt, and more. You’ll also learn about an “uncontroversial” bill that reduces accountability for foreign fighters who abuse women and that showers literal gifts upon a secretive Drug War commission. But it’s not all bad news! There’s also a reason for hope. Recommended Congressional Dish Episodes CD161: Veterans Choice Program Please Support Congressional Dish Click here to contribute using credit card, debit card, PayPal, or Bitcoin Click here to support Congressional Dish for each episode via Patreon Mail Contributions to: 5753 Hwy 85 North #4576 Crestview, FL 32536 Thank you for supporting truly independent media! Register for Podfest: Pay It Forward Bills H.R. 1370: Continuing Appropriations Act, Department of Defense Missile Defeat and Defense Enhancements Appropriations Act, CHIP and Public Health Funding Extension Act, 2018 Division A Section 1001: Extends 2017 funding levels until January 19, 2018 Section 1002: Delays the repeal of FISA warrantless spying authorities until January 19, 2018. Division B Title I: Missile Defeat and Defense Enhancements Appropriates over $3.8 billion for emergency ballistic missile equipment and research. Title II: Missile Construction Enhancements Appropriates $200 million, available until September 30, 2022 to construct an emergency missile field in Alaska Title III: General Provisions Section 2001: Clarifies that the money in this law for the Department of Defense will be in addition to the money it will be appropriated for 2018. Section 2002: For the extra money given to the military in this law, this section creates an exception to the rule that says that no new projects can be started with it. Section 2003: Clarifies that this money is being appropriated as an emergency requirement. Division C: Health Provisions Title I:: Public Health Extenders Section 3101: Appropriates $550 million for community health centers and $65 million for the National Health Service Corps for the first half of 2018 Section 3102: Appropriates $37.5 million for a program for type I diabetes for the first half of 2018 Section 3103:: Cuts [the authorization for the Prevention and Public Health Fund](http://uscode.house.gov/view.xhtml?req=(title:42%20section:300u-11%20edition:prelim) - 2019: Authorization decreases from $900 million to $800 million (was originally supposed to be $2 billion annually) - 2020 & 2021: Authorization decreases from $1 billion to $800 million - 2022: Authorization decreases from $1.5 billion to $1.25 billion. Title II: Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP) Section 3201: Appropriates $2.85 billion for the Children's Health Insurance Program through March 31, 2018, which is a cut from previous appropriations. Division D: VA Choice Section 4001: Appropriates an additional $2.1 billion for the Veteran's Choice Program. Division E: Budgetary Effects Section 5001: The budgetary effects of the money for CHIP and VA Choice on the PAYGO scorecard will not be counted. Section 5002: The effects of the tax bill (the "Reconciliation Act" authorized by H. Con. Res. 71) will not be considered in the PAYGO budget. S.371: Department of State Authorities Act, Fiscal Year 2017, Improvements Act Section 2: Orders a bunch of foreign policy related reports to be given to the Appropriations Committees in the House and the Senate. Section 3: Changes the original law signed in December 2016 to remove the requirement for "swift and effective disciplinary action against" police or troops of UN countries who sexually exploit or abuse people during their peacekeeping missions. In it's place, the requirement will be that the countries will have to "appropriately hold accountable" their personnel, which is left undefined. Section 10: Allows members of the Western Hemisphere Drug Policy Commission to "solicit, accept, use, and dispose of gifts, bequests, or devises of money, services, or property, both real and personal, for the purpose of carrying out any duty, power, or authority of the Commission." Additional Reading Article: Retirements of veteran Republicans fuel GOP fears of losing House majority by Mike DeBonis, The Washington Post, January 10, 2018. Article: Drug policy: Our unfinished business in the Americas by Reps. Eliot L. Engel and Matt Salmon, Huffington Post Report: Congress rushes Pentagon $4b for missile defense improvements by Marcus Weisgerber, Defense One, December 22, 2017. Report: House, Senate pass CR with emergency funding for missile defense, Navy ship repair by Justin Doubleday, Inside Defense, December 21, 2017. Article: Collision-damaged USS McCain arrives at Yokosuka for repairs by Leon Cook, Stars and Stripes, December 13, 2017. Article: USS Fitzgerald departs Yokosuka for Mississippi from U.S. 7th Fleet Public Affairs, America's Navy, December 8, 2017. Article: Could the U.S. actually shoot down a North Korean missile? by Larlsa Epatko, PBS, November 28, 2017. Article: Trump administration proposes $2.1 billion expansion of Fort Greely missile-defense base by Tim Ellis, AlaskaPublic.org, November 14, 2017. Press Release: AK delegation applauds major missile defense increase in Trump administration's budget request by Matt Shuckerow, DonYoung.house.gov, November 6, 2017. Report: Counternarcotics: Overview of U.S. efforts in the western hemisphere, U.S. Governtment Accountability Office, October 13, 2017. Article: Fort Greely stands firm in face of North Korean threat by Sean Kimmons, Department of Defense, October 11, 2017. Article: Doomsday Deflector: What is the THAAD missile system, where is the US program deployed and how does it work? by Patrick Knox, The Sun, September 4, 2017. News Report: Hudson Institute congratulates John Walters on congressional appointment to Western Hemisphere Drug Policy Commission by Hudson Institute, PR Newswire, June 29, 2017. Article: There's a flaw in the homeland missile defense system. The Pentagon sees no need to fix it by David Willman, The LA Times, February 26, 2017. Press Release: Engel measure to reassess drug policy headed to president's desk, Committee on Foreign Affairs, December 10, 2016. Article: The US government is literally arming the world, and nobody's even talking about it by William D. Hartung, Mother Jones, July 30, 2016. Article: U.S. missile defense system is 'simply unable to protect public,' report says by David Willman, The LA Times, July 14, 2016. Article: A test of America's homeland missile defense system found a problem. Why did the Pentagon call it a success? by David William, The LA Times, July 6, 2017. Report: Standard Missile-3 by Zach Berger, Missile Defense Advocacy, June 2017. Article: 'Double down' in fight against opioid abuse by Mary Bono, USA Today, March 6, 2017. Report: Assessment of DOD's reports on status of efforts and options for improving homeland missile defense, U.S. Government Accountability Office, February 17, 2016. Article: Bring back the war on drugs by William Bennett and John P. Walters, Boston Globe, September 9, 2015 Report: Fort Greely to get $50 million toward missile defense system by The Associated Press, Army Times, December 16, 2014. Article: Does missile defense actually work? by Roger A. Mola, Airspacemag.com, April 9, 2013. Resources Budget of the U.S. Government: Fiscal Year 2018 Department of Defense: Budget Amendment Fiscal Year 2018 Department of Defense: FY 2018 Budget Amendment Department of Defense: Military Installations Overview Fort Greely, Alaska Department of the Navy: FY 2018 Emergency Contingency Operations Amendments OpenSecrets.org: Boeing Co. Client Profile 2017 OpenSecrets.org: Faegre Baker Daniels Consulting Profile 2017 OpenSecrets.org: Raytheon Co. Client Profile 2017 Twitter Post @JordanUhl: Members of Congress Not Seeking Reelection Visual References Boeing Co Stock Summary Sound Clip Sources Hearing: U.S. Defense Strategy in South Asia; House Committee on Armed Services; October 3, 2017 C-Span Video Witnesses: - Joseph F. Dunford Jr. - James N. Mattis 57:25 James Mattis: I think the most important thing is that we get budget predictability and certainty, because without that, we cannot take the—adjust our forces and get predictability into our budgets that permits us to gain the best bang for the buck, to put it bluntly. We’re going into the ninth year with a continuing resolution. As you know, I cannot make new starts under that, even if the cyber domain or the space domain require that we do new things we’ve not had to do before to maintain our competitive edge. Cover Art Design by Only Child Imaginations Music Presented in This Episode Intro & Exit: Tired of Being Lied To by David Ippolito (found on Music Alley by mevio)
In this episode of “What The Health?” Julie Rovner of Kaiser Health News, Sarah Kliff of Vox.com, Joanne Kenen of Politico and Margot Sanger-Katz of The New York Times discuss possible new work requirements for Medicaid recipients and the latest on renewing the Children’s Health Insurance Program, plus Rovner interviews Princeton health historian Paul Starr.
A sermon preached by Rev. Ginger E. Gaines-Cirelli at Foundry UMC, January 7, 2018, observation of Epiphany. Texts: Isaiah 60:1-6, Matthew 2:1-12 Today I unabashedly draw inspiration from a new book I received for Christmas, a book entitled, “Joy.” The book is a collection of 100 poems and editor Christian Wiman’s introductory essay is, for me at least, worth whatever price Anthony paid to put the book in my hands. The opening lines read, “Paul Tillich once said of the word ‘faith’ that ‘it belongs to those terms which need healing before they can be used for the healing of [people.]’ The word ‘joy’ may not be quite so wounded, though I have noticed…that it does provoke some conflicting responses.”[i] Words can be “wounded”—that is, twisted and misused, abused and made lifeless—and religious words, perhaps, most of all are prone to such wounding. But “grace,” the topic of this new “Grace Notes” sermon series, as a religious word, seems oddly immune to serious damage. Spiritual writer Frederick Buechner comments on this saying, “After centuries of handling and mishandling, most religious words have become so shopworn nobody’s much interested anymore. Not so with grace, for some reason. Mysteriously, even derivatives like gracious and graceful still have some of the bloom left.”[ii] Grace is a relational word connected to prayer, blessing, thanksgiving, mercy, compassion, forgiveness, harmonious movement, and beauty. Theologically speaking, grace can be defined as God’s abiding presence, love, and mercy—always offered as a pure gift, no strings attached. I love the fact that, in music, the little notes that add emphasis and interest to a melody are called “grace notes.” These notes are “gifts” to the music, accenting the experience of the song. But, I imagine, even with all this loveliness, the critique may arise: how can you speak of grace or be inspired by joy when Dreamers are under threat, when the loss of the Children’s Health Insurance Program leaves so many children vulnerable, when the planet continues to be polluted and destroyed, when juvenile boasts are made by the leader of the free world about the size of nuclear “buttons” as though the lives of all who inhabit earth are no more than blips in a video game? Shakespeare asked the question this way: “How with this rage shall beauty hold a plea?”[iii] Grace—and the beauty and joy that often emerge in its wake—are like the star in our Gospel today. They shine and shimmer in the darkness and provide focus and encouragement for the ongoing journey of life and spiritual seeking. Wiman says that “Joy is the only inoculation against the despair to which any sane person is prone, the only antidote to the nihilism that wafts through our intellectual atmosphere like sarin gas.”[iv] // Today we observe the Feast of the Epiphany. The word “Epiphany” literally means manifestation or appearance—and this feast celebrates the manifestation of God’s Word made flesh to all nations and peoples. Epiphany is the culmination of the Christmas Cycle that began with the first Sunday of Advent. And the story at the center of this feast is of the Magi (an ancient, Latin-derived term for Persian astrologers and professors of all things esoteric) who follow the star to Jerusalem and then, upon hearing the prophecy from Micah, on to Bethlehem. The story is a powerful illustration of light shining even amidst the encroaching darkness. It is a story of a journey, a quest for a benevolent ruler whose appearance on earth was written in the stars. It’s a journey to find the One who is God’s love and mercy in human form, One who is, in a word, grace. It seems a fitting place to begin these weeks when we will focus on grace and ways that grace attends us all along our spiritual journey—through the twists and turns, valleys and mountaintops. The journey of the Magi—and of the holy family they visit—illustrates ever-present grace in a powerful way if we guard against any de-politicized, sterilized version of the story. All it takes to do that is to read the whole thing. Reading Matthew beginning at chapter 1 verse 18 through the end of chapter 2, you see that Joseph, before having a change of heart, was planning to abandon his pregnant-but-not-by-him fiancé Mary (but “quietly”). Herod, described by my colleague Jim Harnish, (referencing the Anchor Bible Dictionary) as “a pathologically insecure narcissist who was obsessively driven by his fear of any threat to his position and power,” schemes and lies to the Magi in order to do the child Jesus harm. After the Magi find Jesus and heed an intuitive warning NOT to return to tell Herod of his whereabouts, the King goes on a rampage and has all the children in and around Bethlehem who were 2 years of age and younger killed in hopes of ridding the world of any threat to his power. Having been warned of this heinous plot in a dream, Joseph and Mary take their child Jesus and flee into Egypt as refugees, only later returning to Israel and seeking a safe haven from ongoing political unrest in a town called Nazareth in the Galilee. This is not a saccharine tale. It’s a nightmare. The journey of the Magi was fraught with danger. The holy family’s safety and survival was at risk from the very beginning. But notice the grace notes that appear throughout… Joseph’s heart and mind change, thereby providing support for Mary already full of grace; the Magi have one another as companions on the path, the star to guide them, and the skill to follow that light; dreams and intuitions of danger not only arise but are heeded, thereby allowing escape from harm; and even the duplicitous word of Herod provides necessary guidance pointing toward Bethlehem and the child, Jesus. In the midst of so much risk and vulnerability, with powerplays and violence lurking in every quarter, with a horrific ruler on a rampage, innocents trampled, and countless lives lost, even in the midst of all that (the Gospel reminds us) there were journeys punctuated with grace, with manifestations and appearances of love and mercy and guidance. Hatred and cruelty tried to snuff out grace—the love and mercy of God. But that plot failed. The light of Christ shines and the darkness did not, will not, overcome it. At this time of year, I’m acutely aware that many of us struggle—the cold, long nights, the emotions and memories stirred by the holidays, the turn of the year highlighting where we are—or aren’t—in our lives, and the pressure to get things “resolved”… All of this and more can trigger depression, anxiety, and relapse into the false comfort of addictions. For many, this part of the annual journey is always especially fraught. And even if we manage these days with relative equanimity, at this or any time of year, it is easy to get caught up in all that is wrong in our lives and in the world. One of the reasons I’m glad our story for today often calls the Magi “wise” is that they were smart enough to travel with a buddy—to not go it alone. I imagine that helped when, tempted to shut down in the face of the real dangers and scheming around them, they don’t focus on those things or allow themselves to get thrown off-course by them. They stay together, know what they seek, keep their eyes focused on the light, and continue to walk together toward their destination. That kind of focus and perspective reeks of wisdom. And “When they saw where the star had stopped, they were overwhelmed with joy.” On life’s journey, on the spiritual path, on the Jesus-seeking path, there is so much pain, confusion, struggle, disappointment, and injustice along the way. Those realities have the capacity to draw all our focus, to steal our energy, and keep us from apprehending the grace notes that dance in and among the shadows offering points of light. On the journey, it is an act of sacred resistance to notice, welcome, and savor moments of joy, to acknowledge, as Christian Wiman writes, “how in the midst of great grief some fugitive and inexplicable joy might like one tiny flower in a land of ash, bloom.”[v] One poet puts it this way: If we deny our happiness, resist our satisfaction, we lessen the importance of their deprivation. We must risk delight. We can do without pleasure, but not delight. Not enjoyment. We must have the stubbornness to accept our gladness in the ruthless furnace of this world. To make injustice the only measure of our attention is to praise the Devil.[vi] We are called to praise the Christ child not the Devil. And today we are given the grace of this ancient story of the Magi and the holy family, a story that reminds us that in a world like the one we know right now—even when illness or circumstance keeps us from apprehending it—light shines. The story teaches us to seek out companions on the journey and, together, to focus our attention on the places where light shines, where grace is enfleshed. The fact that we can choose where to focus our attention is itself grace. Where will you focus your attention in 2018? How might you attune yourself to the grace notes on the journey? Perhaps taking a few minutes to reflect on the gifts of each day with gratitude…perhaps a commitment to pause and take in moments of wonder…perhaps an intention to actively appreciate the grace of traveling companions on life’s journey…Seek light. Seek love and mercy incarnate. Stay focused on delight and beauty, courage and generosity, tenderness and care. As you journey with such focus, the primary threat may be that you become overwhelmed…with joy. [i] Christian Wiman, “Still Wilderness,” Joy: 100 Poems, Yale University Press: New Haven, 2017, p. xi. [ii] Frederick Buechner, Wishful Thinking: A Seeker’s ABC, HarperSanFrancisco, 1993, p. 38. [iii] Wiman, p. xi. [iv] Ibid., p. xxiv. [v] Ibid., p. xii. [vi] Jack Gilbert, “A Brief for the Defense,” excerpt, quoted in Joy: 100 Poems, p. xxiii.
Republicans celebrate passing the least popular piece of legislation in modern history, and Democrats plot their strategy to protect DREAMers and the Children’s Health Insurance Program while funding the government. Then Senator Dick Durbin joins Jon and Dan to talk shutdown strategy, and Rep. Adam Schiff discusses the Republican effort to shutdown the House investigation into Russian interference.
On today's episode of Loud & Clear, Brian Becker and John Kiriakou are joined by economist Richard Wolf to talk about the Republican Tax Plan which could be signed into law as early as next week. What’s in this bill, who are the big winners and big losers?The Federal Communications Commission voted today to repeal Obama-era net neutrality regulations, paving the way for big corporations to control content and pricing on the internet. We’ll talk about what the vote means for information freedom with Kevin Zeese and Margaret Flowers, the co-founders of Popular Resistance.US Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley said this morning that she will present what she calls “irrefutable evidence” that Iran has violated the Iran deal by sending missiles to the Houthi rebels in Yemen, an accusation that Iran denies. Brian and John are joined by Medea Benjamin, the co-founder of CODEPINK, and by Kathy Kelly, co-coordinator of Voices for Creative Non-Violence.Congress has failed to enact an extension of the Children’s Health Insurance Program, or CHIP, forcing states to scramble to find a Plan B. Nine million poor children now face an immediate loss of health care coverage. Dustin Pugel, Research and Policy Associate with the Kentucky Center for Economic Policy (KCEP), talks with John and Brian. A British tribunal has recognised Julian Assange’s WikiLeaks as a “media organization”, a point of contention with the United States, which is seeking to prosecute him and disputes his journalistic credentials. Documentary filmmaker John Pilger joins the show to discuss what this means for Assange.The Bitcoin craze continued this week as two different firms began offering Bitcoin futures. Economist and professor Steve Keen joins the show to talk about the future of crypto-currency.Defeated Alabama Republican Senate nominee Roy Moore has refused to concede the election and has demanded a recount. Investigative reporter Dave Lindorff joins the show.
Congress is seeking to wrap up the year with a flurry of major legislation, including tax reform, extending the delays for the Cadillac/excise and health insurance taxes, reauthorization of the Children's Health Insurance Program, and potentially market stabilization.
It’s been another packed week in health care, and PULSE CHECK — with help from a conservative health care analyst — is here to help make sense of it all. First, POLITICO’s Jennifer Haberkorn and Adam Cancryn join Dan Diamond to talk about their reporting about the tax package that’s poised to pass the Senate (starts at the 1:45 mark), the fight over HHS Secretary-nominee Alex Azar (11:00), and the latest timing on funding for Children’s Health Insurance Program (15:00). Dan also discusses the false reports about Kellyanne Conway being appointed “opiods czar.” (19:45) Then after the break, Chris Jacobs — the CEO of the Juniper Research Group and a prominent conservative health care analyst — explains his criticism of the tax package (starts at the 25:30 mark), his review of the GOP’s health care efforts after 10 months of controlling government (35:00), and his thoughts on the state of conservative health care analysis (37:45). We’d appreciate your help: Please share PULSE CHECK and rate us on your favorite podcast app! Have questions, suggestions or feedback? Email ddiamond@politico.com. Stories and work referenced on the podcast: Adam and Sarah Ferris’ story on the tax package’s possible cuts to Medicare and other programs: https://www.politico.com/story/2017/11/30/tax-bill-spending-cuts-gop-congress-274337 Jen’s story on pro-Obamacare groups turning on Sen. Susan Collins: https://www.politico.com/story/2017/12/01/susan-collins-healthcare-vote-obamacare-ads-274629 Friday’s issue of PULSE, which had Jen’s scoop on CHIP funding timing: https://www.politico.com/newsletters/politico-pulse/2017/12/01/tax-bill-could-trigger-significant-medicare-cuts-037612 Chris Jacobs’ piece arguing that the GOP would be “crazy” to repeal the mandate in their tax package: https://thefederalist.com/2017/11/09/republicans-crazy-repeal-obamacares-individual-mandate-inside-tax-reform/ Chris’ piece questioning whether ACA cost-sharing reductions would even be paid out under the tax package: https://thefederalist.com/2017/11/30/cost-sharing-reductions-subject-sequester/
In this episode of “What the Health?” Julie Rovner of Kaiser Health News, Joanne Kenen of Politico and Paige Winfield Cunningham of The Washington Post discuss the possible impact of the tax bill on the Medicare program, confirmation hearings for a new secretary of Health and Human Services and the future of the Children’s Health Insurance Program. Plus, for “extra credit,” the panelists recommend their favorite health stories of the week.
Congress is seeking to wrap up the year with a flurry of major legislation, including tax reform, extending the delays for the Cadillac/excise and health insurance taxes, reauthorization of the Children’s Health Insurance Program, and potentially market stabilization.
The Children’s Health Insurance Program expired Sept. 30. This federal program insures young people and pregnant women who make just enough money not to qualify for Medicaid (but can’t afford private insurance). The idea is to make sure that every child has the resources to see a doctor when they are ill. But unless Congress acts soon, some 9 million children will lose their insurance.
In this episode of “What the Health?” Julie Rovner of Kaiser Health News, Sarah Kliff of Vox.com, Joanne Kenen of Politico and Alice Ollstein of Talking Points Memo discuss the inclusion of health policies into the current tax cut debate, including a possible repeal of the fines for people who fail to maintain health insurance. Also, the latest on the Children’s Health Insurance Program, a nominee to lead the Department of Health and Human Services, and a remembrance of health economist Uwe Reinhardt, who died this week at age 80. Plus, for “extra credit,” the panelists recommend their favorite health stories of the week.
It’s Monday, October 9th. Yet again, we are struggling with the aftermath of horrific violence. Our thoughts go out to all those affected by the Las Vegas shooting. If you have any information to share with us regarding the current situation, please visit talusmedia.org, and click on “contact us.”Puerto Rico is still struggling with the aftermath of Hurricane Maria--we bring you an update from a student at the University of Puerto Rico. Therapists have an opportunity to help with the Rehab Therapists Give Back movement. Congress allowed the Children’s Health Insurance Program to expire--what happens now? Attorneys general are promoting the use of non-opioid treatments for pain--including physical therapy. The 2nd annual Women in PT Summit was held on September 23rd. Talus Media News is a subsidiary of Talus Media: PT Views & PT News. You can find all interviews mentioned in this newscast on our sister channel, Talus Media Talks. Check us out on Twitter & Facebook @TalusMedia, and head to our website at talusmedia.org for more information.
Last week was a whirlwind for healthcare policy, with the abrupt resignation of HHS Secretary Tom Price, the demise of the Graham-Cassidy plan and the missed deadline for the Children's Health Insurance Program. This week's intensity was only slightly reduced, as Congress and the Trump Administration work out what's to come for the remainder of the year. On this week's podcast, NAHU Vice President of Congressional Affairs Chris Hartmann and Vice President of Government Affairs Marcy M. Buckner review.
Last week was a whirlwind for healthcare policy, with the abrupt resignation of HHS Secretary Tom Price, the demise of the Graham-Cassidy plan and the missed deadline for the Children’s Health Insurance Program. This week’s intensity was only slightly reduced, as Congress and the Trump Administration work out what’s to come for the remainder of the year. On this week’s podcast, NAHU Vice President of Congressional Affairs Chris Hartmann and Vice President of Government Affairs Marcy M. Buckner review.
On today’s episode of Loud & Clear, Coleen Rowley, a former FBI special agent and who in 2002 was named Time Magazine person of the year, by independent journalist Denis Rogatyuk and Sputnik News analyst Walter Smolarek, join the show.In our first hour, we discuss two big issues. First, the hosts talk about the massacre in Las vegas that has left scores dead and hundreds wounded. Then, a panel talks about the independence referendum in Catalonia and what comes next after the wide-scale repression on Sunday by the central government’s security forces.Donald Trump delivered a public rebuke to his own Secretary of State, scolding him for considering talks with North Korea. Is Trump on a warpath? Prof. Simone Chun, a fellow at the Korea Policy Institute, talks about the issue.The trial of the alleged mastermind of the 2012 Benghazi attack that killed the U.S. ambassador to the country begins today. But five years after the attack, Libya remains mired in civil war. Ben Norton, a journalist for AlterNet’s Grayzone Project, discusses this development.Sitting in the comfort of his Bedminster golf resort, Donald Trump was full of praise for his administration’s response to the crisis in Puerto Rico and attacks critics of the relief effort. But huge numbers of people remain without basic necessities. Shawn Garcia, the Executive Director of Revolutionary Fitness, joins the show.The heated debate over the future of healthcare in the United States continues. Although the Graham-Cassidy bill was derailed, congress has now failed to renew the Children’s Health Insurance Program. Meanwhile, support for single payer grows. David Hughes, President of the research and advocacy organization Citizen Power, talks about this issue.
In this episode of “What the Health?” Julie Rovner of Kaiser Health News, Alice Ollstein of Talking Points Memo, Margot Sanger-Katz of the New York Times, and Paige Winfield Cunningham of the Washington Post discuss what happens now that Republicans have officially failed in their latest effort to overhaul Obamacare. Plus an interview with Bruce Lesley of First Focus about the fate of the Children’s Health Insurance Program. And, for “extra credit,” the panelists recommend their favorite health stories of the week.
On Trimmel Gomes' latest episode of The Rotunda, NFL players take a knee after Trump's call for a boycott. Also, is Florida a “State of Denial?” Despite Florida's vulnerability to sea-level rise and extreme weather events, state employees are discouraged from using the term “climate change.” Gomes chats with Ken Berlin, president of the Climate Reality Project founded by Al Gore. Plus, Joan Alker who heads the Georgetown University Center for Children and Families warns Florida's progress on insuring children is in jeopardy if Congress doesn't act soon to fund the Children's Health Insurance Program or CHIP. The Rotunda podcast is available each Monday via iTunes, Stitcher or Soundcloud. Follow on @RotundaPodcast on Twitter and visit www.rotundapodcast.com for daily updates.
On Trimmel Gomes’ latest episode of The Rotunda, NFL players take a knee after Trump’s call for a boycott. Also, is Florida a “State of Denial?” Despite Florida’s vulnerability to sea-level rise and extreme weather events, state employees are discouraged from using the term “climate change.” Gomes chats with Ken Berlin, president of the Climate Reality Project founded by Al Gore. Plus, Joan Alker who heads the Georgetown University Center for Children and Families warns Florida’s progress on insuring children is in jeopardy if Congress doesn’t act soon to fund the Children’s Health Insurance Program or CHIP. The Rotunda podcast is available each Monday via iTunes, Stitcher or Soundcloud. Follow on @RotundaPodcast on Twitter and visit www.rotundapodcast.com for daily updates.
Bio Licy Do Canto is founder and president of the Do Canto Group, a bipartisan government relations firm specializing in public health and health care legislative and regulatory policy, with a particular focus on underserved communities. An expert in health care policy with nearly 20 years of beltway experience, Licy has a track record of building bipartisan consensus, guiding federal legislation into law, and directing national issue campaigns and coalitions. Describing him as a “highly regarded healthcare lobbyist” among his peers, and Congressional officials and other decision-makers across the federal government, the prominent Capitol Hill newspaper The Hill named Licy one of Washington DC's top lobbyists for seven consecutive years, earning the recognition in 2016, 2015, 2014, 2013, 2012, 2011 and 2010. Prior to founding the Do Canto Group, Licy was a principal at the Raben Group, where he lead the firm's Health Practice Group, providing clients with a range of services, including policy development and analysis, coalition building, direct lobbying and strategic counsel and communications. Licy also served as chief executive officer of the AIDS Alliance for Children Youth and Families, a leading national, non-profit advocacy organization focused on improving access to HIV/AIDS prevention, care and treatment for underserved communities across the United States. Mr. Do Canto is largely credited with significantly strengthening the Alliance's operational and policy structure and considerably expanding and fortifying its relations with public and private sector partners. Prior to the Alliance, Licy served as the director of federal affairs for the National Association of Community Health Centers, the largest association of nonprofit clinics and health centers in the United States, representing over 1,000 clinics and 6,000 clinic sites that serve over 17 million people. Licy helped oversee the historic doubling of funding for the Federal Health Center program while also successfully managing the Association's legislative priorities on health center reauthorization and the Medicare, Medicaid and state Children's Health Insurance Programs. While at NACHC, Licy also founded and chaired the Association's Partnership for Medicaid, a nationwide coalition of eighteen safety net providers and other key organizations, including nursing homes, community health centers, public hospitals and unions, focused on improving the Medicaid program. In addition, he co-founded and served as chair of the Association's twenty-two member Partnership for Primary Care Workforce, a nationwide coalition of national professional, provider and educational organizations dedicated to strengthening the health care workforce. Before NACHC, Licy served as senior manager for federal affairs in the American Cancer Society's Federal Government Relations Department, directing the Society's federal legislative and executive branch advocacy efforts on health disparity issues. He also has extensive Capitol Hill experience, having served as senior legislative assistant for domestic policy to U.S. Congressman Barney Frank (D-MA) and held a number of positions in the office of Senator Edward M. Kennedy (D-MA). Licy is well known to key Congressional committee and non-committee staff with jurisdiction over health issues, having authored and successfully guided into law the $25 million bipartisan Patient Navigator Outreach and Chronic Disease Prevention Act (aimed at helping low-income patients overcome health system barriers), the first piece of health legislation signed into law by President George W. Bush in 2005. He successfully advocated for, and authored an array of, other key bipartisan-supported health policy issues before Congress, including passage of the Native American Breast and Cervical Cancer Treatment Technical Amendment Act; passage of the "Rep. Deal" amendment preserving hundreds of millions in Medicaid funding for Community Health Centers; the creation of a $50 million medical home program in Medicaid; a $100 million Health Center Medicare payment system; a $85 million Health Center financing system in the State Children's Health Insurance Program; and the establishment of a $1.5 billion Federal Early Childhood Home Visitation program within the US Department of Health and Human Services. Licy also served as staff to Commissioner John Rugge on the 2005-06 US Department of Health and Human Services National Medicaid Advisory Commission, established to advise the HHS Secretary on ways to strengthen and modernize the Medicaid program. Licy is often quoted in the media, including Politico, The Hill, Roll Call, Financial Times, Reuters, Bloomberg, Inside Health Policy, among others, on a broad range of issues relating to health and health care policy. The DoCanto Group's current and former clients include First Focus, AARP, the Nurse Family Partnership, the California Endowment, the New York State Health Foundation, the Direct Care Alliance and The MENTOR Network, as well as the Atlantic Sea Scallop Fishery and the Climate Reality Project. A native of Boston and fluent in Spanish and Cape Verdean Portuguese, Licy is a 1995 graduate of Duke University, with a Bachelor's Degree in Political Science, International Affairs and Spanish Studies. He also holds a W.K. Kellogg Foundation Certificate in Public Health Leadership from the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill School of Public Health and Kenan-Flagler Business School. Resources The DoCanto Group America's Health-Inequality Problem by Olga Khazan (The Atlantic, 6/5/2017) The Head Game: High Efficiency Analytic Decision-Making and the Art of Solving Complex Problems Quickly by Philip Mudd News Roundup Facebook reports $100,000 in fake Russian political ads Facebook released new evidence last week that helps to illustrate Russia's role in impacting the 2016 U.S. presidential election. The social media company reported that a company called the Internet Research Agency spent more than $100,000 on 3,000 Facebook ads that ran between June 2015 and May 2017. While the ads did not endorse a particular political candidate, they did focus on divisive political issues such as race, LGBT rights, and gun control. They promoted views consistent with Donald Trump's platform. The New York Times' Scott Shane and Vindu Goel report on these and other suspicious ads appearing on Facebook that may have some connection to the Kremlin. Google, on the other hand, released a statement saying it has found no evidence of such advertising on its platform. Industry backlash against Trump's DACA decision A broad swath of major corporations and industry groups sharply rebuked President Trump for his decision to end the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program. The Obama-era program gave 2-year work permits to individuals who entered the United States illegally as children. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Google, Apple, Microsoft, Telemundo, Univision and many others expressed disapproval. Trump says he'll re-review the program if Congress doesn't pass definitive legislation with 6 months. Megan Wilson and Ali Breland report in The Hill. Google appeals EU's $2.7 billion antitrust fine Google has filed its appeal of the European Union's $2.7 billion fine against it for allegedly prioritizing its own search results over its competitors. A spokeswoman for the European Court of Justice told TechCrunch that it could take anywhere between 18 months and two years for the case to reach a final judgment. Natasha Lomas reports in TechCrunch. Tesla hooked its customers up with more battery juice to escape Irma For an extra fee, Tesla lets its vehicle owners unlock unused battery space. But the car company temporarily removed the restriction for its car owners in Florida as they evacuated in anticipation of Hurricane Irma. Brian Fung reports in the Washington Post. FCC Extends s706 comment deadline Every year the FCC is required to report on whether broadband speeds are fast enough and whether the ISPs are moving fast enough to deploy them. A big part of that debate has to do with whether wireless service is an adequate substitute for wireline broadband service. While democratic administrations have held that wireless is not a substitute, the current Republican-led FCC has indicated that it may go the other way. Before it releases the report, though, the FCC is required to allow the public to comment. The FCC extended that initial comment deadline to September 21st. So if you use the internet to run an online business or something else that requires the fastest speed possible, but you live in a remote area--you may want to weigh in. Wireless, at least from my own personal experience running this podcast, is not a replacement for wired broadband by any stretch of the imagination. Oracle supports sex-trafficking bill Oracle has decided to go against the grain in supporting a sex trafficking bill most other tech companies oppose. The bill, which is entitled the Stop Enabling Sex Traffickers Act, was introduced by Republican Senator Bob Portman. The bill has broad bipartisan support, with Senators McCain and McCaskill, among many others, on board. Precipitated by Backpage.com's advertisements of prostitutes and opportunities to sexually abuse underage victims, the bill seeks to hold websites more accountable for ads posted by third parties. Harper Neidig has the story in The Hill. FBI probes Uber over tactics against Lyft "Hell". That's the name of a now-defunct Uber program the New York Office of the FBI and U.S. Attorney are investigating. The program was the subject of a class-action lawsuit a Lyft driver brought earlier this year in a federal court in California. But the court threw out that case because the driver couldn't show any harm. But essentially the program allegedly created fake user accounts so Uber could see where Lyft drivers were going. This investigation adds to numerous legal matters Uber's new CEO Dara Khosrowshahi inherited when he took the helm last week. Rebecca Davis-O'Brien and Greg Bensinger report in the Wall Street Journal.
In this episode of “What the Health?” Julie Rovner of Kaiser Health News, Joanne Kenen of Politico, Margot Sanger-Katz of the New York Times, and Mary Agnes Carey of Kaiser Health News discuss the return of Congress and bipartisan efforts to shore up the individual health insurance market for 2018, as well as renew the Children’s Health Insurance Program. Plus, for “extra credit,” the panelists recommend their favorite health stories of the week.
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Some of the Senate's most powerful conservatives want President Bush to approve expansion of the State Children's Health Insurance Program, but he says he'll veto it anyway. We look at the pros and cons and compare the cost to funding war in Iraq and Afghanistan. Also, good news from Iraq, and the first day of the US Supreme Court's new session.
Day in Washington'- The Disability Policy Podcast explores and discusses various aspects of disability policy. Each episode will cover a specific issue within disability, and/or a disability-related news article. These 8-10 minute podcasts offer an easy to understand introduction to disability policy and resources for those interested in further study. You can find the text of each podcast in the comments. If you have difficulty downloading the podcast, please right-click and save it to your computer for playback. Episode Summary: The State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) is a national health insurance program to provide for the growing numbers of uninsured children, including children with disabilities.nnWith the rising costs of medical care, private insurance is becoming too expensive for many working and even middle-class families. This can put them in a tenuous situation if their employer does not offer health insurance. SCHIP acts like a safety-net providing health insurance to children whose families cannot afford it. However, SCHIP's authorization runs out on September 30th of this year and unless it is reauthorized, the program will expire leaving states without the federal funds to support the program. Audio File: Day in Washington Podcast #8 - State Childrens Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) Show Notes - Introduction, Date of Podcast - State Childrens Health Insurance Program - Closing and Contact information - Disclaimer RESOURCES Children's Coverage and SCHIP Reauthorization Background Brief http://www.kaiseredu.org/topics_im.asp?id=704&imID=1&parentID=65 Understanding the Federal SCHIP Debate (Includes side-by-side comparisons of both House and Senate SCHIP bills) http://www.kff.org/medicaid/7675.cfm State Children's Health Insurance Program: Past, Present and Future - Commonwealth Fund http://www.cmwf.org/usr_doc/991_Lambrew_SCHIP_past_present_future.pdf SCHIP FAQ http://www.ncsl.org/programs/health/forum/SCHIPFAQ.htm SCHIP Information from the National Conference of State Legislatures (Includes direct links to both bills) http://www.ncsl.org/programs/health/chiphome.htm Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services State Children's Health Insurance Program http://www.cms.hhs.gov/home/schip.asp Key Disability Provisions in H.R. 3162 http://www.c-c-d.org/press_room/CHAMP-Act-Disability-Provisions090407.pdf Support Letter Detailing the Disability Provision in the House versus the Senate version of SCHIP http://www.c-c-d.org/task_forces/long_term_serv/letter-on-CHAMP-co-chairs.pdf
Greg D'Angelo says the SHIP (State Children's Health Insurance Program) is just another unsustainable middle-class entitlement program. Then, a great example of media spin. This time Mickelson is the target. The tape examples. Congressman Duncan Hunter with an issues update. Openline.