It’s About Time

Doctors Abusing Medicare Face Fines and Expulsion! With the cost of everything going up and government spending going up this article on The New York Times (NYT) website is great news. This article also interests me because I work for the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services’ (CMS) state quality improvement organization.

The article says, “The Obama administration is cracking down on doctors who repeatedly overcharge Medicare patients, and for the first time in more than 30 years the government may disclose how much is paid to individual doctors treating Medicare patients.” (http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/26/us/doctors-abusing-medicare-to-face-fines.html?hp)

In understanding how important these new penalties are, we need to know how many people are affected and how much the government spends annually on Medicare services. The article provided links to other published articles about Medicare and Medicaid on the NYT website to provide some background information.  Other links within the article helped me find these stats:
·         Medicare provides coverage for items and services for over 43 million beneficiaries. (http://cms.gov/Medicare/Coverage/CoverageGenInfo/index.html)
·         Medicare spending grew 6.2% to $554.3 billion in 2011, or 21 percent of total NHE.
·         Medicare spending is estimated to have grown 6.3% in 2011 and projected to grow an average of 6.1% per year over the projection period. (https://www.cms.gov/Research-Statistics-Data-and-Systems/Statistics-Trends-and-Reports/NationalHealthExpendData/NHE-Fact-Sheet.html)

An article about government spending and regulations has to have proper information. Most government reports and legal documents can be accessed online on the website of the agency being discussed.  An article about government policy or regulations should, to be credible, have a link to a supporting document or official government maintained website. There is no reason for any non-governmental sites to be cited or used as a source. The Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) is a law that gives you the right to access information from the federal government. It is often described as the law that keeps citizens in the know about their government (www.foia.gov).

The NYT article shared three important links in the article, all linking to government sites. From the government links I was able to find the full, official document for the rules and regulations changes.  The article also provided the link to official report that led to the changes. The last link directs readers to the policy that allows for the information on amounts paid to individual physicians under the Medicare program to be released to the public.

 

This NYT article provides transparency and access to the sources for me to say this information in it is credible.

 

My New Media Habits

On a daily basis, I use Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube. A lot of the content on these sites overlap, but they're still useful for me.

I don't watch a lot of TV, so social media sites keep me informed on news, happenings and events around the world. As a communicator, I'm still amazed at how posts on social media sites can mobilize cultures or generations to take action. New media, because of the opportunity for engagement, is a powerful tool in connecting a large number of people.

Fundraising for political, social injustices and disaster events has benefited tremendously from new media. From the Obama Campaign to Trayvon Martin and Red Cross Relief efforts, social media keeps people informed and gets people to take-action. 
(http://www.proutjournal.org/2012/01/the-medias-impact-on-the-american-red-cross-fundraising-and-volunteerism-efforts-during-natural-disasters)
The lifespan of these efforts and events last a lot longer than a segment on the news or a TV telethon. To me this makes the influence positive and gets people invested in events. New media creates a connection that other mediums can't.

How I Know What I Know

When I think about it my daily routine is interesting but I think it may be similar to others. This morning, just like every other morning, the first thing I did was grab my cell phone. From there, my next steps were: check the time, entered my passcode and hit the app with the white 'f' inside of a blue box.

Facebook is my social media site of choice. It is where I go to get my dose of daily news. It keeps me informed on what is going on in the lives of family and friends as well as world news.

This morning I clicked on a post from CNN. The title of the post is "The greatest MLK speeches you never heard", written by John Blake. The article says Dr. King delivered up to 450 speeches a year. I only recall hearing two speeches from Dr. King.

I believe the information in this article to be true because CNN has a reputation as a credible news source and the information inside of the article is verifiable. The article provided links and book titles to check it get additional information. I was interested in learning more about a speech that is considered his most controversial and was able to access the full transcript of the speech.

Social media sites can provide credible information. Traditional media outlets utilize social media sites to provide content available on other mediums. The content on credible sites are trackable, traceable and verifiable.