In Forrester’s 2008 Customer Experience Index (CxPi), we ranked 113 companies across 12 industries. I recently published a snapshot of the health plan industry looking at the results from the eight plans on the list (Aetna, Anthem (BCBS), CIGNA, Kaiser, Medicaid, Medicare, TriCare, and United Healthcare). Here’s some of what we found:Experiences are “very poor” and getting worse. As a group, the eight health plans ended up with a “very poor” rating of 51%; the lowest score of any of the 12 industries we examined. Making matters worse, the industry dropped three percentage points from the 2007 CxPi results.Kaiser led the pack. With an “okay” score of 70%, Kaiser led all health plans. All of the other plans ended up with ratings of either “poor” or “very poor.”Medicaid is as bad as it gets. With a terrible rating of 38%, Medicaid was the lowest scoring plan. It also ended up in next to last place across all 113 organizations in our rankings.Only Kaiser improved. When we compared the 2008 results with those from 2007, only Kaiser showed an improvement. CIGNA and Medicaid, on the other hand, declined the most.Some big shifts in CxPi components. There were five double-digit changes in the scores for the three underlying elements of the CxPi: Kaiser’s improvement in being easy to work with and enjoyability, Anthem’s decline in enjoyability, and both CIGNA’s and Medicaid’s drop in being easy to work with.The bottom line: Put customer experience on the health care reform agenda.
FROM TPM:
I'ved poked around Washington today, talking with friends on the Hill who confirm the worst: Big Pharma and Big Insurance are gaining ground in their campaign to kill the public option in the emerging health care bill.You know why, of course. They don't want a public option that would compete with private insurers and use its bargaining power to negotiate better rates with drug companies. They argue that would be unfair. Unfair? Unfair to give more people better health care at lower cost? To Pharma and Insurance, "unfair" is anything that undermines their profits.
Read more here
Posted May 11, 2009 by theindustryradar Categories: Business, Human Resources, Leadership Tags: star trek
The new Star trek movie is a spectacular summer fun ride whether you are a “Trekkie”, or like my 9 year old Star Wars crazed son, a newbie to this iconic story and its characters.
I have loved Star Trek since it came out in 1966 when I was 13. Until seeing the new movie I had never really thought how revolutionary it was in 1966 presenting a crew made up of a black woman, an Asian, a Russian, a Scot, a rebellious Iowa farm boy and an alien. 1966…43 years ago..
Today a team this diverse is not that unusual and the movie is also is a great reminder, especially in difficult times like these, what is required for any organization to succeed:
Now your business may not have Klingons or Romulans to fight but your challenges are just as real.
It is challenging times like these that demand some bold thinking and action and true team work if, as Spock would say, you want to “Live, long and prosper”.
So on this Monday morning are you ready to say – “Beam me up Scotty” – I am ready to go?
“Aye Captain!”….Have a good week!!
Amazing - several paragraphs and references to the "dark places" he served and other like POW references and she is "not going to let people forget that"....
Is McCain a living example of "profiles in courage" and not out of a book? Is that a POW reference?
I am no Hillary fan by a long shot but there is no question she is a talented, experienced person and ready to be President. So Sarah Palin is the Republican answer to woo disaffected women? What an insult to Hillary and her 18 million supporters.
So nounverbPOW picks Pro life, pro gun, creationism believer with small town mayoral experience and 2 years as Governor in a state that has more revenue than it can spend due to oil. Sarah is being introduced as "nounverbSoccerMom", or nounverb"SoninIraq" mom, or .nounverb "DownsSyndromeBabyMom".
The most distressing thing to me is that McCain's "maverick" pick violates the first rule of a VP - someone ready to become CIC on a moment's notice. It adds to the McCain is dangerous riff to me.
The posting below is MyBO blog from a month ago (on the day McCain had his golf cart photo op with Bush 41) when I wrote about a Jindal pick. I simply exchanged Palin's name for Jindal's and the logic and my prediction that McCain would do something stupid has come true...thank God! New comments are in bold as well
Is McCain about to Make A Bad Decision?
Consider this.
If McCain feels so compelled this week to announce his VP choice and now feels he needs to flex his maverick muscles in doing so to give him a chance, will choosing Bobby Jindal Sarah Palin be a bad decision?
I think so.
The VP choice for both Barack and McCain is an important one for different reasons.
I won't put odds on either type of event but lets make this readiness a basic threshold for anyone in either party.
McCain's obvious lack of economic experience and increasingly incompetent and gaffe prone campaign makes having a man like Romney a great choice - smooth and a true successful CEO and ready to lead - whether you like him or not. He could be President.
Now today McCain was with Bush 41. I hope he did not ask about a Quayle type pick. Jindal Palin is clearly very talented, has a compelling family story and has a great future but is very young and has some baggage that could be distracting...voodoo, odd LA things in his past and he is an Indian American opening up another racial element to the campaign very inexperienced, pro Life, pro gun, anti global warming, teaches creationism in AK schools that the Repubs Hillary supporters and Independents won't like.
Could he she be President? I suppose but Romney makes me more comfortable on that level and his business acumen if God forbid McCain won.
My bet is that McCain the maverick is about to show off his lack of judgment and management experience and pick Jindal Palin mistakeningly thinking that he will show the right wingers like Rush and Newt what they want - the future of the party...
So if that is the case and Barack picks Biden lets say we will have a weird dynamic. The Repubs will try and compare Jindal Palin and his her experience to Barack and the Dems can say Biden out duels McCain's experience.
Stay tuned but I have thought for awhile that McCain might do something like this. Palin Jindal is no Dan Quayle intellectually thank God by a long shot. McCain would show a true duplicity and lack of leadership while he is attacking Barack on his lack of military and foreign policy experience and picks a talented and attractive young man woman who has spent no time in the crucible of national politics regardless of anything else he she has done,
His VP who would replace him would be a bright, totally untested, 1st term governor, 44 year old female governor from Alaska 37 year old Indian American from Louisiana. Quite a gamble for someone so focused on his experience and readiness to lead.
Kind of neuters his entire argument against Barack....McCain's just dumb enough to do this too which is even scarier. Remember there is a reason he was 794/799 in his Naval Academy Class.
POW = Philanderer On Wife
A classic...
McCain lost his moral compass and decided to try "celebrityboating" et al and now he is getting hit back. Joe will hit his friend hard. Politics ain't beanbags and Obama is from Chicago and understands that. Now that McCain has laid his marker on the negative campaign the gun is coming to the knife fight and Joe Biden will be wielding it. So lets try a different list in looking at the way he addressed this key decision and what it shows about the man: 1) Responsibility - He chose a man ready to lead and be President if he were thrust into that role w/ proven knowledge and credibility 2) Judgment - His self confidence is secure to bring in an older and experienced expert, like Kennedy, Reagan, Bush and others have done to join his team and advise him in an area that he needs help 3) Management Discipline - it never leaked. Compared to the Bush White House or the Clinton's this is amazing and speaks to Obama's skills. 4) Control - the campaign owned us all all week and did things their way, again with total discipline, unlike anything I have ever seen. 5) Realism - he chose a man that will help build the voting majority he needs to win in certain states, demographics et al 6) Shrewd Politician - People are finally understanding that Obama plays to win and works that way. 7) Insider Politics - in order to govern and get things done Obama needs to get work done on the hill and Biden can get that done as a skilled legislator and insider. The message of hope and change is only worth anything if he wins and Obama has acted responsibly to complete his ticket to accomplish his goal. If you folks haven't figured it out yet you don't go from giving a speech 4 years ago to coming from 30 points down to beating the Clinton machine by being shallow and inept. That requires brains, discipline and a connection to the people that taps their needs. Obama has done that and now he has put the last piece in place to sprint for victory.
McCain lives and breathes for crises. For a "3 AM" moment. Well, it happened.
We have had a real 3 AM moment - the Obama text message arrived on my iPhone at 3:09 AM EST. It is McCain's worst nightmare - other than his house gaffe. Oh by the way Joe has one house.
My guess is that the Rovians - in keeping with their disdain for "the One" - thought Barack would make a weak pick. Probably totally convinced themselves since they hate him so much that this newbie, lightweight would screw this up. I guess they missed the facts that "the One" beat Billary and he learned his politics in Chicago... and unlike McCain is really smart.
Instead he made the absolutely right pick - a strong, tough guy who is eminently qualified to be President with loads of positives and now the Republican "message" is trying to push the message that this shows Obama's weaknesses, "not ready to lead", not ready to be "Commander in Chief", and he had to choose someone to shore up his campaign...blah, blah. McCain's press secretary even threw the plagiarism and law school standing out as well this AM. Oh boy! lets get that can of worms open....
Attacks so hard and fast tell me they are really, really afraid. Why ?
McCain's 3 main picks lack all all or some of these criteria:
So does this let some others back in like Christ? or Portman? or Kantor? None of them seem ready to lead to me other than maybe Christ who is still just a first term governor. Are there others out there?
Meg Whitman? Great entrepreneur and leader but no relevant experience. Carly Fiorina? Her failure at HP is legendary and public and while she talks a good game she is a really poor choice.
Ridge is the only choice that makes sense but his pro choice views supposedly have already disqualified him.
If I were McCain I would choose Huckabee, but he will not. They dislike each other, Huckabee would shore up the base and evangelicals and protect him in VA, NC and GA . He is also a superb campaigner and communicator. Also would help in lots of other places due to the religious right.
A dozen states or more are going to be decided by a few points so every move carries major risk/rewards and McCain's choices are all bad at this point unless he really has something up his sleeve...and with a little luck the maverick might even make things worse.
My favorite slogan so far is below: ONE HOUSE, ONE SPOUSE --- OBAMA/BIDEN 08!!
More importantly if a tragedy made him President like it did LBJ 45 years ago (which I remember vividly), or Truman or Teddy Roosevelt - we would have a man who could soothe the country and the world and lead this nation. Joe is a honest guy, a family man who has worked hard and is not rich like all his colleagues. he has not gotten rich as a Senator.
All the other bona fides on the pick are not relevant other than politically. His demographics are terrific as a Catholic, from PA, with older women, blue collar folks, Reagan democrats.
I hope, no pray, that we never need Joe in that capacity.
Joe can run off at the mouth but he is honest and a "good guy", which never hurts. I'd love to have a beer with him...
ONE HOUSE, ONE SPOUSE --- OBAMA/BIDEN 08!!
Best I've seen! Go Joe!!
This is a hoot - the POW card...couresty of DailyKos
This card may be used as an excuse for:
If you can think of any more things that this card can be/has been used for, add them below...I'm sure we will find out more soon, as the campaign progresses...
**UPDATE:**
(Courtesy of TheUnknown285) - thanks...
One stat that the MSM keeps pointing to is the underperformance of Obama in the polling compared to the party iD or generic ballot.
Interestingly so did/does Hillary.
In the last 2 elections more Dems voted for Bush than vice versa by 3-5%. Gore only got 85% of the Dem Vote while Kerry got 89%. Bush was 90+ both times, incl. 93% in 2004.
So if this year the gap is 10% per the polls of D vs. R is it Obama's "fault" he has a narrow lead?
If you figure that McCain has folks buffaloed still that he's a Maverick that addresses a few points. The bitter primary wounds that have not healed add a couple more and the fact that Obama is black has an impact as well.
One could argue that all told he is in much better shape than Kerry was and that with the convention ahead, party healing and base consolidation impact and VP excitement that Obama is in good shape.
I think that narrative is the right call right now. Narrow lead, tough fight, but good prospects. No surprise in a country as divided as we have become on red and blue.
Just because the major polls show a 3 point race or so on average to me is fine. The daily avg. continues to be 2-3 pts (Rass is back to +2 today) w/ McCain bupling that 45/46% ceiling. Barack was never ahead by 12 or 15 points like a couple of June polls showed. Nor frankly is he behind McCain like the Zogby shows.
Interestingly that 45/46 is all a generic would get for the R's.
It is a 51 race story with about 20 that matter and the number 1 key is getting the base and Hillary's ladies in the fold as best we can.
Once done taking the atttack to McSame and the ground game will push the lead out as long as we attack and make the Repubs play our game and our tempo on our terms...sounds like basketball....whcih Barack is pretty good at...
Lying about their Family
Christian Science Monitor Blasts Cindy McCain For Lying About Mother Teresa Baby Adoption Story
Lying about Energy
McCain claims to always have been for it and never to have missed a major vote. Wrong. See this article for details. He is 0 for 9.
Lying about His Tax Plan
Here are the facts
Extramarital Behavior and Lies
CNN Talks With McCain About His Extramarital Affairs
Rich/Elitist
Politico: McCain unsure how many houses he owns
Judgment
Judgment? McCain Says He'd Have Picked Cheney, Rumsfeld
From the NYT today examining McCain's 9/11 response: - War w/ Irag
Character - POW Friend Won''t Vote for Him
Read the entire article here. it is quite enlightening
Hypocrite
McCain calls lobbyists 'birds of prey'
Nations Don't Invade other Nations in the 21st Century
Since none of the talking heads in the MSM looks at the data behind the data, they simply spit out the numbers from the press releases, we will continue to.
The latest Insider Advantage poll of LV in NC is good for Obama showing the state at 45-43. RCP avg. is 4.4%. You won't hear this is good poll news as the MSM is now on the Obama losing meme.
What is more important is what lies under this 2 point/inside the margin.tie.
The major item is the African American (AA) vote is showing 74% for Barack and 17 for McCain. The NC AA community is solidly for Obama and 90%+ is more likely. It went 85% for Kerry in 2004 and 90%+ in the primary.
Also the AA percentage of total in the poll is 21%. In 2004 it was 26% of the states total. With all the new voters and the Obama ground game is it conceivable that we'll have a drop in percentage? Not likely.
The "base" vote has Barack in the mid 80's compared to 90% for McCain., Not bad compared to others. kerry got 84%.
So what would this poll look like at 90/10 and 26% AA vote for Obama and a couple points higher in Dem. vote? About a 4.5% swing all by itself.
So, all Obama has to so is perform equally to Kerry and he could win NC. Any <30 age group gains, cell phone gap issues and and increase in the AA vote like we saw in the big primary win and this gets to be a comfortable win....
The lesson - look at the numbers in the detail. Check in at CNN for the details from the last few elections and you too can be a political analyst. In fact you'll know mroe than 99% of these idiots we see on TV and many of the professional bloggers. Have fun!
PS - also use www.fivethirtyeight.com to really get the best data, analysis and chatter on the numbers.
With the new polls out and everyone getting very nervous as the McCain attack machine has clearly worked I want to focus all of your attention on the only stat that matters right now in any poll you look at - the "base" vote % for their party candidate. Also think of this number in the context of the strategy of the VP pick AND the convention speaking setup.
As a point of reference for this post:
Nearly every poll that is coming out gives McCain from 82-87% of the Repub base support and Obama mid to high 70's.
Mathematically the inherent gap here is slightly higher due to Dem preferences in the electorate and higher 2008 registration. It is 5-7% in total depending on the state. In essence a HUGE gap. A landslide sized gap.
Is my point obvious? At this point the one thing that McCain has done in the 4+ months he has had is solidify his base which is running only mid 80's and climbing this month as the ads have worked, but still much stronger than Obama and well below Bush. More on apar with Dole.
Clearly we have not gotten all the Clinton folks and many mainline Dems esp, the older females into the fold yet. Hence the wisdom of the convention strategy. I am no HRC or fan of Bubba but think about what has happened.
With all the drama about the convention there has been a lot of press. and interest. According to Rassmussen 51% of Dems and 40% of Independents are more likely to watch this year vs. 40% of Repubs are less likely to watch - a manifestation of the "enthusiasm" gap.
So devoting a nite to HRC's historic campaign for women should draw a lot of folks that aren't on board yet and get them engaged. Bubba can wind it up for past Dem glories and assuage some of that crowd and the VP can rip into McCain and Bush before Barack knocks it out of the park on Thursday nite.
On the VP front Nate at 538 has great stats showing Biden's appeal to the older demograhics where Obama is weakest. A good sign if Joe is really the pick. Besides the impact he will have in making Barack less scary, add foreign policy experience and generally make the ticket a bit more mainstream for folks...an older Catholic, PA born white guy will balance here nicely.
Larry Sabato has a great post today on bounces. Kerry's inane convention 4 years ago got no bounce (swiftboating helped here) and Bush only got 2 and 4 in 2000. Gore got 8 in 2000 as did Bubba in 1996. Even Dole got 5% in 1996. Nate had an even more in depth piece last week.
With the "base" gap, enthusiasm, the new echo chamber of the web and blogosphere I think the outcome of a well orchestrated convention could be huge - both in the "base" solidification and the enthusiasm bounce.
This is NOT to say that this is going to be easy (it never was) and that it is not going to get uglier (it is going to get a lot uglier) and that barack needs to get on and stay on the attack daily (he does). The Obama folks have proven to be pretty smart so lets let them work their magic...this time 2 weeks from now I think we'll be pretty happy in the polls, the message and the ticket as they go on the fall offensive to win.
PS - I am going to try and do a chart on the "base" gap for the battleground states as well to give us the real hard numbers across the board.
From the NYT today examining McCain's 9/11 response:
"Within a month he made clear his priority. “Very obviously Iraq is the first country,” he declared on CNN. By Jan. 2, Mr. McCain was on the aircraft carrier Theodore Roosevelt in the Arabian Sea, yelling to a crowd of sailors and airmen: “Next up, Baghdad!”
and another...
“He has the personality of a fighter pilot: when somebody stings you, you want to strike out,” said retired Gen. John H. Johns, a former friend and supporter of Mr. McCain who turned against him over the Iraq war. “Just like the American people, his reaction was: show me somebody to hit.”
