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Subscribe and Win a Chance to Support Your Favorite Non-Profit

Thanks for reading our blog. To recognize current readers and encourage more subscribers, MCN is sharing in the holiday spirit and giving away $200 each to the non-profit of choice of two of our subscribers.

Subscribing is an easy one-step process. In the right hand column, below “MOST RECENT POSTS” you will see a box with the text “SUBSCRIBE TO MCN TALK.” Enter your email address and you’re finished. You will then receive direct notification of new postings by email. You control how often you receive notifications – from immediately, to daily or weekly – or you can always unsubscribe at any time and continue to visit MCNTalk on the web as you choose.

MCN will select two subscribers at random (with eligible client business email addresses) to designate their non-profit of choice to receive this $200 donation. You can bring benefit to your favorite charity – in your community, region, or nationally – just by subscribing!

Guidelines: While anyone may subscribe to MCNTalk, contest eligibility is restricted to those subscribing from a business email of a client company or entity that manages claims. MCN will contact the winners by email; they will have 5 days to respond or an alternate subscriber will be selected if we can’t reach them at the subscriber’s email.

  • The recipient must be a tax exempt US non-profit with a web presence.
  • The deadline for subscribing is December 16, 2014. 
  • The winning organizations will be announced by December 22 on MCNTalk.

Questions may be directed to MCNTalk@mcn.com.

 

My Best Friend Siri

Occasionally we come across articles that contain useful information, or are news stories related to our industry or the more general world of health care and insurance and its ever-changing complexities. And there are those articles we want to share with our readers for the simple reason that we are human. We came across one of these recently, “To Siri With Love,” in The New York Times. We hope that people read this because it is beautiful and moving, and always worthwhile to remember that life is experienced by people in a myriad of ways.

The mother of a 13-year-old autistic boy discusses her son’s interaction with Siri. As she notes:

This is a love letter to a machine. It’s not quite the love Joaquin Phoenix felt in Her, last year’s Spike Jonze film about a lonely man’s romantic relationship with his intelligent operating system (played by the voice of Scarlett Johansson). But it’s close. In a world where the commonly held wisdom is that technology isolates us, it’s worth considering another side of the story.

Read more…

A Preview of “Life, Animated” by Ron Suskind

This Sunday’s New York Times Magazine published an except of Life, Animated: A Story of Sidekicks, Heroes, and Autism, by Ron Suskind, a Pulitzer-Prize winning journalist with the Wall Street Journal. And father of Owen, who at age 3 was diagnosed with regressive autism.

The excerpt is beautifully written and moving, and provides a candid, eloquent glimpse into the twenty-year struggle of one family to communicate — through Disney characters, movies, and their themes — with their son. Well worth the read, as are the on-line comments.

Important News! This Year’s Ig Nobel Prize winners

Readers of MCNTalk know that we take science seriously, and decry scientific ignorance and denial. Most readers of MCNTalk likely let September 12 pass unaware of the awarding of the 2013 Ig Nobel prizes. This posting will relieve their ignorance. Those who think science is boring or that scientists lack humor will be relieved to learn that they were wrong. This year’s awards include the psychology prize to the authors of a study that found people who think they are drunk also think they are attractive. The probability prize went to scientists who determined that the longer a cow has been lying down, the sooner she will stand up. And the peace prize was awarded to Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko for banning applause in public. The award was shared with the Belarus State Police, “for arresting a one-armed man for applauding. Read more:

http://seattletimes.com/html/nationworld/2021820202_prizeiognobelxml.html

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/09/13/ig-nobel-prizes-2013_n_3919761.html

http://www.improbable.com/ig/2013/

http://www.improbable.com/ig/winners/#ig2013

http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/science/2013/09/ig_nobel_prize_2013_watch_the_annals_of_improbable_research_event.html

MCNTalk Readers Paying It Forward

5-charities 2

After another successful year, MCN is delighted  to announce five non-profits that will benefit from year-end donations!

Thanks to the growing loyalty of our readers,  we sponsored a contest wherein MCNTalk subscribers could select a non-profit organization of their choice to receive a $200 donation in their honor.  We’ve listed the organizations below and provided a bit of information about each

At MCNTalk we frequently write about the issues we face in today’s world: the rising cost of medical care, the number of uninsured Americans, and medical challenges faced by everyone. When viewed as a whole, the magnitude of the situation is daunting, perhaps overwhelming, so it is good to have the opportunity to provide some support.

As an organization, MCN and our employees are privileged to provide financial support to umbrella social services organizations such as United Way and to the thriving arts community in Seattle as well.

1. Shane’s Heart: The Shane McCusker Foundation for Pediatric Cardiology

The specific purpose of The Shane McCusker Foundation for Pediatric Cardiology includes educating the public about congenital heart conditions and providing funding in the field of pediatric cardiology at UCLA’s Medical Center Mattel Children’s Hospital for the goal of servicing and saving children born with heart defects.

2. Hogan Cedars Elementary PTSO

The mission of the Hogan Cedars Elementary School Parent, Teacher, and Student Organization is to promote the continued welfare of our children and the improvement of our school.  They feel this goal can be most readily achieved by expanding the channels of the communication between parents, students, and the faculty through the establishment and the organization of on-going projects.

3. 826 Seattle

A non-profit writing and tutoring center dedicated to helping youth, ages 6 to 18, improve their creative and expository writing skills and to helping teachers inspire students to write.

4. THON

Is a student-run charity at Penn State University provideing support to families of children with pediatric cancer and for cancer research.

5. Harrisburg Humane Society

The mission of the Humane Society of Harrisburg Area, Inc. is to build a better community for pets and people through compassion, protection, education, and collaboration.

Thank you to everyone who participated in the recent contest by subscribing to MCNtalk, and thank you to the contest winners for their choices. We hope you have safe and happy holidays!

For Holiday Cheer, We Made MCN Beer!

By Erik Madrid

As the popularity of craft beer amongst drinkers everywhere continues to rise, so does the popularity of an age-old hobby: homebrewing beer.

In a report earlier this year, the American Homebrewers Association estimated there are approximately 1 million Americans currently brewing beer at home.

Homebrewing beer has many benefits:

  • It is a fun and affordable hobby
  • It allows beer enthusiasts to learn much more about beer
  • One can be much more creative in making the beer they want to drink
  • It’s a good way to make sure there’s always a supply of fresh quality beer on hand

At the MCN Corporate Office in Seattle, three of the company’s employees collaborated on homebrew recipes this past year – Erik Madrid (Physician Recruiting Manager), Erik Halse (Peer Review Product Manager), and Aaron Schultz (Accounts Receivable Coordinator).

Team Rainwater Brewing (as they’ve dubbed themselves) collaborated on two batches of homemade beer served at the company holiday party. On tap at the corporate office were seasonal Gingerbread Ale and an IPA (India Pale Ale).

The basic ingredients used in Gingerbread Ale and IPA.

Both the crafting of a recipe and the process of brewing beer can be as simple or as complicated as the brewer decides to make it. The four core ingredients making up any beer recipe are: water, malted grains, hops, and yeast. Simple enough, right? Not so much.

There are hundreds of unique types of grains and hops and several different strands of yeast to choose from. Mixed and matched in different quantities, and brewed using a wide variety of methods is what allows for such a diverse mix of beer styles; and is why within any one style, two beers can have incredibly different flavor profiles.

Factor in optional ingredients like fruit or spices and the possibilities are truly endless. Some extreme brewers craft delicious recipes using outlandish ingredients like jalapenos, bacon, and oysters (yes, oysters!).

The basic steps of homebrewing beer: 

Erik Halse (left), and Aaron Schultz, (right) check the H2O Temperature for the Mash.

The Mash: The grains are mixed with hot water (typically between 148-155 degrees) and allowed to soak/steep for one hour. This process is called the mash, and is done in a mash tun. During the mash, the grains are broken down and the fermentable sugars are extracted from the grain.

Homebrewers often use converted water coolers with false bottoms to easily maintain the temperature for the duration of the mash and then strain the liquid off.  After the initial mash is drained, additional hot water is added to the mash tun to rinse off any residual sugars – a process called sparging. The mix of malted grains make up the backbone of the beers flavor profile and contribute the color to the beer.

The Boil: All of the sugary liquid (referred to as wort: unfermented beer) from the mash and the sparge are collected in a kettle and brought to a boil. The wort is boiled for at least 1 hour, which allows for any of the naturally occurring micro-organisms and bacteria living in your water or the grains to be boiled off.

Erik Madrid, a homebrewer for a year and a half, has already brewed over 25 batched of beer.

The other big part of the boil stage is the addition of your hops, spices, or other adjunct ingredients (honey, fruit, etc) and getting all those flavors to come together just like a good soup.

The frothy wort of the Gingerbread Ale.

Hops contribute 3 key elements to beer: bitterness, aroma, and their natural preserving qualities. Hops added at the beginning of the boil contribute more towards bitterness and flavor; while hops added to the end of the boil contribute mostly towards aroma.  You can take 1 variety of hop and get a totally different flavor and/or aroma in your beer depending on exactly when and how much you add during the 60 minute boiling period.

 

 

Pitching the yeast: Yeast is a living organism whose role in making beer is to eat all the fermentable sugars, poop out alcohol, and fart out CO2. The 210 degree temperature of boiling wort would kill the yeast. Most strands of yeast used to make ales prefer temperatures closer to room temperature. Once the boil is finished the temperature of the wort is quickly brought down to a range ideal for the yeast being used. anitization of all equipment becomes crucial at this point and for every stage from here on out. The chilled wort is transferred from the boil kettle into the fermentation vessel, at which point the yeast is added (pitched).

Fermentation: A restaurant grade bucket or a glass carboy are the most popular fermentation vessels used by homebrewers. Once filled the fermentation vessel is sealed off with a plug and an airlock that allows some C02 to escape while the yeast is actively eating through all the fermentable sugars, but prevents any bacteria from entering the fermenter. For most standard alcohol content ales, your typical fermentation takes about 2 weeks.

While optional, most brewers prefer to transfer their beer from the first vessel to a secondary fermenter. In doing so, spent yeast that settles to the bottom of the fermenter is left behind, preventing the dead yeast cells from imparting any unwanted flavors in the beer.

Gingerbread Ale bottled for secondary fermentation.

Getting the beer off his sediment also improves the clarity in appearance. These stages are referred to as primary fermentation and secondary fermentation.

Bottling or Kegging: Once fermentation is complete, the beer is siphoned into either individual bottles or a keg to be carbonated and then served. Carbonation will occur naturally in bottles, as there is still a small amount of yeast eating the last of the sugar content in the beer, but now the C02 created is no longer allowed to escape.

Using the bottling method takes between 2 and 4 weeks for the beer to properly carbonate and prime. Alternatively, the beer can be transferred into a keg and hooked up to a C02 tank for force carbonation. A high amount of C02 pressure is infused into the keg for a couple days until the desired carbonation level is reached.

MCN Holiday Beer Ready to be served!

Drinking: If you can’t figure this part out for yourself, we’re in trouble! Now, if you’ve gotten this far and haven’t become thirsty enough to grab a beer, then you must be at work.

Seriously though, give any beer you’re drinking the justice it deserves and pour it into a glass before consumption. The aroma and the color are part of the experience, and you just can’t get that from the bottle.

If you’re drinking a homebrew, remember to leave the last little bit behind in the bottle – the residual sugars and yeast that have settled after carbonation is complete are not the last thing you want to remember about the beer.

 

For the MCN Holiday Party, Aaron and the Eriks have brewed up a Gingerbread Ale and an IPA. The Gingerbread Ale is a Brown Ale with nutmeg, cinnamon sticks, cloves and candied ginger added throughout the boil to create a flavor and aroma profile very similar to gingerbread. The IPA was brewed with a mixture of a variety of hops to create a nice crisp and bitter flavor profile typically associated with a good Northwest IPA.

Interested in homebrewing? Ask Team Rainwater about equipment, recipes, tips, and more at MCNTalk@mcn.com or comment below.

 

 

War Tourism

By Brian L. Grant, M.D.

I write this during a quick trip to the sun of Hawaii, island of Oahu.

We took a drive up scenic Tantalus Drive, to catch an aerial view of Honolulu. At the turnout there was another car. Two young men and a woman. One of the men was in a wheelchair. He had no legs and wore a prosthesis for his left arm – a triple amputee.

We three exchanged pleasantries and I commented on his T-shirt that said “Team X-T.R.E.M.E”. He told me it has to do with veterans doing some extraordinary physical activities. I asked him how he was injured and he said Afghanistan in August 2010. His name is Todd Love. Todd is 22.

Our visit was brief and I did my research upon returning to the hotel. There were no shortages of articles about Todd. I contained myself until getting back in the car. This was an unplanned visit that served to accent our next planned stop.

Minutes later, we turned into the Punchbowl Cemetery, known as Arlington of the Pacific. This beautiful cemetery houses remains of approximately 53,000 veterans from World War I through Vietnam Era veterans, along with stunning memorials with graphic histories of these conflicts. Beautifully landscaped, it is a special, solemn and sacred place.

The next day we took in the most popular tourist spot in Hawaii, the USS Arizona Memorial at Pearl Harbor.

A well-organized place, one gets tickets for a time slot to see an instructive film about the Pearl Harbor Attack of December 7, 1941 before boarding a small boat that takes you to the memorial building constructed in the water, above the sunken ship where 1,102 of the  1,177 sailors and marines killed on that vessel lie. All told, the 353 Japanese planes sunk four battle ships and damaged an additional four. 188 U.S. aircraft were destroyed as well as several other vessels. 2,402 Americans were killed and 1,282 wounded. The attack lasted slightly less than two hours.

I make a point of visiting war memorials and related sites during travels. Around 1984, I visited the Piskariovskoye Memorial Cemetery in Leningrad (now Saint Petersburg), Russia. This cemetery contains the remains of about a half a million victims of the 900 day Siege of Leningrad during World War II. Most of these were civilians. It was a somber visit with the laying of a wreath by our group. Marshall music played over speakers. The Russians knew war first hand on their soil and paid dearly in the past century at a level we Americans have fortunately been spared.

In 1994 during a trip to France, we visited the Normandy Beaches and the adjacent cemetery containing the remains of almost 10,000 Americans who died in and around the D-Day landings. You may recall the site from the film “Saving Private Ryan”.

As far as one could see were fields of crosses and the occasional Star of David. A short walk brings one to the cliffs overlooking the landing beaches, with remains of German bunkers intact high above the water.

Seeing the geography of the site first hand, I could imagine the terror of those soldiers as they came ashore, under fire from above. To the Germans, it was like shooting ducks in a barrel. Our soldiers knew that living or dying was a matter of a perverse lottery  of where the bullets and their bodies happened to be at any given moment. I understood sacrifice and heroism in new terms.

Our French hosts from Normandy treated us young Americans, born after the war, with thanks and respect for what our parent’s and grandparent’s generations did to liberate their country. How strange. I could not accept the credit but enjoy their friendship and hospitality to this day.

Prior to this visit, my exposure to war was from the tortured Vietnam era, during which I came of age as a teenager. It was a time of ambivalence to not only the war, but the men and women who served there. Thankfully, we have embraced the service of our soldiers, while that war remains a matter of ongoing debate, as have those that followed, including the Afghanistan conflict that claimed the limbs of Todd Love.

 

Since then I have visited the breathtaking memorials to Viet Nam, Korean War and World War II several times in Washington, D.C. I recall my first encounter with the Korean War Memorial one night during a jog along the Capitol Mall. I encountered the lifesize statues of soldiers in the dark, but with a spotlight on their faces, alert and on patrol. It was breathtaking, aligning the power of war with that of the artist.

I have visited several holocaust museums and the concentration camp at Theresienstadt in the Czech Republic.

I have driven along roads in beautiful Croatia, where from 1992-1995, citizens were being subject to genocide. And where today there are still signs warning of remaining mines in adjacent fields.

There are unfortunately no shortages of war memorials and battle sites that, could if one chose, become the primary travel destination rather than an interlude during restful vacations or business visits.

I imagine that to the degree that I travel, where war or memory of war is, I will visit. The reasons are complex. These sites, especially memorials, are generally places of somber beauty and often great artistry.

One shares the experience with fellow citizens and tourists from around the world in the U.S., or as a tourist abroad sharing it with the locals whose own people suffered or bore witness. I think about the sacrifices of war and how I would have fared if given the obligation or opportunity to serve. In most cases ordinary men were forced by circumstance and history into extraordinary situations. Some fought and some supported the fighters. Some died, some were wounded and some survived. In many cases civilians were slaughtered or starved.

The visits combine historic curiosity with honor and respect. These sites reduce the abstraction of war. Some glorify it with heroic murals and grand quotes, while others put stark numbers and names to the dead.

They cause one to wonder how it is that the wars start, how one side is seen as enemy to the other, while both generally view their cause as the right and just one. I think about the alternative of going to war or doing nothing in the face of evil and death of innocents. I wonder but doubt that such evil will ever end.

Why Art?

by Brian L. Grant MD

I love the arts. Whether music, theater, dance, visual – I love it.

Long before entering medicine, I participated as an enthusiastic amateur in piano, guitar, voice, ceramics, printmaking, theater and other endeavors. Today I still sing in a very fine choir.

Most of my time with the arts is as an audience member or observer. While I have no intention of quitting my day job, I regard myself as no less engaged or committed to the arts as an amateur and observer than if I was a professional in the field.

Art is all around us, in formal ways that we pay to see and in our environment. Fashion, architecture, landscape, and more are informed by individual and collective artistic sensitivity and awareness, not always conscious. We buy and consume based upon art, whether in response to a creative advertisement, or a beautifully designed device, home, or product. To a large degree we don’t notice art until we are in an environment where it is lacking; where designs are purely utilitarian with no eye to how it is experienced emotionally. Such places are sorry and depressing.

One can find many treatises, articles, and books that try to answer the question “Why Art?” But I want to share a recent experience that prompts this entry.

The other night I attended a dance concert of the Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet. During the second piece I found myself drawn into the discontinuity of the unpredictable movements. I immediately associated and contrasted this to my daily life and the routines that I find myself in and how different the sense of the dance was from a typical day. The latter is largely predictable and draws more on the past. The former – the dance piece, forced me to challenge these assumptions and made me wonder if there were not perhaps some other ways of addressing certain challenges and relationships, leading to better personal, professional and business results. All the while as these thoughts unfolded, I marveled at the process with excitement and resolve to act a bit differently in certain contexts the next day and in the future.

Will a life transform from one good performance? Not likely. But if one surrounds oneself with examples of seeing the world differently through art, literature and even science, and stretches one’s mind as a result – isn’t that what education is about?

I can’t imagine a better experience or a world without art. It deserves all the support and participation we can give. Art is not optional in a civilized society. We can live without it, but why bother?

Salman Khan – A Hero for Our Times

By Brian L. Grant, MD

A recent Forbes article, “One Man, One Computer, 10 Million Students: How Khan Academy Is Reinventing Education,” is inspiring and significant.

Another article “When Salman Khan Met Bill Gates,” features an interview with about Salman Khan,36, describing how he started his virtual classroom of more than 10 million students out of a closet in his Silicon Valley home.

I have been following with interest a tidal wave of innovation in online learning via a number of sites that have basically put online courses from major universities including the Khan Academy, Ted Talks, and more.

This trend is disrupting education in a major way, democratizing it and causing many to reconsider the cost/value equation or meaning of a campus education.

Clearly college has value, but is it the classroom? Or is it the peer group, the overall milieu, the dorms and frats, the football games, the mentoring of professors, the degree path, the proctored tests and graded papers?

Colleges and universities are increasingly expensive. Online learning is free or nearly so. The disruption that it represents may be epochal, allowing those without means anywhere in the world, to learn at a level that rivals the wealthiest students.

All it takes is an Internet connection, which I have seen in remote places and will be as common as electricity, accessible to the majority of the world.

In the end, great colleges and universities succeed by selecting capable students. They don’t make people smart, but take smart people and give them information and hopefully knowledge and some skills. But college is a beginning and online learning is another parallel path that is figuring itself out.

The main point is that continuous learning is essential in life. It requires first and foremost, a decent brain to start with, and character that includes motivation, curiosity, and hard work.

Think about a day long ago, when there was no Internet, no cell phones, no email, no Google or Facebook. Somehow business took place. That year was 1980!

Online learning, along with tried and true books help all of us to be lifelong students. See what is online, not to mention good old-fashioned books and lectures.

Whether about business, literature, politics, philosophy, computer programming, art or whatever moves you or is needed by you – experience alone without outside input does not cut it. Our own unique experience is skin deep and a mile wide.

I look forward to learning more about and partaking in these new learning opportunity and seeing how many carve out their own educations with or without the college experience.

An Unusual Island with Unusual Results

The New York Times article, “The Island Where People Forget to Die,” is provocative.

It describes the island of Ikaria, a place known for unusual longevity. The case is made for multiple environmental determinants causing this. They include diet and exercise, but most importantly it would appear that a unique focus on harmony, relatedness, and relationships within the island community positively impact health.

The story of an Ikaria native, Stamatis Moraitis, is particularly intriguing. After moving and building a family in America for several years, he was diagnosed with cancer in 1976 and the doctors estimated he had nine months to live. With little hope to fight the cancer, he moved back to his native island to be buried among his ancestors.

“At first, he spent his days in bed, as his mother and wife tended to him. He reconnected with his faith. On Sunday mornings, he hobbled up the hill to a tiny Greek Orthodox chapel where his grandfather once served as a priest. When his childhood friends discovered that he had moved back, they started showing up every afternoon. They’d talk for hours, an activity that invariably involved a bottle or two of locally produced wine. I might as well die happy, he thought…

Six months came and went. Moraitis didn’t die… The years passed. His health continued to improve. He added a couple of rooms to his parents’ home so his children could visit. He built up the vineyard until it produced 400 gallons of wine a year.

Today, three and a half decades later, he’s 97 years old — according to an official document he disputes; he says he’s 102 — and cancer-free. He never went through chemotherapy, took drugs or sought therapy of any sort. All he did was move home to Ikaria.” Read More…

The traditional values and lifestyle described in the article are threatened on Ikaria, and are rare elsewhere. We suspect you will pass this on. Consider reading some of the many comments as well.