Are you asking the right questions #ankle

Are you asking the right questions #ankle Hi, I broke my ankle and know I have to have surgery. Im self pay (or, cash pay) can I ask you a few questions? This is how I started the phone calls to surgeon offices when I got back from seeing an orthopedic doctor. Sure First, do you have a discount for self-pay, or full payment before the surgery? Yes, of course.  All of them did, except for one.  The discounts for this ranged from 20% (the most common) to 40%. DID YOU KNOW THAT YOU GET A DISCOUNT IF YOU PAY IN FULL, ON THE DAY OF SERVICE? Insurance companies dont want you to know that.  They dont want you to know that there are other ways of paying for medical care. They also dont want you to know that they never pay full price they negotiate (or bully) the providers to discount the service price. a surgery I had four years ago saw 50% to 75% discounts, if you paid in full.  Do you know what that 50% to 75% represents?  The gross inefficiencies of dealing with insurance companies.  Talk to any doctor, or anyone involved in medical billing, and ask them how insurance impacts prices that you pay.  It is disgusting. Oh sorry, I was on a soapbox for a bit there.   Lets get back to the point of this post. Oh wait, Im not sorry.  You see, many of my readers are unemployed, and dont have insurance through an employer.  COBRA is so expensive I think it is criminal.  And ACA, or Obamacare, is great, but if you make a certain amount, you dont get any discount, so the price of insurance is more, in many cases, than a mortgage.  So yeah, on this blog well talk about HOW to pay for things, like surgery, when you are unemployed. Again, back to the point of THIS blog post: asking the right questions. My second question was: Can you give me an idea of the cost of surgery for a displaced medial malleolus fracture? Its eight to ten millimeters displaced. The answer for the four I called the first day was I cant tell you any costs unless I have a CPT code. Well, of course I dont have a CPT code.  And each of the calls were going nowhere.  That didnt help my attitude any. Sometime during my nap I realized that I was asking the wrong questions.  So the next day my calls in the morning went like this: Hi, I broke my ankle and need to have surgery. Im self pay, and was wondering if you could answer a few questions for me? Sure, Ill do my best Great. First, do you have a self pay, or cash pay, discount? This is an easy question to answer instead of asking them something that required a CPT code, I ask them something they can answer off the top of their head. The next questions were the same kind of easy: When could I get in for an evaluation? If it was two weeks out, then I wasnt going to pursue them. From the date of my evaluation, how far out would surgery be? This gave me an idea of whether Id be waiting for a month to fix this problem, or if they were able to prioritize me and get me taken care of quickly. Can I have the surgery done at [my favorite surgery center]? This surgery center is awesome, much less expensive than a hospital, and get this, gives a 75% discount for payment in full on the day of the service. WOW. This round of calls went MUCH better than the day before because I was asking the right questions to the right person! Do you see where Im going with this? You know what the WORST question a job seeker asks?  Its any variation of this: Im looking for a job, do you know of anything? Or, of anyone, or any recruiters, or any openings This is THE WORST question. Its like asking a surgeons admin how much a surgery costs, without giving them CPT codes. What are your CPT codes?  They are SPECIFICS. What are you looking for? Where? In what industry? In what company(ies)? What job titles are you interested in? You see, when you ask some variation of do you know of any openings? You are asking THE WRONG QUESTION. So, change your questions.  Ask easy questions.  Questions that the people can answer.  The first few might not lead to a list of openings that you would love, but they will start you down the right path.  As you go down that path, youll establish relationships, and build trust, so that when you ask other questions, harder and maybe more specific questions, the people you talk to will have better answers. So how did my morning of phone calls end? I asked the easy questions, and got the right answers (to those questions). Did I learn anything? YES.  I learned that one office has a staff that was really nice and didnt treat me like I was burdening them.  They gave a vibe of we respect you as a human (and we want your business). The others?  They treated me like I was the IRS trying to set up a time to audit them.  Well, not that bad, but they didnt give me an impression that Id have a pleasant experience as their customer. BONUS: The really nice office was so cool answering my questions, I decided to give it a shot.  I asked Can you give me a ballpark idea of what this is going to cost me? I wont hold you to anything, but Im just wondering if this is a $5,000 thing, or a $20,000 thing? Her response? Way different than any other response from anyone else (which was, I cant tell you with a CPT code).  She actually told me, the buyer, how much a general, simple surgery would be.  That was my ballpark idea.  That was what I, as a consumer, wanted. I asked the right questions, and finally got to the answer I most wanted.  And guess what?  She won her doctor a new client, probably for life. Ask the right questions to get the right answers! Are you asking the right questions #ankle Hi, I broke my ankle and know I have to have surgery. Im self pay (or, cash pay) can I ask you a few questions? This is how I started the phone calls to surgeon offices when I got back from seeing an orthopedic doctor. Sure First, do you have a discount for self-pay, or full payment before the surgery? Yes, of course.  All of them did, except for one.  The discounts for this ranged from 20% (the most common) to 40%. DID YOU KNOW THAT YOU GET A DISCOUNT IF YOU PAY IN FULL, ON THE DAY OF SERVICE? Insurance companies dont want you to know that.  They dont want you to know that there are other ways of paying for medical care. They also dont want you to know that they never pay full price they negotiate (or bully) the providers to discount the service price. a surgery I had four years ago saw 50% to 75% discounts, if you paid in full.  Do you know what that 50% to 75% represents?  The gross inefficiencies of dealing with insurance companies.  Talk to any doctor, or anyone involved in medical billing, and ask them how insurance impacts prices that you pay.  It is disgusting. Oh sorry, I was on a soapbox for a bit there.   Lets get back to the point of this post. Oh wait, Im not sorry.  You see, many of my readers are unemployed, and dont have insurance through an employer.  COBRA is so expensive I think it is criminal.  And ACA, or Obamacare, is great, but if you make a certain amount, you dont get any discount, so the price of insurance is more, in many cases, than a mortgage.  So yeah, on this blog well talk about HOW to pay for things, like surgery, when you are unemployed. Again, back to the point of THIS blog post: asking the right questions. My second question was: Can you give me an idea of the cost of surgery for a displaced medial malleolus fracture? Its eight to ten millimeters displaced. The answer for the four I called the first day was I cant tell you any costs unless I have a CPT code. Well, of course I dont have a CPT code.  And each of the calls were going nowhere.  That didnt help my attitude any. Sometime during my nap I realized that I was asking the wrong questions.  So the next day my calls in the morning went like this: Hi, I broke my ankle and need to have surgery. Im self pay, and was wondering if you could answer a few questions for me? Sure, Ill do my best Great. First, do you have a self pay, or cash pay, discount? This is an easy question to answer instead of asking them something that required a CPT code, I ask them something they can answer off the top of their head. The next questions were the same kind of easy: When could I get in for an evaluation? If it was two weeks out, then I wasnt going to pursue them. From the date of my evaluation, how far out would surgery be? This gave me an idea of whether Id be waiting for a month to fix this problem, or if they were able to prioritize me and get me taken care of quickly. Can I have the surgery done at [my favorite surgery center]? This surgery center is awesome, much less expensive than a hospital, and get this, gives a 75% discount for payment in full on the day of the service. WOW. This round of calls went MUCH better than the day before because I was asking the right questions to the right person! Do you see where Im going with this? You know what the WORST question a job seeker asks?  Its any variation of this: Im looking for a job, do you know of anything? Or, of anyone, or any recruiters, or any openings This is THE WORST question. Its like asking a surgeons admin how much a surgery costs, without giving them CPT codes. What are your CPT codes?  They are SPECIFICS. What are you looking for? Where? In what industry? In what company(ies)? What job titles are you interested in? You see, when you ask some variation of do you know of any openings? You are asking THE WRONG QUESTION. So, change your questions.  Ask easy questions.  Questions that the people can answer.  The first few might not lead to a list of openings that you would love, but they will start you down the right path.  As you go down that path, youll establish relationships, and build trust, so that when you ask other questions, harder and maybe more specific questions, the people you talk to will have better answers. So how did my morning of phone calls end? I asked the easy questions, and got the right answers (to those questions). Did I learn anything? YES.  I learned that one office has a staff that was really nice and didnt treat me like I was burdening them.  They gave a vibe of we respect you as a human (and we want your business). The others?  They treated me like I was the IRS trying to set up a time to audit them.  Well, not that bad, but they didnt give me an impression that Id have a pleasant experience as their customer. BONUS: The really nice office was so cool answering my questions, I decided to give it a shot.  I asked Can you give me a ballpark idea of what this is going to cost me? I wont hold you to anything, but Im just wondering if this is a $5,000 thing, or a $20,000 thing? Her response? Way different than any other response from anyone else (which was, I cant tell you with a CPT code).  She actually told me, the buyer, how much a general, simple surgery would be.  That was my ballpark idea.  That was what I, as a consumer, wanted. I asked the right questions, and finally got to the answer I most wanted.  And guess what?  She won her doctor a new client, probably for life. Ask the right questions to get the right answers!

Dont Bring Excuses. Bring Solutions - Personal Branding Blog - Stand Out In Your Career

Don’t Bring Excuses. Bring Solutions - Personal Branding Blog - Stand Out In Your Career Just in case you are wondering. Your boss hired you to reduce their workload. Not increase it. The more you can take off their plate the more they can do. Yes, that is delegation 101. When done right everyone grows with the business. When you have mastered your role you’ll get to be that hiring manager. Even if it means small tasks initially. It all builds upon itself. A simple guideline to remember: You are valued for the solutions you bring forward. Not the problems you bring up. The most valuable employees are the ones that bring solutions and ideas to the forefront. If you are looking to get started at a company or get your next role you need to be looking for solutions. Not excuses. Whether you are hiring in from the outside or whether you are looking for your next role within your organization. There are a few things a hiring manager looks for. There are also a few things smart managers look for when growing their team. They want people that Bring Solutions. Smart managers do a few things consistently: They hire people that make their lives easier. They hire people that make them look good. They don’t like surprises. Everything you can do to achieve success on each of these points make you a more valuable employee, team member and candidate for promotion. Smart Managers Hire People that Make them look Good Not because it’s all about them, but because it’s all about the accomplishments of the team. If a manager hires someone and they spend inordinate amounts of time hand-holding them they will not be able to get their job done. Which puts everyone at risk. Risk Mitigation Management When you were interviewing, the hiring manager was making assessments about your ability to do the job. They were also making an assessment of your ability to help them get their jobs done. Some will come right out and say it, but every hiring manager is thinking it. They are also assessing how well you can fit into the current team. They want to know that you can help the firms bottom line. Getting Started As you consider bringing solutions to the table there are a few things you should consider and here are a few pointers to get you started. Ask Questions â€" You have already identified something that you think might be an issue. It may only be an issue to you. Or it may have already been tried. Asking questions both of yourself and of your colleagues can help validate the solution you are thinking of bringing forward. Don’t be afraid to be the contrarian (see this post), but don’t go overboard. Seek Consensus â€" Ask colleagues, get advice from peers, look for information on how other companies solved similar problems. There are a lot of challenges that other companies have already experienced, addressed and solved. See if you can find those examples and build from them. Don’t start at Zero â€" Again, check with colleagues, peers and externally. The problem you are facing has more than likely have been seen before. So, don’t start with a blank slate. Make some assumptions and seek to prove them out with others peoples experiences. You’ll save yourself a lot of time and perhaps a lot of headaches. Trial Runs â€" Which leads to the last tip. Try Before You Fly. Before you jump out the window with your makeshift wings … check them out with a test run. Your first effort doesn’t need to be perfect. Doing something is a step in the right direction. Commit to Trial Runs. A trial run is just that … a test to see if your assumptions are correct. No Surprises This is what my manager at Microsoft used to say. It worked really well. To reinforce this behavior she also said … I know things will go wrong. I know problems will come up. All I’m asking is … Give me a heads up so we can be prepared to deal with it. Her message and mantra were as simple as that. No Surprises saved a lot of headaches and opened the communication channels. It lead to a more successful team and to a team that was able to share their trials and tribulations. The end result was a high powered, highly focused, and very successful team. Putting a Bow on It Remember You are valued for the solutions you bring forward. Not the problems you bring up. Bring the Solutions! When you do you will be invaluable to the organization, you will be building skills and a reputation that will stay with you for many years, and you will be well on your way to your next promotion. Author: Jeff   is a veteran in the Enterprise Content Management industry. Over the past 20 years he has worked with customers and partners to design, develop and deploy solutions around the world. Jeff is currently the Director of Strategic Alliances at Winshuttle. He has worked for Microsoft, FileNet (IBM), K2, Captaris, Open Text, Kofax and Kodak. He speaks and blogs about ECM and the Intersection between Social, Mobile and Cloud Computing.