Author: SupremeCmdr

American Family Information Services – 87 Layoffs – Insurance Networking News

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The company has reduced its total workforce by 730 positions, or almost 10 percent, over the past four years, mainly by attrition.

via American Family Information Services Department Incurs 87 Layoffs – Insurance Networking News.

Short articles like this make me wonder what’s really happening.  We don’t know the total number of staff in the company’s IT department so we cannot know what percentage of the entire staff was affected.  So I went online and found the following:

The cut positions included 85 people based at the company headquarters at 6000 American Parkway and its other Madison location, off Milwaukee Street, plus two people outside Madison. There are 850 people remaining in the company’s information services division, making the job reductions equal to about a 10 percent cut there.

So now we know the IT department was 937 before the layoffs.  Hmmm….

Opportunities EVERYWHERE

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Exchange of Services and Adding New Business Lines: I have a good friend who is a young MD type doctor. He was loaded down with student loans and he operates his own office in Encino, CA, a fairly wealthy area. It costs him $225 per hour to keep his office doors open. He had to do hospital rounds at night to survive. Radio time is now going begging. So, I worked a deal for him with a local radio station. He gets advertising air time and even has his own medical “show” on that station. He is also now the personal doctor for the station owner and the few employees. This was an exchange of services. I did not charge for putting this deal together but it lead to a new business line for him that I proposed and share in that revenue. He is located in a wealthy area. There are a lot of wealthy older people in the area who do not like going to see the doctor but from time to time, need medical help and attention. So we set up a medical concierge service that also gets advertised on that radio station. We make house calls and the fee is not cheap. We now have eight doctors on call and business is brisk.

via Opportunities EVERYWHERE Market Sniper – Slope Of Hope with Tim Knight.

The example above is one of the real life money making opportunities highlighted in the article.  Go read the rest.  This is tremendous food for thought.

I started to think about my own business after reading the article.  A while ago I recognized my opportunities were similar to the ones described by Knight.  I began to understand that I had started working at the intersection of disciplines.  Underwriting and law.  Auditing and underwriting.  Technology and underwriting.

Can you take your expertise to the intersections of disciplines to meet unmet needs?

HT – Michael Panzner at Financial Armageddon

Reduced Total Lung Capacity and Mortality

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Background: Pulmonary restriction is associated with increased mortality in adults, especially those who are elderly. Previous studies, however, have used the FVC as a surrogate for the total lung capacity (TLC). We evaluated the association between a reduced TLC, mortality, and health-care resources use and compared this association with a reduced FVC.

Conclusions: Reduced TLC is strongly associated with mortality in adults who are elderly. Reduction of the FVC is a weaker risk factor for mortality.

via Association of Reduced Total Lung Capacity With Mortality and Use of Health Services.

Lassa Fever in Nigeria – CDC

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The Nigerian Federal Ministry of Health has reported an increased number of cases of Lassa fever. Nineteen of the country’s 36 states have reported cases since the beginning of 2012. As of April 13, 2012, there were reports of 818 suspected cases, including 84 deaths. At this time, 131 cases have been confirmed by laboratory testing. Seven deaths have also been reported among health care workers.

via Lassa Fever in Nigeria – Travelers’ Health – CDC.

Avoid contact with rats, especially rat urine and feces. Put food away in rodent-proof containers.

  • Keep the home clean and rodent proof.
  • Trap rats in and around homes.
  • Do not eat rats.

New Study Examines Long-Term Care Insurance Claims – Largest Claims Reaches $1.7 Million Mark – Women Represent Two-Thirds Of Claimants – Insurance Broadcasting

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The largest open long-term care insurance claim has reached $1.7 million in paid benefits, according to a just-released report from the American Association for Long-Term Care Insurance (www.AALTCI.org). The claimant, a woman, purchased coverage at age 43, paying an annual premium of $881. Three years later her long term care insurance claim began and has continued for almost 15 years.

via New Study Examines Long-Term Care Insurance Claims – Largest Claims Reaches $1.7 Million Mark – Women Represent Two-Thirds Of Claimants – Insurance Broadcasting.

Berry Good News

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In the current analysis, Elizabeth Devore, an instructor in medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, and her colleagues addressed the gap in the research by reviewing the eating habits of a single cohort of 16,000 women participating in the Nurses Health Study. During their 50s and 60s, every four years the women answered questions by phone about what they ate. And in their 70s, they came into the lab for six different cognitive function tests. Devore and her team also had information on the women’s education, income and other socioeconomic factors that can affect cognitive function.

 

She and her colleagues focused their attention on berries because rodent studies showed that the key compound in berries, a flavonoid called anthocyanidin, could seep through the blood and into brain tissues — specifically concentrating in the hippocampus, which is responsible for learning and memory. As an antioxidant, flavonoids also fight inflammation and oxidation, both processes that affect aging brain cells.

 

Finasteride Sexual Side Effects Prompt FDA Warning, Label Changes

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Proscar is indicated for treatment of symptoms in men with benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) and also is approved to reduce urinary retention risk or the need for surgery related to BPH. Propecia is approved for use only in men as a treatment for male pattern baldness.

Among specific changes the FDA is calling for are:

  • a revision to the Propecia label to add libido disorders, ejaculation disorders and orgasm disorders that continued after the drug was discontinued;
  • a revision to the Proscar label to include decreased libido that continued after the drug was discontinued; and
  • revisions to both drugs’ labels that describe reports of male infertility and/or poor semen quality that normalized or, at least, improved after discontinuing the respective drug.

According to the agency, the changes were based on its review of hundreds of case reports of sexual dysfunction that persisted after patients ceased using the drugs. It should be noted that in 2011, the FDA called for both drugs’ labels to be revised to include erectile dysfunction as a side effect that continued after discontinuation of the drug.

via Finasteride Sexual Side Effects Prompt FDA Warning, Label Changes — AAFP News Now — American Academy of Family Physicians.