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Partnership for Peak Healthcare Performance Provides First Reports to Doctors on Level of Diabetes Care by Ritchie Lopez

Physicians to see overall level of treatment their patients receive across five major health plans, compare community-wide levels of treatment

To measure and improve the quality of chronic care, today the non-profit Dallas-Fort Worth Business Group on Health (DFWBGH) is distributing reports on diabetes care quality to 1,300 primary care physicians and endocrinologists throughout Dallas and Fort Worth. Produced by the Partnership for Peak Healthcare Performance, a collaborative program launched by the DFWBGH in 2007, the personalized reports show diabetes care quality results calculated from commercial claims data aggregated across five major health plans.

The DFW Diabetes Care Reports are a first step toward preparing the market for public reporting in the future. Within several years, the DFWBGH expects to make regional five-plan quality reports on physicians available to consumers to help them make informed choices about their healthcare. The reports are currently mailed to area doctors who treated 20 or more patients with diabetes in 2007. The data are aggregated across the five participating health plans — Aetna, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Texas, CIGNA, Humana and UnitedHealthcare — to provide physicians a more complete picture of the care their patients are receiving.

“You can’t manage what you don’t measure,” said Virginia Nisbet, president of the DFWBGH and director Benefit Design, Brinker International. “These landmark reports call attention to important process and outcomes measures for diabetes care and provide a benchmark against which to monitor future progress in care improvement throughout the Metroplex.”

How are area doctors performing?

On the whole, DFW physicians performed well in diabetes care versus physicians nationwide. The observed rate at which DFW physicians performed recommended diabetes-related tests was on average slightly higher than national average testing rates reported by the National Committee on Quality Assurance.*

Building on better than average performance, the PPHP sees opportunities to improve the total system of diabetes care through physician office process improvements, better patient education and self-management, increased awareness among consumers of diabetes risk factors and how to prevent or reverse diabetes, and medical plan design that removes barriers to appropriate care.

“There is a lot of confusion and distrust around the sometimes conflicting individual health plan quality reports physicians receive,” said Scott Conard, MD, president of Medical Affairs, Medical Edge Healthcare Group. “While reports based on claims data are not perfect, these aggregated, five-plan reports are a good first step toward eliminating some of this confusion.”

The Diabetes Care Reports are the result of a year-long collaboration of key stakeholders including local physicians, employers, consumers and health plans who worked together to develop workable care measurement and improvement strategies that are acceptable to all. Doctors were directly involved in selecting the performance metrics used in designing the reports. The initial reports, developed only for the physicians and not being made public at this time, are intended to begin a dialogue with physicians on how to increase public awareness of diabetes risk factors and prevention, and to improve diabetes care and outcomes in the DFW area.

“The real value of this exercise is the way it has brought physicians, employers, consumers and health plans together in frank and open discussion to grapple with the obstacles to making diabetes care the best it can be in DFW,” said Bob Queyrouze, internal consultant for Compensation, Benefits, Health & Productivity Management, Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas. “Effective solutions will only be possible with action from all of the stakeholders involved.”

Impact of diabetes in Dallas-Fort Worth

About 400,000 people have been diagnosed with diabetes in the Dallas-Fort Worth 12-county area (about seven percent of the total 6 million population). And according to the American Diabetes Association, about a quarter of those with diabetes don’t even know they have it, which would equate to another 133,000 area residents who have undiagnosed diabetes.

Aggregating data across the five health plans provides a larger sample of patients and a broader, more statistically significant view of the care a physician’s diabetes patients received in 2007. Consistent measurement criteria and methodology across the five health plans provides meaningful comparisons of individual physician results to community-wide averages. The PPHP and the health plans can compare data between health plans to identify ways to improve the collection and reporting of quality data, as well as evaluate how different health plan designs may affect access to care, care management, and patient compliance.

About The Partnership for Peak Healthcare Performance

The Partnership for Peak Healthcare Performance involves approximately 80 percent of the nearly 4,100 primary care physicians in the DFW market and their patients through the provider networks of the five participating health plans — Aetna, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Texas, CIGNA, Humana and UnitedHealthcare — and nearly 300,000 local employees of the DFWBGH member companies and their family members.

About the Dallas-Fort Worth Business Group on Health

The Dallas-Fort Worth Business Group on Health is a 145-member coalition of Dallas and Fort Worth area employers committed to market-based health care reform. Members include American Airlines, Bell Helicopter-Textron, Brinker International, Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, JC Penney, Neiman Marcus, Sabre Holdings, Southwest Airlines, and Texas Instruments. A member of the National Business Coalition on Health, the DFWBGH’s goals are to empower employers to make informed health care purchasing decisions and to encourage health care providers to continuously improve their performance

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Why Business Branding and Marriage May Have More in Common Than You Thought by Scott Lindsay

A herd of cows are funneled into a chute waiting for the brand of their owner. Either a metal brand is heated in the fire or an electric brand is used to send a distinctive smell into the air. To some this may seem inhumane, but once the scar is healed it provides everyone with the visual knowledge of whom the cow belongs to.

A wife and husband exchange rings on their wedding day. Those rings are a visual brand indicating their commitment to each other.

In the first century temporary slaves who loved their masters and desired to serve them for the rest of their life had their ears pierced with an awl. The enlarged hold in their ear was a brand that told everyone they had a master worth their service.

These brands are a mixture of something physical and emotional. This is the picture of business branding as well.

What you do to brand your business is more than simply saying you have a business where goods and services may be found. If that’s all there is to what you do then you will have a difficult time fixing your brand in the minds and hearts of consumers.

Just like the branding iron your connection with consumers must be so precise as to elicit a response. Every moment you seek to connect with consumers must provide a greater memory of your company.

Your customer service must reflect your commitment to the consumer and focus on their needs. Consumers will sniff out fraud and a lack of sincerity quickly and your reputation will hinge on your ability to demonstrate the care and commitment needed in a long-term relationship.

I’ve covered this in other articles, but I would like to clarify something here. A business brand is not a logo, a positioning statement or cleaver marketing. Branding is something that has been largely missing from online business.

Why?

In online business there has been a prevailing belief that you do not need to invest yourself personally in your business because you don’t really interact with those who buy. This has left a sea of ineffective businesses offering their wares 24 hours a day with an automatic system that allows them to disconnect from the process.

For those who are serious about building a brand they will seek to make the experience their customers have at their website memorable. Like a married partner they will seek to benefit the other partner (consumer) more than almost anything else. They want to make sure that, pardon the analogy, the customer falls in love with the product.

The business owner wants their ‘brand’ on the consumer. They want the customer to be so impressed with their business they will not hesitate to recruit new customers.

These business owners know that every connection they have with their customer is another opportunity to imprint their brand on the consumer psyche.

Do you take your business this seriously? Have you ever thought about the need to develop branding techniques that make your business simply irresistible?

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Article Source: Fun Personality

Los Angeles Topanga Canyon Earth Day Inspires Sustainability and Sensitivity in Everyday Life by Laura M. Cosse

Unless you set aside time to go hiking in a nearby state or national park, living in Los Angeles can make you feel drained and desperate for a little tête-à-tête with nature. The annual Topanga Canyon Earth Festival is a community resource for people in the Los Angeles metropolitan area looking to enjoy the outdoors and get tips on how to improve their lifestyles, energy levels, and health. Although you don’t have to wait once a year to adopt a baby hamster, try on organic deodorant, or hula hoop, this event is a great way to fill your weekend with entertainment. The festival is an event that encourages California residents to live wisely and sensitively not just on Earth Day, but on every day of the solar calendar.

This annual festival offers music, food, educational booths, and other activities to inspire California residents to celebrate and protect the earth in a genuine, community oriented way. Local organizations like the California Wildlife Center, The County of Los Angeles Department of Public Works, and The Topanga Creek Watershed Committee, set up tables at the Earth Day festival to provide information on different environmental initiatives in the area.

Last year, half of Topanga Canyon Earth Day proceeds were donated to Topanga Creek Watershed Committee. To make room for native species to be planted, some of the proceeds were used to eliminate invasive plants like Fountain Grass, Castabean, and Cape-Ivy. This year, the organization handed out a brochure with local business listings pertaining to tree maintenance, erosion control, sustainable buildings, brush clearance, and equestrian trails. The brochure also listed information about graywater, an innovation that many people dream about setting up but don’t have the resources–or can’t persuade their landlords–to construct.

In addition to providing information about Topanga Canyon nature and wildlife initiatives, the Earth Day festival gave visitors the opportunity to sample eco-friendly food and health products, like Cliff Bars, Tyler Tolman’s “Abundance” Meal, and green energy drinks. Depending on their level of interest, visitors could learn a variety of relevant facts about the health and energy benefits of such products. One advocate of Abundance Meal described how it is possible for people to improve their health and energy levels by following seven simple steps. The meal is tasty and highly unusual, consisting of colon cleanse fiber blend, bentonite clay, and sea salt flush. For people hesitant to make a commitment to the Abundance Meal thirty day cleanse, the seven steps include: walking, sunshine, clean air, whole foods, loving/non-toxic relationships, and passion. This combination would make anyone feel grounded yet euphoric.

For guests still hungry after munching on a handfuls of samples, raw and vegan food from Draw, or Green Truck, could be purchased at a great deal. People formed long lines in front of the vendors, eager to buy a Sweet and Tangy Thai Wrap from Draw, or a kombucha from Green Truck. As Green Truck uses biodegradable containers, bags, napkins, and utensils, no one was worried about what would become of the waste. The mobile restaurant is powered by recycled vegetable oil. In effect, Green Truck—unlike most automobiles–does not clog Los Angeles’ drainage systems.

This year, the effects of the California economy on local living have been daunting. While Green Truck might be inspiring and useful in the long run, not everyone has as an arsenal of vegetable oil to use for cooking and fuel. Local businesses, like Visionary Boutique, align transportation and environmentalism in a different, though effective, way. In addition to its location in West Hollywood, Visionary Boutique has a traveling bus that visits festivals like Topanga Canyon Earth Day. Eco-chic to the max, the bus is filled with unique and eclectic items of green culture. Magda, the woman who developed the boutique along with its organic, lifestyle brand counterpart (“Visionary”), promised a discount to visitors interested in getting a good deal on makeup. People who visit the permanent West Hollywood location can dump their old, toxic makeup in an area where the boutique will dispose of the waste (in a safe fashion, of course). In turn, customers can receive ten percent off of the boutiques eco-friendly makeup. How many corporate retailers can boast of that?

Visitors excited by didgeridoos, accordions, and teenage eco-Led Zeppelin style music, had only to sit in front of one of the festival’s two stages, breath in the excitement, and watch unicyclists almost collide with painters. The annual celebration is setup to maximize the potential of visitors to enjoy themselves. Whether laidback or eager to collect information, the festival offers opportunities for people of diverse interests every year. The only requirement is that visitors come with an openness to further appreciate, protect, and enjoy nature.

http://www.CaliFindIt.com

Article Source: Fun Personality

Have You Ever Wanted to do a Search on a Person to Find Out More About Them by Holly Crosgrey

Have you ever wanted to find out something about a friend or someone you have just met and you are not sure of? What about a nanny, babysitter or a housekeeper? Have you ever had a new business associate come into your life and you want to know more about them? There could be any number of reasons why you feel you have a legitimate reason for making sure that you know the person you are dealing with.

There are now ways to find out information about people on the internet. This article is limited to the types of searches that can be done to locate individuals living in the United States. Many of these people searches are free. Some of the information you can obtain is as follows:

On of the most thorough checks you can do on a person is a Social Security Records search. Some of the searches available to you when you do a Social Security Records check are:

1) address history
2) phone number
3) relatives and associates
4) death record
5) criminal record
6) property search
7) arrest record
bankground record
9) civil court record
10) bankrupty record
11)public records.

What if you do not know the person’s name? What if you just know their cell number or their telephone number. Did you know that you can find out information about a person by doing a reverse telephone number search, reverse cell phone number search, reverse email search or a reverse address search? All of these types of reversal searches are available to you from a variety of websites across the web which specialize in finding people in cases where you do not know his or her name.

You best bet is to deal with a website which can provide you with a wide variety of ways in which to search a person. That way you can decide which are the most relevant searches for what you are trying to find out about a particular person. Further, you need to do a bit of research to ensure that you are dealing with a legitmate website and whether the information is current. There are some honest providers out there. In some cases the website will provide you with a free preliminary check so you can ascertain whether you are on the right track. This will help give you some indication as to whether the website at least is locating the right person to start with.

You want to be careful that you are receiving current information rather than old outdated information. In some cases you may want a complete history of a person and having information about things that have happened to them in the past or finding out some of the business dealings they have been involved in many years ago might help you determine the character you are dealing with. So “outdated” might be relevant to the case at hand.

With a little time and effort and the help from people who specialize in the area of searching people you can find out whatever you need to know about a person to make you feel comfortable dealing with them.

Holly Crosgrey is the owner of a website that provides a variety of different people searches. For more information on her services attend at Free People Searches for the United States.

Article Source: Fun Personality

The best option for doing background check of people under special circumstances. by Sean12 Sean12

Sometimes it may be necessary to do a background check on people under special situations. An employer may need to ascertain if an applicant is giving him the accurate information about his past. He may feel like checking if the person has any criminal background records. Even in cases of a marriage checking the the past marriage history of a person may become necessary.

The advancement of technology and the mass penetration of the web has made searching for information a simpler task. Previously obtaining information on divorce records used to be quite complicated. It required enquiring at several offices and waiting endlessly in queues. Nowadays one can check divorce records online. It is very easy as county and state authorities maintain divorce records, many times available online.

There are a number of sites in the web that make a divorce search a simple job. These sites store the public divorce records in bulk. When a person searches for a divorce record online, the sites display the records according to the specified search criteria. It is also possible to search divorce record according to the addresses and names of the ex spouses. These searches can be performed for free or some sites may ask for a mimal payment.

If someone enters into a personal relationship and is not sure about the other’s credibility, individuals can perform a public record search online. This can save individuals many headaches later. As a matter of fact relationships and marriages fail for numerous reasons. It could be due to factors like compatibility, careers, age differences and finance. It is quite commonplace to see people who have divorced once to part ways later too. If a person is in relation with a man or a woman it may be prudent to condcut a marriage records search to check for any divorce patterns.

From the marriage records a person can find out various types of information about the track record of his or her partner. The duration of their last marriage and other information can easily be found by these searches. This method is also quite confidential. A person can choose to search for these records without having to visit any court offices. The results of these searches are instant and accurate.

There are a number of online criminal record background check providers and a person can compare them before choosing the most suitable one. For a one stop solution a person can count on the services of the site Public Record Center.com. The links of this site are updated on a regular basis.

The visitors can be assured that they won’t have to suffer from the disappointment of clicking on broken links. Its service covers all the US states. The site has a user friendly and intuitive interface so that even a beginner can begin a records search with ease. It is useful for individuals and employers. The site also offers informations on the existing sex offenders in various regions of USA. Additionally other vital information such as civil judgments, property records, and liens can also be found through the site.

Jah Franciscoas is author of this article on Public Records.
Find more information about Asset Search here.

Article Source: Fun Personality