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brand

Medical Monopoly: Medicine has a major image problem

February 12, 2013 by Mighty Casey 2 Comments

medical monopoly image
image credit: Alec

When you hear the word “monopoly,” does it fill you with a warm and fuzzy feeling? (Unless you’re Hasbro, you really should say no, unless you’re a cyborg.)

Healthcare is a monopoly. We can’t DIY cancer treatment, or surgically repair a broken hip for ourselves, so we have to go to the medical-industrial complex to regain our health if we wander into the weeds, health-wise. We also have deep difficulty accessing pricing information. I’ve talked about that here and in even more depth on the Cancer for Christmas blog over the last few years. Maybe not a monopoly in the financial-reg sense of the word, but it sure is mighty like a game of Monopoly.

This “chaos behind a veil of secrecy” (all credit for that phrase belongs to healthcare economist Uwe Reinhart) has created the impression in healthcare customers that there’s no way to tell what something will cost before you buy it. You checks the box and takes yer chances. No Get Out of the Hospital Free cards. No pass-the-admissions-counter-collect-$200 option. That’s a rotten way to run a railroad (one of the original monopoly industries in US history), and an even worse way to run a hospital.

Dan Munro wrote about this, and the star-chamber cabal that actually sets the prices in healthcare, the RUC, on Forbes.com yesterday. I’ve talked about the RUC myself. And the search for price transparency, which seemed such an outlier activity just a couple of years ago, is now popping up in the Well blog on the New York Times site, as well as on Reuters. The Reuters piece has the addition bonus of quotes from my buddy Jeanne Pinder, founder of ClearHealthCosts.com. (Yesterday was a big day in medical price transparency.)

This is the central reason I registered the hashtag #howmuchisthat with Symplur, the healthcare hashtag registry. We all have to start demanding that prices be visible, and that the RUC stop cabal-ing around with our lives and our wallets. As more and more people are finding themselves with high-deductible health insurance, asking how much things cost before you make a healthcare decision will become the norm. If a healthcare provider can’t answer that question, s/he will find that s/he’s seeing the patient panel sinking fast, along with practice revenue.

Get with it, medicine. Remake your image, and your brand, to be clear as glass and user-friendly. Outcome metrics along with pricing would be really nice, too.

Filed Under: Business, Healthcare, Media commentary, Politics, PR, Social media, Storytelling, Technology Tagged With: brand, branding, e-patients, health care, health care reform, health insurance, Healthcare, healthcare economics, media, medical monopoly, medicine, PR, price transparency, Social media, Storytelling, technology

Smokin’ deal. Brand/Social media audit. Get 2013 started right, CHEAP!

December 11, 2012 by Mighty Casey Leave a Comment

smoking hot stuff
smoking hot stuff
make your brand smokin’ hot!

It’s almost 2013.

Want to set your brand storytelling on fire for the New Year?

Looking to get your branding on social media in sync and hotter than Christmas in July?

Longing to create some emotional heat in the hearts of your customers?

Here’s how you can get 2013 off to a smokin’ hot brand-storytelling start, at a bargain-basement price:

Brand / social audit deals from Mighty Casey Media!

Here’s how it works.

  • Want a brand audit? 
    • I do a full website copy review
    • You get a written report with specific suggestions on:
      • Brand story opportunities
        • Are you telling the best story possible?
        • Are there holes in your story?
      • Website copy improvements
        • Too many words?
        • Not enough words?
        • Words that don’t work?
      • Newsletter editorial calendar outline for 2013
        • Monthly and quarterly tips to increase your email newsletter’s open rate
  • Want a social media audit? 
    • I do a full social media platform review (including your company blog)
    • You get a written report with specific suggestions on:
      • Content creation/curation for the social platforms you use
        • What to share
        • Where to share it
        • Content sources that will amp up your social story-telling
      • Social platforms that could add brand engagement
        • Are there social opportunities you’re missing?
      • Blog editorial calendar outline for 2013
        • Tips for making your weekly posts eyeball magnets for your target audience

OK, I know you have a question:

How much is it?

That’s easy.

$250 each.

Want to get both?

$400 if you buy both.

(That’s a $100 savings, in case your calculator’s broken.)

The catch? There are only 10 of each available.

If you want to take advantage of this deal, here are the steps:

  • Decide you want to buy
  • Email me with your web and/or social links by Monday, December 31, 2012

That’s it!

You’ll get your written report by January 9, 2013, along with a PayPal invoice.

Simple.

So what are you waiting for?

GO!

 

Filed Under: Business, Entrepreneurs, Social media, Storytelling, Women in Business Tagged With: brand, brand audit, branding, Business, entrepreneurs, fire sale, mighty casey media, Social media, social media audit, Storytelling

HealthWorksCollective video interview series … and me

October 31, 2012 by Mighty Casey Leave a Comment

I had the privilege of talking to Joan Justice, who’s heading up the new HealthWorksCollective channel, which is part of the Social Media Today online media empire. My topic is the one that is becoming my tagline: healthcare costs, and “how much IS that?”

Filed Under: Business, Healthcare, Social media, Storytelling Tagged With: brand, branding, e-patients, health care, health insurance, Healthcare, mighty casey media, price transparency, Social media, Storytelling, technology

Don’t wind up on the least-wanted list

December 5, 2011 by Mighty Casey 2 Comments

unfortunate xmas decisions

unfortunate xmas decisionsYes, kids, it’s that time of year again.

ChristmaHanaKwanzaKah is once again in the hearts and on the minds of everyone from sea to shining sea – and beyond – so it’s time for a remedial lesson on How to Succeed in Business Without Really Lying.

Here are the Mighty Casey Media rules for surviving the holidays with your sanity – and your client list – intact:

  • Don’t be a grinch. If you’re not a big fan of the holidays, don’t trash those who are. You don’t have to go overboard and wear a pair of reindeer antlers all month, yet neither do you have to tell the office Christmas Elf that s/he is crazy for loving the holidays.
  • Be a gracious guest. If you’re invited to a holiday celebration by a client or a colleague, accept with thanks. Attend with intent to find the cheer. Bring a friend along who could be a good prospect for the business. Holiday gifts can come in the form of customers. Take it from one who knows.
  • Be a thoughtful host. If you host a holiday gathering, make sure to keep the conversation and connection flowing. Configure your party so there’s plenty of opportunity to interact, and make the rounds continually to ensure that everyone is enjoying themselves. And have a defined end-time for the party, which saves having to shovel folks out the door.
  • If you can’t deal, deal yourself out. If the holidays drive you nuts, that seems like a great excuse to take off on a vacation, a retreat, or a sabbatical. Deal yourself out of the holiday merry-go-round, and return to the game refreshed after Santa’s blown town.

Merry ChristmaHanaKwanzaKah to all, and to all a way to make the end-of-year insanity work for you!

Filed Under: Business, Find the funny, PR, Storytelling Tagged With: brand, branding, Business, casey quinlan, comedy, employment, entrepreneurs, mighty casey media, personal branding, PR, Social media, Storytelling

New Golden Rule: See something? SAY SOMETHING.

November 14, 2011 by Mighty Casey Leave a Comment

bathroom bolshevik breeding

bathroom bolshevik breedingRecent events have led me to believe that the world is populated by blind people. Or at least people who are easily sold on crazy.

One of those recent developments is the unfolding drama at Penn State, where icons of college sports – both the college and the coach – have been revealed to have been, if not active perpetrators, at least willing-to-look-the-other-way co-conspirators in child sexual abuse.

I use the image on the right because (a) it’s one of my favorite ad posters ever and (b) what happened at Penn State happened in a washroom.

If you see something, SAY SOMETHING. Even if you don’t/can’t/won’t DO something, at least speak up. And don’t take “it’s just [insert utterly unacceptable excuse here], don’t worry, I’ll take care of it” as an adequate response.

SAY something to someone who can/will DO something. Not the bishop that the pedophile priest works for. Not the coach who’s the supervisor of the guy who’s raping a child in the shower.

SAY SOMETHING to the cops.

“If you see something, say something” is the tag-line for a current Dept. of Homeland Security awareness campaign, aimed at stopping terrorist activity before it becomes an actual attack.

If rape isn’t terrorism, I don’t know what is. All crimes against persons – assault, rape, mugging, et al – is terrorism on a small scale, leaving marks as deep as surviving a bus bombing. In some ways, these very personal attacks leave deeper marks, because an entire community doesn’t share the victim’s experience. The person is left to deal with the aftermath alone. Just as the Penn State victim – he’s been dealing with the aftermath since 2002, essentially alone. And now the whole world is watching.

If you see something – someone hitting a child, slapping their spouse, raping a child in a freakin’ locker room – SAY SOMETHING. If you see it in your house. If you see it on your street. If you see it in the office. If you see it at your school.

See bullying? Say something. See domestic violence? Say something. See a theft, or an assault? Say something.

Find someone with a badge and a gun – and not just a university/school cop, either – and report what you saw. Keep talking until they listen.

If you see someone with a badge or a gun perpetrating a crime, call the FBI. Use your cellphone camera, and take it to the media.

See something? SAY SOMETHING.

All that it takes for the triumph of evil is for good men (and women) to do nothing. That’s always true, and never more true than in the situation where both the Catholic church and Penn State find themselves. An institution that’s trusted with the care and education of children has no excuse: if you see something, say something. Otherwise you’re approving the act.

It’s that simple.

That’s my story, and I’m stickin’ to it …

Filed Under: Business, Crisis communications, Media commentary, PR Tagged With: brand, branding, Business, casey quinlan, entrepreneurs, media, media relations, mighty casey media, PR, Social media, Storytelling

Dear kids: school is your job. Act accordingly.

October 10, 2011 by Mighty Casey Leave a Comment

image of kids in class
image of kids in class
image credit: misstabithasclassroom.com

It has become accepted wisdom that public schools in the US are failing their students.

I confess to believing some of that conventional wisdom: I think we’re losing generation after generation of inner-city and rural kids with sub-par schools and technology. I also think that inner-city schools have become both a dumping ground for teachers who shouldn’t be teaching, and a road to exhaustion and defeat for teachers who arrive fired up and get ground under the wheels of budget shortfalls, bureaucracy, and bullsh*t.

But I digress.

The Washington Post Answer Sheet blog shared a post by Will Fitzhugh, editor of the Concord Review – the world’s only English-language quarterly review for history academic papers by high school students (smart kids + smart teachers = intellectual advancement for all!) – that puts the blame for poor student performance at the feet of … students. The title of the post: “Teachers Not Enough? Who Knew?”

And he’s 110% right there.

I’m now going to sound like the geezer I’m becoming, but just roll with me for a minute here. When I was in school, my job was to go to school, do my work, and learn. That was my job. The one that would set the stage for all the jobs coming after, the one without successful completion thereof I would be stamped with the storied “L on my forehead” and consigned to the career-and-success scrap heap. It was up to me to learn as much as I could, and use that knowledge to forge my way in the world.

Am I nuts, or does it seem as though students in K-12 now believe it’s the responsibility of the school to pry open their brains and pour in knowledge without much in the way of student effort? And that expectation is being driven by parents, and the community at large?

I watched the documentary Waiting for Superman recently, and found it compelling. However, something nagged at me as I watched it, and after, that only became clear when I read Fitzhugh’s Concord Review post: the film left the viewer with the impression that schools, parents, and the community were responsible for the entire education cycle. What was left out was the obligation for students to work to learn.

I’m not saying that a kid in a failing inner-city school who fails to learn is solely at fault for his/her lack of academic progress. As a society, we must make sure that each of our kids has the chance to learn as much, and go as far, as s/he possibly can in life. Charter schools can be a terrific answer for places where public schools are letting down the kids who try to learn there … but they’re not the only, or even the first, answer.

That first answer is: kids, school is your job. Act accordingly. Pay attention, do your work, do not expect to have learning pass through your ears and into your brain without any effort on your part. Life requires that you be present, pay attention, and act to further your own progress. You will not be borne through life on Cleopatra’s barge, much as your helicopter parents might have led you to believe that was your destiny.

Work. It’s what makes things happen. So go do some.

That’s my story, and I’m stickin’ to it …

Filed Under: Business, Media commentary, Politics, PR, Storytelling Tagged With: brand, Business, charter schools, education, mighty casey media, news, politics, PR, Storytelling

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