Podcasts about Health Net

Mission Prep's (866-845-1391) evidence-based, personalized and holistic inpatient and outpatient mental healthcare for teens is now covered by Health Net's MHN Insurance. Speak to their admissions team today at https://missionprephealthcare.com/insurance-verification/ Mission Prep City: San Juan Capistrano Address: 30310 Rancho Viejo Rd. Website: https://missionprephealthcare.com/

Got a team member who keeps missing deadlines and making mistakes? Dealing with a colleague who seems annoyed by anything that comes out of your mouth?Last month, I did 3 speaking gigs back-to-back with different audiences:A C-Suite Retreat in Laguna Beach (fancy, right?)A session with the West Valley Warner Chamber of Commerce on teamwork cause the teamwork makes the dream works!)A private retreat at Lido House in Newport Beach for API government affairs execs from Intuit, Coca-Cola, Turo, Edison, Health Net, Kaiser Permanente, and East West Bank (yes, that's a lot of power in 1 room!)And guess what? No matter the industry or leadership level, the same question kept coming up:How do I communicate with people who just don't think like me?Like a marketing exec who pulled me aside and said:“How do I talk to accounting people? I'm flowery, and they're...not.”If you're working hard and ever struggled to getting your message across, and making sure something gets done catch this 18-minute episode, we break it down: Why talking to different personality types is like practicing a sport (or scrolling TikTok—consistency is key!)How a team dashboard can keep everyone on the same page (aka fewer “per my last email” moments)How AI can help you edit emails, texts, and messages so your message comes across to the other person based on their communication style and goalsResources Mentioned:More info on Conscious ConversationsEpisode 47. Scripts & Strategies for Boundaries and Negotiation for WOC Leaders with Accion Opportunity Fund (52 mins) Apple | SpotifyEpisode 99: How to Develop Executive Presence & Own the Room You're In (My Talk from NextUp Summit) (1 hour) Apple | SpotifyWhere We Can Connect:Schedule a Business & Career Review call with me to see if it's a good fit to work together: elainelou.com/callCheck out our 314 client reviewsFollow the Podcast on AppleFollow the Podcast on SpotifyFollow Elaine on Instagram: @elainelou_Connect with Elaine on LinkedIn: Elaine Lou CartasCheck out our other podcasts for Women of Color

With Congress approving a plan to slash $880 billion from the federal budget, all eyes are turning to Medicaid as the most likely source of cuts. I asked Former North Carolina Health Secretary Kody Kinsley, KFF's Larry Levitt and California Health Care Foundation's Katie Heidorn to join me to discuss the likely shape and impact of proposed cuts, and take questions from UC Berkeley students. Kody called it a “self-licking ice cream cone”—cuts that destabilize the government, leading to further cuts. Larry warned of formula battles that will soon erupt. Katie laid out the devastating effects on state budgets.We've also released this episode as a full video episode on YouTube. Subscribe to The Other 80 YouTube channel for video extras, video episodes and viral healthcare policy content. Click here to watch this episode in full. Watch the full VIDEO version of this episode: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X110GShMTtE&t=52sRelevant LinksKFF: The Public's View on Potential Changes to MedicaidKFF: Impact of Medicaid Per Capita Cap Kody Kinsley testimony to Congress on MedicaidPre-election episode with Larry LevittKFF: Can Republicans cut $880 Billion without Slashing Medicaid?CBPP: Impact of Medicaid CutsCHCF: Defending Medi-Cal in 2025About Our GuestsKatie Heidorn is the director of state health policy at CHCF, where she leverages the foundation's data, expertise, and partnerships to help California's state government make informed decisions about health care. Katie is based in CHCF's Sacramento office.Katie has nearly two decades of experience working in health policy, government, and nonprofits and is a skilled leader, facilitator, and communicator. She comes to CHCF after more than two years as executive director for the Insure the Uninsured Project (ITUP). Before that, Katie was the government affairs advocate for Health Net and the development director and policy lead at the nonprofit California Coverage and Health Initiatives. Katie spent a decade in California state government, including as a deputy secretary for the California Health and Human Services Agency and principal consultant in the Senate Appropriations Committee. She is also an alumna of the California Senate Fellows Program.Katie received her master's degree in Public Administration from the University of Southern California and bachelor's degree in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology and Comparative Literature from the University of California, Davis.Source: https://www.chcf.org/person/katie-heidorn/Kody...

 In this episode of the Becker's Payer Issues Podcast, Dr. Pooja Mittal, Vice President and Chief Health Equity Officer at Health Net, discusses key challenges and opportunities in healthcare today. She explores the impact of Medicaid funding, the role of telehealth in underserved communities, and how AI can drive better health outcomes.

 In this episode of the Becker's Payer Issues Podcast, Dr. Pooja Mittal, Vice President and Chief Health Equity Officer at Health Net, discusses key challenges and opportunities in healthcare today. She explores the impact of Medicaid funding, the role of telehealth in underserved communities, and how AI can drive better health outcomes.

Rene Thomas Folse, JD, Ph.D. is the host for this edition which reports on the following news stories: WCAB Panel Says WCJ Self Destruct Orders are "Disfavored". Agreement Requires Plaintiff to Initiate Arbitration after Court Order. Task Force Uncovers Large-Scale Organized Insurance Fraud Ring. Blue Cross Sues L.A. "Insurance Advocate" for $7.6M Fraud. Judge Limits New California Anti "Pay-for-Delay" Pharma Law. Sutter Health Unveils $1B East Bay Facility Expansion Plan. Health Net to Pay Over $11M for False Cybersecurity Certification. Musk Escalates AI Battle As OpenAI Rejects $97B Takeover Bid.

Wednesday February 19, 2025 Centene and Health Net to Pay $11 Million to Settle False Claims Charge

In this episode, Jakob Emerson sits down with Dr. Todd May, Vice President and Medical Director at Health Net, to discuss an innovative multi-payer value-based payment model in California. Dr. May shares insights on how major insurers are working together to improve primary care quality, advance health equity, and reshape provider reimbursement.

Kenneth R. Pelletier, MD, PhD is a Clinical Professor of Medicine, Department of Medicine; Department of Family and Community Medicine, and Department of Psychiatry at the University of California School of Medicine (UCSF) in San Francisco. He is Director of the Corporate Health Improvement Program (CHIP) which is a collaborative research program between CHIP and 15 of the Fortune 500 corporations including Ford, Oracle, Prudential, Apple, Dow, Lockheed Martin, Pepsico, IBM, American Airlines and NASA. Dr. Pelletier served as Clinical Professor of Medicine at the University of Arizona School of Medicine and Stanford University School of Medicine. He was a Woodrow Wilson Fellow, studied at the CG Jung Institute in Zurich, Switzerland and has published over 300 professional journal articles in behavioral medicine, disease management, worksite interventions, alternative/integrative medicine, and epigenetics. At the present time, Dr. Pelletier is a medical and business consultant to the US Department of Health and Human Services, the World Health Organization (WHO), the National Business Group on Health, the Federation of State Medical Boards, and major corporations including Cisco, IBM, American Airlines, Prudential, Dow, Disney, Ford, Mercer, Merck, Pepsico, Ford, Pfizer, Walgreens, NASA, Microsoft ENCARTA, Blue Cross/Blue Shield, United Healthcare, Health Net, the Pasteur Institute of Lille, the Alpha Group of Mexico, and the Singapore Ministry of Health. Dr. Pelletier is the author of fifteen (15) major books, including the international bestseller Mind as Healer, Mind as Slayer and Change Your Genes – Change Your Life: Creating Optimal Health with the New Science of Epigenetics. Today we enjoy the amazing viewpoint that Dr. Pelletier has for humanity. We have control over our destinies individually and collectively. This conversation is the culmination of years of incredible study. Enjoy, Dr. M  

Teaching is one of the noblest professions, and the well-being of teachers is a critical component of student learning and overall community advancement. During this special podcast episode recorded at SXSW EDU 2024, hosts Dr. Stacey Ludwig Johnson and Abby Cox are joined by National University President & CEO Dr. Mark Milliron, and Rady Children’s Hospital Senior Director Domonique Hensler, to continue the conversation on the importance of teacher well-being. During this episode, the expert panel examines the key positive strategies to implement to sustain educator well-being in the context of teacher preparation programs and K-12 schools, and concrete actions that should occur to keep educators well, despite elements that can exist beyond their control. About Dr. Mark Milliron Dr. Mark Milliron is an award-winning leader, author, speaker, and consultant, who works with universities, community colleges, K-12 schools, foundations, corporations, associations, and government agencies across the country and around the world. He serves as President & CEO of National University (NU), one of the largest private, nonprofit universities in the United States. NU is designated as a Hispanic Serving Institution (HSI) and has a 50-year history of innovating around the needs of military, working, and other nontraditional students. About Domonique Hensler Domonique Hensler is the Senior Director for Care Redesign Planning and Mental Health Integration for Rady Children’s Hospital – San Diego and Rady Children’s Health Network. Her experience includes positions as a Fellow and Analyst at Sutter Health; a Network Manager for TRICARE Southwest at Health Net, formerly Foundation Health; and Executive Director of the Community and Family Network. Since joining Rady Children’s in 1998, Domonique has served in various leadership, strategic implementation, and project management roles in healthcare administration. Related links: WGU: https://www.wgu.edu/about/governance/education/educator-well-being-from-principles-to-practice-podcast.html YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qlwjT_YKfmk

There have never been so many pathways to getting quality health care — but barriers still exist. Disparities are real for many people, including those in racial and ethnic minorities, less privileged socioeconomic communities, and underserved rural populations.  Pooja Mittal, DO, chief health equity officer for Health Net, joined Conversations in Care host Robert Traynham for a conversation about health equity and Health Net's work, including a first-of-its-kind health improvement project in Los Angeles County, California, that provides doulas for Black women through a community-based partnership.  Hear more of Dr. Mittal's thoughts on how to improve health equity, the power of community partnerships in addressing social determinants of health, and the importance of building relationships and connecting with the community. 

Health equity is a hot topic in health care, and Dr. Pooja Mittal speaks about key success components, including the importance of trust, technology and strong relationships with communities.  Bringing health stakeholders and community members together is crucial to building trust and providing culturally relevant care that drives better health outcomes. From a young age, Dr. Mittal realized that health care is not equitable, and challenging environmental conditions cause higher disease rates. With a mission to reduce health disparities, Dr. Mittal became a physician and Chief Health Equity Officer at Health Net.  She believes technology is key to making care more equitable and supporting patients from historically disadvantaged communities, as it enables access to data to better understand needs, access to telehealth, enabling patients to receive care remotely and access to culturally sensitive technology, supporting unique needs.

As Chief Health Equity Officer, Dr. Pooja Mittal is charged with improving equity and care for Health Net's 3 million California members. She brings a strong data focus, skills in community organizing and a passion for social justice to this work – continuing her mother's path as a family practice doctor working with farmworkers in California. We discuss: Co-designing more equitable outcomes with communities and membersHow member grievance and appeal data provides a roadmap to missed opportunities, discrimination and road blocksHealth Net's experience implementing a doula benefit which laid the groundwork for statewide rollout of doula services in Medicaid The importance of reducing complexity and administrative barriers for new community partnersDr. Mittal tell us how she combats fatigue on the road to health equity:“How do I continue the work? … I try and think about the power of radical incremental change … How every little thing that we do actually has the power to have ripple effects that improve health for people, broadly. And so that's one way I sort of combat that. And then the other is really coming back to my why … Why am I in this work? Why does it matter to me, and what am I trying to accomplish?”Relevant LinksStreet Medicine - MLKCH and Expanding Access to Care (Page 5)Street Medicine - $1.5M USC Grant Unhoused - $114M with LA Care Health Plan COVID Support - Initiatives COVID Support - RV Program About Our GuestDr. Pooja Mittal is Medical Director of Health Equity at HealthNet, a Medicaid managed care organization. She is a family physician and uses this lens to design strategic initiatives to improve care for the most vulnerable. She is a member of the leadership team that works to further equitable care through a population health model for all HealthNet members. She has an expertise in digital health through her work in the HealthNet Digital Platforms Workgroup devising a defined digital strategy to support quality and member engagement.Dr. Mittal also works at the National Clinicians Consultation Center at UCSF, a national HIV/AIDS warmline, where she is recognized as a national expert on Perinatal HIV care. She is an Adjunct Associate Professor at University of California, San Francisco and Stanford University School of Medicine. In addition to her clinical work, she has published in the areas of well-child care, group visits, preconception care, health equity and perinatal...

Healthcare leaders from Health Net, Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey and Socially Determined shared successful Medicaid Redetermination strategies and best practices to help ensure your plans' most vulnerable populations do not lose essential health coverage.   With the end of the Public Health Emergency and the Medicaid continuous coverage provision in April, Redetermination could cause 18M Americans to lose health coverage, creating care gaps for the most vulnerable & widening health disparities. Our expert panel provides you with important information about navigating the disenrollment storms ahead.   Mildred Menos, Director, Medicaid Product Administration, Horizon Blue Cross and Blue Shield of New Jersey Darrel Ng, Vice President, Communications & Marketing, Health Net Trenor Williams, MD, Co-Founder & CEO, Socially Determined Bios: https://www.brightspotsinhealthcare.com/events/the-disenrollment-tsunami-how-to-fix-your-medicaid-redetermination-strategy/   This episode is sponsored by Socially Determined Socially Determined is leading the transformation of health care delivery and payment through social risk analytics and solutions. Our SocialScapeⓇ SaaS platform, data and industry-leading expertise empower health systems, plans and other risk-bearing organizations to better manage risk, improve outcomes and advance equity at scale. Recently named by Fierce Healthcare as one of the 15 most promising healthcare companies, Socially Determined is headquartered in Washington, DC. Visit: www.sociallydetermined.com

When serious accidents or injuries occur in remote and rural places like West Virginia, an emergency helicopter is sometimes a person's sole chance at survival. No spoilers—but, this episode, we're in for a wild ride. In this episode, we're traveling through the sky with Heidi Stump, critical care flight paramedic with Health Net in Beckley, West Virginia. Critical care air transport is a valuable component of any effective healthcare system, but it's particularly vital in remote and rural places like West Virginia, where so much of our population lives nestled deep in the hills, accessible only by bumpy backroads, often hours from the nearest hospital. When serious accidents or injuries occur in these environments, an emergency helicopter is sometimes a person's sole chance at survival. For flight paramedics like Heidi (and their teams), these highest-of-high stakes give a powerful sense of purpose to their work.

On today's podcast, Dr. Manijeh Motaghy breaks down the impact conditioning and biases have on our brain and neural networks, which affects how we see and experience the world.  Manijeh shares her "I MADE" method to help us understand this inner programming and how we can create a new "software update" to operate differently. We have the ability to "tune" and "prune" neural pathways to help us build new skills and change the brain. Manijeh also notes helpful ways people with ADHD brains can practice mindfulness in a more accessible way. Take a listen and share your take-aways with me on Instagram @OneWade.    ***** Dr. Manijeh Motaghy is an accomplished author, speaker, teacher, and executive coach with a passion for helping individuals and communities unlock their full potential. With a background in Organizational Psychology, Buddhist teachings, Mindfulness, and Compassionate Leadership, Manijeh has dedicated her life to exploring the intersection of mindfulness, well-being, and environmental stewardship. Through her groundbreaking book, the "Mindful Happiness Hack,"; she shares her innovative approach for creating a thriving future for all. Dr. Motaghy is an Organizational Psychologist and UCLA MARC Affiliate Mindfulness Teacher and certified by NYU InnerMBA in creating Conscious Teams and Leaders. She has trained teams and executives at fortune 500 companies such as Disney, Health Net, and Kaiser. She has designed and implemented hundreds of Mindfulness courses, workshops, and retreats, taught thousands of people, published hundreds of blogs, and spoken at numerous conferences, summits, and universities. Manijeh is a compassionate soul who freely shares her path to healing from childhood traumas, the tsunamis of grief for the loss of her son, and gaining optimal inner peace, joy, and a thriving life. Manijeh's ongoing Mindfulness practice, development, and Life Optimization Methodology continue to have a real positive impact on her students, clients, and the global community. She is a visionary leader in personal and global transformation. An AI Enthusiast and an expert topic contributor on the Planet Positive 2030 project by IEEE through Stanford Advanced Technology for a Sustainable Planet, offering recommendations on how to address human transformation in order to create a sustainable climate change globally. Manijeh continues to contribute to initiatives proposed to the United Nations such as the Digital Literacy: The Great Divide Connect with her on http://perfectlyhere.org; LinkedIn; Facebook; YouTube Channel. 

Welcome back to "This is Rural Health," a podcast by the California State Rural Health Association (CSRHA). In this episode, we focus on the importance of redetermination for Medi-Cal beneficiaries in California. Scott Hertzberg, CSRHA board president, speaks with the Vice President of Communications at Health Net, Darrel Ng. Darrel shares insights into this critical issue and Health Net's efforts to support rural Californians.Medi-Cal is a vital health insurance program covering over 15 million people in California. However, an estimated two to three million individuals may lose their coverage during the redetermination process. Health Net is working diligently to keep beneficiaries informed and enrolled, sending reminders through various channels and providing resources in multiple languages to aid understanding of the redetermination process.Collaboration is crucial to success, as doctors, hospitals, community-based organizations, health plans, faith-based organizations, and schools should all work together to ensure that Medi-Cal beneficiaries know the redetermination process and how to renew their coverage. By listening to this episode, you'll gain valuable insights into the significance of redetermination and Health Net's commitment to supporting rural Californians.Resources Mentioned:Heath Net Bridging the Divide website | bridgingthedivideca.comDownload the Health Net Medi-Cal Renewals Toolkit On Twitter | @HealthNetConnect with Darrel Ng on LinkedIn!The CSRHA has been a go-to resource for rural healthcare and community leaders since 1995. The CSRHA brings an accumulation of actionable insights to the next generation of rural healthcare leaders. For more behind the scenes of this podcast follow @CSRHApodcast on Twitter or @csrha.advocate on Facebook.If you enjoy This Is Rural Health, we could use your support! Please consider leaving a 5-star rating and review, and share it with someone who needs to hear this!Learn more about the CSRHA at csrha.org.

Health Net's VP of Communications and Marketing joined the show to share how the end of the pandemic and Public Health Emergency (PHE) is making the annual Medi-Cal redetermination of eligibility unlike recent years before as Californians were automatically renewed during the PHE. The state, Health Net, and other Medi-Cal plans are making significant outreach attempts to ensure Medi-Cal beneficiaries know how to renew their eligibility, but 2-3 million Californians are still expected to lose eligibility.

Health insurance is critical for individuals and families. In this Library Release of FightBack, we talk about when you suddenly lose your health insurance: how it can feel overwhelming and difficult to determine where to start and what to do. Fortunately, there are many options available. Jenn Moore, Health Net's chief commercial officer, joins us to talk about how to navigate this complicated and challenging process. For nearly 20 years, Jenn has overseen Health Net's insurance plans for corporations, small businesses, families, and individuals. She also led the insurer's planning for complying with and implementing the Affordable Care Act.

Mildred Pena, Health Net's Senior Director, Strategy & Execution for Medi-Cal, discusses the Review to Renew campaign. 

Scott Monger got involved in riding and racing through his dad. At the time Scott's family lived in Wichita, Kansas. BMX is where he got his start. Eventually he moved on to road racing when his BMX bike got stolen. He used the insurance money to buy a road bike. At 14 Scott started doing club rides. By the time he was 15 he had taken out a license with the USCF and began racing as a junior. Scott's first junior of racing was in 1982. He says he got a whole lot of 2nd places that season. By the time he hit his last season as a junior he was winning some races and making podiums at Pro 1,2 races. His transition into senior races didn't go so smooth. Scott says it was a frustrating year until he moved to Boulder, Colorado. Into his second and third years as a senior racer he started getting some results and riding for composite teams in big races. In 1988 he got the call from Len Pettyjohn to ride for Team Crest. Team Crest was an amateur team that was a feeder team to Coors Light. Scott got the call up to Coors Light in 1990. His pro career would begin in 1991 and last till 2007. In between that time Scott would win 275 races and ride for such teams as BMC, Mercury, Navigator to Health Net to name a few. At 56 years old Scott is riding, coaching and still traveling the world. 

Health leaders from Network Health, Health Net, Priority Health, and Health.io discuss how top health plans improve risk assessment and quality measures through innovations and at-home testing.    Topics include: Strategies for deploying novel solutions to drive member engagement and reduce costs for members, especially among traditionally unengaged populations Why removing barriers to testing with at-home solutions is a boon to health equity How accurate staging improves health outcomes for members with chronic conditions Working with provider networks for better management of members' health   Panelists: Pooja Mittal, MD, Vice President, Chief Health Equity Officer, Health Net, Inc.; Megan Schmidt, Sr. Vice President, Employer Solutions, Priority Health; Mushir Hassan, MD, Chief Medical Officer, Network Health; Jonah Mink, MD, Medical Director, Healthy.io   This episode is sponsored by Healthy.io Healthy.io is the global leader in turning the smartphone camera into a clinical-grade medical device for an at-home urinalysis and digital wound management.    Their at-home kidney test, Minuteful Kidney, aids in the early detection of chronic kidney disease and helps close gaps in access and care for over 500,000 patients worldwide. It is the first and only smartphone-powered home kidney test to receive FDA clearance and the first digital health test to obtain FDA clearance across all smartphone devices.    Healthy IO is partnered with some of the nation's leading health plans and the National Health Service in the United Kingdom b/c of the test's ease of use, high completion rates, and huge potential savings.   They are the first company to convert your smartphone into a clinical-grade medical device to allow patients to take the test – and receive results – in the comfort of their homes.  

In this podcast, Linda Wade-Bickel, the Senior Director of Population Health & Clinical Operations at Health Net; Ed Mariscal, the Director of Public Programs and Long-Term Services & Supports at Health Net; and Anita Chacon Terry, a Manager of Care Management at Health Net, discuss the benefits of care manager education and the impact of home and community-based service referrals on member outcomes. These podcasts, excerpted from a 2022 webinar, explore innovative ways that health equity and caregiver support are addressed across Alzheimer's disease and related dementias (ADRD) programs supporting dually eligible people living with ADRD. The event speakers review various strategies and lessons learned from existing programs for ensuring caregivers have the supports they need to care for a person living with ADRD, and speakers also describe strategies for health plans to consider supporting providers in their work with caregivers. For more information about this webinar, click here: https://www.resourcesforintegratedcare.com/2022_ric_webinar_innovations_alzheimers_disease_related_dementias_adrd_caregiver_support_programs_building_leveraging_support_systems/.

In this podcast, Katie Palmisano, a Senior Consultant at The Lewin Group, facilitates a panel discussion with Dr. David B. Reuben, MD, the Chief of the Division of Geriatrics at the University of California, Los Angeles, and the Director of the UCLA Alzheimer's and Dementia Care, or ADC, Program, Dr. Debra Cherry, PhD, a Clinical Psychologist and the Executive Vice President of Alzheimer's Los Angeles, Linda Wade-Bickel, the Senior Director of Population Health & Clinical Operations at Health Net, Ed Mariscal, the Director of Public Programs and Long-Term Services & Supports at Health Net, and Anita Chacon Terry, a Manager of Care Management at Health Net. During this discussion, panelists offer strategies and promising practices regarding innovations in Alzheimer's Disease and Related Dementias, or ADRD, caregiver support programs regarding building and leveraging support systems. These podcasts, excerpted from a 2022 webinar, explore innovative ways that health equity and caregiver support are addressed across Alzheimer's disease and related dementias (ADRD) programs supporting dually eligible people living with ADRD. The event speakers review various strategies and lessons learned from existing programs for ensuring caregivers have the supports they need to care for a person living with ADRD, and speakers also describe strategies for health plans to consider supporting providers in their work with caregivers. For more information about this webinar, click here: https://www.resourcesforintegratedcare.com/2022_ric_webinar_innovations_alzheimers_disease_related_dementias_adrd_caregiver_support_programs_building_leveraging_support_systems/.

Martha, a Medi-Cal beneficiary as a child in Ventura County, shares how her journey in the managed Medi-Cal world has ultimately led her to help lead a team that manages the care of millions of lives in California, including many that receive care in rural areas.

Linda Hollander has been featured by Inc. and Entrepreneur Magazines as the leading expert on corporate sponsorship. She is the author of the book, Corporate Sponsorship in 3 Easy Steps. She is also the CEO of Sponsor Concierge and the founder of the Sponsor Secrets Seminar. Her sponsors include Microsoft, Citibank, Fed Ex, American Airlines, Wells Fargo, Staples, Health Net, Marriott, Southwest Airlines, Dun & Bradstreet, Epson, Wal-Mart, Bank of America, and IBM. She has over 20 years of experience as a small business owner. She has also been featured on NBC, ABC, CBS, FOX Television, Bloomberg, Forbes, Los Angeles Times, Woman's Day, and Remarkable Women. She lives in Los Angeles, California with her husband, Leslie Greenfield, and their various rescue cats. Website: sponsorconcierge.com

Our guest is Jenn Harrod, Client Services Manager, Health Net of West Michigan

Health insurance is critical for individuals and families. When you suddenly lose your health insurance because of COVID-19 or any other reason, it can feel overwhelming and difficult to determine where to start and what to do. Fortunately, there are many options available. Jenn Moore, Health Net's chief commercial officer, joins us to talk about how to navigate this complicated and challenging process.

Do you lack the capital for your next big event or company project? In this episode, Amy and Monika Interview Linda Hollander to discuss the power of corporate sponsorships. She discusses what corporate sponsors can do for your business and shares what to do to get sponsors  to make your next big project, book, or event a reality.Be clear on your concept and demographicsPrepare your wishlist Make a sponsor proposal Funding Linda Hollander has been featured by Inc. Magazine as the leading expert in corporate sponsorships She is the CEO of Sponsor Concierge which helps business owners profit from the awesome power of corporate sponsors. Linda Hollander has 20 years of experience in business. Her corporate sponsors have included Microsoft, Citibank, Fed Ex, Health Net, American Airlines, Bank of America, Wells Fargo, Staples, Wal Mart and IBM..For more info, you can visit www.successwithsponsors.comREFERENCES:  Corporate Sponsorships in 3 Easy Steps: Get Funding from SponsorsEven if You're just Getting Started by Linda Hollader 

Karen Weintraub joins Sean to discuss Special Investigative Units, the state of healthcare, fraud and the what the future holds. It is so critical to understand that not all who work on the payor side are "Out to get you" and that in a lot of cases healthcare professionals like Karen are trying to refute allegations of misconduct. Take a listen and we are sure you're going to agree, this was a fascinating interview with a fascinating healthcare professional! About Karen: Karen Weintraub is the Executive Vice President SIU for Healthcare Fraud Shield. As EVP, Ms. Weintraub is responsible for the design and development of the company's healthcare fraud detection software products and services. She provides subject matter expertise on system design and workflow, business rule development, data mining and fraud outlier algorithms as well as SIU policies and procedures. Prior to joining Healthcare Fraud Shield, Ms. Weintraub was the Senior Manager of SIU Services at GDIT and the Supervisor of Investigations for Health Net, Inc. and managed all northeast healthcare investigations for all commercial, Medicaid and Medicare business and claims of fraudulent activity. Thank you for helping to make The Compliance Guy a 2022 Top 25 Podcast: https://blog.feedspot.com/regulatory_compliance_podcasts/

Linda Hollander has been featured by Inc. Magazine as the leading expert on corporate sponsorship. She is the author of Corporate Sponsorship in 3 Easy Steps, the CEO of Sponsor Concierge and is also the founder and the Sponsor Secrets Seminar. Her sponsors include Microsoft, Fed Ex, Staples, Epson, Bank of America, Marriott, Health Net, Wal Mart and IBM. Our guest has a powerful story that truly inspires. To learn how she transformed her life from abusive relationships and the poverty trap to wealth and love is food for your spirit and mojo fuel for your tank.   In this episode we speak about everything from: ~ the evolution of owning your worth ~ how she broke the cycle of abuse (this is a game changer) ~ the red flags to look for in relationships ~ what she put in place to achieve her success in life ~ how giving back amps your mojo ~ the surprising personality trait that increases your reputation (her Dad lived by this and she took it on)                                                  ~ how the way you speak to yourself can make or break your confidence ~ and much more!   Connect with Linda Hollander Website |  https://sponsorconcierge.com/ Instagram | https://www.instagram.com/sponsor_concierge/ Facebook | https://www.facebook.com/WealthyBagLady     *****   MENTORING + FREE MOJO CHECK LIST    Burnt out and Stressed? Disconnected from your body? Lost your enthusiasm for life? Craving confidence + feminine radiance?   You need to talk with me ASAP.   You are being gifted with an opportunity to have a complimentary Mojo Mentoring session with me*. And yes, we can uncover what's in the way and ignite your mojo…PLUS, as soon as you book your call, you receive a FREE Mojo Check List to get your engines revved right away.   Click the link and reserve your spot now: https://mojo.deborah-kagan.com/mentoring * a limited number of sessions are available   *****   Connect with Deborah Website | http://therealundressed.com/ Instagram | https://www.instagram.com/therealundressed/   https://www.instagram.com/deborahkagan/ Facebook | https://www.facebook.com/mojorecoveryspecialist/     Subscribe to The Real Undressed Podcast iTunes | https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-real-undressed-with-deborah-kagan/id1494643770 Spotify | https://open.spotify.com/show/1eOQaw6kryBsXo7Jb6qEnv   Please remember to: Subscribe Rate Review the podcast. I read every single one and your feedback is valuable.

On this episode of On the Evidence, we focus on a national initiative aimed at addressing social needs like housing or food insecurity that affect a person's health. Specifically, we discuss a screening tool for health-related social needs. The screening tool stems from the Accountable Health Communities Model, a nationwide initiative funded by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) Innovation Center. Mathematica developed, on CMS's behalf, a guide to help health care providers administer the screening tool. Our guests for this episode are Natalia Barolín from CMS; Maureen Kirkwood and Rafael Castañon of Health Net of West Michigan, a bridge organization participating in the Accountable Health Communities Model; Rachel Kogan of Mathematica who helped write the screening tool guide; and Lee-Lee Ellis, a health researcher formerly at Mathematica who facilitated peer learning among organizations that used the screening tool as part of their participation in the Accountable Health Communities Model. Learn more about the screening tool and guide here: http://mathematica.org/news/new-guide-helps-providers-address-health-related-social-needs Find a full transcript of the episode here: mathematica.org/blogs/lessons-from-a-national-health-initiative-that-helps-address-social-needs

In Episode 58 of the Wealth On Any Income Podcast, Rennie is joined by Chris Gomberg. Chris is a California licensed Marriage and Family Therapist (LMFT) and Certified Professional Retirement Coach (CPRC). He has been in the work/life and employee assistance program field for nearly 40 years and is the former director of EAP services at Cedars-Sinai hospital. Today he now continues to provide EAP services at 3M and has been providing private pre-retirement and retirement coaching for more than 10 years. Rennie and Chris have known each other for over 25 years!In this episode Rennie and Chris cover:How Chris found there was a bigger picture to consider about retirement than just the money. Chris's favorite charities.Some myths about retirement.Chris's target market and the changing landscape of “retirement”.Looking at where you want to be in 5 years using Chris's Five-Year Planning Worksheet What his “retirement” is going to look like.About ChrisChris Gomberg is a California licensed marriage and family therapist (LMFT) and Certified Professional Retirement Coach (CPRC). Chris obtained his master's in education/counseling and Bachelor of Arts from the University of Vermont and has been in the work/life, employee assistance program (EAP) field for nearly 40 years.As an EAP Counselor, Chris has worked with thousands of employees and their family members when they have sought professional help for work, family or personal concerns. Several years ago, Chris turned his attention to developing a coaching program to help employees with concerns about their retirement transition.In the process of developing the pre-retirement coaching program, Chris realized he had a real passion for coaching and assisting people who wanted to enhance their retirement planning. With a focus the physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual well-being, Chris is helping pre-retirement and retirement clients manage their next chapter of their life. It is, after all, more than just about the money!Chris has presented at local and national conferences as well as many workshops on such topics as Personal and Work Change Management, Balancing a Personal and Professional Life, Positive Psychology, Stress Management and Building Resiliency, and Retirement Transition.Chris has provided Employee Assistance Program (EAP) consulting services for several Fortune 500 companies including 3M, Mattel, and Health Net and worked at Cedars-Sinai's Work and Life Matters/EAP both as director of the EAP and as a Work/Life Specialist, providing direct client services. Chris is certified in Critical Incident Stress Management and is licensed by the Institute of HeartMath® as a Coach and Certified Trainer in stress reduction.Reach out to Chris today to get a copy of his five year planning sheet at https://chrisgombergretirementcoach.com/If you'd like to know how books, movies, and society programs you to be poor, and what the cure is visit wealthonanyincome.com/tedx. You'll hear Rennie's TEDx talk and can request a free 27-page Roadmap to Complete Financial Choice™ and receive a weekly email with tips, techniques, or inspiration around your business or money. Rennie's Books and Programshttps://wealthonanyincome.com/books/Rennie's 9 Days to Financial Freedom program:https://wealthonanyincome.com/programsConnect with Rennie Websites:WealthOnAnyIncome.comRennieGabriel.comEmail: Rennie@WealthOnAnyIncome.comLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/renniegabriel/Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/WealthOnAnyIncome/Twitter: https://twitter.com/RennieGabrielYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCdIkYMOuvzHQqVXe4e_L8PgInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/wealthonanyincome/

Welcome back to the second episode of Chapter 2! On this episode we have the CEO of Arizona Complete Health on the podcast. Arizona Complete Health has insurance programs that are committed to transforming the health of the community one individual at a time. Martha Smith has been at the same company for the past 25 years where she has had a number of different jobs. During this time she worked at an insurance company known as Health Net, then went to a medical group, and now is at Arizona Complete health. Healthnet and Arizona Complete Health are both subsidiaries of Centene Corporation, a multinational healthcare company. She started out in a Junior management position and is now the CEO. Learn more during this interview about how she climbed up the ladder and became one of the best executive leaders in healthcare around. #unlockyourcareer Check out Arizona Complete Health: https://www.azcompletehealth.com/ Visit our website at: https://www.youngenterprises.us/ Follow us on IG:https://www.instagram.com/young.enterprises/?hl=en Follow us on LinkedIN:https://www.linkedin.com/company/young-enterprises/ . --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/youngenterprises/support

In 2018, David Johnson, who was the owner of Southern California detox was charged with 30 counts of insurance fraud. He pled guilty but tells of a different story. Prosecutors claimed that David Johnson had illegally double-billed over 90 Health Net policies and pocketed over $250,000 before he was discovered. The FBI revealed evidence showing that Southern California Detox's address as the address for the patients, and allegedly paid the initial premiums for 62% of the policyholders using his personal credit card. Health Net would not have paid the claims if they had been aware of the treatment center's cost waiving practices. The insurance provider requires all patients to pay 50% of their deductible before the insurance kicks in towards out of network providers.

Our guest: Nick Desai, Co-Founder & CEO of Heal. "Heal is the market leader in technology-driven doctor house calls. Through the touch of an app or a click on the website, Heal enables patients to easily book on-demand or scheduled doctor house calls, 8 a.m. to 8 p.m., seven days a week, 365 days a year. Heal has over 100 major corporate clients and is covered as an in-network benefit with Aetna, Anthem Blue Cross, Blue Shield of California, CareFirst, Cigna, Health Net, Medicare, and United Healthcare. Heal house calls are available across California, Georgia, Washington, New York, New Jersey, and Northern Virginia/D.C." On this episode, we discussed: - His background - How he got to where he is today? - What is Heal? - What's next? - ...and much more! WORD FROM OUR SPONSOR: Our sponsor for this episode is BlocHealth. BlocHealth is building the ecosystem of healthcare services and solutions to power the future of healthcare. Through the platform, healthcare professionals and organizations can use their credentialing data for more! They can store their credentialing and licensing-related documents, fill out a smart, common application and use the information within it to order multiple services such as provider enrollment, license registration, license renewals, and more! For more information, please go to www.blochealth.com and be sure to follow BlocHealth on social media - @blochealth To learn more about Heal, please use the links below: - Website - LinkedIn - Twitter - Facebook - YouTube - Instagram Also, be sure to follow Slice of Healthcare on our social channels: - Website - Facebook - LinkedIn - Twitter

Karen joins the show to shed some light as to how Health Net is helping its many members throughout the state through a variety of offerings.  Karen also addresses the challenge of healthcare accessibility that remains a hot topic in the healthcare community.

This is a special edition of the Capitol Weekly Podcast, broadcasting a panel from our annual look at health care in the Golden State. We focused this year on the unprecedented public health emergency: COVID-19. Exactly six months and one day after the first Shelter-in-Place order, we examined the response to the crisis and looked at what comes next. A digital version of the program for the event, with speakers’ bios and other details, is posted at capitolweekly.net/events/californi…crisis-covid-19/ Panel 3: Telehealth Telehealth was rarely used in California before the pandemic: Now patients have virtual visits with health care providers through a phone or video chat, remote patient monitoring and online support for managing chronic conditions such as diabetes. What are the advantages and drawbacks of this new treatment technology? Moderated by: Sammy Caiola, Capital Public Radio; Panelists: Dr. Richard Florio, Kaiser Permanente; David Ford, California Medical Association; Todd May, Health Net; Dr. Javeed Siddiqui, TeleMed2U; David Stockwell, Veterans Affairs NorCal Health Care System

America is living through a time of unprecedented demographic change. In the last twenty years, the segment of our population over the age of 65 has increased from 6% to 9%. According to estimates, those over 65 will comprise 17% of the population by 2050. At 65, individuals can join the Medicare healthcare system. But Medicare is complicated, and for many who are about to or have recently turned 65, they face many choices and daunting questions.In this episode, we first hear from Jane, who had a challenging time enrolling in her Medicare program. She found out the hard way that not signing up when you first turn 65 made it more difficult and costly to enroll. Then we talk with Medicare Expert Karen Johnson of Wellcare to learn the details about how to enroll successfully in Medicare.

Health insurance is critical for individuals and families. When you suddenly lose your health insurance, because of COVID-19 or any other reason, it can feel overwhelming and difficult to determine where to start and what to do. Fortunately, there are many options available. Jenn Moore, Health Net's chief commercial officer, joins us to talk about how to navigate this complicated and challenging process. For nearly 20 years, Jenn has overseen Health Net's insurance plans for corporations, small businesses, families, and individuals. She also led the insurer's planning for complying with and implementing the Affordable Care Act.  

When it comes to money you’re doing your best each month, but how do you know if you’re really on the right track? We look at two simple options to use for checking in with your finances, without having to open an overwhelming spreadsheet or get lost in an endless amount of financial jargon.

Mark Paskell is a professional magician based out of Los Angeles, and he also specializes in designing custom shows, trade shows, and product launches. His corporate client list includes ABC, Health Net, Walt Disney Studios, Amtrak, Shell Oil and many Fortune 500 companies. Mark is proud to have assisted David Copperfield in his development of Project Magic, a teaching program for handicapped children and adults. Internationally, Mark has toured with his show through China, Japan, Mexico, Trinidad and various parts of Europe. In addition to performing, Mark consults, supervises and assists on motion pictures and television shows that need magic, circus arts or practical special effects. He has taught actors to shoot fire from their hands. Additionally, Mark has advised Hollywood screenwriters who want accurate depictions of magic and magicians in their screenplays. Today Mark is going to share: Stories brought behind the scenes and backstage, Mark also shares an interesting concept called the “Artistic Accident” Lessons of releasing perfectionism, Ideas that have come from dreams, How we can bring our light to the world, How we can choose to sit in the negativity or opportunity, The surprising excitement that comes when we’re faced with obstacles, & Tips when faced with the inner critic. “Even in the worst of tragedies lies the seeds of opportunity” Check out Marks Website: https://www.markpaskell.com --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/priscilla-pfeiffer/message

In this episode, I am speaking with Linda Hollander, CEO of Sponsor Concierge. Linda Hollander has been featured by Inc. Magazine as the leading expert in corporate sponsorships.She is the CEO of Sponsor Concierge which helps business owners profit from the awesome power of corporate sponsors. Linda Hollander has 20 years of experience in business. Her corporate sponsors have included Microsoft, Citibank, Fed Ex, Health Net, American Airlines, Bank of America, Wells Fargo, Staples, Wal Mart and IBM.Today we will dive into How to Secure Corporate Sponsors: The 3 P's of sponsorshipHow to find corporate sponsors to underwrite your eventHow to structure sponsorship offerings Contact Linda hereDon’t forget to subscribe, share, and review if the information was helpful. Follow on InstagramLinda HollanderThe Diamond Butterfly Event Gems Podcast

Welcome!   We are going to hit a number of topics today from the world of Technology and I have a special guest today who will discuss a subject close that I feel is important for my listeners as well. We are going to talk about some of the dangers of using the cloud and why you need to be careful. Passphrases beat Passwords, Malware on Macs, Ransomware, Cloud Liability and How Big Tech is taking advantage of our kids.   For more tech tips, news, and updates visit - CraigPeterson.com --- Related Articles: Businesses in Danger: Data Transfer between Cloud Apps Passwords: Length trumps Complexity Businesses Must Understand The Intricacies of Cloud Security Malware on Macs: Not as Bad as the Headlines Might Lead You to Believe Businesses Beware: Ransomware is on the rise, again Liability belongs to You: Misconfigured Clouds and Security All Businesses are Tech Businesses - Like it or Not Big Tech taking Advantage of Our Kids --- Automated Machine Generated Transcript: Craig Hey, good morning, everybody, Craig Peterson here. I am not doing the Facebook Live this week. If you watched it last week, I'd love to know what you think. Of course, it's something I am more than glad to do. We're busy, so I don't want to do something that people aren't going to like. We're thinking about trying to do something a little bit different, where we go ahead and instead of just the radio show when we do these Lives. We're going to use those for deep dive so you can ask questions and all of that sort of stuff. I think that's going to work out pretty darn well. We'll see how that goes. We're, you know, we're just trying a few different things here as time goes on. Hey, I got a great interview coming up with a friend of mine. He has been sugar-free now for years, you know, is a tech show right then, and there's no particular tech behind this. You know, if you listen to me for a while that I have had a weight problem, okay. Ever since I was a kid, I had a belly on me. The bottom of my rib cage there in the center kind of points out as I get a ski jump from my belly over the years. I've had this constant battle with my weight, and I lost 80 pounds, I put 40 back on throughout about 15, almost 20 years. I guess that's not too bad. Now I've taken it off again. I've talked about what I did to do that. I want you to hear what Barry has to say. I invited him on. He's an incredible guy and done so many interesting things over his life. He has a book out there, and he had a membership site. He was helping people for a while to get rid of their sugar addictions, but he's going to give us some tips and tricks and some points as well coming up a little bit later on today. I want to discuss a fair amount today about "The Cloud" because so many people think it's a panacea. They think by using the cloud somehow relieves them from the regulatory liability of these regulations that are out there and some of the things that you're supposed to comply with, right? In some cases, if you are a subcontractor selling stuff to a military contractor, there's now a ten-year prison sentence plus all of these fines and things that can nail you. So people are thinking, well, we'll just move to the cloud, right? It's going to make it easier. It's going to make it cheaper. And you know, the first pass on those numbers might be the case it might be cheaper. But what I have found in doing a little bit more digging is that many companies are now abandoning the cloud. And when I found they were abandoning the cloud, that's when I started getting interested trying to figure out why what's going on here. Here. And so I dug into it, and I'm going to share that with you today. I think that's an essential thing for businesses. I've got a new report out from the FBI this week that's backing me up from five years ago. I think that's kind of cool. So we'll talk about what the FBI is warning and telling us to do. From our security standpoint. We're going to also talk about some of the intricacies of cloud security. Still, Mac malware on Max, this is kind of interesting, isn't it because we all been kind of conditioned to think the Macs are malware-free, due to their secure design. They use software designed in the university environment for networking, unlike windows. You know, so when you think about the Mac and you think that you are completely free of malware, that is not the case. We'll talk about what kinds of malware you are likely to be exposed to that could kind of nail you. We're going to talk about business ransomware, you do not hear much about it, because you know, there was such a big deal a year to two years ago, but it is on the rise again. So we'll talk about that and how that's affecting business. We're also going to talk about the fact that if you are in business, face it, and you're a tech business. There are no two ways about it, right? As a business person, now you have to use technology. So how do you do it? How do you take care of your security and your technology, when the Calvary is incoming, they're not there? You're just like every other business out there. That means you have to develop some technical prowess and expertise. You have to be also the guys that take care of your security. Maybe you'll bring in professional services firms to help you out. Companies like mine can come in and design your network or redesign your network. Or maybe have accountants come in and look over your bookkeeping. Maybe help to improve some efficiencies in the business. Maybe you bring a legal team in to make sure that you're not going to get nailed by some of these regulations out there. The bottom line is that we are all tech businesses in this day and age. That's something that I don't think most people consider. We'll get into that a little bit later on today. We're also going to be talking about big tech, taking advantage of our kids some new lawsuits filed under the children's online privacy protection act or COPPA, against some of the biggest companies out there in the online world. These are all big deals, I think. That's what we're going to be talking about today. If you want to two, you can get all of these different segments from my weekly radio shows my appearances on TV and radio at my website at Craig Peterson dot com, and you can listen to them individually. You can also subscribe to the podcast. What we've been doing with the radio show since the whole radio show from soup to nuts is an hour and a half long every week is to put it out as one long show. Thanks to a suggestion from a few listeners and one guy that kind of pushed me over the edge in making it that way. If you subscribe to the podcast on any of the major podcasting services, you are going to get a one hour and a half, a 90-minute podcast that covers all the latest news of the week. I appreciate everybody that's doing that. Of course, our numbers have gone down a little bit in the podcast downloads because there are fewer downloads instead of the show being a different podcast is now one podcast, but I think it is better. There was an event that was held by the FBI infragard program in New Hampshire here last week. I didn't go as I was just tied up. They hold it the morning, every couple of months, and most of the time, I just can't go. But the event was called "The Calvary is not coming." They weren't talking about Covid-19 The coronavirus. They were talking about our infrastructure, our businesses when we get attacked. I work with the FBI on cases and help them understand what's going on with attacks against our customers like when Iran or China, Russia, or even others are trying to attack our customers by doing some nasty stuff with our customers, right? Our customer's data that we just don't want to have happened. We just didn't want that information to get out. While preparing these tutorials, the pop-up-trainings, and coursework, it brought to mind this idea of the Calvary, and whether or not they're coming. You and I, we are the people who are responsible for the security in the businesses we work in, right? And that can end up meaning that it's all on our shoulders. So this whole Calvary thing got me to thinking that I think there's a great analogy here. We are the Calvary, I'm the Calvary, and that is the director Action I've been going anyways, not with that specific wording, that particular name, okay. But that's the direction I've always been going. But now I think I'm going to get way more specific about that. Because you are the Calvary, you are the people that your family goes to when there's a problem. You are the people who are relied on by the business owner. Maybe you are the business owner, and the buck stops with you when it comes to technology when it comes to security when it comes to making everything work, right. That's the way it is with me, right? I'm the business owner, and yet the tech buck, the security buck stops with me. And so that's the approach I'm going to be taking here. We are the Calvary. I am the Calvary. You are the Calvary every one of you, right? You listen to this tech show to understand technology a little bit better because you're the person that others go to who is going to answer their questions. Who's going to fix their problems. I think it's great, but I also feel a huge responsibility to help you with that. I kind of woke up in more than one time over the last few months with nightmares, that's the wrong word, but how do I help you? How do I help you guys best? What are the things you need to know that is going to be easy? It is a question that we need to work on need to understand. We need to make work for us and our families, our business families as well as our families. That's my theme. I have already got five tutorials in the can where I'm doing screenshots, and I am showing you what to do while you're watching my desktop as I am doing things. I'm installing an extension, or I'm locking down a Windows computer, or I'm configuring a firewall. I am doing all of these things you have to do for everybody or that you have to understand. That's where we're going. I am committed to this. I think I have a message that that works that people can understand, right? The Calvary isn't coming. You are the Calvary. We are the Calvary, each one of us, and that's what we will be covering. So keep an eye on that. Make sure you're on my email list because these tutorials, although free, you can only get them if you subscribe. Craig Peterson dot com is where you're going to find it online. Craig Peterson dot com. Make sure you also use subscribe to the podcast, I'd appreciate it if you enjoy these. A subscription always helps us out and helps get the word out even further. We'll be right back listening to Craig Peterson on WGAN and, of course, online at Craig Peterson dot com. Hi guys, welcome back. Craig Peterson here on WGAN. In online, of course, Craig Peterson dot com. We're going to talk about the cloud and what stuff you need to worry about and what you don't. I was at my chiropractor's just this week and talking with him, and he has moved his practice in with another chiropractor. It's a little bit bigger, they've got massage therapists, and now there are four chiropractors in practice there. He was asking because he was concerned, they have a system there that is cloud-based, and you know, time was they would have a server there in the office, maybe in the basement, and they would have their little firewall, they try and keep things safe. Now that it's out in the cloud, their worried. We're going to be getting into that in a few minutes. And then also coming up here at the top of the hour. I've got my friend Barry who's going to be joining us, and we're going to be discussing sugar, which is, yeah, I guess there's kind of a tech angle to the sugar side, right? Like the high fructose corn syrup and the problems coming from that, of course, we're not going to talk about that part of it, but what he's done and the book he has as well as what you can do. First off, let's talk about our first cloud topic of the day. And this is about businesses in danger, and how they're in danger now from the cloud. The cloud, as I mentioned in the last segment, is not a panacea; it does not relieve you of any responsibility for the data that is in the cloud. So, for instance, if you have patient data, if you have data that is privileged or personally identifiable, putting it into a cloud vendor's hand does not relieve you of that responsibility. If you want to check it out with most of the major vendors out there like Google, for instance, you can find their statements online of what it is that they will accept responsibility for, which is nothing. And that's particularly true if you're not using the business type services. For instance, with Office 365, if you are using their email service, for example, and you're on their lower tier of the platform, you're not going to get security. You're not going to get the ability to block some of the most malicious types of emails that might be coming in. It's not backed up. They are not going to have some of the multi-factor-authentication that you really should have tied in with things, maybe like DUO or others, alright. Just because there is a cloud-service does not mean it's safe. Just because a company like Microsoft with its Office 365 does have some pretty darn secure services. Don't assume that the lower end service is they have are going to be safe for you either. And there's a great article I have up on my website right now. And it's from Health Net security. And it's talking about this subject and saying that 44% of malicious threats are cloud-enabled nowadays. Think about that. It's huge. Time was when the risks were what viruses and we know anti-virus software now is pretty much good for nothing, right? Because the anti-virus software is not going to protect you from modern threats. But that's what it was. It was all this virus stuff that might spread and worms that might cover the basics. But now we're seeing that cybercriminals are using the cloud because it's been an effective method for them to hide their attacks. Because the cloud vendor again, it's you know, friendly. Glee, this is you know, saying, you see a lot, aren't I? Frankly, when you get right down to it, if you are in a big cloud vendor like Microsoft or Google or an Amazon. Or even some of these smaller guys that are still pretty big, you're not even noticeable. Would they notice if you moved to another cloud provider? You will not change their bottom line or their top line. You're not even a rounding error. How much do you think that they care about you individually? What can you do when you get hacked, and you're in the cloud? What can you do when their cloud network goes down? What can you do when their software isn't working when a rollout of their latest release doesn't work? Or maybe it just doesn't work for you and 10,000 other people, which is nothing, right? Because Yeah, well, we got millions of subscribers 10,000 Some people Yeah, well, we'll get right on that for you, sir. Right, because you're not even in the 1%. Lots of problems here. And when we're talking about the security side, yeah, in some ways, it's going to be more secure. But in many ways, it's not. Here's a quote here from a threat company that they do a lot of research is called net scope and scale P. and Ray can Aziz is the threat research director over there. And he's saying, and we are seeing increasingly complex thread techniques being used across cloud applications, spanning from Cloud phishing and malware delivery, to cloud absolute control and ultimately, cloud data exfiltration. Of course, data exfiltration is where the bad guys are stealing your bank account information, stealing nutritional property, stealing your customer's information, etc. Or research Research shows the sophistication and scale of the cloud-enabled Kill Chain to increase, requiring security defenses that understand thousands of cloud apps to keep pace with attackers and block cloud threats. For these reasons, any enterprise using the cloud needs to modernize and extend its security architecture. In other words, what he's saying is any business because we know when he's an enterprise, I want to bring up a critical point. I was doing some work and doing some training with a bunch of accountants in Ireland. The largest group of accountants in Ireland, and I was explaining some of the security problems that we see here and around the world and that they see there, and they started talking about enterprises. Now I note in enterprises, right, and enterprise is big business. You think of enterprises here in the United States, and you're thinking about you know, the multi-billion dollar profit that some of these vast enterprises get. An enterprise means any business, right? It's an enterprise for a kid to set up a lemonade stand at the side of the road and sell lemonade to passers-by. That's an enterprise. So they're saying here, and I agree that every business, no matter how small, needs to understand the threat and understand that cloud apps aren't the answer and you have to take care of it yourself. The Calvary isn't coming. Your end Nat not even in that you're not a rounding error when it comes to the amount of money these companies made and make every year. So you have to be your own Calvary. Now, when we're stuck talking about businesses here, they're saying that 89% of companies are In the cloud Now, that doesn't mean they're hundred percent in the cloud, it just means you're using the cloud service. I bet you when you got right down to it, that those numbers are probably really 100%. People are using some of the services that maybe you shouldn't be using, right. They're using Google Docs and Sheets and all of those types of things. I use Grammarly all of the time, and some of those things can leak data. So we're trying to be careful not to use some of the cloud services when it comes to more confidential data. But really, it's 100%. Think about everything you're doing, all of the collaboration tools, and people are using Slack, which is not secure. And they're using that to share information within the team. You know, it's a great productivity application, sweb mail apps, those are probably the most popular and used today, people using Gmail or I mentioned office 365. I have a friend who still uses Yahoo, who knew that they were still in business doing email, right? There, the average company is using 142 different cloud applications. And I'm what I'm just trying to do here. Now, I'm not trying to scare you away from using the cloud. It isn't just a scare tactic. I'm not trying to sell you a listen. You need to have multiple layers, and you have to buy them for me, right? What I want you to do here, my whole goal of talking about this today is to get you to pay attention to what you're doing, and the data that you have up there. We're going to talk about this more when we get back. We'll finish this up. We're talking about the new FBI, released this week, what they're saying about security and what you can do to help. So stick around. You're listening to Craig Peterson on WGAN. We'll be right back. Hey, welcome back, everybody, Craig Peterson here, WGAN online at Craig Peterson dot com. We're going to talk here about the FBI his latest recommendation from their press release this week. We've got more coming up about cloud security. Ransomware is on the rise again, what type is it? What's it doing? And at the top of the hour, I've got Barry Friedman joining us. We're going to talk about sugar, and the impact of sugar. Now, this isn't an entirely tech-related topic, but I know you're going to appreciate this. He is a great guy. He's got an excellent little book out. It's been up for quite a few years now. It is this concept that he has about sugar and what to do with it, and about it has helped to change my life. I figured I would share it with you. It's one of the things I find essential. Let's finish up our first cloud topic of the day because I want you guys to think about your use of the cloud. When you get into the larger businesses, it's looking like the average of these Fortune 500 companies. The real big ones, but not like the, you know, absolutely massive ones. Those guys are using over 2400 distinct cloud services and apps. Think about what you're using what you're doing. And let's help you think about it for a minute here. Here's a top of five cloud app categories. Which of these are you using Cloud Storage? So we're thinking about things like Dropbox here or box, we're thinking about things like Google Drive, which again, all of these guys Microsoft has one drive, all of them have tiers that are safe. However, most people are not buying their secure tier. So keep that in mind. Next, collaboration tools, which collaboration tools are you using? Right? I am talking about Slack here, and about the Microsoft Teams program. And there are many other types of collaboration as well. We use some for putting together diagrams to use some for some of our graphics arts. We use some cloud apps for grabbing videos and doing some video production. Webmail, what are you using for webmail? Consumer stuff? What do you do? Are you going on to amazon.com to order things? How about some of these other sites, social media, many of us my business included, we have social media accounts that we use to keep in touch with our prospects and with our clients. Which are these are you using Google Drive, YouTube, office 365. Hopefully, you're at least using one of the business versions of office 365. How about Facebook? How about Google? Gmail, Microsoft Office SharePoint, that's a pretty common one. Outlook. How about Twitter, Amazon services like s3 or Amazon Web Services. It was the list goes on and on. LinkedIn, many of them are using them. When and when we're talking about 44% of the threats being cloud-based. It gets to be a big deal. The five top targeted cloud apps are Microsoft Office 365. Now we're seeing this right now with one of our clients who is using Office 365. Now we have them on one of the enterprise levels that they need. They have multiple times a day people trying to break into their Microsoft Office 365 for business accounts from Iran. Now numerous times a day, but also from China and Russia. The next top one box. Very good. Again, outstanding software, but you have to have the right kind. And make sure you're using at least two-factor authentication with some sort of a random one-time password (OTP) type generator. Google Drive Microsoft as your GitHub. Man, it goes on and on lots of great information here. I'm not planning on doing a full course on the cloud anytime soon. But we are going to talk about it more a little bit today coming up later on. But I want to get to this FBI thing right now. About five years ago, there was some academic research that was published, and I remember reading it back then I was really, really into it came out of Cornell, and they looked at the strength of passwords. And we went into the whole history of behind passwords how they started I remember the very first passwords, you know, we remember using systems didn't have passwords. But it has evolved to the point today where these recommendations that came out five years ago are starting to take root with people. There have been so many discussions, so many arguments, if you will, about what should or should not happen when it comes to security. Some are arguing that we need more complexity in our passwords. Many businesses require you to have uppercase lowercase digits, special characters in the password used to be used to have control characters and your passwords. I haven't seen that requirement in a long time. It was back in the days of terminals. Others say, Hey, listen, all you need to do is make your passwords longer. Because part of the problem we have with passwords is the more Like some password, the more likely somebody is going to write it down. And if they write it down, the cleaning crew or somebody else is going to come across it, right? That's a bit of a problem. Well, the FBI is Portland office this week, came out on the side of longer passwords and not this whole complexity mess. So in the FBI statement, they said, quote, instead of using the short, complex password, it's hard to remember, consider using a longer passphrase. It involves combining multiple words into a long string of at least 15 characters. The extra length of the password makes it harder to crack while also making it easier for you to remember. It falls right in line with the research out of Cornell. It is what I've been recommending for a long time. You're best off using some sort of a phrase such as a four-word phrase for a password. Remember, I use password managers, and you should be. You should be using one password or using Lastpass to make sure that you are safe right. So using one of those have it choose the words for you randomly. Both of them have the ability to generate passwords. Occasionally I will use these very complex ones with upper lowercase special characters and numbers. But I only do that when the site requires you to do that. Okay. But this is a very, very big deal. And you might have seen stuff about this before there is a famous now-infamous XKCD webcomic that is online, I should say. It is kind of cool. A lot of sarcasm, math, and language, but it's looking at password strength and through 20 years of effort and said We've successfully trained everyone to use passwords that are hard for humans to remember, but easy for computers to guess. And that is the problem, the harder it is for the computer to guess. The longer it'll take to break-in to, and the less likely they can get into your account, right? So they break it down, look for common substitutions, look at the order numerals punctuations and basically, they come out and say, Hey, listen for your average password, using troubadour ampersand three as the example. That's 1-234-567-8910 11 characters, which is a pretty good length, right? Most sites only require eight characters. That breaks down to 28 bits of entropy. That's two to the 28th power, and at 1000 guesses a second, it would take a computer above three days to break that particular password. You know, possible attack if it's a weak remote web service, it can be a lot faster, there are hash tables that are news. Those hash tables make it so that the bad guys can crack a password in just minutes. When you start using these big ones, and the example is like course, correct battery staple, that's 44 bits, takes 550 years to guess versus three days. Think about that for a few minutes. I think it's vital that we use these passphrases from once again, I agree with the FBI on this one. All right, when we come back, we have one more segment before we get into our little sugar interview. And we're going to talk a bit of malware on Mac. So stick around. We'll be right back. Hey, welcome back, everybody. Craig Peterson here on WGAN and online, Craig Peterson dot com. We're going to talk right now about malware on max. Right, our max hack-proof is not kind of the bottom line. But we're going to talk about that we also have more coming up on some of the cloud risks and things you can do, where you should keep an eye out when it comes to the cloud services that you're using. And I want you to think about what services you're using. And we did talk about that a little bit earlier. Okay, so let's get into the max right now. When we get back to the top of the hour, we're going to be joined by my good friend. We're going to be talking a little about what's going on when it comes to sugar, guys, so he's coming up here in about what 1015 minutes, so make sure you stick around you're going to enjoy it. He has a book out there by You'll find it over on Amazon almost anywhere online. And I think you'll get a lot out of it. It's called I love me more than sugar, the why and how of 30 days sugar-free. So it's, it's absolutely a great idea and is something must pay attention to, we have such an obesity epidemic in addition to all the illnesses, so many of them traced back to that one ingredient. Why and how and what's going on. All of that is coming up with my friend Barry Friedman coming up at the top of the hour. So our Macs you know if you've watched me for a while that I am a huge Apple fan, right? And I'm a big Apple fan mainly because when Apple first came out with iOS 10, not iOS but with a Mac os 10. They had switched from using what was a complete and total toy operating system to a real one using Unix and a refined version of Unix. They ended up having a mock OS underneath it. I had worked on both platforms before helping to develop the kernels in both of those, so I thought, well, this is great, maybe now's the time because I was frustrated, right. I had been using Unix for years. I had, at that point, used Linux as well. And so many of the apps that I wanted to use just weren't available for Linux or any version of Unix. That was a big BSD guy. He still used BSD for some of the things we're doing. I just said, this Is it, right? Because you could drop into a terminal, you had a real terminal, a real operating system sitting under underneath you. And I thought that was pretty darn cool. And I have stuck with Max ever since. But Macs are not foolproof. They do come under attack. Apple has tightened things up. If you've got Catalina, which is the latest release of the Mac operating system, you know that some of the old apps that you might have had no longer work on Catalina, because Apple now has put some requirements in place. The biggest one is, you guys need to be 64 bits instead of 32 bits. That makes the operating system writing a little bit easier because you no longer have to handle two sets of libraries and worry about linking the man or the addressing space for the application. After all, you want to randomize it. And so now I'm going down a rat hole, you're getting kind of geeky, but that's one of the things the other big thing is now you might have noticed that Apple has a lot of controls in place about where an application can go on your Mac, what it has access to and will pop up and ask you about it. There is a lot more stuff coming up. In fact, in the next minor release of Catalina, there's going to be more restrictions in place. But even with all of those things, there are still some vulnerabilities, nothing like Windows. But Windows is getting better. But there are still some significant flaws in the way windows works with its file-sharing services, services turned on, even though it has a firewall. It's a crappy one, and that's part of what we're going to take care of with some of the courses and tutorials I am offering. You're going to be able to lock down any Windows or Mac computer all by yourself. You're going to be able to lock down your small business network, and I am teaching you how to do that, absolutely free. No upsells. Depending on how far you want to be able to lock it down, I will have some courses and things too. As I've said so many times, you're the Calvary the hackers are coming you have to be prepared. When we're talking about Macs, what must we pay attention to? Malwarebytes has some outstanding software that you can use on a Mac and also on Windows. It's one of the few pieces of software one of the packages that I recommend, frankly, but they've got a new report out, and they're saying that Mac malware is now growing faster than malware for Windows, for the first time. It is a quote right out of malware bytes. For the first time, Macs outpaced Windows PC in the number of threats detected per endpoint. I want you to remember, that is threats, not actual successful attacks. In total, we saw approximately 24 million Windows, adware detections, and 30 million Mac detections. We're talking about adware here. These aren't the viruses that have plagued windows forever. It isn't the ransomware that continues to plague windows and will for years to come. We're talking about adware detections. Frankly, what this boils down to so that you don't get too worried about it with your Mac. It is that most of the Mac malware is much more of a nuisance, and it is a real danger. Because Macs are generally not vulnerable to what we would normally classify as malware. They do have some pop-ups that can happen because of the browsers. That's why I've got my training coming up. You guys that are the frontline defenses in your homes and your families and your businesses, you are the Calvary. I've got some great Calvary training coming up for all of you. Keep an eye out for that here in a couple of weeks. But Macs are mostly only vulnerable to this so-called adware frankly and add whereas I said it's more of a nuisance than a danger. Here's something else that Malwarebytes acknowledges it says max differed drastically from windows in terms of the types of threats seen. Between us. It's because they design Macs drastically different than Windows machines. Mac's operating system is designed right. Back to Malwarebytes, where we found several different categories and families in our top detections and Windows threats that classify as traditional malware, especially those aimed at businesses. Most Mac threats and certainly the most common ones are families of adware and potentially unwanted wanted programs (PUPs). Among the top 10 Mac threats for consumers and businesses or it is a mix of these PUPs, these potentially unwanted programs, and adware. The PUPs are a variety of mostly cleaning apps termed as unwanted not just by Malwarebytes but by the Mac user community at large. Two of the best-known examples mean Mac keeper and Mac booth. And I had to add to that, that I have a good friend and he was in the insurance business for years, had his practice and they had several people working for him as he was handling insurance, and then he went into investment type stuff. And it was interesting to me that he fell for that whole pop thing multiple times. He just kept downloading and paying for Mac keeper, which just doesn't do anything, and is malware itself. It is adware. Mac boosters are the same sort of problem. Don't install those things. By the way, when it comes to a Mac, this is very crucial. You have to install the software yourself, right. So until last year, the two top Mac adware apps had detected installations. Number one Hundred of thousands in 2019. However, one new piece of adware was detected 30 million times. It's called New Tab. It appeared on the scene in December 2018. It's an adware family that attempts to redirect searches in the web browser to earn illicit affiliate revenue. I've talked about that before it clicks on ads using your browser. And it is usually delivered in the form of apps with embedded Safari, Safari extension Safari is Apple's number one browser, Apple's browser itself, right. So don't use a new tab. Most crucially of all, Mac malware is not a virus, and it can't spread by itself. It isn't a worm that kind of crawls around. Mac OS does not allow unsigned apps to be installed without user permission at all. The mission these apps cannot spread from machine to machine. You have to fix them. No drive-by, right? None of that happens on a Mac. So the way Mac malware gets installed is by entirely new users like you and me into installing it ourselves. And when we're talking about these potentially unwanted programs, when I call it a scam, where, frankly, but these types of scams advertising junk apps, pretend they're doing something useful. And this is part of what chrome google just got rid of over 500 Chrome extensions because they were doing the same thing. They had scareware built into them. They weren't clicking on all kinds of ads out there to try and drive up revenues. Naive users like my buddy that get tricked into installing them and sometimes even paying for them, which is what he did with Mac keeper. Okay. And then they're hijacking your browser. It's just crazy. So protect yourself. It is simple. Only ever install apps from the Mac App Store or a trusted developer. Only install browser extensions that are recommended by me or by trustworthy sources, because they are not signed and not reviewed. You can always delete them, and you can always remove them, you know, and that's been my advice for people for a long time. Go through your inventory of apps, including on your iPhones, your iPads, etc. The thing that you see that you haven't used in a while delete them. I just went through earlier this week on my iPhone, I sat there and said, Okay, I haven't used that for a while, but I really could use it soon. No, I haven't used it for a while, and I deleted it, which is what I recommend everybody do here. Be very careful that great article from nine to five Mac by Ben Lovejoy that I was commenting on here this segment, and you'll find it online and, of course, at Craig Peterson dot com. And this is part of what I do if you are on my email list, you will get these emails. We have a high open-rate like 40% of you guys open these emails, and I think that's just phenomenal. It's a very, very high rate because they are so useful. So make sure you subscribe, Craig Peterson, calm, slash subscribe, get on my email list, and articles like this and others, including that FBI warning that just came out, will show up in your mailbox. Usually, Saturday morning depends on how far a week's been going. Stick around when we come back. I got my friend joining us, Barry Friedman. You're listening to Craig Peterson on w GAN online Craig Peterson dot com. Hello, everybody, welcome back. Craig Peterson here on WGAN. A little earlier this week, I sat down and recorded an interview with a friend of mine. I've known him for quite a while now. His name is Barry Friedman. He's written a book that you'll find online. It is one of the Amazon number one bestsellers titled I love me, more than sugar. You know that I have been very conscious about my health, particularly recently, right? As I get a little bit older, you realize I'd better be healthy, or I'm going to have all kinds of problems. I have been doing all sorts of diets over the years over the last 40 years. A lot, okay. I kind of stuck with the Atkins diet for a while lost quite a bit of weight. I also have tried a couple of other things. Over the last couple of years, year and a half, anyway, my wife and I have been doing Intermittent fasting. We found it to be just absolutely incredible for us. Now, Barry has a different way of approaching it that's been very successful for him and many other people. So I asked him if he'd sit down with us and talk a little bit about it, and he did. So here we go with the interview with Barry Friedman. Again, check it out online, you'll find this book. It's called I love me more than sugar, the why and how of 30 days sugar-free. We're joined right now by Barry Friedman. He is an author. He has been quite busy over the years, even on Johnny Carson, back in the day. He is a gentleman that I know and appreciate. He's helped me out with a few things over the years. I want to talk a little bit about this book here. I love me more than sugar. What he has found. What he's doing. To help not just me out a little bit, but he's going to talk about sugar and how it impacts all So let's get started. Barry, welcome. Barry Hey, Craig. Craig 2:06 Now there is a whole bunch of controversy out there right now, I've heard people say there are a million diet plans. If you do a Google search, you'll find one that'll work for you because they all work. You know, and it's varying degrees, right? And I've done this over the years, I lost 80 pounds doing the diet, which is really something and then I put about half of that on over the next 20 years. I've taken it off now by doing intermittent fasting and being a little more cautious about what I eat. Looking at all of these changes over the years, one of the significant changes I see right now, Barry, has to do with this food pyramid, which tells us we have to eat grains that were the basis of it. Why don't you tell us a little bit about why that is? What's the problem with the grains and sugars in them. Barry It is funny, you know, all that stuff. See, you would talk to a nutritionist and do well to dig into that, Craig. But what I can tell you is, you know, since childhood of our culture, our parents often use sugar as a reward, punishment, and bribe. It works its way into our lives so fast, so pervasively, and it's kind of a miracle. We eat a lot of wheat. We eat a lot of grains, and those turn into sugar. We eat a lot of sugar. We're up to about 150 to 180 pounds a year average for Americans. It's about eight pounds every three weeks. I know that because I used to go on TV talking about my book and a juggle an eight-pound bowling ball. I would hand that to the host and say, here's how much sugar an average person eats in three weeks, and they hit the table with it. Yeah, it's funny, you know, I think in 2020 or within this decade, we are going to unequivocably look at sugar the same way we now look at tobacco. It snuck in. Back in the old days, go back 150 years, rich people would eat four pounds of the stuff a year. Our systems have not developed fast enough to handle the massive increase, and it shows up in all kinds of ways, overweight, and obesity. A lot of people will tell you it has a lot to do with the number of cancers we have. If you were to look at those two curves, cancer, and sugar consumption, those curves look pretty similar. Now, I'm not a doctor. I'm a four-time world champion who doesn't eat sugar. Craig 4:28 Sugar over the years, we know it has caused problems. I saw some studies looking at some of the Egyptian mummies thousands of years ago now a couple of thousand years ago, and they had all kinds of problems with their teeth and many other diseases that they had. Now they're attributing that to sugar. You mentioned that when we were younger, we would get a little bit of sugar as kind of a treat or reward. Now we see these hangry commercials, but you need to eat this Chocolate Bar because it's going. It has gotten out of hand Unknown Speaker 5:04 Yeah, it's hilarious. I mean, that's how we get up to 150 180 pounds a year, it's added to everything. Crackers and salt have dextrose in it to keep it from caking, salt has sugar, which is fantastic. You know, a lot of savory foods will have it, and it just shows up everywhere. The truth is, after eight years of coming up, Leap Day 2020 will be my eighth anniversary. My first day sugar-free was leap-day 2012. I love these every four years I get an actual anniversary. What happens, you know, what happens when it stopped eating is the taste for the desire for the need. The addiction goes away. Food starts to taste differently. I've often said to people, Craig, that you can't speak for the version of yourself who lives on the other side of 30-day sugar-free. Right now, the person I am is influenced by everything I've done in the last whatever, 30 days or 30 years. That person on the other side of a 30-day sugar-free detox is an entirely different person as far as skin or anxieties. Usually, the feelings they have, their skin, the amount of sleep they need, the way their teeth feel. My teeth feel so good all the time right now used to be able to take my pulse in my teeth after eating a four-pack of Reese's Peanut Butter Cups. I could feel my pulse. Yeah, I may have been feeling my finger, but it felt like my tooth was banging. Anyway, if somebody is interested in doing that, you know jumping, find little tricks you can do for yourself like tell yourself you're not getting any sugar for 10 AM or noon. Little tiny tricks will turn around the habits. Craig 6:35 It is the habit that is the problem. In so many ways for so many people. Going back to what I've been doing with intermittent fasting. You know I had it in my mind that I had to eat. We look at our kids nowadays. They have breakfast, and they have a mid-morning snack in school, they have lunch at school and then an afternoon snack after school and another bite before they go to practice. The score it's getting bigger, just listening to it and drink during sports practice Barry Yeah, exactly. It is sugar, and it's compounding. Craig When I decided, Hey, I'm going to skip a meal, you know, just a very moderate light-fast. Yeah, my brain was just going, Oh, you've got to eat. I found that really what it was for me was kind of always an addict, right? I was addicted to it. Is sugar that way too? You are describing it as you know, try not to have sugar before 10 AM. Is this something an addiction, frankly? Barry Oh my gosh, are you kidding me? I mean, the sugar beats up four organs pretty severely, the brain, the liver, the heart, and the skin. As far as the brain and when you're talking about like, even before we take that bite, you know, it starts firing up, you know, it fires up the same receptors that are fired up by gambling or sex or drugs. No chance of addiction. They're right certainly no chance of addiction. But yeah, it plays, and you know, it's funny going off sugar and I did it for 30 days. Well, I did for one day at first felt so good on March 1, 2012. I was like, I have to do this for 30 days and see what happens about 20 days into that. I was like, Oh my gosh, I'm going to do this for a year just because I feel so alive right now I have to see how I feel. But what happens is it throws a monkey wrench into well-choreographed habits that you have in your life, right the way you live and yours and other people's. That's another thing that happens, you know, it's like I live in a family with a wife and a son. We mean, you don't do sugar. It's a personal decision. You know, you get this little dance of confusion that you get to run around, but it's also within that is bliss, and there's resentment, and there's a renewal, and there's hope the emotions so much is involved. When we eat sugar, you know, it's not supposed to be a portal for squelching fear and sadness and loneliness, anger. It's supposed to be for food, and so few of the 650,000 items that are on a market shelf, serve that exact purpose. The food you know, we can walk around and collect what's food, in a pretty small basket, and other stuff are usually just connectors for that hundred and 150-180 pounds of sugar a year. Craig 9:10 Let's talk about this bloating, right? We were discussing a little bit about what happens when we eat a lot of sugar. The insulin response, for ten years, I was a volunteer paramedic, and I certainly had diabetic patients. You'd find them just unconscious, and what do you do with them? I know a lot of people who have diabetes, as well. A lot of this has to do not just with the insulin response, which I'd love to chat about briefly. It has to do with inflammation at the cellular level. Our bodies are blocking themselves because of what we're doing with some of the sugars that we're eating. We put on weight, and that increases our inflammatory response. It results in some of these other problems with the brain and the heart and the liver. Barry Yeah. There are very few things that surprise me when I walk around an airport, and I still travel a fair amount. When walking around an airport, I see a lot of large people. We're big people nowadays, and it's not surprising. You know, when you talked about the molecules, sugar is composed of two molecules, I'll keep this as technical as possible, Glucose, and fructose. Glucose gets metabolized by every cell in the body, you know, and if we don't get it from the diet, our diet our bodies make it. Fructose, so very different. The only organized organ that can metabolize that is the liver. The liver is the single transporter for it. It's overworked. I mean, it's it probably did pretty well back in the days when people ate four pounds of sugar, wealthy people ate four pounds of sugar, not average peasants, the likes of me. I've gotten a few they called it the delicate spice back in the day, and that's what our livers could healthfully handle you don't see a lot of large people when we look back in old pictures. I just got all these pictures of my grandma, and her family send through the legacy box is such a beautiful thing to get these 14 Films back. No one is fat, Craig. There's nothing personal in the video. Yeah, going back to probably the 1880s the earliest people on here, but that's just people running around. They've not filled themselves. It's a challenge, man, you know, and it becomes a very personal decision, no one's going to make us quit sugar. We've been talking about it. Craig Hey, stick around. When we get back, we're going to finish up our interview with Barry. He has some more interesting points, including how he got to the point he's at right now. So we'll be talking about that. And we're also going to talk a little bit about intermittent fasting, what I've been doing, and what you might want to do and then we're going to get back into technology. Listen to Craig Peterson WGAN. Craig Hey, welcome back everybody Craig Peterson here WGAN online at Craig Peterson dot com. Hey, let's pick up our interview with Barry Friedman. In case you were wondering what the name of his book is, it's "I love me more than sugar." I quite enjoyed it. This guy is a great guy and has been involved with so many things over the years, from being on the Johnny Carson show doing juggling through today where I met him because he's one of the coaches in one of the programs in which I participate. Very, very great guy, and we're going to talk more with him about the whole sugar thing. Barry I wasn't famous for a long time when I first tried this and then then it started, like, wow, he's still doing that, you know, the Curiosity started then I wrote a book about it and got on TV shows as fast as I wanted to dial-up and call-in or fly-in and be on Morning News. There's a call for it. It's a curiosity, but soon, it will be something that we must study. Craig Yeah, I think it's going to be common sense a few years from now. We're speaking with Barry Friedman. He has written a book, and I want to get into that. Now. I'm glad you brought it up. It is part of the 30-day exercise that you discussed. There's a plan in there. Why don't you tell us a bit about the book? I found it over on Amazon. Easy enough to find, and what's it doing? How's it going to help people? Barry Yeah, you know, this book is it's very non-scientific, and I, my buddy, Penn Jillette of Penn and Teller, the taller, bigger-half of Penn and Teller, He lost over 100 pounds on it. He wrote a great book called presto, how I lost 100 pounds. He's got an excellent subtitle for it, but his first line in the book, and I'm one of the few people in the world that can jump on to his tagline. If you take diet advice from a juggler, you're an idiot, because that's what he wrote in the book. I wrote the book really from just a perspective of a guy who did it. A guy who, you know, I traveled around a lot. I did shows for 34 years. Ted conferences, TV shows, I was around a lot of delicious sugar, and I used to love it all. From 2012 on, no added sugar, anything. I tell stories about that journey. Some substitutions we can do, where it starts, what it does to us. Some challenges you may come across, and then the 30 days is walked through very scientifically. I ran an online program for five and a half years and helped thousands of people do a 30-day challenge. What that gave me Craig was a massive database of where people are on day one, day two, day three. It is a traceable spike. I mean, you can see some of the most dramatic days of my life. And you know, it's, I call it in the book ground zero-day for ground zero it was crashing. I remember lying on a massage table. Tears are running down my face. Not because of not having sugar, but I knew that moment was a turning point. My wife as she was like holding me down deep massage as hard as she could just get stuff moving in my body, but I was I felt like it was the door of the threshold into a new life. I think if I would have folded at that point, just grab something I wouldn't have just gone back to going past that day. That was when everything changed. So we in the community, we often talk about what's your day for, and sometimes it's a day for other people, but there is a time when we need to. That's the hero's journey part. That's where you grab the mystical apprentice who goes with you and the mentor who goes with you and walk you through dope. If that helps, I would love to walk you through that. Visa v the book and we have a Facebook page with the how 50-60,000 people on it who have all dabbled in some realm of it, and it's a movement. As I said at the beginning, we will soon look at this the same way we now look at tobacco, no doubt about it. Craig 3:55 The book is called "I love me more than sugar." Barry Friedman is the Author, anything else you'd like to add here? Barry, before we go? Barry Oh, I would just love to tell everybody that if something in this conversation spoke to you, I trust it. Don't question it. There's a fight or flight reflex in the brain that a little gland, that small almond-shaped gland whose job it is to take us away from scary things. If something touched you before, it has a chance to go through that part of the brain, a chance to tell yourself that there is a time for doing this. Know that sugars not for satisfaction or completion. It has never put through that kind of test. It's always about getting more. Like, I said, we will look at this as a real downfall for society. It got added to everything, and it became routine. As Craig said, we began hearing commercials about how we owe it to ourselves how we deserve this. So I trust the gut influences the gut instinct. If you heard something and take a chance, Craig 4:53 I put a link on my website as well obviously to this interview, and you mentioned a Facebook page. What's the name of that group? Or that page? Barry Thirty days sugar-free, but the last 30 days sugar-free Facebook group. We post some stuff in there from time to time. Craig 5:10 All right, and it's a community, and I think that's something that can help. Barry Yeah. Boy does it ever. It is easy to feel alone in this stuff. Craig 5:16 Yeah, exactly. Especially in this day and age again, Barry Friedman. I love me more than sugar and 30 days sugar-free. Look it up on Facebook. I appreciate you being with us today. Unknown Speaker 5:28 Thanks so much, Craig. Thanks for what you're doing. Bye-Bye. Craig 5:31 Hey, as I said, I hope you enjoyed it. Barry's just a great guy. It's a lot of fun chatting with him about what is going on out there. What he's been doing, and he's done a lot, right. I think the most exciting people, frankly, are the people who have done a lot of different diverse experiences in it, and it helps us help you helps me just overall. All right, so we got a couple more things we want. To cover here today, one of them is the liability here on cloud services. We'll get to that in a little bit of business. Ransomware, I think, is an important thing. We'll be talking about that and big tech taking advantage of our kids. But I want to kind of continue with this theme. Barry was talking about sugar, and I know that you know, some diets w for some people, they're not great for others. If you have diabetes, of course, getting to getting rid of some of the sugar can be problematic, right? You know, I was a volunteer in the ambulance service for ten years, and I quite a bit of advanced training and everything else. When called to the scene of a diabetic emergency, we would administer d-50, which is 50% dextrose to diabetics who were out of it, then take the blood samples and stuff so they can spin them up in the lab quickly when we got into the hospital. You know, probably if someone has a diabetic emergency that you got to get some sugar into them right away. So getting rid of sugar is a difficult thing for a person with diabetes. I have, as I mentioned before, on the show, I have been focused on intermittent fasting. It is effortless to do. I've been following a doctor up at the University of Toronto, Dr. Fung, who has several books out on the subject. Before I started this, I read at least a half a dozen books on intermittent fasting. There are so many ways to do intermittent fasting nowadays. You want to go 12 hours a day, at least without eating. And that's not hard when you get right down to it. You know, think about going to finishing dinner at six o'clock or seven o'clock at night. And then not having any snacks, not eating until six or 7 AM. The next day, there's your 12 hours. And then the other thing to do with intermittent fasting is never, ever, ever snack. Now you can have dessert if you want, you're going to have ice cream, cake, pie, you can have any of that stuff that you might want to have, but have it with your meal. Don't wait an hour before you have dessert or two hours or more, have it right away. What you're trying to do is control the insulin levels. Now a better way to do it is what's called 16-eight. That is instead of 12 hours of no food at all. You can have water, you can have clear liquids, obviously no sugar, and you go for the 16 hours. That means if you stop at 6 PM by 6 AM, your 12 hours and you want another four hours left, so let me know You could eat at 10 AM. Or if you finish your meal at 7 PM, which is the latest, you should finish eating. That means you could eat at 11 AM The next morning. You might have a skip breakfast again, no snacks, just black coffee, or tea with no milk. And then you, you have your lunch at noon, and then you have your dinner at four or five or six o'clock. Whatever works for you. You will lose weight, and you will get healthier. If you have diabetes or have other medical issues. You want to talk to your doctor about it. But this can cure type two diabetes, just intermittent fasting. But the whole sugar thing I think is something any of us can do. Even if you can't fast. Hey, Craig Peterson here, WGAN stick around. We got a lot coming up. Yeah, we're back into tech in the next segment. Hello, everybody, welcome back, Craig Peterson here. I hope you're on my email list. I want to keep everybody up to date. We've got some training for you guys. You're the Calvary, right? You're the people who come in to help fix the problems with small business computers. Maybe you're responsible for them. Perhaps you're the owner of the business, right? You're responsible for making sure that everything's running right and for choosing the right technology and stuff. I appreciate you all being with me. I have some specialized training coming up for you as well. But you need to be on my email list if you are going to find out about those pieces of training. The way to do that is just going to Craig Peterson dot com slash subscribe. Of course. Peterson P-E-T-E-R-S-O-N. Just like it sounds, Craig Peterson dot slash subscribe, and you'll get my weekly email outlining the most significant threats that are out there right now. All of the articles that we talked about in the show, and more. Plus a few more that I just don't get to that are essential. People love it. We get an excellent open rate, some of the best in the industry. That's how good this newsletter is. And I provide it for free. And I give a lot of these pieces of training, absolutely free. All of my tutorials are available on my website as well at Craig Peterson dot com. I built the technology behind some of the biggest organizations websites in the world. And yet mine is very sad. Okay, I have to get my act together. Oh, well, there's always something else to do. Right, just the cobblers kids. Well, let's get into ransomware because it is on the rise again. But let's start with a little history because I think this is cool when you get right into it. There is an article that I started reading over at CSO online that reminded me of it, and you'll see a link to it as well on my website at Craig Peterson dot com and in this morning's newsletter. Hopefully, you got that. But it started this ransomware thing back in 1991. There is a biologist who was doing AIDS research, and he was kind of upset that other people who were also researching AIDS, were getting more notice, and he wanted more credit than he was getting. He started sending out quote, AIDS research quote, on floppy disks via US mail back in 91, to other aids researchers. It had a piece of malware on there called PC Cyborg Cyborg. It was the first ransomware that we know of. Isn't that something, right? It was these researchers who were competing with this one researcher. The next big one used encryption was back in the aughts. Back in the mid-aughts, Bob 2005, it was called an Archie vs. It used encryption and was defeated. You can find its password over in Wikipedia even nowadays. Now, in 2010, we started seeing the series of what are called police ransomware packages. And they were warnings from law enforcement about victims of illicit activities and demanded payment of fines. So this was a new generation of anonymous payment services that they started to use to be able to better hard payments without getting caught. Of course, this was some of the Bitcoin and some of these other types of services. that allows you to send money, semi-anonymously. Remember that right it is not anonymous, the FBI and the Secret Service have worked together to arrest people who have been using Bitcoin illegally for, you know, these types of anonymous transactions. There was a new trend that started to emerge, and that was cryptocurrencies. Other than the legal activities that occurred that drove up the price of cryptocurrencies. Which were artificially high begin with, the other big drive for cryptocurrencies, has been ransomware. People need to pay ransoms, at least they want to pay ransoms. How do they do it? Well, that's what the criminal started to use. Extortionists just absolutely love them. Why? They are designed to be relatively untraceable, and relatively anonymous, right? So they started shooting their demands to other currencies. It's also nice because then they don't have to worry about, well, what's the value? In France, it's a euro, or In Britain, it's pound sterling, the US dollar, Canadian dollar, Australian dollar, know the value. cryptocurrency is pretty much flat, no matter what currency you're using. These attacks started shooting up about that point in time. But as of a couple of years ago, in 2018, the ransomware boom seemed to be on its way out. The hackers had found other illicit ways that people were using to snag Bitcoin. One of them is still in use today, and that is to have something on your browser that starts to use your browser to do Bitcoin mining for them. Okay. They were also looking for bitcoin wallets, Cryptojacking became very popular. It is something denial of service attackers have been using for years. They gain control of computers without their users or owners of the computers knowing. Cryptojacking ransomware decline, but cryptojacking SHOT UP 14-15%, so they're using your electricity, they're using your computer to have this whole, you know, the whole thing of having a new mind for Bitcoin. And of course today and it's not just Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. But today, many of these cryptocurrencies, it is costly to do mining, because most of the coins are gone. That's part of the reason they want to use your computer, but even then, the payback isn't as big as it used to be. So now we're starting to see two big drivers behind this massive surge recently in ransomware. So the First has to do with the vague guarantees of the cryptocurrency pricing. Many of the crypto-jackers. We're using the victim's computers to mine this open-source Monero currency. However, Monero prices have been dropping, and Bitcoin prices have dropped dramatically as well. Although now with some of the real viruses, like the Covid-19. Some of them are going up because people are moving their money into gold and some cryptocurrencies. Monero prices have started dropping, and the bad guys are starting to realize that mining cryptocurrency is not going to be as rewarding as ransomware. Attackers had already compromised the victim's computer with Trojan downloaders making it easy to launch a ransomware attack when the time was right. It took them only about a year 18 months to make a U-turn. It is just fascinating when you get right into it. We've seen a lot of them over the years, and now they are attacking businesses. They've always used this kind of spray and pray tactic of trying to send out this ransomware to as many computers as possible and as many people as possible, hoping that we are going to be successful without a significant return on investment. They've been going more and more against or against us by going directly right using phishing, spearfishing techniques, and other types of targeted attacks. So let's take a brief look here at some of the most significant attack methods that are out there. Sam Sam is number one right now is started appearing about f

En este programa, escuchamos nuevamente a locutor, Luis Fuentes-Rohwer y  entrevista con Clara Malone, Maria Tishner de Health Net y el CEO de Health Net Rick Diaz. Hablan sobre el que era antes voluntarios en medicina ahora ya se ha convertido a Bloomington Family Health and Dental Center. Escucha todos los programas que ofrecen. La …

Welcome Back!   Microsoft Windows has some built-in Anti-Malware.  It is called Windows Defender.  However, some cyber criminals found ways to defeat it and so now Microsoft has a new feature to prevent that from happening.  Listen in to find out more and how it can help you. For more tech tips, news, and updates visit - CraigPeterson.com --- Related Articles: New Tools Keep CyberThieves From Disabling Your Cyber Protections --- Automated Machine-Generated Transcript: Craig Craig Peterson here. Welcome back. We are live and of course, we are live on WGAN. And I love it when you guys send me an email, I got a few comments from our friends over listening on WGAN and some more people who are online as well. I love hearing from you and you can always just send me an email with a question etc me ME at Craig peterson.com. So let's get into this. This is I think, very, very good news for everybody who is using Microsoft or maybe those people who are security people who are using Microsoft or who are the support people they're supporting using Microsoft. Microsoft has something called defender and they also have a firewall that's built into Windows, there are a lot of misc and figuration frankly, with the whole Windows Firewall and, and the way Microsoft turns on services and has certain services loaded up and running all the time, I have some major disagreements with Microsoft on that. And that's what our hardening course is all about. But let's talk about Microsoft defender. If you are going to do nothing else, at the very least make sure you have Windows Defender turned on. And up to date. Microsoft has taken some of the best techniques, the best technologies to protect windows and combine them into this free package that comes with the latest versions of Windows, the Windows 10 that has the best version of it. They've had this around the action for a little while, but they keep improving it. And that brings us to help net security article about the new feature that Microsoft has added to Windows Defender. If, if you're like most people, you know, you're just somebody who's become the de facto, IT security specialist. Right? You're probably the de facto IT person, right? You're the person that people go to when they have a problem when they have a question, right? And so you got to figure out who do you go to? What can you trust and that's man, that's hard to do? Nowadays, you can search for any topic and see a million videos online about it. So let me give you the bottom line here. If you're going to do nothing else, turn on Windows Defender and turn on automatic Windows updates. That'll get you about 80% safe. So it's very, very good, right. If you want to get to 95 or 99.9% safe, there's a lot of other things you have to do and it can get expensive. But those two things are the biggest things that you can do. And you can do them easily you can do them quickly. Now, Windows Defender and one of the drawbacks to it is that you could make changes to the security settings, and potentially malware or hackers could make changes to it. So one of the things Apple has done for quite a while now is Apple has really tried to harden their OS even further and prevent the ability to make changes to all kinds of system-wide software like Catalina introduced some serious serious protections and caused a lot of applications to break. And that's been true in Microsoft's world as well. You can't just run XP code anymore on Windows 10, which is frankly a good thing. But what Microsoft Windows Defender has done now is it is added tamper protection to Windows That is absolutely phenomenal. Okay, very, very good. And when the features turned on and you should turn it on, this prevents malware, from disabling the virus and threat protection, real-time and cloud-delivered protection. And it also stops viruses and malware from turning off behavior monitoring or removing Security Intelligence updates. It's really really important to make sure it is turned on because this could save you big time. So here's a quote straight from Health Net security and from Microsoft. I don't have a name this is from there on Microsoft 365 Device Management Portal. tamper protection essentially locks Microsoft defender and prevents your security settings from being changed through apps and methods such as configuring settings and Registry Editor on new Windows machine, changing settings through power. Shell command lets editing or removing security settings through group policies, and so on. Obviously, it's something you should do now if you're running an Active Directory, you can push some of these settings out to all of the clients or new network, which I would suggest you do. home users, by the way, will still be able to switch tamper protection off by the Windows Security app. If you have admin permissions on the computer, enterprise users will not be able to do that. There are quite a few differences between the enterprise versions of Windows and the home versions. The home versions don't have all of the security settings even to begin with the enterprise versions you can schedule when you want software updates to be installed. The home versions you can't I got a call from a law firm who had a deposition that was due in the court by 4 pm. And it was like 230 and their machine decided to do update And they could not override it, because they were running the home edition of Windows not knowing the difference, right? Again, another example of a managed services provider not doing their client any good, which was certainly the case here. Tamper protection can be available to organizations that have Microsoft defender ATPE, five. Now, this again gets complicated. We've had this happen before we go into a company will do a security audit, we'll put together an action plan for them. And we'll say okay, well, we advise you to subscribe to this Microsoft service and we'll usually sell it to them. And there are various levels or different levels of Microsoft service for the basic office 365 or also for your windows licenses. There's a lot of different services that are out there. So a TP five is a level Microsoft has more than ten-thousand SKUs, if you can believe that 10,000 different products, so you have to really know what you're doing when you're buying the Microsoft licenses. So we'll go into an organization and will say, Okay, well, it's going to be this much per month, per desktop. And people will ask their smart uncle, hey, Uncle, you know, I'm been talking to this managed security services provider. And they say it's going to cost this much per machine per month, and those are Microsoft Office and Windows only cost you five to $10 a month. What are they charging them for? Well, yeah, that's true. If you're getting the home version if you're not going to get any of the extra features. Yeah, that's very true. But it is not true if you want the professional version. So tamper protection, ATP five or higher, and only for endpoints that run the latest versions of Windows, which is Windows 10 1903. Which, by the way, is being dedicated, I think this week or next week. Alright, so there's a lot of stuff to understand. I know this is confusing. If you want help with any of this reach out to me, and my team will be glad to help you out and talk to you talk you through it. If you want my services to hire great. If not, that's fine, too. We are really here to help just email me and II at Craig Peterson calm because I understand this stuff is very, very complicated. So kudos to Microsoft for doing that. I think it's important, we need to understand that we need our systems to be safe. And that's one of the things that Windows Defender help so make sure you have that in place. Now another thing that I see very commonly when we're out in doing these assessments, these cyber health assessments or the security assessments and action plans Is that Moore's better? Have you got that, you know, basically, if, if I am going to run antivirus, and I bought Norton, let's say, and I got it at Staples, if I want better security, I'm going to get something else? So maybe you have Microsoft defender turned on. And then you also go out and you get bit defender and you get some anti-spyware software and you get Norton and you know what, it'd be even better, I'm sure if I went and got semantics software, or if I went and got you to know, you name it. There are a lot of them out there antivirus and anti-malware packages that don't tie together. Okay, so it's going to make your life more confusing, but potentially even worse than that. What is going to end up doing is it's going to have all of these pieces of anti-malware software anti-virus off We're competing with each other. So we go out and we'll see that there are two or three different pieces of software out there. And they are fighting with each other. And they're complaining about each other because of it to all to each antivirus software package. The other antivirus software package looks like it's a virus because of what it can do, what it does do this signature that has onboard, etc, etc. So you see what, where I'm going here, you're much better off using a single end-to-end product that is going to keep you save this going to keep all of your systems safe. That's going to also alert you when something's going on. Because these point products that we're talking about my point product is like Microsoft defender, it runs on one computer it has one point of information, so it knows what it is seen. Now some of these pieces of software like When Microsoft defender does look in memory, others don't they only understand desk, etc, etc. But it's a point product, it's looking at one machine, versus what you need to be doing in this day and age where you're looking at all of the machines in concert. So you can see that there is an attack underway where the attack is coming from what kind of attack it is, where not only are the machines in your office working in concert, but they're tied into smart switches that can turn off the spread of ransomware. If someone brings ransomware into your office, right, because you don't want that to spread, you want to stop it right away. And one of the easiest ways to do that is if you have software that can turn that switch off automatically that port on the switch to shut off to isolate that machine that's trying to spread the ransomware or it's trying to spread a virus. And then beyond the switch. You have a smart next-generation firewall that's watching everything that's going on stopping things from getting in, watching the internal networks communicating with the switches communicating with the desktops, then going out even further. And all of these firewalls data are tied together. So we know right now China, North Korea, you name it is running an attack against us businesses in this way, watches forward and updates within seconds. That's what you want. You don't want all these point products fighting against each other to get complicated. Again, if you have any questions, just reach out to me at Craig Peterson calm and make sure you subscribe to my newsletter, Craig peterson.com slash subscribe. I'll keep you up to date on all the things you need to know. So stick around after the top of the hour will be back. We'll be talking about the Tor Browser. Is it the world's safest browser? What does it mean? What is it doing? All of that right here. So stick around. We'll be right back. Transcribed by https://otter.ai   --- More stories and tech updates at: www.craigpeterson.com Don't miss an episode from Craig. Subscribe and give us a rating: www.craigpeterson.com/itunes Follow me on Twitter for the latest in tech at: www.twitter.com/craigpeterson For questions, call or text: 855-385-5553

Christopher Medina goes through the process and plans for Medical to get hearing devices.  He also goes through different plans such as Health Net and DHS. Regular Medical in California does cover hearing device. Here is the process: Verify Insurance Get medical clearance with an EMT doctor Come and get fitted for a hearing device Once the insurance goes through you can receive your devices!

Busting a nut is evolution in a nutshell when you're banging like it's your last time on earth. We're discussing the injuries that come from this, fun themed days like Oral Sex Fridays & why sex injuries should be covered by insurance. More of the low down on this episode: - Does sex actually feel like fucking an apple pie? - What you can do with a Taco Bell bean burrito other than eat it - When your balls take a beating - How to still have fun when healing from a sex injury - Health Net better open up their plan to cover sex injuries - Should ball sucking be 1 at a time? - How guys actually feel about tea bagging - Sex pain & injuries are forgivable - What to do when you can't carry the chick up in the air - Doggy style & it's many injuries - Keeping boners takes more effort than you think - Female sex drive sustainability - Getting raw & a PSA for cutting your damn nails - It burns when you pee - A broken nut is better than having zika - Passing out in the shower - Yes, you can hurt your tongue during oral - Slips into the wrong hole & other down for the count moves - Death by sex - Piercings are too high maintenance - Leave your pets out of the bedroom --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/deviohira/support

Bob helps us understand the great value in Conflict Resilience — the capacity to be quite uncomfortable and still generously listen to others and authentically share our own viewpoint. How to Contact Bob Website: www.bobbordone.com Email: bob@bobbordone.com Twitter: @bobbordone More about Bob ROBERT C. BORDONE is the Thaddeus R. Beal Clinical Professor of Law at Harvard Law School and the founder of the Harvard Negotiation & Mediation Clinical Program. He teaches several courses at Harvard Law School including the school’s flagship Negotiation Workshop. Bob also teaches in the Harvard Negotiation Institute and the Harvard Program on Negotiation’s Negotiation and Leadership Executive Education seminars. From 2001 through 2005 he was an Adjunct Professor of Law at Georgetown University Law Center. In 2006–2007 he was a Visiting Assistant Professor of Law at Georgetown University Law Center. In 2007, Bob received The Albert Sacks-Paul Freund Teaching Award at Harvard Law School, presented annually to a member of the Harvard Law School faculty for teaching excellence, mentorship of students, and general contributions to the life of the Law School. In 2010 the International Institute for Conflict Prevention and Resolution (CPR) awarded Bob its Problem Solving in the Law School Curriculum Award for his innovative work in creating and building the Harvard Negotiation and Mediation Clinical Program. In 2012, 2013, 2016, and 2017, Bob was selected by the graduating class as one of four Harvard Law School faculty members to deliver a “Last Lecture” to the class prior to graduation. Bob’s research interests include the assessment, reform, design, and implementation of dispute handling systems and developing and testing methods of effective public dialogue on issues that cut to the core of identity, meaning, belonging, and belief. Bob is the co-author of two books: Designing Systems and Processes for Managing Disputes, 2d. Edition (Wolters-Kluwer, 2019) and The Handbook of Dispute Resolution (Jossey-Bass, 2005). The Handbook of Dispute Resolution. He has also published articles in leading dispute resolution journals including the HARVARD NEGOTIATION LAW REVIEW, the OHIO STATE JOURNAL ON DISPUTE RESOLUTION, the JOURNAL OF DISPUTE RESOLUTION, NEGOTIATION BRIEFINGS, DISPUTE RESOLUTION MAGAZINE, and NEGOTIATION JOURNAL. Bob’s writing and commentary have appeared in various print and broadcast media outlets including THE BOSTON GLOBE, THE WASHINGTON POST, THE LOS ANGELES TIMES, THE CHICAGO TRIBUNE, AMERICA, CNN’S Situation Room, and BBC Radio. As a professional facilitator and conflict resolution consultant, Bob works with individual, non-profit, governmental, and corporate clients across many sectors. He specializes in assisting individuals and groups seeking to manage conflicts in highly sensitive, emotional, or difficult situations. His corporate clients have included Premera Blue Cross, Health Net, Gap, Inc., Fidelity Investments, Nestlé, Coca-Cola, Delta Air Lines, Exelon, and Microsoft. In addition, he has worked on projects with nonprofit, educational, governmental and cultural institutions such as the Boston Symphony Orchestra, Massachusetts General Hospital, Dartmouth College, the Swiss Foreign Ministry, the U.S. Department of Justice, the United Way, the International Criminal Court at The Hague, Seeds of Peace, and the Vienna School of Economics and Business Administration. He has also taught negotiation to attorneys at the United States Environmental Protection Agency, the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers, the National Association of Realtors, and the international law firms of Weil, Gotshal, & Manges, LLP, Freshfields, Braukhaus, & Deringer, Crowell & Moring, LLP, Shearman & Sterling, LLP, and Clifford Chance, LLP. Bob has served on a variety of advisory boards that include the Dartmouth College Center for Social Impact and the Harvard Law School Mediation Program.

Bob helps us understand the great value in Conflict Resilience — the capacity to be quite uncomfortable and still generously listen to others and authentically share our own viewpoint. How to Contact Bob Website: www.bobbordone.com Email: bob@bobbordone.com Twitter: @bobbordone More about Bob ROBERT C. BORDONE is the Thaddeus R. Beal Clinical Professor of Law at Harvard Law School and the founder of the Harvard Negotiation & Mediation Clinical Program. He teaches several courses at Harvard Law School including the school’s flagship Negotiation Workshop. Bob also teaches in the Harvard Negotiation Institute and the Harvard Program on Negotiation’s Negotiation and Leadership Executive Education seminars. From 2001 through 2005 he was an Adjunct Professor of Law at Georgetown University Law Center. In 2006–2007 he was a Visiting Assistant Professor of Law at Georgetown University Law Center. In 2007, Bob received The Albert Sacks-Paul Freund Teaching Award at Harvard Law School, presented annually to a member of the Harvard Law School faculty for teaching excellence, mentorship of students, and general contributions to the life of the Law School. In 2010 the International Institute for Conflict Prevention and Resolution (CPR) awarded Bob its Problem Solving in the Law School Curriculum Award for his innovative work in creating and building the Harvard Negotiation and Mediation Clinical Program. In 2012, 2013, 2016, and 2017, Bob was selected by the graduating class as one of four Harvard Law School faculty members to deliver a “Last Lecture” to the class prior to graduation. Bob’s research interests include the assessment, reform, design, and implementation of dispute handling systems and developing and testing methods of effective public dialogue on issues that cut to the core of identity, meaning, belonging, and belief. Bob is the co-author of two books: Designing Systems and Processes for Managing Disputes, 2d. Edition (Wolters-Kluwer, 2019) and The Handbook of Dispute Resolution (Jossey-Bass, 2005). The Handbook of Dispute Resolution. He has also published articles in leading dispute resolution journals including the HARVARD NEGOTIATION LAW REVIEW, the OHIO STATE JOURNAL ON DISPUTE RESOLUTION, the JOURNAL OF DISPUTE RESOLUTION, NEGOTIATION BRIEFINGS, DISPUTE RESOLUTION MAGAZINE, and NEGOTIATION JOURNAL. Bob’s writing and commentary have appeared in various print and broadcast media outlets including THE BOSTON GLOBE, THE WASHINGTON POST, THE LOS ANGELES TIMES, THE CHICAGO TRIBUNE, AMERICA, CNN’S Situation Room, and BBC Radio. As a professional facilitator and conflict resolution consultant, Bob works with individual, non-profit, governmental, and corporate clients across many sectors. He specializes in assisting individuals and groups seeking to manage conflicts in highly sensitive, emotional, or difficult situations. His corporate clients have included Premera Blue Cross, Health Net, Gap, Inc., Fidelity Investments, Nestlé, Coca-Cola, Delta Air Lines, Exelon, and Microsoft. In addition, he has worked on projects with nonprofit, educational, governmental and cultural institutions such as the Boston Symphony Orchestra, Massachusetts General Hospital, Dartmouth College, the Swiss Foreign Ministry, the U.S. Department of Justice, the United Way, the International Criminal Court at The Hague, Seeds of Peace, and the Vienna School of Economics and Business Administration. He has also taught negotiation to attorneys at the United States Environmental Protection Agency, the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers, the National Association of Realtors, and the international law firms of Weil, Gotshal, & Manges, LLP, Freshfields, Braukhaus, & Deringer, Crowell & Moring, LLP, Shearman & Sterling, LLP, and Clifford Chance, LLP. Bob has served on a variety of advisory boards that include the Dartmouth College Center for Social Impact and the Harvard Law School Mediation Program.

On today's Rotor Wash episode, join us for an interview with 3 gentlemen from HealthNet Aeromedical Services. Clinton Burley, President & CEO of HealthNet joins us along with Base Lead and Flight Paramedic, Mark Brooks and Flight Nurse Glenn Sutphin. These men truly love what they do and the people they work alongside and it shows through in the work and effort they put into their program. We discuss the experience with ECHO, the impact it has had on their service and other details relating to the industry of air medical.      As referenced in the podcast, take some time to watch this video created in collaboration with Health Net Aeromedical Services and the ECHO FAST Team as produced by flight paramedic and ECHO Future Flight Crew Alumni, Matthew Whittaker. If you need someone to talk to, call 1-833-AIR-FAST. FAST TEAM Video       CME Collective  

"Make sure you engage any resisters in your change process as if they're there to help...but they just don't know how yet" A speaker at AICPA & CIMA's forthcoming "CFO 2019" Conference in Chicago, Dr. Jeremy Lurey is an internationally-respected organisational consultant who has worked at both PWC and Andersen Consulting. Now President & CEO of Los Angeles-based Plus Delta Consulting and Practice Lead for SingerLewak’s People & Change Management Advisory Services, he tells Kyle Hannan (AICPA & CIMA, London) how he partners with clients to improve performance and drive adoption of change.    TALKING POINTS: The crucial elements of transformation. Change-management. The importance of communications. Delivering successful transformation across the organisation, and that includes the C-Suite. Supporting people to adopt change. Working with those that resist it. Getting projects back on track.   OUR GUEST: Before establishing Plus Delta and joining SingerLewak, Dr. Lurey has worked with CBS, Disney, Global Cold Chain Alliance, Health Net, Hulu, Marriott, Midwest Refrigerated, Minnesota Freezer, Mozilla, MTC Logistics, Nestlé, Novartis, Pioneer, Raytheon, Red Bull, Ritz-Carlton, Southern California Edison & St. Joseph Health System. Dr. Lurey has particular expertise in change-management, talent management, technology adoption, process improvement, strategic planning, and leadership and team development. In addition to his work as a consultant, he regularly presents at professional conferences and seminars. He has also authored several publications on change management, organisation-development, succession-planning, leadership excellence, and family business.    RESOURCES AND LINKS: The AICPA & CIMA "CFO 2019" Conference books on change management & resistance to change include William Bridges on Managing Transitions. Connect with Dr. Lurey on LinkedIn. Blog posts and videos at www.plusdelta.net.   MORE ABOUT OUR PODCAST  DON'T MISS OUT. Get our shows every week, automatically and free. Share them easily with colleagues and friends by using the icons on your app or media player.  GLOBAL VOICES. Interviews with our international experts are recorded by different members of the AICPA & CIMA team from our offices around the world. While the sound quality may vary, the insights will always be consistently useful. TAKE IT FURTHER. Find related CPD/CPE resources at the AICPA Store and the CGMA Store. STAY CONNECTED. Follow #GoBeyondDisruption, @AICPANews and @CIMA_News on social. PERMISSIONS ©2018 Association of International Certified Professional Accountants (AICPA & CIMA). All rights reserve

Dawn Maroney has a strong background working for established health plans, including CareMore, Care First, Health Net, and Secure Horizons.  Dawn’s shares how she’s helped work closely with Alignment consumers and providers to develop benefits and services that have helped Alignment grow from a startup into a successful multi-state health plan.

The quarterly Eversheds Sutherland SALT Scoreboard tallies significant state and local tax litigation wins and losses. In this Bottom Line videocast, Eversheds Sutherland attorneys Charles C. Capouet and Justin B. Stone discuss the results from the first two quarters of 2018, including: how taxpayers have fared in litigation in the first two quarters of 2018 compared to 2016 and 2017; three of the main cases from the second quarter of 2018: South Dakota v. Wayfair, Inc., Health Net, Inc. v. Oregon Department of Revenue, and Matter of XO Communications Services, LLC; and the recent Cook County Circuit Court decision, Labell v. City of Chicago, which upheld Chicago’s amusement tax on streaming services.

The quarterly Eversheds Sutherland SALT Scoreboard tallies significant state and local tax litigation wins and losses. In this Bottom Line videocast, Eversheds Sutherland attorneys Charles C. Capouet and Justin B. Stone discuss the results from the first two quarters of 2018, including: how taxpayers have fared in litigation in the first two quarters of 2018 compared to 2016 and 2017; three of the main cases from the second quarter of 2018: South Dakota v. Wayfair, Inc., Health Net, Inc. v. Oregon Department of Revenue, and Matter of XO Communications Services, LLC; and the recent Cook County Circuit Court decision, Labell v. City of Chicago, which upheld Chicago’s amusement tax on streaming services.

Our Guest on the show today is Linda Hollander and we're diving into getting sponsors for your podcast or for your business.Linda has been featured by Inc. Magazine as the leading expert on corporate sponsorships. She is the author of book, Corporate Sponsorship in 3 Easy Steps: Get Funding from Sponsors, Even if You’re Just Starting Out. She is also the CEO of Sponsor Concierge and the Sponsor Secrets Seminar.Her sponsors include Microsoft, Wells Fargo, Dun & Bradstreet, Epson, Citibank, Fed Ex, American Airlines, Staples, Health Net, Marriott, Southwest Airlines, Los Angeles Business Journal, Wal Mart, Bank of America and IBM. She has over 20 years of experience as a small business owner and she is the only person to be featured in both Entrepreneur and Female Entrepreneur magazine in the same month. She has also been on NBC, ABC, CBS, FOX Television, Bloomberg Radio and Remarkable Women. She started out worse than broke. She was buried in debt and couldn’t find a way out of the poverty trap and abusive relationships. But that’s not what really bothered her. It was that she was short and had frizzy hair to boot. ¬She and her best friend, Sheryl Felice, used their girl-power to the max. They launched a packaging business which sells custom-printed shopping bags to leading-edge companies. Despite her shyness, she devised a sales and marketing plan which made the fledgling business profitable in a very short amount of time. As revenues for the company increased every year, she met entrepreneurs, understood what motivates them and how she could increase their success. By the way, she is still short with frizzy hair. Hey, some things you just can’t change.Disney, Cisco Systems, Mattel, Universal Studios, Nissan, Yamaha, Sony, Revlon, Dunn Edwards Paints, Sanyo, Avery Dennison, Columbia Tri Star, CBS, City of Hope, Union Bank, ASCAP, Kaiser Permanente, IBM, Variety, Ocean Spray, Sears and Infiniti are some of her sponsors and clients. Her passions are business, sponsorships, marketing, promotion and packaging (she is a “Bag Lady”, after all). Linda Hollander owes her success to the wonderful people in her life: Her parents, Bob and Blossom Hollander, Rhoda and Howard Goldie and her best friend, Sheryl Felice. She lives in Los Angeles, California with her husband, Leslie Greenfield, and their various rescue cats. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Our Guest on the show today is Linda Hollander and we're diving into getting sponsors for your podcast or for your business.Linda has been featured by Inc. Magazine as the leading expert on corporate sponsorships. She is the author of book, Corporate Sponsorship in 3 Easy Steps: Get Funding from Sponsors, Even if You’re Just Starting Out. She is also the CEO of Sponsor Concierge and the Sponsor Secrets Seminar.Her sponsors include Microsoft, Wells Fargo, Dun & Bradstreet, Epson, Citibank, Fed Ex, American Airlines, Staples, Health Net, Marriott, Southwest Airlines, Los Angeles Business Journal, Wal Mart, Bank of America and IBM. She has over 20 years of experience as a small business owner and she is the only person to be featured in both Entrepreneur and Female Entrepreneur magazine in the same month. She has also been on NBC, ABC, CBS, FOX Television, Bloomberg Radio and Remarkable Women. She started out worse than broke. She was buried in debt and couldn’t find a way out of the poverty trap and abusive relationships. But that’s not what really bothered her. It was that she was short and had frizzy hair to boot. ¬She and her best friend, Sheryl Felice, used their girl-power to the max. They launched a packaging business which sells custom-printed shopping bags to leading-edge companies. Despite her shyness, she devised a sales and marketing plan which made the fledgling business profitable in a very short amount of time. As revenues for the company increased every year, she met entrepreneurs, understood what motivates them and how she could increase their success. By the way, she is still short with frizzy hair. Hey, some things you just can’t change.Disney, Cisco Systems, Mattel, Universal Studios, Nissan, Yamaha, Sony, Revlon, Dunn Edwards Paints, Sanyo, Avery Dennison, Columbia Tri Star, CBS, City of Hope, Union Bank, ASCAP, Kaiser Permanente, IBM, Variety, Ocean Spray, Sears and Infiniti are some of her sponsors and clients. Her passions are business, sponsorships, marketing, promotion and packaging (she is a “Bag Lady”, after all). Linda Hollander owes her success to the wonderful people in her life: Her parents, Bob and Blossom Hollander, Rhoda and Howard Goldie and her best friend, Sheryl Felice. She lives in Los Angeles, California with her husband, Leslie Greenfield, and their various rescue cats. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

The Veterans Health Administration operates a taxpayer-funded health system to provide our nation’s veterans physical and mental health services. The Veterans Choice Program is a fundamental change to that system as it allows veterans to get taxpayer-funded health care in the private sector. In this episode, learn the history of the Veterans Choice Program, discover the changes that Congress and the Trump Administration have made to the program this year, and get some insights into the future of the 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! Bills H.R. 3230: Veterans Access, Choice, and Accountability Act of 2014 Allows veterans to get medical care outside the Veteran's Administration system; they can go to any health facility that serves Medicare patients, health centers, the Defense Department, and the Indian Health Service. Veterans are only given this option if they'd have to wait over 30 days for an appointment with the Veteran's Administration or if they live 40 miles or further from a Veteran's Administration clinic. If eligible, the veteran will receive a special identification card. How it works: Veteran notifies VA, VA puts Veteran on an electronic waiting list or authorizes their request, VA works out a payment agreement with the health care provider, VA reimburses health care provider but no more than they would for Medicare services. If the veteran gets treated for a problem that was not related to their military service, their health insurance plan will be responsible for payment and the health care provider will be responsible for going after the insurance company for the money. Veterans can not be charged higher co-payments for care at private facilities than they would have been charged at the Veteran's Administration. This program will end in three years. Orders a private-sector review, establishes a fifteen person commission, and creates a technology task force to review VA practices. Wait times for care can not be considered when determining performance bonuses for top officials at the Veteran's administration and performance goals that disincentivize using private health providers for veteran care will be eliminated. Wait times for health care at the VA, VA facility quality measures, and VA doctor credentials will be published online. The VA will add 1,500 graduate medical education residency positions for five years to address staffing shortages. Extends the program that reimburses medical students for education costs and increases the amounts they'll receive for working for the VA. Expands coverage for mental health care related to sexual assaults, which will include veterans on inactive duty. This will be effective August 7, 2015. Extends a pilot program for assisted living care for veterans with traumatic brain injuries until October 2017. Disqualifies public colleges that charge veterans more than State residents from being qualified schools for veteran education benefits. Makes it easier to fire or transfer senior executives at the Department of Veteran's Affairs. Appropriates $15 billion to implement these changes. S. 544: A bill to amend the Veterans Access, Choice, and Accountability Act of 2014 to modify the termination date for the Veterans Choice Program, and for other purposes Eliminates the end date for the Choice Program, which was supposed to expire when the money ran out of after three years. Changes the payment system from one where the veteran's health insurance plan must pay for non-service related treatments, with doctors getting reimbursed directly from the insurance companies to a new system where the Veterans Department will pay and be reimbursed by the insurance companies. Establishes legal permission for the government to share medical records of veterans with "private entities" S. 1094: Department of Veterans Affairs Accountability and Whistleblower Protection Act Title I: Office of Accountability and Whistleblower Protection Creates a new office, headed by a Presidential appointee, in charge of VA employee accountability and processing of whistleblower complaints. This office will have the power to impose disciplinary actions. The identities of whistleblowers must be protected unless the whistleblower consents to disclosure. The Department of Veterans' Affairs must train employees on the whistleblowing process. Title II: Accountability of senior executives, supervisors, and other employees Gives the Secretary of Veterans Affairs the power to suspend, demote, or fire senior executives as long as the executive receives 15 days advance notice and all evidence against him or her, legal representation, and the ability to argue their case in an official process created by the Secretary that takes no more than 21 days. Gives the Secretary of Veterans Affairs the power to remove, demote, or suspend Veterans Administration employees for performance or misconduct. Demoted employees will have their pay decreased. The demotion or removal process must be completed within 15 business days and the employee has 7 business days to respond. These new procedures "shall supercede any collective bargaining agreement to the extend that such agreement is inconsistent with such procedures.". There is an appeal process but it must be started within 10 business days after the date of the removal, demotion, or suspension. The appeal must be decided within 180 days. The Secretary can not remove, demote, or suspend a whistleblower without approval of a Special Counsel or unless the Assistant Secretary refuses to act on the whistleblower account or unless a final decision has been made regarding the whistleblower's disclosure. Gives the Secretary of Veterans Affairs the power to order the repayment of bonuses or relocation expenses paid to VA employees if the Secretary determines that the employee engaged in misconduct or poor performance before the bonus was awarded. There is an appeal process via the Office of Personnel Management. S.114: VA Choice and Quality Employment Act of 2017 Title I: Appropriation for Veterans Choice Program Deposits $2.1 billion in the Veterans Choice Fund, which will not expire. Title II: Personnel matters Doubles the number of positions that can be labeled has having staffing shortages and gives the Secretary of Veterans Affairs the ability to directly hire people to those positions. "Executive Management Fellowship Program" A program to give VA employees 1 year of training in the private sector and to give private sector employees 1 year of training in the VA. Between 18 & 30 people from the private sector and the same amount from the VA will be selected in August of each year to participate. To accept the fellowship, the person must agree to work as a full-time employee of the VA for two years and is prohibited from working the corresponding private sector industry for two years after completing the program. Performance Evaluations Political appointees of the VA will have annual performance plans similar to the ones administered to career employees. Promotions Gives the Secretary of Veterans Affairs the ability to easily promote existing employees or people who voluntarily left within 2 years, one employment status at a time. Employment Opportunity Database Creates a website that will list vacant positions at the Department of Veterans Affairs. Title III: Major medical facility leases We're paying to replace VA facilities in 28 locations. H.R. 3236: Surface transportation and veterans health care choice improvement act of 2015 Recommended Congressional Dish Episodes CD080: The July Laws Additional Reading Article: VA secretary David Shulkin: I don't consider this Texas church gunman as a veteran by Melissa Quinn, Washington Examiner, November 6, 2017. Article: Funding for a new veterans choice program remains the big, unresolved question for VA by Nicole Ogrysko, Federal News Radio, October 24, 2017. Article: AFGE ramping up anti-privatization campaign, as VA readies new Choice draft by Nicole Ogrysko, Federal News Radio, October 17, 2017. Article: Focus on VA hiring, not Veterans Choice, AFGE says by Nicole Ogrysko, Federal News Radio, October 6, 2017. Article: Trump signs bill to speed up VA disability appeals process by Richard Sisk, Military.com, August 23, 2017. Article: Last-minute Veterans Choice funding bill filled with key VA hiring flexibilities by Nicole Ogrysko, Federal News Radio, July 28, 2017. Article: Fix for Veterans Choice shortfalls fails in the House with little funds left by Nicole Ogrysko, Federal News Radio, July 24, 2017. Radio Transcript: VA pane report to suggest more private care choices for veterans, Morning Edition with David Greene, NPR, July 6, 2017. Article: Shulkin offers first glimpse at a new VA Choice plan by Nicole Ogrysko, Federal News Radio, June 8, 2017. Article: Trump extends program allowing some veterans to use local doctors, hospitals by Lisa Lambert, Reuters, April 19, 2017. News Report: Barry Coates dead; veteran was at heart of VA scandal by Scott bronstein, Nelli Black, Drew Griffin and Curt Devine, CNN Investigations, January 27, 2016. Article: How the VA developed its culture of coverups by David Farenthold, The Washington Post, May 30, 2014. Article: Obama accepts resignation of VA secretary Shinseki by Greg Jaffe and Ed O'Keefe, The Washington Post, May 30, 2014. References Budget Plan: 2018 FY Homeland Security Budget-in-Brief GAO Report: Veterans health care: Preliminary observations on veterans access to Choice Program care House Amendment Act: S.114 of the 115th Congress Interactive Timeline: Veterans Choice Program Slideshow: Billing Procedures, VA Veterans Choice Program and Patient-Centered Community Care Strawman Document: Proposed Strawman Assessment Sound Clip Sources Hearing: Bills related to veterans choice; House Committee on Veterans Affairs; October 24, 2017. 02:42 Rep. Phil Roe (TN): To that end, I believe it’s important to state yet again that this effort is in no way, shape, or form intended to create a pipeline to privatize the V.A. healthcare system. I want to be completely clear about that. Everyone who participated in the roundtable earlier this month and contributed to the development of this legislation should be completely clear on that. Everyone listening today should also be completely clear on that. Supplemental care sourced from within the community has been a part of the V.A. healthcare system since the 1940s and services to expand V.A.’s reach and strengthen and support the care that V.A. provides. Rhetoric aside, strengthening and support V.A. is what this consideration is about—this conversation is about. It should go without saying that V.A. cannot be everywhere providing everything to every veteran. Expecting V.A. to perform like that sets up the V.A. to fail. That’s why my draft bill preserves V.A.’s role as the central coordinator of care for enrolled veteran patients. In addition to consolidating V.A.’s menu of existing community-care programs into one cohesive program, my bill would create a seamless, integrated V.A. system of care that incorporates V.A. providers and V.A. medical facilities where and when they are available to provide care a veteran seeks and a network of V.A. providers in the community who can step up when needed. Under my draft bill, the V.A. generally retains the right of first refusal, meaning that if V.A. medical facilities can reasonably provide a needed service to a veteran, that care will be provided in that facility. But when the V.A. can’t do that, my bill would ensure that veterans aren’t left out to dry. Press Conference: Trump signs veterans health care bill; C-Span; August 12, 2017. 0:30 David Shulkin: The V.A. Choice and Quality Employment Act has three important components. The first is that this helps us expand our ability to hire medical-center directors and other senior executives to serve in the V.A. This is about leadership, and it’s really important that we get the right leaders helping us to do the job for veterans. The second is that this bill authorizes 28 new facility leases that will be in different parts of the country that provide our veterans with updated facilities, something that, again, we are committed to providing our veterans with world-class care. And third, and most important, this bill allows us to continue to be able to provide care in the community for our veterans to make sure that they’re getting high-quality care and not waiting for care. Already this year, in the first six months of this year, we have authorized over 15 million appointments for veterans in the community. That’s 4 million appointments more than what was experienced at this time last year. So we’re making a lot of progress in expanding Choice. Hearing: Fiscal year 2018 Veterans Affairs budget; Senate Veterans Affairs Committee; June 14, 2017. 12:29 David Shulkin: Two years ago—I’m sure you’re going to remember in July of 2015 we had too little money in our community-care accounts within the V.A., which we solved with your help by accessing unused funds in the Choice account. So we transferred money from Choice into community care. We now have too little money in the Choice account, which we’re working to solve, again working with you, with legislative authority, to replenish funds into the Choice account. So this is the situation that we’ve described before where for a single purpose of providing care in the community we have two checking accounts, and I will tell you, I wish it were easier than it is. We have to figure out how to balance these two checking accounts at all times. And obviously it’s not a science, it’s an art; and we’re having difficulty with that once again, and that’s why we need to work with you to solve it. The Veterans CARE program that we outlined for you last week will solve this recurring problem permanently by modernizing and consolidating all of the community-care accounts, including Choice. Hearing: Examining the Veterans Choice program and the future of care in the community; Committee on Veterans Affairs; June 7, 2017. Witness: David Shulkin - Veterans Affairs Secretary 12:55 David Shulkin: Just in the first quarter of fiscal year 2017, we saw 35% more authorizations for Choice than we did in the first quarter of 2016. So far in fiscal year 2017, we have approximately 18,000 more Choice-authorized appointments per day than we did in fiscal year 2016. But we still have a lot more work to do. That’s why we’re seeking support for the Veterans Coordinated Access and Rewarding Experiences program, the Veterans CARE program. Let me just go over that again because you need a good acronym in Washington. The Veterans Coordinated Access—that’s the C and the A—Rewarding Experiences program—the CARE program. I’ve testified before and I’ll report again today that our overarching concern remains veterans’ access to high-quality care when and where they need it. That’s regardless of whether the care is in the V.A. or in the community. Our goal is to modernize and consolidate community care. We owe veterans a program that’s easy to understand, simple to administer, and that meets their needs. That’s the CARE program, and now it’s time to get this right for veterans. So we need your help. 14:23 David Shulkin: Here’s how veterans could experience V.A. healthcare, with your help. The veteran talks with their V.A. provider. That’s a conversation over the phone, virtually, or in person. The outcome is a clinical assessment. The clinical assessment may indicate that the V.A. specialist is the best for the veteran, or it may indicate that community care is best to meet the veteran’s needs. If community care is the answer, then the veteran chooses a provider from a high-performing network. That’s the veteran choosing a provider from the high-performing network. Assessment tools help veterans evaluate community providers and make the best choices themselves. We may help veterans schedule appointments in the community, or in some circumstances, veterans can schedule the appointments themselves. We make sure community providers have all the information they need to treat the veteran. We get the veteran’s record back. We pay the veteran’s bill. This is all about individualized, convenient, well-coordinated, modern healthcare and a positive experience for the veteran. If the V.A. doesn’t offer the necessary service, then the veteran goes to the community. If the V.A. can’t provide timely services, the veteran goes to the community. If there are unusual burdens in receiving care, the veteran goes to the community. If a service at a V.A. clinic isn’t meeting quality metrics for specific services, veterans needing that service go to the community while we work to support that clinic to improve its performance. And veterans who need care right away will have access to a network of walk-in clinics. 19:20 David Shulkin: We want to make sure that if the service is low performing, if it’s below what the veteran could get in the community, that they have the opportunity—they don’t have to leave the V.A. They’re given a choice so that they are able to get care in the community or stay at the V.A., because, you know, if a veteran has a good experience and they have trust in their provider, they’re going to want to stay where they are. But that is the purpose. The whole idea here is to improve the V.A., not to get more care in the community. And the very best way that I know how to improve health care is to give the patient, in this case the veteran, choice and to make those choices transparent to let everybody see, because then if you’re not performing as high-quality service, you’re going to want to provide a higher-quality service, because you want to be proud of what you’re working on. And I want the V.A. to be improving over time, and I think this will help us do that. 24:42 Sen. Patty Murray (WA): Secretary Shulkin, in your draft of Veteran CARE plan, you outline a number of pilot projects that sound to me uncomfortably like a proposals that are made by the so-called straw-man document. It’s from the commission on CARE and by the extreme, and to me unacceptable, plan put forward by the Concerned Veterans of America. And those include creating a V.A. insurance plan and separating it from CARE delivery, dividing the governance of a V.A. insurance plan and the health system, and alternative CARE model that sends veterans directly to the private sector. The goal of those types of initiatives, as originally stated in the straw-man document, is “as V.A. facilities become obsolete and are underused, they would be closed when availability and accessibility of care in the community is assured.” Those policies serve not only to dismantle the V.A. and start the health system down to a road to privatization, I just want you to know I will not support them, and I will fight them with everything I have. So, I want to ask you, why are you agreeing to pursue those unacceptable policy options? David Shulkin: Well, first of all, I appreciate you sharing your thoughts and as clearly as you have. I share your goal. I am not in support of a program that would lead towards privatization or shutting down the V.A. programs. What I am in support of is using pilots to test various ideas about governance, about the way that the system should be, organized in the way that we should evolve, because I don’t know without testing different ideas whether they’re good ideas or not. 35:28 Sen. Jerry Moran (KS): You said something that caught my attention: this will not be an unfettered Choice program— David Shulkin: Yep. Moran: —and I wanted to give you the opportunity to explain to me and to the committee what that means. Shulkin: Yeah. There are some that have suggested that the very best approach is just give veterans a card, a voucher, and let them go wherever they want to go. And I think that there are some significant concerns about that, and you’re going to see this proposal is not that. This proposal is to develop a system that is designed for veterans, that coordinates their care, and gives them the options when it’s best for in the V.A. and when it’s best in the community. Unfettered Choice is appealing to some, but it would lead to, essentially, I believe, the elimination of the V.A. system all together. It would put veterans with very difficult problems out into the community, with nobody to stand up for them and to coordinate their care. And the expense of that system is estimated to be at the minimum $20 billion more a year than we currently spend on V.A. health care. So for all those reasons, I am not recommending that we have unfettered access. At some point in the future, if you design a system right, giving veterans complete choice, I believe in principle, is the direction we should be headed in, but not in 2017. 39:05 Sen. Jon Tester (MT): I want to go back to the Choice program, community care versus V.A. care, and tell you where we’re probably all on the same page around this rostrum, but as we’re all on the same page and the budget comes out and gives a 33% increase for private-sector care versus a 1.2% increase for care provided directly by the V.A., it doesn’t take very many budgets like that and pretty soon you’re not going to have any vets going to the V.A., because all the money’s going to community care, and they will follow the money. I promise you they will follow the money. I think that—I don’t want to put words in the VSO’s mouth. He’ll have a chance here in a bit—but I think most of the veterans I talk to say, build the V.A.’s capacity. In Montana we don’t have enough docs, we don’t have enough nurses, we don’t have enough of anything. And quite frankly, that takes away from the experience and the quality of care, and so by putting 1.2% increase for care provided directly by the V.A. and 33% for private-sector care, we’re privatizing the V.A. with that budget. David Shulkin: Yeah. I told you I wasn’t going to say that you were right again, but there’s a lot that you said that I think that we both agree with. And the goal is not to privatize the V.A. What we’re asking for in this is something we don’t have. We need additional flexibility between the money that goes into the community and the money that can be spent in the V.A. Right now we’re restricted to a 1% ability to transfer money between. We are seeking that you give us more latitude there for exactly the reason you’re talking about, Senator. We need our medical centers and our VISNs to be able to say that they need to build capacity in the V.A. where it’s not available. The reason why we’re letting people go in the community now is because the V.A. doesn’t have it. We have to get them that care. Tester: I got it, but if we don’t make the investments so they can get that health care, they’ll never get that health care there. Shulkin: I— Tester: Okay. Hearing: Veterans affairs oversight; House Appropriations Subcommittee on Military Construction and Veterans Affairs; May 3, 2017. Witness: Dr. David Shulkin - Veterans Affairs Secretary   16:13 David Shulkin: More veterans are opting for Choice than ever before, five times more in fiscal year 2016 than fiscal year 2015, and Choice authorizations are still rising. We’ve issued 35% more authorizations in the first quarter of fiscal year 2017 than in the same quarter of 2016. 18:00 David Shulkin: My five priorities as secretary are to provide greater Choice for veterans, to modernize our systems, to focus resources more efficiently, to improve the timeliness of our services, and suicide prevention among veterans. We are already taking bold steps towards achieving each of these priorities. Two weeks ago the president signed a reauthorization of the Veterans Choice Act, ensuring veterans can continue to get care from community providers. Just last week the president ordered the establishment of a V.A. accountability office, and we’re moving as quickly as we can within the limits of the law to remove bad employees. V.A. has removed medical center directors in San Juan; Shreveport, Louisiana; and recently we’ve relieved the medical center director right here in Washington, D.C. and removed three other senior executive service leaders due to misconduct or poor performance. We simply cannot tolerate employees who act counter to our values or put veterans at risk. Since January of this year, we’ve authorized an estimated 6.1 million community-care appointments, 1.8 million more than last year, a 42% increase. We now have same-day services for primary care and mental health at all of our medical centers across the country. Veterans can now access wait-time data for their local V.A. facilities by using an easy online tool where they can see those wait times. No other healthcare system in the country has this type of transparency. V.A. is setting new trends with public-private partnerships. Last month we announced a public-private partnership of an ambulatory care development center, with a donation of roughly $30 million in Omaha, Nebraska, thanks to Mr. Fortenberry’s help there. Veterans now have, or will have, a facility that’s being built with far fewer taxpayer dollars than in the past. Finally, V.A. is saving lives. My top clinical priority is suicide prevention. On average 20 veterans a day die by suicide. A few months ago the Veterans Crisis Line had a rollover rate to a backup center of more than 30%. Today that rate is less than 1%. In support of our efforts to reduce suicides, we’ve launched new predictive modeling tools that allow V.A. to provide proactive care and support for veterans who are at the highest risk of suicide. And I’ve recently announced the V.A. will be providing emergency mental health care to former service members with other-than-honorable discharges at all of our medical facilities. We know that these veterans are at greater risk for suicide, and we’re now caring for them as well as we can. 23:19 David Shulkin: The VISTA system is something that, frankly, V.A. should be proud of. It invented it, it was the leader in electronic health records, but, frankly, that’s old history, and we have to look at keeping up and to modernize the system. I’ve said two things, Mr. Chairman, in the past. I’ve said, number one is, V.A. has to get out of the business of becoming a software developer. This is not our core competency. I don’t see why it serves veterans. I think we’re doing this in a way that, frankly, we can’t keep up with. So, I’ve said that we’re going to get out of that business. We’re either going to find a commercial company that will take over and support VISTA or we’re going to go to an off-the-shelf product. And that’s really what we’re evaluating now. We have an RFI out for, essentially, the commercialization of VISTA that we wouldn’t longer be doing internally. 27:33 David Shulkin: We also, as we get more veterans out into the community, out into the private-sector hospitals, we have to be very concerned about interoperability with those partners as well. 38:24 Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (FL): Given that your goal is one program, are you analyzing which program ultimately would be phased out, because we have a tendency to instead of phasing out programs because they have people with a vested interest in them, simply— David Shulkin: Yes. Schultz: —going along to get along rather than rocking the boat, and so if we’re adding $3 1/2 billion to the Choice program and it had 950 million left, there have been challenges with the Choice program and confusion, and there are still challenges with the community care program, in what direction is the V.A. thinking of going when we—and what is the timeline for ultimately— Shulkin: Right. Schultz: — phasing out one program and only having one? Shulkin: Right. Well, with almost certainty I can tell you there will not be three programs, because the current Choice program will run out of money— Schultz: Right. Shulkin: —by the end of this calendar year. So, that program is going to go away and should be through December of this year. What we are hoping to do is to work with you so that we can introduce a community-care funding program—the chairman referred to it as Choice 2.0—which is a program that makes sense for veterans, which is a single program that operates under one set of rules for how veterans get care in the community. And that new legislation, which we believe needs to be introduced by late summer or early fall in order to make the timeline, would end up with a single program. Schultz: So, you eventually envision phasing out community care with the advent— Shulkin: Yes. Schultz: —of Choice 2.0. 1:33:11 Rep. Charles Dent (PA): In the one-page FY ’18 skinny budget we received in March, there’s a V.A. request for $2.9 billion in new mandatory funding, presumably to complete the FY ’18 funding for the Choice program after the mandatory $10 billion of the program is completely exhausted in January, I guess. Does this indicate the administration’s intent to fund the successor Choice program out of mandatory funding? David Shulkin: Yes. 1:45:37 Rep. Tom Rooney (FL): And many of the providers that are technically participating in the Choice program are refusing to accept Choice patients because they know that they’ll have to wait a long time to get paid themselves. So some providers that don’t accept the Choice patients will only do so if the veteran agrees to pay for the services up front. And that leaves the veterans in that same bind they were in before Choice, which was either face the excessive wait times at the V.A. facility with no option to obtain immediate care elsewhere without paying out of pocket first. And obviously that’s not the point, or that’s not what we’re looking to do. So, I mean, you as a doctor can probably appreciate, you know, with these people that want to take the Choice program to help veterans but they know that it’s going to take forever to get reimbursed be like, hey, will you pay me first, and then, you know, we’ll deal with getting reimbursed later. I don’t know if that’s the rationale, but it sounds like that. The OIG has criticized the V.A.’s monitoring oversight for these contracts and reported that these contracts still don’t have performance measures to ensure the contractors pay their providers in a timely manner, and the OIG made this recommendation January 30 of this year. So, as you work to expand the Choice program, how are you implementing the OIG’s recommendation specifically with regard to timely reimbursements? David Shulkin: Well, there is no doubt that this is an area of significant risk for us, that monitoring and making sure that the providers are paid is critical because of the issues that you’re saying: the veterans are being put in the middle. I would not recommend the veterans put out money for this. That is, as you said, is not the point of it. What we have done is we have done multiple contract modifications. We’ve actually advanced money to the third-party administrators. I’ve suspended the requirement that providers have to provide their medical records to us in order to get paid. We are improving our payment cycles through the Choice program, but it’s not perfect by any means. We have to get better at our auditing of these processes, and those were the IG recommendations, and we are working on doing that. So this is a significant area of risk for us. In the reauthorization, or the redesign, of the Choice program, what we’re calling Choice 2.0, we want to eliminate the complexity of this process. The private sector does not have to do the type of adjudication of claims that we do. They do auto adjudification. They do electronic claims payments. We just are not able to, under this legislation, do all the things that, frankly, we know are best practices. That’s what we want to get right in Choice 2.0. 1:56:40 David Shulkin: Our care needs to be focused on those that are eligible for care, particularly when we have access issues. So, I’d be glad to talk to you more about that. I do want to just mention two things. First of all, our policy is for emergency mental health care for other-than-honorable, not dishonorably, discharged; dishonorably discharged who were not— Rep. Scott Taylor (VA): Sorry if I misspoke. David Shulkin: Yeah, yeah, okay. Rep. Scott Taylor (VA): But I do applaud you for those efforts. David Shulkin: I just wanted to clarify that. Rep. Scott Taylor (VA): I know that there are a lot of wounds that are mental, of course, and— David Shulkin: Absolutely. Rep. Scott Taylor (VA): —I get that. I applaud you for those efforts. Hearing: Veterans affairs choice program; House Committee for Veterans Affairs; March 7, 2017. Witness: David Shulkin - Veterans Affairs Secretary Michael Missal - Veterans Affairs Inspector General Randall Williamson - GAO Health Care Team Director 20:35 David Shulkin: However, we do need your help. The Veterans Choice Program is going to expire in less than six months, but our veterans’ community-care needs will not expire. This looming expiration is a cause for concern among veterans, providers, and V.A. staff, and we need help in eliminating the expiration date of the Choice program on August 7, 2017 so that we can fully utilize the remaining Choice funds. Without congressional action, veterans will have to face longer wait times for care. Second, we need your help in modernizing and consolidating community care. Veterans deserve better, and now is the time to get this right. We believe that a modernized and revised community-care program must have seven key elements. First, maintain a high-performing integrated network that includes V.A., federal partners, academic affiliates, and community providers. Second, increase Choice for all veterans, starting with those with cer—(audio glitch). Third, ensure that enrolled veterans get the care they need closer to their homes, when appropriate. Fourth, optimize coordination of V.A. healthcare benefits with the health insurance that an enrolled veteran already has. Fifth, maintain affordability of healthcare options for the lowest-income enrolled veterans. Sixth, assist in coordination of care for veterans served by multiple providers. And last, apply industry standards for performance quality, patient satisfaction, payment models, and healthcare outcomes. 23:24 Michael Missal: In October 2015, V.A. provided Congress with a plan to consolidate all V.A.’s purchased care programs into V.A.’s community-care program. Under consolidation, V.A. continues to have problems determining eligibility for care, authorizing care, making accurate payments, providing timely payments to providers, and ensuring the necessary coordination of care provided to veterans outside the V.A. healthcare system. 30:30 Randall Williamson: Finally, substantial resources will likely be needed to carry out Choice 2.0. Resources needed to fund IT upgrades and new applications for Choice are largely unknown but could be costly. Proposed changes in Choice eligibility requirements, such as eliminating the 30-day, 40-mile requirement for eligibility, could potentially greatly increase the number of veterans seeking care through community providers and drive costs up considerably. Also, if medical-center staff begin scheduling all appointments under Choice 2.0, as V.A. currently envisions, hiring more V.A. staff will likely be costly and tediously slow. Already, since Choice was established, V.A. medical-center staff devoted to helping veterans access non-V.A. care have increased threefold or more at many locations. 1:04:00 David Shulkin: We are looking primarily at technological solutions, and we are looking at the use of telehealth, which we are doing across V.A. on a scale that no other health system in America is even approaching—2.1 million visits; over 700,000 veterans getting access through telehealth services—and so we are looking at this very seriously about dramatically expanding its use to be able to support where we don’t have health professionals. 1:06:20 David Shulkin: Remember, we have four missions. The clinical care is what we always talk about, but we also have an education mission. We train more American healthcare professionals than any other organization in the country, we have research that’s dedicated solely to the improvement of the wellbeing of veterans, and we also serve a national emergency-preparedness role. So, all four of these missions are very important to us. I would just say two things. One thing is we know from the Choice program that only 5,000 of the several—of more now than a million veterans who’ve used the program chose only to use the Choice program. So they’re saying exactly what your constituent told you, which is the V.A. is essential and important to them. But we are not going to allow the V.A. programs to be diluted, and one of the reasons why that’s so important is that we need to modernize the V.A. system. Our lack of capitalizing the V.A. system in terms of the buildings, the equipment, the IT systems, could make it a noncompetitive system. But we’re going to make sure that the facilities that are open are the best for veterans, and veterans are going to want to continue to get their care there. The community-care program is a way to make sure that we supplement the V.A. in an integrated fashion. 1:10:00 Rep. Mike Bost (IL): The department itself has estimated that it can treat and cure most of the remaining 124,000 diagnosed cases of hepatitis C within the next three years. Is it the V.A.’s commitment that that timeline will be held to and that these will be treated regardless of the level of their liver disease or where they might be at? David Shulkin: Yes. Thanks to the support from Congress, we were provided the resources to meet that timeline. I actually think we’re going to beat it, but with one caveat. What we’ve learned is that our initial outreaches, we were getting thousands and thousands of veterans to come in and to get treatment. We have a treatment, of course, as you know, that now cures more than 95% of hepatitis C. So it’s tremendous medical advance. The doctor to my right is one of those doctors. He’s an I.D. doctor who does this in his clinical work at the V.A. Unknown Speaker: Thank you. Shulkin: What we’re finding now is, and if Dr. Yehia wants to comment on this, we’re finding that we’re now seeing less and less veterans coming in to get cured. There is a substantial number of veterans for a number of reasons, either psychological reasons or social reasons, who are not taking advantage of this care. And so this is now becoming a research question for us. How do we have to begin to approach people that are saying, I have a disease that may end up killing me, but I’m not interested in the treatment. And so I think we’re going to beat your three-year timeline, but there's still going to be a subset of veterans that don’t want to come in and get care. 1:12:50 Rep. Mike Bost (IL): What would happen if we didn’t make that extension go past the August 7, and what would be the final cutoff if we don’t get it past? David Shulkin: Well, first of all, if we don’t do this extension, this is going to be a disaster for American veterans. We’re going to see the same situation that we saw in April 2014, that Senator Kaine started out tonight with, that we saw in Phoenix. And so here’s the timeline. We do need to do this now. As I think Chairman Roe referred to, already today veterans are not able to use the Choice program, because the law states that we have to obligate the funds now for when the care is going to be delivered. So a pregnant veteran who comes to us and says, I want to get care using the Choice program, they no longer can, because nine months from now is past August 7. But this is now beginning to happen with care that is multiple months in length, like oncology care and chemotherapy and other types of therapies. We have a chart that shows that when you start getting towards the end of April to May, this is where you’re going to start seeing a large number of veterans not being able to get access to care, because episodes of care that we’re used to, like hip replacements and other things, are generally three to four months. So we think the time is now that we need to act. Bost: Okay, so, but what we’re doing is not any intention to privatize or anything like that. This is just making sure that those people who are on the Choice program, that we are moving forward to make sure that those services are provided. Shulkin: Not only that, but this is not going to cost any additional money. We are just seeking the authority to spend the money that you’ve already given us past August 7 of this year. 1:17:15 David Shulkin: We are going to go and we are going to start providing mental health care for those that are other-than-honorably discharged for urgent mental health. And we want to work with Representative Coffman on his bill on this, and we want to do as much as we can. But I don’t think it can wait, and so we’re going to start doing that now. I believe that’s in the secretary’s authority to be able to do that.   Hearing: A call for system-wide change; House Committee for Veterans Affairs; October 7, 2015. Witnesses: Robert McDonald: then Secretary of U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs David Shulkin: Under Secretary for Health, U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs Brett Giroir: Senior Fellow at the Texas medical Center Health Policy Institute 13:37 Robert McDonald: As you know, we have five strategies: first is improving the veteran experience, second is improving the employee experience, third is achieving support-service excellence, fourth is establishing a culture of continuous improvement, and fifth is enhancing strategic partnerships, and we would be happy to drill down on those during the question period. 14:17 Robert McDonald: In the past year, we’ve moved out aggressively in response to the access crisis, meeting increasing demand and expanding capacity on four fronts: more staffing, more space, more productivity, and more V.A. care in the community. During that period of time, we’ve completed 7 million more appointments for veterans of completed care: 4 1/2 million in the community, 2 1/2 million within V.A. We’ve added more space, we’ve added more providers, we’ve added more extra hours, all in effect to get more veterans in. But because of that, and because we’ve done a better job of caring for veterans, we have more veterans desiring care. So even those 97% of appointments are now completed within 30 days of the needed or preferred date, the number not completed in 30 days has grown from 300,000 to nearly 500,000. 16:15 Robert McDonald: We simply can’t make many necessary changes because of statutory limitations. We need to consolidate our various care in the community programs. We need a freer hand to hire, assign, and reward the executives we task to act as change agents. We need a freer hand in disposing of outdated, unused, or little-used facilities. We need a freer hand in the management of existing facilities so facilities’ managers can adjust their use of resources to the changing needs of veterans. 25:47 Brett Giroir: As background, in 2014 9.1 million of 21.6 million U.S. veterans were enrolled in the VHA. Of these, 5.8 million were actual patients, and on average these patients relied on the VHA for much less than 50% of their healthcare services. These demographic data combined with access challenges suggest reconsideration of whether the VHA should aim to be the comprehensive provider for all veterans’ health needs or whether the VHA should evolve into more focus centers providing specialized care while utilizing non-VHA providers for the majority of veterans’ healthcare needs. Either paradigm could be highly beneficial to veterans as long as the demand and resources are prospectively aligned and there is a consolidation of current programs to simplify access to non-VHA providers. 30:05 David Shulkin: The V.A. approach is to find the very best care that serves the veterans, and I think that we’ve shown that in response to our access crisis that we have encouraged the use of community care to address our access issues. I think the difference here between—maybe what I would expand on what Dr. Giroir said is that the care that V.A. provides is very, very different than the care that the private sector provides. The V.A. provides a much more comprehensive approach than just dealing with physical-illness issues. It provides psychological and social aspects of care that actually meet the needs of what veterans require. And that's why I think that we really do need to do what Dr. Giroir said, which is to see what VHA provides best for our veterans and what care can be provided by the private sector, and it’s that hybrid-type system that's going to meet our veteran's needs. 34:39 Former Rep. Corrine Brown (FL): I think the elephant in the room is that there are people out there that would actually want to just completely close the V.A. and privatize the entire V.A. system, which is totally unacceptable and it is absolutely not what the veterans want. And as you begin, I want you to discuss flexibility, but I want you to let people know how many people we actually serve every day throughout this country. Robert McDonald: Thank you, Ranking Member Brown. As I was going through my confirmation process, I often got the question from senators why—you know, from some senators, small group—why don't we get rid of the V.A. and just give out vouchers? So I studied that—as a business person, I wanted to know—and what I discovered was V.A.'s not only essential for veterans, it's essential for American medicine and it's essential for the American people. Three-legged stool: research. We spent $1.8 billion a year on research. We invented the nicotine patch. We were the ones who discovered the aspirin was important for heart disease—take an aspirin every day. First liver transplant. First implantable pacemaker. Last year two V.A. doctors invented the shingles vaccine. I could go on. That research is important for the American people, and I didn't even mention posttraumatic stress or traumatic brain injury or prosthetics, things that we're known for. Second, training. We trained 70% of the doctors in this country. Who's going to train those doctors without the V.A.? We have also the largest employer of nurses and the largest trainer of nurses. Third leg is clinical work. Our veterans get the best clinical care because our doctors are doctors that not only do the clinical care but also do research and teach in the best medical schools of our country. So I think the American people benefit from the V.A., and it would be a big mistake to even think about privatizing it. 1:06:06 Rep. Phil Roe (TN): Let me go right to what I wanted to talk about which is my own veteran’s officer at home—person that does my work at home—and basically what she’s saying is, how do you get an appointment through the Veterans Choice Program? She said she had been trying to put together a summary, and what's happening is there’re two ways you get in there: a veteran can either be eligible by a 30-day wait list or more than 40 miles. And the most of problems she saw were the 30-day list. And this is what happens. Below is the information’s been given to me by the roll out of the program. In my experience, there appears to be a breakdown somewhere in this process but have been unable to get clear answers on how to fix it. The V.A. blames TriWest; TriWest blames the V.A. Eligibility is determined by the V.A. primary-care doctor if the appointment’s passed 30 days. The non-V.A. care staff then uploads this list of eligible veterans to the V.A. central office here in Washington nightly, and the veteran’s told to wait five to seven days and then call TriWest. The central office then sends the information to TriWest, can take three to seven days. If the consults don't get added, medical documentation didn't get uploaded, authorizations gets canceled, then the veteran’s on a merry-go-round. Look, when they came to my office to get an appointment, I said, you need an appointment with Dr. Smith. They went out front and made the appointment. That's what should happen. It ain’t that complicated. And all of this in between—and I could go on and on—TriWest has a different view of it, and I want to submit this to the record because it really gets to the bottom of what’s actually going— Unknown Chairman: Not objection. Roe: Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The non-V.A. care staff were given no training on this, and they basically were left just to wing it, how to make these appointments. That was one of the things was brought up in the report. Our local V.A. care—non-V.A. care staff—increased from 5 to 15 but still are struggling to make all these appointments, and there's talk of—now, listen to this right here—there is talk of calling each patient for every appointment to make sure they keep it. If the patient says, I don't want to go, they still are told to call them two times a month until the past the appointment time. That's a complete waste of time. And the outpatient clinics also ought to be able to add patients to the electronic wait list instead of sending them over because appointment may come up; veterans get left out like that. And the TriWest portal is not very friendly. Private doctors did not like jumping through all the hoops of the Choice programmers saying they must give a percent of their fee to TriWest in order for TriWest to file the claim. So, we have a clinic that’s closing in our office, in our V.A., on a chiropractic and pulmonary clinic, because the doctors are just fed up with the way the system is. It’s so bureaucratic. So, anyway, I could go on and on. This is a very extensive—this is on-the-ground stuff that’s going on today at our medical center, and I bet you it's going on around the country. And I think these are things I will submit to you so you can get to work on this, and, again, appreciate the effort that you put into it. Mr. Chairman, there’s some valuable information here for the V.A. to use. And I yield back. Unknown Chairman: Thank you. Ms. Brown, you had a question. Corrine Brown: I do, because I want the secretary to answer that, because I think—I'm meeting with TriWest today—but the important thing is, you can't send a veteran to an agency or anywhere until they get prior approval from the V.A. because the most important thing is that that doctor get that reimbursement. So can you clear this up? I mean, no person in my office can send someone to a doctor; it must go through the system so that you get prior approval. And once that's done, how long—why does it take so long for that physician to get reimbursed, and can he answer that question? Robert McDonald: We have flowcharted that process, and let me let David talk about the improvements that we’ve made to that process. He'll answer questions one and three, and I'll take two on the facilities. David Shulkin: Okay. Dr. Roe, I think your old adage on the three A's is exactly right. And you have to remember we brought this Choice system up in 90 days. This is a national, very complex system, and what we've heard after bringing it up in 90 days is exactly the type of feedback that you've been hearing from your constituents. The secretary and I are both out in the field, we understand that these problems are happening, and so what we've begun to do is to redesign the system and to process-map it out. Both the secretary and I spoke to the CEO of TriWest last evening, and we are beginning now to make outbound calls to the veterans before they had to call in. We are beginning to actually embed TriWest staff in the V.A. so that they're working in teams, and we're beginning to start eliminating some of those steps. It is going to take a while. It is painful to watch this when you hear stories like what you're hearing, but we understand the problems there, we are working very hard, we think TriWest and Health Net are working to help us make the system better, and we're committed to doing this with urgency. 1:58:08 David Shulkin: We do have a crisis in leadership. We have too many open, vacant positions. We have too many people in acting positions and interim positions. You can't expect that you're going to have a transformation in a health system unless you have stable leadership in place. We need your help on this. We need your help to help create the V.A. to be an environment people want to come and serve and to be excited about, and we are asking for your help in Title 38 for the—Hybrid Title 38—to be able to help get the right type of compensation for leadership positions in V.A. That will help us a lot. Hearing: HR 1994 VA accountability act and HR 3236 surface transportation and veterans health care choice improvement act; House Rules Committee; July 28, 2015. 1:28:40 Bradley Byrne (AL): We don’t need to have a government-run healthcare system for our veterans. We need to transition out of it and give all of our veterans a card, just like an insurance card. Hearing: Veterans Affairs health care and budget; House Veterans Affairs Committee; July 22, 2015. 19:20 Robert McDonald Clinical output has increased 8% while budget has increased 2%, 35% more people (1.5 million beneficiaries) 20:22 Robert McDonald Increased Choice authorizations by 44% (900,000), 4% more appointments, percentages of wait times, wait times for types of care 21:50 Robert McDonald Care crisis of 2014 was caused by an imbalance in supply and demand, VA has been governing to fit a budget, not making budget fit the care, stats on new enrollees, 147% increase. enrolled veterans use VA for 34% of their care 56:00 Robert McDonald Here is a packet explaining the transformation of the VA, we have an advisory board full of CEOs, VA is going through the largest transformation in it’s history 1:09:40 Tim Heulskamp (KS) Concerned that money will be redirect away from Choice and he thinks “many employees” are not supportive of Choice, throws out bullshit numbers James Tuchschmidt corrects him and said they took money out to pay for the Hepatitis C drug 1:11:50 Tim Heulskamp wants to know why only two people have been fired for the wait time scandal. Robert McDonald many have retired, one indictment, 1,300 have been fired, new leadership, 7 million more appointments this year 1:27:30 Rep.Jackie Walorski (IN) Veterans died because of the Veteran’s Administration, I wanted to see people go to prison, list of things she’s pissed about, "Nothing is working” Robert McDonald 300,000 on wait list a year ago, low wait times, 1:35:00 McDonald we need a better system for anticipating what demand will be. 34% of eligible people are using VA system right now 1:35:20 Robert McDonald the crisis in 2014 was due to Vietnam vets, not Iraq & Afghanistan and we need to prepare as they age 1:36:00 Rep. Beto O’Rourke (D-TX) Why don’t we “refer out" the care that’s not directly related to military service? Robert McDonald people like to have all their doctors in one place, private sector doctors have to treat veterans differently - different questions to ask 1:41:00 Phil Roe (TN) Getting veterans outside care should be be through 1 program because it "aught to be easy" 1:43:50 Robert McDonald Moral is low because people don't want to be called out for not caring. They work hard every day 1:46:00 Kathleen Rice (D-NY) Why is there a budget shortfall? Robert McDonald 7 million more veterans needed care. "That's the reason" 1:56:00 Mark Takano (D-CA) New way of operating with non-VA providers - "Care in the Community" - not a conspiracy to "disappear the VA" - That's why we changed the name 2:05:00 Brad Wenstrup (R-OH) We should "outsource" collections” of payment from veterans with other insurance James Tuchschmidt We are looking at doing that. Wenstrup we should take bids. 2:18:00 Robert McDonald We are in favor of Choice program & we need to know about any employees who aren't because "that would be wrong" - Don't care where they get care as long as it's great care 2:20:00 Jerry McNerney (D-CA) Do you favor public private partnerships? Robert McDonald Yes, it's part of our transformation strategy. we have an “office of strategic parterships” 2:22:55 James Tuchschmidt We thought more people would use Choice, the goal was to not have vets waiting more than 30 days for care, we're asking to use that money to pay for care we purchased, we want a bill before you leave in August 2:28:00 James Tuchschmidt We’ve treated over 20,000 veterans with hepatitis C and veterans can use the Choice Program to get their treatment Rep.Ralph Abraham (LA) $500 million would be designated for Hepatitis C treatment Robert McDonald yes Hearing: Non-VA care: An integrated solution for veteran access; House Veterans Affairs Committee; June 18, 2014. 50:40 Rep. Beto O’Rourke (TX): Why have the V.A. at all? Why not privatize that care? The private sector could do it better. What’s missing in the V.A. is competition. Our veterans deserve the very best. Let’s not keep them in this institution that’s not working. From veterans, almost to a person, I hear, if I get in the V.A., I love the care. I’m treated very, very well. The outcomes are great. Don’t touch the V.A. So, what do you do best, and what does the V.A. do best? And five years down the road, after we get out of this current crisis, what will this look like? Unknown Speaker: That’s a great question. And it’s an honor to serve El Paso, where I spent part of my childhood when my dad was in the army as a doc. I will tell you that I hope it does not take five years. And I think everybody else would echo that statement. My belief is that the first phase is to make sure that the program that the V.A. has invested taxpayer money in—VAPC3—is put in place, is mature, that the processes on the V.A. side are mature, that our processes are mature, and that together we’re identifying where those pockets of veterans are that might not otherwise be able to get what they need in a complete capacity through the direct V.A. system because they lack the capacity to deliver on all the needs, and that the V.A. syst— Yes, sir. O’Rourke: Let me—I’m sorry to interrupt you, but I do want to understand what you think beyond taking care of capacity issues when the V.A.’s not able to see someone in a reasonable period of time. Are there specific kinds of care that you all would be better equipped to take care of? For example, I often think the V.A. is or should be better at handling PTSD or the aftereffects of traumatic brain injury because they see so many people like that as opposed to your typical health system or hospital. Maybe that’s a V.A. center of excellence. Is there something on the outside that we should just move all appointments or consults or procedures in a given area over to the private sector or let the private sector compete for? Unknown Speaker: Great question. My personal view is that it’s too early to ask that question—or to answer it, probably a better way to put it. It’s early to ask it, it’s right to ask it, you’re looking over the horizon line, but that we first need to get the pieces plugged together. And then there needs to be a make-by decision, category by category, and facility by facility, to look at what’s best done with taxpayer funds. Is it best to have the direct system provide care for four veterans in a particular category? Is that really necessary? Or should we buy that on the outside because it’s more efficient and more effective? 54:30 O’Rourke: You know, I’ve been on this committee for a year and a half now—it’s my first year in Congress—but I’d never been approached by a lobbyist on my way in to a meeting. Today I was, who represents providers in the private sector in El Paso and said, we have a hard time getting paid. It takes us a year sometimes. We want to see these veterans who are not able to be seen by the V.A., but it’s going to be really hard to do this if we don’t get paid. 1:34:00 Jolly: We need to do even more in providing a veteran choice. This, bottom line. The question, though, is how do we do that in a way that’s fiscally responsible? And so my question for you generally—and again, if you don’t have enough information, that’s certainly fine—in your role of supporting non-V.A. care, can you give either an assessment, if you have the technical information, or if it’s just in a working opinion on the cost effectiveness compared to traditional care, realizing that we have hard infrastructure costs within our V.A. system that aren’t reflective when you go to non-V.A. We can look at all sorts of data. I’m somebody who thinks typically data’s manipulated to get whatever outcome or position we want to finally be able to support. But can you give an opinion or assessment on the cost effectiveness of non-V.A. care versus within the V.A.? Ms. Doody: I can tell you from our experience with Project ARCH—and I wish I could give you specific numbers, sir—the company Altarum, who was contracted to collect this information—my understanding is they’re going to report back to you folks in 2015—are looking at the cost of care per veteran. From my understanding, it is less than if they would have gone to a V.A. facility for certain procedures. So, again, it’s anecdotal. It may be geographic; I can’t comment on the other regions or other states in our nation. But also just limiting the amount of mileage, the travelling that the veteran would have to do travelling to a V.A. hospital to receive care as a savings to the system also. 1:45:00 Titus: You confirm that you can’t talk about the cost effectiveness; there’s just not enough data there, yet you think it’s working pretty well, but we don’t have any hard figures, and we also know that CVO’s been kind of unable to assess the cost going forward, and nobody’s talking about how to pay for it. Yet, we are moving pell mell towards more veterans using this kind of non-V.A. care. And it’s not that I’m opposed to that, but I want us to do it right or else we’ll be having hearings five years from now, talking about all the problems with non-V.A. care. Now, to hear y’all talk about it, you’re not having any problems; things are working great under your networks. But we know that’s not true, either. I mean, there are problems out there, and we need to be serious about how to address them from the beginning. Now, as I understand it, y’all are just kind of like the middleman, like Sallie Mae and Medicare Advantage, where you have a contract to provide a service. That’s fine, but as you push more people out into the private sector, do you see your kind of business growing, or is your network going to cover more areas, or are more new networks and competition going to come on to be part of this new system that we’re going to be creating? Hearing: A continued assessment of delays in VA medical care and preventable veteran deaths; House Veterans Affairs Committee; April 9, 2014. 2:35 Rep. Jeff Miller (FL): On Monday, shortly before this public hearing, V.A. provided evidence that a total of 23 veterans have died due to delays and care at V.A. medical centers. Even with this latest disclosure as to where the deaths occurred, our committee still doesn’t know when they may have happened beyond the statement from V.A. that they most likely occurred between 2010 and 2012. These particular deaths resulted primarily from delays in gastrointestinal care. Information on other preventable deaths due to consult delays remains unavailable. Outside of the V.A.’s consult review, this committee has reviewed at least 18 preventable deaths that occurred because of mismanagement, improper infection-control practices, and a whole host—a whole host—of maladies that plagued the V.A. healthcare system all across this great nation. 8:53 Rep. Jeff Miller (FL): Mr. Coates waited for almost a year and would have waited even longer had he not personally persistently insisted on receiving the colonoscopy that he and his doctors knew that they needed. That same colonoscopy revealed that Mr. Coates had Stage IV colon cancer that had metastasized to his lungs and to his liver. 13:55 Barry Coates: My name is Barry Lynne Coates, and due to the inadequate and lack of followup care I received through the V.A. system, I stand here before you terminally ill today

Today's intentional performer is Bob Bordone. Bob is the Thaddeus R. Beal Clinical professor of Law at Harvard Law School and the Founding Director of the Harvard Negotiation & Mediation Clinical Program. He teaches several courses at Harvard Law School including the school’s flagship Negotiation Workshop. Bob also teaches in the Harvard Negotiation Institute and the Harvard Program on Negotiation’s Senior Executive Education seminars. As a professional facilitator and conflict resolution consultant, Bob works with individual and corporate clients across a spectrum of industries. He specializes in dispute systems design and in assisting individuals and groups seeking to manage conflicts in highly sensitive, emotional, or difficult situations. His corporate clients have included Premera Blue Cross, Health Net, Gap, Inc., Fidelity Investments, Nestlé, Coca-Cola, Delta Air Lines, Exelon, and Microsoft. In addition, he has worked on projects with nonprofit, educational, governmental and cultural institutions such as the Boston Symphony Orchestra, Massachusetts General Hospital, Princeton Regional Schools, Dartmouth College, Fort Wayne, Indiana Schools, the U.S. Department of Justice, the United Way, the International Criminal Court at The Hague, Seeds of Peace, and the Vienna School of Economics and Business Administration. His resume is obviously impressive, but in this conversation you will get real insight into how Bob sees the world and how he thinks about negotiation. He is authentic and curious. He's a teacher at his core, but he also is a learner. He is constantly searching for how he can impact the world. We get into the art of negotiation, we find out his journey to Harvard, and we learn about how he integrates other fields into his process for negotiation. He believes it's essential to be intentional throughout the negotiation process and he is certainly an intentional performer. Twitter is the best place to connect with Bob so make sure to give him a follow there: @bobbordone. Thanks to Bob for coming on!    

This show looks at Health Net’s failure to reimburse more than 100 treatment facilities in the state of California, and some of the other problems the insurance giant has created for the addiction treatment industry with special guests Harry Nelson, A.B., J.D., the founder and managing partner of Nelson Hardiman and board chair of the American Addiction Treatment Association (AATA), and Stampp Corbin, M.B.A., president of the American Treatment Advocacy Coalition (ATAC) and CEO of a behavioral health company called Toxicology Laboratory.

Stephen is the CEO of Predictive ROI and the host of the Onward Nation podcast. He is the author of two bestselling books, speaker, trainer, and his digital marketing insights have been featured in SUCCESS, Entrepreneur, The Washington Post, Forbes, Inc. Magazine, and other media. Good Morning Onward Nation – I’m Stephen Woessner and welcome to Episode 460 – this week’s solocast where I will share the specific step-by-step recipe for how to get a sponsor for your podcast, a lesson that I learned directly from one of today’s leading authorities on the topic of sponsorships. Her name is Linda Hollander, and she is off-the-charts amazing. I’m telling you – the lesson in this solocast is going to help you monetize your podcast in new ways – or – if you already have sponsors – it may give you some new insights so you can sell your sponsorships upwards of $100,000 per year.   Before we get to today’s lesson…I want to thank you.   Thank you for being here – thank you for all of your support – thank you for all of your daily encouragement – thank you for all of the wonderful emails sharing what you like about the show – and just as important – sharing how my team and I can get better – how we can deliver even more value to you and your teammates. I appreciate the emails, the tweets, the Facebook posts, and all of the connection requests on LinkedIn. I want you to know how much you mean to me – how much you and what you share with us energize my team and me. You and your feedback is the lifeblood of the show and so before we dive into today’s lesson – I want you to know how much I deeply appreciate you taking some of your precise 86,400 seconds you were blessed enough to receive today – and sharing your time – your most precious asset – and deciding to share it with me. And because time is the most precious asset for all of us – I have invested my time in building a lesson for you today that will add value in potentially many areas of your business. But I will say – despite the value this lesson will provide you – it may make you uncomfortable. You may feel put on the spot. As you consider the potential of executing on the ideas I share with you this morning – you may immediately begin to talk yourself out of the opportunity. You may second-guess yourself. You may feel that you and your business are not worthy of such lofty goals. So as we move through the lesson…as I share with you the practical and tactical of what you need to do when you work to attract a sponsor for your podcast…and you start to second-guess yourself…and begin to feel that your show or your business is not at that right level…I want you to remember the wise words of Marianne Williamson when she said… But…how do I know this to be true? Because Onward Nation, Marianne’s words struck me to the core the first time I read them. I was hit hard. I knew she was speaking to me and other people who felt the same way as me. In three simple sentences – she beautifully addressed head on the biggest obstacle of success that was blocking my path. So now, instead of praying and focusing on opportunity to come my way…I have shifted the context to be more in-line with being ready to accept the abundance – to be okay in becoming the person I need to become to be the best steward possible – to be open and let the light shine in to cast out the darkness – so that I can see my full destiny unfold. I am sharing all of this with you, in full transparency, so you have an opportunity to get your mindset right – to know you are worthy – that you are ready – that you can be more – that your business is ready for that next level – that your podcast is ready for a sponsorship – and that you are ready to apply all you learn here today. And that I know the points where today’s lesson about attracting sponsorships will make you feel uncomfortable because I have been there. I have felt the uneasiness of “not being ready” first hand. But I am telling you, Onward Nation – if you apply what I share with your this morning, you will push past the fear and leap onward to that next level. For example, when my Predictive ROI team and I launched Onward Nation in June of 2015…some of the first questions from people closest to us had nothing to do with the tactical of how we were able to build the show from scratch and launch it in less than 30-days…or…how we were able to soar to the top of iTunes within just a few short weeks. Nope. Oftentimes, one of the very first questions I received from those closest to me was… “When are you going to sell a sponsorship?” This was a frequently asked question because having a sponsor was an outward sign of success – of legitimacy – that we had made it – that we were on our way to doing something special. But here’s the truth, Onward Nation. The thought of selling a sponsorship early on terrified me. I was afraid of the rejection. I was afraid of sharing what might seem like small numbers for a new show. I didn’t want to waste my time or the time of the prospective sponsors. I was afraid of being embarrassed during the process. And the list goes on and on. But ultimately, I didn’t feel that this show – a couple of years ago – was worthy of a paid sponsorship. But there was something else – and potentially even more paralyzing. I had no idea what to do – I didn’t know the first thing to attracting let alone selling a sponsorship for our podcast. I knew zero. In fact, to say that I knew zero was to give me a compliment – I knew less than zero. So my lack of knowledge – and my emotional insecurity around the topic of sponsorship – caused me to answer those initial questions on the topic as the opportunity of sponsorships didn’t matter as a revenue stream because we were focused on building the core business, which was true…but only a half truth. Here’s what I have learned in the over two years of hard work since that time.   Sponsorships matter.   Sponsorships of course matter from the perspective of revenue – but this is the less important compared to the credibility and cache that a sponsor can bring to your show. For example, let’s say you’re considering listening to Onward Nation for the first time…and you see an ad for… “Onward Nation with Stephen Woessner.” Versus if you happened to hear… “Onward Nation with Stephen Woessner, brought to you by Bank of America.” Which one sounds more credible? Exactly! The opportunity of having a Bank of America or some other large brand connected to your brand provides you with some degree of transference of their credibility over to you and your brand. So, I knew that I needed to figure out the strategy behind sponsorship as a way to take Onward Nation to that next level. But I had no idea where to start. And then – as is the case often in life – I got the push that I needed in order to make the change that I needed to make. AMACOM, my publisher for my book being released in mid-September entitled “Profitable Podcasting,” asked me to write a chapter that provided insights into how to attract and sell a sponsorship for a podcast. “I’m sorry, what was that?” is how I initially felt. Gulp. I had no idea how I would provide value in an area where I had not developed mastery. However, instead of letting the fear of the assignment linger, I quickly told myself that the recipe that would result from the assignment would give me with another example to share how a podcast could be used as a tool to collect the primary research needed so the chapter — a book chapter outside of my expertise — could be done and done efficiently. And in full transparency, doing the research, filled in a skills gap for me so I know have what I need in order to close a big sponsorship deal on behalf of Onward Nation. I will share the news toward the end of this year — but oh my — it’s exciting to think about. Game changing. So, for today’s lesson, I will share the full sponsorship recipe with you. What I learned along the way, from whom I had the honor of learning, and how you can take and apply the same knowledge to attract the right sponsor for your podcast. Okay…so how did I do the research? In order to write a great chapter for the book, I knew that I needed to interview the right expert. So my first call was to Wendy Keller, my exceptional literary agent and great friend. She orbits the distant moon of awesome – she is otherworldly. Yes, I’m kind of a big fan. When I shared my challenge with Wendy, she quickly said to me, “Oh, I know exactly who you should interview for the chapter.” BA-BAM. And that’s another reason why you need the right inner circle, Onward Nation. Why you need to surround yourself with the right experts, the right mentors, and friends who are moving at the same pace and tempo you want to be moving at. Five minutes later, Wendy had connected me with Linda Hollander, one of today’s leading authorities on the topic of sponsorships. Both Inc. Magazine and Entrepreneur Magazine have featured Linda as the industry leader in how to sell corporate sponsorships. Linda has over 20-years of experience as a business owner. Her clients and sponsors include Microsoft, FedEx, Citibank, Mattel, Bank of America, Marriott, Health Net, American Airlines, IBM, and Wal-Mart. Her client list reads like a “Who’s Who” in corporate sponsorship. Just go to www.sponsorconcierge.com to find Linda. Wendy suggested I interview Linda then transcribe the interview and turn it into a chapter for the book. Brilliant. I followed Wendy’s blueprint — interviewed Linda — and viola — Chapter 16 with deep expertise from one of the industry’s leading experts on the topic was done. And I was a heck of a lot smarter after having learned directly from Linda. Rock solid awesome!! But in order for that to happen – I had to set my fear and ego aside and focus on the assignment – and let go of the fact that I didn’t know something about the world of podcasting. I am taking you so deep behind the green curtain here because I want you to see – everyone deals with fear – everyone has obstacles – everyone is uncomfortable from time-to-time in their business – everyone deals with the imposter syndrome. Everyone. But the true measure of greatness – is whether you will let it paralyze you – or – will you push past it and walk toward your destiny. I believe in you, Onward Nation. You are just one phone call or one interview with an expert away from finding that missing piece that will ignite your business to the next level. Have the guts to make the calls, Onward Nation. Get out there and leverage your podcast as a tool for collecting primary research from top experts — even if your expertise lies outside the area being researched. The interviews you conduct will provide your podcast listeners and true fans with exceptional value, just as Linda did for you. And the transcripts of your interviews can be converted into chapters for your book. So here we go…let’s dig in to learn how to master a new skill…the skill of attracting the right sponsor for your podcast…a sponsor who can provide financial resources to support your show…but more importantly…a sponsor who can lend their brand to you…and in doing so…provide you and your show with additional credibility. So you can get the full context of what I learned from Linda, I am going to share the specific questions I asked Linda – so you can model them – revise them – and then use them when you interview your industry experts. So here we go… For my first question, I asked Linda… “Please take us back to the beginning and your first event so business owners reading this can have the full context of what you have accomplished.” I asked Linda this for two reasons: 1) it is an easy, soft question that helps develop rapport at the beginning of a conversation when two people are just learning about one another. It would be inappropriate if I asked Linda to share all of her deepest and most valuable sponsorship strategies as the first question. That would be way too abrupt. So focus on building some rapport first. And 2) because I always wanted to know Linda’s backstory because it is wonderful context to know that she came from nothing – and yet – she pushed herself to be more – and despite the odds and the fear – she was successful in securing Bank of America as her first sponsor. She is amazing. So in Linda’s words… She had the privilege of working with some great top tier sponsors but it wasn’t always that way. Many of her clients early on in her business were women so she wanted to start the Women’s Small Business Expo to deliver even more value to clients. But she needed sponsors because putting on an event is cash intensive. Ultimately, her first sponsors were Bank of America, Wal-Mart, and IBM. She had never done an event in her life. She had no idea how to do an event. She had no experience. She had no following. She had her parents on her email list. She put her brother-in-law on her email list, too. They weren’t going to tell her no. If she could have put her cat on there, she would have done that. But despite how she started out, she was able to attract several top tier sponsors. And when her event attendees came, they would ask Linda, “How the heck are you getting these sponsors? We thought you had to be a big company and have all this experience and track record,” and Linda said, “Absolutely no.” Then Linda knew there was a need in the marketplace for training business owners how to attract sponsors. She lost a lot of time and money when she first started to learn the sponsorship game. It took her six months to get my first proposal together and she lost $75,000 in the process. Linda told me, Onward Nation that it was painful, it was excruciating. Some people wouldn’t even talk to her because she was a micro-business. But, there were also people who said to Linda, “You know what? I’ll talk to you. I’ll help you.” Then she said to herself, “When I learn this stuff, I’m going to teach other business owners how to do it.” Amazing backstory don’t you think, Onward Nation? Does that help push some of the fear or apprehension aside for you? She started with nothing – no following – nothing – and she went out and did it anyway. She is rock solid awesome. Okay, let’s press on. Next I asked, Linda… “Let’s start off with some definitions. When we hear “sponsor” that could mean different things depending upon someone’s business model. What does sponsorship mean, what does a sponsor want to sponsor, are they programs, events, or businesses?” Linda shared that the definition of sponsorship is “Connecting a company with people who can buy things.” If you know people who can buy stuff, then you can get sponsors. Linda wants you to know that it is a lot simpler than what most business owners think. In fact…here’s what is “sponsorable.” If you have a business — that could be sponsored. If you host a radio show If you host a podcast If you host a television show or YouTube channel, or a blog All of that can be sponsored. And of course, if you host events like Linda, you can get sponsors because sponsors love live events. If you’re a speaker or an author, you can get sponsored, because as a speaker and an author you have access to an audience — a fanbase of people — who know your work and know your book, and as a speaker you command the platform. Companies don’t have people who can speak, who can command a platform, or capture the attention of an audience. So that is a huge advantage for you, Onward Nation! At this point in my interview with Linda – I started feeling excited and actually really confident. And the fear, you might ask? What fear? HA! Linda had me so completely energized by the possibilities I was learning from her! Next I wanted to learn about the pitfalls – the common mistakes business owners make when they head down the sponsorship path so you, Onward Nation – and me – could try to avoid the same $75,000 mistakes Linda had experienced. So I asked Linda… “What are some of the biggest mistakes you see business owners making time and time again as they pursue sponsorships?” She let me know there are a few mistakes to be weary of, and she’s made all of them, so the lessons she could share were directly from her hands-on experience. The first mistake is, believe it or not, is not asking for enough money. What?!? I thought to myself! Linda went on to explain that asking for too little money can hurt a business owner because they are, in effect, telling a sponsor they don’t have anything of value to offer. Linda often gets calls from business owners who are trying to sell their $500 sponsor package. They’re going to be presenting to a busy, stressed-out person inside a company, and if they see a sponsor package priced at $500, they’re going to think the business owner doesn’t have anything of value. In the sponsorship process, you have what’s called your “Champion,” and this is the person within the sponsoring company who loves you, but they have to sell you and your program to their colleagues, their team, and their boss, and maybe the people working under them to get it approved. Onward Nation, your pricing strategy needs to communicate value in order for them to do that. For most of Linda’s clients, what she sees them typically win is between $10,000 and $100,000 in annual sponsor fees. If you do an event, if you have a podcast, or something else that is episode-to-episode, bundle everything together for the year and sell an annual sponsorship because you’re going to be more successful in properly positioning yourself with sponsors. The second mistake business owners make is not using an industry standard proposal. According to Linda, your sponsor proposal is one of the most important but least understood documents. You have to use an industry standard format or you will not get funded. Your proposal must look amazing and have the right compelling benefits. So to recap, Onward Nation – the two biggest mistakes you need to avoid are asking for too little money and not having a good proposal. Okay, I was really intrigued by what Linda was teaching me, and I knew that in order for the lessons to have the most value to you and to the readers of my book, Linda and I needed to drill in deeper on the topic of sponsorships for podcasting. So I asked Linda… “Let’s say you’re a podcaster. Sounds like you would try to sell an annual sponsorship of your show instead of weekly episodes, but you would also package in your entire platform including social media, email lists, webinars, events, etc., right?” In Linda’s opinion, yes, you want them to sponsor your entire brand — not a single show. It took Linda a while to figure this out because at first she started to have sponsors for her events and then thought, “Wait a minute, I’ve got a whole brand here.” When she had them sponsor her brand, she made a whole lot more money. Instead of a business owner saying, “I’m a podcaster,” you should brand yourself as a “media company” who does podcasting because sponsors are not quite in love with podcasting yet. It’s still new. It’s still cutting edge. But if you say you’re a media company, Onward Nation then their ears are going to perk up. Then they’re going to be interested. Talk about your podcast, but then talk about the other things you do such as, email blasts, social media, maybe even YouTube. Talk about all of the touch points you have. Then Linda took me back to the definition of sponsorship; “Connecting a company to people who buy things.” Onward Nation, you need to tell your prospective sponsors how you can connect them to people who could but their stuff. At this point in the learning from Linda, I was feeling really confident about the steps, the process, the upside, and the mistakes that needed to be avoided in order to save time and cash. Then I had another spark of fear – but in full transparency – it was probably more ego than fear – when I had the thought, “Wait a minute…if I sell a sponsorship for Onward Nation to a Bank of America, for example, doesn’t that diminish our own brand in some way?” So, I took the opportunity to ask Linda because I figured if I was thinking it – and could potentially turn that into a roadblock – then maybe other business owners would be asking themselves the same question. The best way to push that aside was to ask the expert. So Linda… “Do I diminish my own brand if I go get a sponsor?” And she put my mind at ease by letting me know that she is asked that question a lot because as business owners, we want to be independent, we don’t want to have a company influence what we’re going to say, and we don’t want the appearance that we’re biased. Linda has never had a sponsor try to influence her content in 16-years of doing this. And if they ever did, she would just say, “Hey, that’s not part of the program.” Onward Nation, you design your program — the sponsor writes the check — that’s what goes on with sponsorships. Also, the promotion of your sponsor does not have to be outlandish or in your face. The promotion can be elegant and understated, such as signage, banner ads, or things you put on your website. And if you do recommend a company like when Linda was working with Citibank, and she would recommend Citibank, she would disclose it by saying, “I need to disclose that Citibank is my sponsor,” and then you are in integrity by disclosing it. So know Linda was removing trap door after trap door and each and every excuse I was letting creep back into my mind. I was loving this conversation and the opportunity to learn from someone who has been so successful in this arena – but for me – even more important – was that she had scraped her knees, and busted an elbow, a time or two. She had the in-the-trenches experience that I love and really value. And if you have been listening to Onward Nation, you know I am a big fan of success secrets…those things…that if we apply them give us the ability to make stochastic jumps onward to new levels. So I asked Linda… “Are there any secrets to success business owners need to apply in order to be successful in attracting a sponsor?” Linda let me know that a secret is to make your sponsor the star. Most business owners when they try to get a sponsor, they fall into the trap of talking about what their business does, they might say things like, “I’ve have this great podcast, I have this great book, I have a great business, I have a great non-profit, or event, etc.” Business owners can sometimes talk about themselves and that’s not the way to get a sponsor. The way to get a sponsor is to talk to the sponsor about what you can do for them. Say, “Hey, Mr., Ms. Sponsor, I’m going to educate people about your products and your services. I’m going to help you increase your product and your brand loyalty. I’m going to help you grow your customer base. I’m going to help you drive sales and traffic.” Do you see the difference, Onward Nation? You’re saying, “Hey, the sponsor is the star” and your prospective sponsor is going to look at that and say, “Hey, this business owner understands that it’s about me and not about them.” You’ll tell them a little bit about what you do because they have to understand it, but mostly what you’re going to tell the sponsor is “Here’s how I’m going to benefit your company, here’s what I’m going to do for you.” Okay, Onward Nation – at this point in the interview, my confidence was soaring. I was beginning to think through the pitch and presentation – my thoughts were going to sales strategy and other ideas were firing. But, an essential component to any strategy is timing. How long would something like this take to pull together? So I asked Linda for her help about timelines… “Let’s talk timelines. How fast does, or maybe how long, is the sales cycle you typically see for attracting $10,000 to $100,000 sponsorships?” Linda started by reminding me that sponsorships are a relationship business. You need time to develop relationships with companies. Here’s where it’s going to be maybe a little bit of a shock to business owners. Linda recommends eight months to a year before you need the funding to start approaching prospective sponsors. Linda went on to tell me why. If you’re approaching Microsoft, FedEx, Staples (those are called the “Top Tier” sponsors), they have a process. You have to apply and you have to wait for them to approve it. They like to have a lot of lead time because whatever you are doing you have to talk about how you are going to work with their company, what kind of a program you are going to build together, and it takes time to develop that depth of a relationship. It will take time to get your first sponsor. But, Linda also shared some thoughts on how to complete the process quicker. There are “Top Tier” sponsors and then are “Second Tier” sponsors. In the banking industry (and banks are a great place to find sponsorships, by the way), Linda has worked with Bank of America and Citibank. They are top tier. But there may be a local community bank where you live, Onward Nation. There may be an up and coming player in the banking industry you might want to work with. That won’t take as long because it’s easier to get to the decision makers and to get that process of sponsorship started. The amazing thing about sponsorships being a relationship business is that there is something called renewals in sponsorships. And renewals are magic. Renewals are your cash machine because if a sponsor likes you, they can fund you this year, next year, and the next year. Linda has sold multi-year sponsorships with FedEx and Citibank. Her clients have had multi-year contracts with Verizon, Dole Foods, and Black and Decker just to name a few. It’s not a quick cash strategy. It is a long-term strategy to fund your business, Onward Nation. That’s why Linda recommends that business owners go for a one-year contract because one-year is about enough time to really analyze the relationship and if the sponsor wants to continue. If your sponsorship is from event-to-event, or episode-to-episode, a sponsor is not going to see that much growth as far as return on investment, so they are less likely to renew. Now it was time to begin formalizing the recipe – I could see the individual ingredients – but I needed Linda’s master skills with the recipe to help pull it all together so I could see the result outcome she was already envisioning. So I asked Linda… “Let’s get tactical and think about key steps in the process, the action plan, things that are going to improve the probability of success. If you were to give business owners one, two, or three things they need to do, what would those steps be?” Linda was kind enough to share a three-step process to attracting a sponsor. The first part is to do what she calls the “Sponsor Wish List.” The wish list is the list of companies that you would like to have as sponsors. Remember in your sponsor wish list to include both Top Tier and the Second Tier sponsors. Most business owners when they start their wish list think only of Top Tier sponsors. Go deeper. Since Linda and I had already talked about the banking industry, she then shifted to talk insurance. Yes, banking and insurance may be perceived by some business owners as boring industries. Everyone wants glam sponsors like fashion, cosmetics, and accessories. But the boring companies have the money. Let’s take the insurance category, you’re going to think of State Farm, and AFLAC, and all the ones that have paid to be top of mind. Then go a little deeper by doing some Google searches into smaller insurance companies, the up and coming brands, because the up and coming brands need you to get their name out. Linda told me that these second tier companies are outstanding prospects because they don’t have the brand awareness of the big brands and will be more open to what you have to offer, Onward Nation. Linda then shared a tangible example of that in practice. She worked with a company called Evolution Insurance Brokers. Nobody has ever heard of Evolution Insurance Brokers, and that is exactly why they sponsored her. They wanted to get the word out about their company. They’re not AFLAC, they’re not State Farm, they’re not the big players in the industry. But, Onward Nation…the second tiers have money to invest. Linda was not able to disclose exactly the value of the sponsorship with Evolution Insurance Brokers, but it was 5-figures. Step two is preparing your professional proposal. Linda recommends writing what she calls an “Industry Standard Sponsor Proposal.” The full sponsor proposal is about eight to ten pages in length and here’s what it includes: A description of your “property.” Onward Nation, write down the word “property” because what you do now is called the “property.” Your podcast is a property. Your book is a property. Your speaking business is a property. Your business, your event, your non-profit, whatever you are doing is called a property. You want to describe that. You should include your sponsor’s goals, which should be similar to what we talked about earlier in this chapter, such as increasing brand loyalty and customer base, and educating people, and driving traffic and sales, and all that. You should include a one-page marketing plan. It includes all the ways you’re going to get the word out about the sponsor. Sponsors are interested in this because marketing is the difference between a good idea someone has in their head and something that actually has legs and is sustainable. You should include your demographics. Whether your demographics are mothers, the parent market, the entrepreneurial market, the urban youth, the baby boomer market, you need to describe your demographics. Include any testimonials you have. You should include your sponsor fees like the ones we’ve talked about. The last thing, and here is how Linda and her team write proposals differently than anyone else in the country, is storytelling. You want to have good storytelling inside your proposal. Linda calls it “passion points.” Linda is able to sells sponsors because she doesn’t just put in the proposal what’s called your “pretty bio.” The pretty bio is your education, and the awards you won, and your experience. All of that is nice but what you want is to be vulnerable, you need to make a human connection, because you’re not just pitching to a faceless cooperation. You are pitching to a person, a human being, and you want to show your humanity. In Linda’s story, she talks about how she was in the poverty trap. She talks about how she was in an abusive relationship. Her story has helped her secure sponsors because you want them to see you as a real person. The emotional connection is important, Onward Nation. You want to put beautiful storytelling in there. If you don’t want to include your own story, put the story of someone you’ve helped through the work you do. Be sure to include some emotion. Business owners often make the mistake of thinking, “Oh, I’m going to impress them, and I’m going to put facts, and figures, and statistics in there.” But unfortunately, that is not going help you rise above the competition. Be human. All of the proposal ingredients from Linda really had me energized, Onward Nation. But then I started thinking about tools and other resources that I might also need to know about in order to make the process of selling a top tier sponsor as efficient as possible from a time perspective. So I asked Linda… “Are there any other tools, any other resources you think business owners ought to study to make this process as efficient and effective as possible?” Linda shared that her website at www.sponsorconcierge.com includes two free gifts. One is the “Number 1 Secret to Getting Corporate Sponsors.” And the second is that she does free sponsor strategy sessions with business owners so they can book a sponsor strategy session with me. During the sessions, she takes a look at what you’re currently doing, and together, you develop a success strategy to attract the right sponsor. To close out the interview, I asked Linda if she had any final advice that she thought we might have missed during our discussion. Linda closed by sharing how important it was for business owners to know that they can do this. The number one question Linda is most often asked is, “Why would a sponsor want to work with little ole’ me? I’m just getting started. I’m not a big company. I don’t have a track record. I don’t have a big following.” And Linda said to me, “Stephen, please know you can do this. You have value. You have things a sponsor is going to be attracted to. You just need to package it in the right way.” She reinforced the point by telling me the story about how she got her first sponsor… Linda lives in Los Angeles, California, so when she first had the idea to do her initial event, she was driving around in her clunker car and she of course was stuck in a traffic jam. She looked up and see a billboard for Bank of America and there’s a woman featured within the billboard design, so Linda thinks to herself, “Okay, they’re trying to get the women’s market.” Immediately, she starts doing self-sabotaging and thinking, “Why the heck would they talk to me? I’m just working from my home from my kitchen table. I’m not a big company. What the heck am I going to offer Bank of America?” But Linda’s dream and mission to help people was so strong that she couldn’t get it out of her head. So she got the courage to make a call to Bank of America and finally got the person who could greenlight the sponsorships. She finished her proposal, got everything done, and had an appointment at their office – and she was super nervous. Then he said to Linda, “Well, let’s see your proposal,” and she handed it to him. And he said, “Okay, well we’re going to go for this level of sponsorship,” and it was a five-figure sponsorship. Linda had to act like she did this all the time so she said, “Oh, great,” and then had to shake his hand but her hand was so clammy she had to wipe it off! She got back in my car and did the happy dance right there in the parking lot! She drove home and waved to all the Bank of America branches on her way home. You never know what’s going to happen, Onward Nation. It all starts with a thought. It starts with a dream. It starts with a vision. We’re taught to have these big dreams but we’re not taught how to finance the dreams, and dreams take money, and that’s where sponsors come in. You can do this! Hold your head up high. Know that you have quality and you bring value to your sponsors — and — you can fund your dreams. So with that said, Onward Nation… I want to thank you for taking the time to be here with me today. It is an honor to have you here — thank you for tuning in — your time is sacred and I am delighted you chose this episode to be what you listen to, study, and take with you on your morning run, or maybe Onward Nation has become part of your daily commute, or in some other way has become part of your morning routine. However our daily podcast fits into your daily routine — I want you to know how much I appreciate you sharing some of your invaluable 86,400 seconds you have in your day with me and the strategies we learn and share each day from today’s top business owners. And if you haven’t already downloaded your copy of our 12 Success Strategies eBook, just text the word “onward” to 6-6-8-6-6. Again, text the word “onward” to 6-6-8-6-6 and we will send it right to your Inbox. Onward with gusto!

Linda Hollander is often referred to as the Wealthy Bag Lady. She has been featured by Inc. and Entrepreneur Magazines as the industry leader in corporate sponsorship. She has over 20-years of experience as a business owner and does sponsorship and business consulting. Her clients and sponsors include Microsoft, FedEx, Citibank, Mattel, Bank of America, Marriott, Health Net, American Airlines, IBM, and Wal-Mart. What you'll learn about in this episode Linda's background What sponsors are What can get sponsored Mistakes people make when attempting to obtain sponsorships Why you shouldn't market yourself as a podcaster or a blogger but rather as a media company Why your worries about having sponsorships are unfounded Why you should make the sponsor the star Why you should enter one-year contracts Why banks are great sponsorships What your sponsor wishlist should look like Creating a great sponsor proposal The #1 secret to getting corporate sponsors How she got Bank of America as her very first sponsor How best to connect with Linda: Website: sponsorconcierge.com

Starla Fortunato is a Los Angeles based portrait and advertising photographer specializing in beauty, celebrity and fashion.   Her work has been published in Glamour, Teen Vogue, The Guardian, San Antonio, American Way, New York Times, LA Times and have been a contributor to Venice, TV Guide & Angeleno Magazines. Advertising campaigns include work for the LAPD, Four Seasons Hotels, Health Net of California and collaborations with Morgan Freeman along with numerous musician artists, actors, business professionals, publishing houses and public relations firms within the entertainment industry and media. www.StarlaFortunato.com

Chris Case is the Managing Editor of VeloNews Magazine. He joined VeloNews as managing editor in 2012. Chris has a regular series called “A Case for Suffering”, which includes tales of the La Ruta Mountain Bike race (A three day mountain bike event across Costa Rica) and Dirty Kanza 200 (a 200-mile gravel race). In his own words, Chris “needed a new challenge”, which led him and his colleague and friend Nick Legan to try Cycling’s Hour Record. Nick Legan jumped straight into wrenching for a few years at the Pro Peloton bike shop in Boulder, CO. He then began a seven-year stint in the professional ranks, most recently working for RadioShack at the Tour de France and the Amgen Tour of California. He also worked for Garmin-Slipstream, CSC, Toyota-United, Health Net and Ofoto. Nick served as the VeloNews tech editor from 2010-2012.  Find all of us here: http://velonews.competitor.com/ @chrisjustincase @nicklegan @markflorence11 ttpodcast@yahoo.com. Thanks for downloading the show!

Referred to by Inc. Magazine as the industry leader in corporate sponsorship in business success, Linda Hollander shares how to get started finding sponsors for your book. Author of the best-selling book, Corporate Sponsorship in 3 Easy Steps, and founder of the International Association of Business Sponsorships, Linda Hollander has over 20 years of experience as a business owner and consultant, working to bring clients and sponsors together. These include Fortune 100 companies, such as Microsoft, FedEx, Citibank, Mattel, Bank of America, Marriott, Health Net, American Airlines, IBM, and Walmart, and the list goes on and on. In this high-content and fast-moving interview, Linda takes you through her special, easy-to-implement, three-step process, and offers fabulous ideas and unlikely sponsorship suggestions. You can learn more about Linda Hollander and her sponsorship services at Sponsorconcierge.com. You can get the book here. Visit us at BookMarketingMentors.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Sonia Luna interviews Chief Ethics Officer at Health Net, Bruce Anderson, who has over 20 years of experience in compliance and healthcare.  As many of you know, Health Net is one of the largest health care providers in the US and headquartered in California. Bruce directs Medicare, corporate compliance and ethics programs. He oversees initiatives related to compliance with federal laws, corporate compliance daily operations, and compliance training and education.  Bruce holds a Master’s Degree from the University of Pennsylvania and several certifications in the healthcare field including HIPAA Privacy.  Bruce is a Certified Compliance and Ethics Professional (CCEP). 

THIS EPISODE Mike takes time out of the Team SmartStop training camp in Badger, CA, to sit down with Frank Pipp (@frankpipp), long-time US domestic hard man of the peloton who raced for Bissell Pro Cycling and Health Net p/b Maxxis. Set to the soundtrack of tinkling ice cubes, their wide-ranging conversation touches on boxing as aggression therapy, water polo and pool-peeing, Carl Menzies the silverback superhero, their favorite DQ stories, controlling the elitist attitude, and Frank's life after racing working at Training Peaks. We're also treated to a very funny Phil Gaimon/Mark Cavendish nature break story.This is an amazingly interesting conversation between two snarky and talented bike racers with a good sense of perspective on racing in the U.S. You're sure to be thoroughly entertained by it.As always, Open Mic with Mike Creed is presented by The Colorado Cyclist, Mike's very first professional cycling team in 1998. Thanks to everyone at Colorado Cyclist for their support of Mike over the years, and a big thank you to them for stepping up and sponsoring the podcast and offering $50 gift cards to our Twitter contest winners. Please visit their newly redesigned website at coloradocyclist.com and give them a follow on Twitter at @Co_Cyclist to show your appreciation for everything they do for us.We're also grateful for the continuing partnership with Chris Smith and Lazer Helmets. Every podcast we'll be giving away either a Lazer helmet or pair of Lazer sunglasses. All you need to do is mention @LazerHelmets or @Lazer_Vision on Twitter with a clever tweet that conforms to the week's contest rules. If your tweet is chosen, you'll win a Lazer item.

THIS EPISODE Mike takes time out of the Team SmartStop training camp in Badger, CA, to sit down with Frank Pipp (@frankpipp), long-time US domestic hard man of the peloton who raced for Bissell Pro Cycling and Health Net p/b Maxxis. Set to the soundtrack of tinkling ice cubes, their wide-ranging conversation touches on boxing as aggression therapy, water polo and pool-peeing, Carl Menzies the silverback superhero, their favorite DQ stories, controlling the elitist attitude, and Frank's life after racing working at Training Peaks. We're also treated to a very funny Phil Gaimon/Mark Cavendish nature break story. This is an amazingly interesting conversation between two snarky and talented bike racers with a good sense of perspective on racing in the U.S. You're sure to be thoroughly entertained by it. As always, Open Mic with Mike Creed is presented by The Colorado Cyclist, Mike’s very first professional cycling team in 1998. Thanks to everyone at Colorado Cyclist for their support of Mike over the years, and a big thank you to them for stepping up and sponsoring the podcast and offering $50 gift cards to our Twitter contest winners. Please visit their newly redesigned website at coloradocyclist.com and give them a follow on Twitter at @Co_Cyclist to show your appreciation for everything they do for us. We’re also grateful for the continuing partnership with Chris Smith and Lazer Helmets. Every podcast we’ll be giving away either a Lazer helmet or pair of Lazer sunglasses. All you need to do is mention @LazerHelmets or @Lazer_Vision on Twitter with a clever tweet that conforms to the week’s contest rules. If your tweet is chosen, you’ll win a Lazer item.

Join us at 11:11 am PDT, 1:11 pm CDT Linda Hollander has been featured by Inc. Magazine as the leading expert on corporate sponsorships. She is the author of the #1 best-selling book, Bags to Riches: 7 Success Secrets for Women in Business. She is also the founder CEO of Sponsor Concierge and the Sponsor Secrets Seminar. She has over 20 yrs of experience as a small business owner and she is the only person to be featured in both Entrepreneur and Female Entrepreneur magazine in the same month. She has also been on NBC, CBS, FOX Television, Bloomberg Radio and Remarkable Women.  She started out worse than broke. She was buried in debt and couldn’t find a way out of the poverty trap and abusive relationships. But that’s not what really bothered her. It was that she was short and had frizzy hair to boot. ­ She and her best friend, Sheryl Felice, used their girl-power to the max. They launched a packaging business which sells custom-printed shopping bags to leading-edge companies. She devised a sales & marketing plan which made the fledgling business profitable in a very short amount of time. As revenues for the company increased every year, she met entrepreneurial women, understood what motivates them and how she could increase their success. By the way, she is still short with frizzy hair. Hey, some things you just can’t change. Sponsors Microsoft, Wells Fargo, Dun & Bradstreet, Epson, Citibank, Fed Ex, American Airlines, Staples, Health Net, Marriott, Wal Mart, Bank of America and IBM. Free gift until 03-25-2014 WealthyBagLady.com     

Steven Sell is president of Health Net’s Western Region Health Plan. He is also president of Health Net of California, Health Net’s largest subsidiary, which covers more than 2.2 million members in commercial, Medicare and Medicaid programs across the state. Series: "Quality Improvement and Health Care Reform" [Health and Medicine] [Show ID: 25186]

Steven Sell is president of Health Net’s Western Region Health Plan. He is also president of Health Net of California, Health Net’s largest subsidiary, which covers more than 2.2 million members in commercial, Medicare and Medicaid programs across the state. Series: "Quality Improvement and Health Care Reform" [Health and Medicine] [Show ID: 25186]

Customer Service Representatives are always thirsting for more and more knowledge, whether it's regarding the markets they serve or the health benefits available to our service members.  Health Net focuses on empathy with their military community. This has helped Health Net create a very unique culture where everyone feels a purpose or mission to serve those who serve our country. Guest: Fidel Ligsay is the Vice President of Call Center Operations for Health Net Federal Services, based out of Health Net's Rancho Cordova, California office. He has been in that role for the past 6 years supporting the TRICARE managed health care support contract for the country's North Region. This region supports close to 3 million beneficiaries, their families, and the providers of care in that region. Prior to that, Fidel held a similar role with Health Net's commercial managed care operation in Shelton, Connecticut. He also has extensive call center leadership experience in a number of other industries, including banking, and insurance. Fidel earned his MBA from the University of Texas at San Antonio, and currently resides just outside of Sacramento, California with his wife and two sons.

Coro Southern California's popular speaker series, Coro CrossTalk, was at California State University, Northridge, for a special panel discussion on Prop. 13, the 1978 "People's Initiative to Limit Property Taxation." Popularly referred to as the "Jarvis-Gann Amendment," it changed California in fundamental ways that are still being felt. As reported in the Sacramento Bee and more recently by Rick Orlov in the Daily News, Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa has called for its overhaul. This moderated conversation was free and open to the public. Coro CrossTalk on Prop. 13 @ CSUN on Wednesday, September 7th Welcome - John Greenwood, Coro Southern California Center for Civic Leadership Moderator - Tom Hogen-esch, CSUN Political Science Professor Panelists: • Roberto Barragan, President of the Valley Economic Development Center • Harvey Englander, Partner of Englander, Knabe & Allen and First Ex. Dir. of the CA Tax Reduction Movement (the forerunner of the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association) • Joe Mathews, Author of "California CrackUp: How Reform Broke the Golden State & How We Can Fixt It" Sponsored by Health Net, Inc. and facilitated by Headington Media Group.

Many would agree that healthcare delivery today is inefficient, ineffective, and segmented. In this panel discussion, experts talk about how they have persisted in delivering high-quality treatment. They discuss innovations in redesigning and scaling operations for wider benefit, the realities of implementation, and the need to train clinical workers in delivering compassionate care. The discussion was part of the 2011 Healthcare Summit, held at the Stanford Graduate School of Business. Gerald (Jerry) Coil is special assistant to the CMO, AltaMed Health Services. He has served as an internal consultant at AltaMed; senior consultant at Cattaneo & Stroud, Inc.; executive vice president and COO at HealthSpring; president and CEO at MHN; senior vice president at Health Net; senior vice president, benefit administration, at Kaiser Permanente; partner at NorthShore LLC; and regional vice president, Pacific Rim at North American Medical Management/Phycor. Thomas Lee is an MD with One Medical Group. He specializes in primary care internal medicine with an emphasis on preventive health, complex cases and quality improvement. Lee graduated from Yale University and the University of Washington School of Medicine, and completed his residency at Harvard’s Brigham and Women’s Hospital before serving as editor-in-chief for the widely used drug reference application Epocrates. He then founded One Medical Group as a step toward improving primary care delivery. Paul Wallace is director of the Lewin Center for Comparative Effectiveness Research. A board certified physician in internal medicine and hematology, he is a renowned lecturer on topics including evidence-based medicine practice and policy; performance improvement and measurement; clinical practice guideline development; population-based care and disease management; new technology assessment; and comparative assessment. He serves on advisory committees at the Institute of Medicine (IOM), and is a member of a number of healthcare-related boards. Arnold Milstein is professor of medicine and leader of Stanford University’s Clinical Excellence Research Center. His career and ongoing research are focused on acceleration of clinical service innovations that improve the societal value of health care. He serves as the medical director of the Pacific Business Group on Health, the largest regional health care improvement coalition in the U.S. He also guides employer-sponsored clinically-based innovation development for Mercer Health and Benefits. Previously he co-founded the Leapfrog Group and Consumer-Purchaser Disclosure Project, and served as a Congressionally-appointed MedPAC Commissioner. https://ssir.org/podcasts/entry/service_innovation