Plans2Reality

Computer Glasses

OK, not very dramatic. But with monitors getting bigger and bigger, the top edge of a monitor is higher than it used to be. So 'specially for us older folks, computer glasses help with neck strain and posture.

They are basically progressive-lens bifocal, but they are "biased" - there is a big sweet spot in the middle, just right for the distance of a computer screen. At the very top, they let you see distance.

Try some!

Lumen Redundas

Sitting down all day is killing you • From The Register

A study of more than 220,000 people aged 45 or more has come to a startling conclusion: sitting down all day is killing you.

via www.theregister.co.uk

 

Of course, I read this article, and then blogged it, while sitting down.....

Jawbone Shows How Customer Service Is Done

Jawbone apparently had some technical issues with early versions of their new UP health monitor. Did they hide behind lawyers? No. They stepped up and did the right thing. Read the letter from the CEO, below.

Jawbone understood that p*ssing off the early adopters would kill the product, and maybe the company. Why don't more companies know this? Does yours?

 

LETTER FROM THE CEO

• THE UP™
• NO QUESTIONS ASKED
• GUARANTEE

To the UP community:

Earlier this year, we unveiled Jawbone’s vision to help people live a healthier life with UP. We’ve been thrilled by the passionate response to this product. We heard from tens of thousands of you through emails, tweets, blog posts and on our forums about how you’re changing your lifestyle and becoming consumers of your own health. In just four weeks, UP users have collectively taken over three billion steps, gotten more than 300 years of sleep and captured hundreds of thousands of meals.

While many of you continue to enjoy the UP experience, we know that some of you have experienced issues with your UP band. Given our commitment to delivering the highest quality products, this is unacceptable and you have our deepest apologies. We’ve been working around the clock to identify the root causes and we’d like to thank everyone who has provided us with information and returned their bands to us for troubleshooting. With your help, we’ve found an issue with two specific capacitors in the power system that affects the ability to hold a charge in some of our bands. We’re also fixing an issue with syncing related to the band hardware. Typically, these issues surface within the first seven to ten days of use. The glitches are purely performance related and do not pose any safety risk.

We’ve also received helpful feedback on the application experience, including bug reports, ways to make signup and finding friends easier, user interface suggestions and new feature requests. Your comments are invaluable as we continue to improve, so please keep them coming and check back frequently for updates to ensure you’re always enjoying the latest features and enhancements.

We recognize that this product has not yet lived up to everyone’s expectations – including our own – so we’re taking action:

The UP No Questions Asked Guarantee

This means that for whatever reason, or no reason at all, you can receive a full refund for UP. This is true even if you decide to keep your UP band. We are so committed to this product that we’re offering you the option of using it for free.

The program starts December 9th and full details can be found at http://jawbone.com/uprefund.

For most of you, this program is simply meant to offer peace of mind. Please continue to enjoy your UP band and keep sharing your experience with us. If you encounter any problems with your UP band, contact Jawbone directly for your choice of a replacement and/or refund under this program. It’s that simple.

Jawbone remains deeply committed to addressing all issues with UP, investing in the category and giving our customers the tools to live a healthier life. We’ve temporarily paused production of UP bands and will begin taking new orders once these issues have been sorted out. In the meantime, we’ll continue to release app updates for existing users.

We regret any disappointment we’ve created for our community of users and appreciate the trust you’ve put in us. The fact that you’ve taken the time to talk with us and help us make a better product is simply phenomenal. Our customers have always been part of our team and we’re incredibly grateful for that.

Please know that we’re doing – and will continue to do – everything we can to make things right. This is just the beginning for UP and we are excited to keep improving until we realize the powerful vision of what this category can be.

If there is absolutely anything else we can do for you, please let us know.

Hosain Rahman
CEO
Jawbone

 

Health Care in America, Part 3

We could of course eliminate unnecessary tests. The problem is to figure out which tests are unnecessary. Just because a test produces a negative result does not mean it was unnecessary. Some types of diagnoses are made mostly by eliminating all of the possible casues except one.

Fall and bump your head? You almost certainly don't have a concussion. Almost. Want to take the chance? Want to take the chance with your child? Maybe we should get a quick MRI or whatever....

Getting rid of unnecessary tests is going to be harder than it looks.

Health Care, part III - Accounting

In our ongoing quest to understand how health care ought to work, I want to look at a few simple, but odd, situations.

A few years ago, I had a sebaceous cyst removed from my scalp. It was a little pea-sized lump ont he back of my head, under my hair. You couldn't see it, and it was only a problem if I happen to bang my head on that one spot - it hurt like hell. I'd had it for years, and it didn't seem like a concern, but my new bride felt it ought to be taken care of.

The operation was done at the local hospital, physically, but I was not admitted to the hospital, just to an outpatient surgical facility right there in a room. I suppose there is some difference in liability somewhere. One the one hand, this is about as minor as an operation gets. On the other hand, any doctor will tell you that, every once in a while, things go south in even the most minor surgery, so it's good to know there is a real ICU and all that sort of thing nearby.

The fee for the operation was $5000, but because my coverage was with Blue Cross (now Anthem) I would get a special price of $1100.

That's one heck of a discount. Why?

I've worked in sales and marketing for over thirty years. I am familiar with the various reasons why suppliers offer discounts to buyers. None seem to apply here.

- I wasn't buying a high volume of surgeries, just this one.

- I'm not a "frequent patient" - I don't buy a lot of any kind of surgery.

- This was not sebaceous-cyst removal week at the hospital - there weren't dozens of patients lined up get get the same, or even similar, operations.

So why an 80% discount?

The only answer is that the $5000 is a sucker price - an arbitrarily high number, down from which the hospital negotiates on a carrier-by-carrier basis.

I suppose there is not much wrong with that, except for the fact that in almost any other industry, it would be illegal. The basic principle of the market is that suppliers must offer a product to like customers for like applications in like quantities at the same price.

If I sell customer A 10,000 widgets a month at $5 each, I better be selling them to B at the same price. Any graduate of business school should know this, and most do. There is some wiggle room, since the definition of "like" is a bit soft, but $5000 for one customer version $1100 for another?

Maybe the first reform step we need is a more open set of accounting rules for hospitals, and medical practices in general.

Health Care in America, Part 2

One could save money by getting the greedy insurance companies out of the business. Or could you?

Insurance company profits account for only a few percent of total health care costs. So converting to some sort of non-profit risk-pool system would save a bit, but it would not be dramatic.

What about all those people at the insurance company who approve (or decline) coverage for treatments? You're still going to need them. Sad to say, there are enough patients - and doctors - in the system who would claim certain procedures were necessary when perhaps they aren't. Fraud happens now. There is no reason to believe it will stop simply by banning insurance companies.

Somebody has to decide not only the general rules of coverage, but what is appropriate in each patient's case. And those somebodies are going to want to be paid.

Health Care in America, Part 1

It's widely agreed that health care costs too much. This leaves an obvious question: how much should it cost? 10% less than it does now? 25%? 50%?

One can imagine squeezing 10% out of a system - almost any system - without too much difficulty. But I suspect reducing everyone's health care premiums by a mere 10% would not cause rejoicing in the land. What, then, is to be done?

Stay tuned for more.