A look at the cattle connection: How ranching benefits the ecosystem

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“The public doesn’t always realize what ranchers are doing and how that benefits everyone,” says Bill Tietje, a natural resources specialist based in San Louis Obispo County. “No one really thinks about it…” he continues, “until it’s gone.”

Unknown to many, ranchers like Charles Crispin contribute more to the world than their clichéd livestock-churning fill. According to scientists, rangelands maintained by ranchers provide the following benefits to the ecosystem:

• Rangelands play a crucial role in water cycling. In California, 80 percent of the water flows through the rangeland.

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• Studies show that rangelands managed by ranchers result to greater biodiversity. The diversity of plants and animals is found to be greater on grazed grasslands compared to unmanaged grasslands.

• Wild raptors hibernate on rangelands managed for beef cattle.

• Rangelands provide habitat to insects which are important in the process of cross-pollination. This results to a more robust and a more diverse "gene pool," enabling a particular species to be more adaptable to various environmental changes.

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• Having cattle graze rangelands can greatly reduce the amount of dry grass that could serve as fuel to a wildfire.

• Managed rangelands are more efficacious in sequestering carbon molecules which may be wedged in soil particles.

Ranching is more than a business, and even more than a way of life—it is also one of the many ways by which man can help the ecosystem remain sustainable for the years to come.

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The logistical considerations in buying a ranch

As with most investors, ranchers also devote an ample amount of time reviewing the logistics in buying a ranch. By not plunging aimlessly into the ranch market, any chances of possible loss are greatly mitigated.

The following are the things that an aspiring rancher must take into consideration before finalizing the acquisition of a ranching property:

1. Accessibility. Is the place just within reach or does one have to pass through a rough terrain just to be able to enter the boundary? The ease of ingress and egress to the land is also essential as it is a main determinant of a property’s salability. If the property is out of the way, then creating access may become an additional financial burden to the rancher.

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2. Water access. It is an accepted fact: Ranches and farms greatly depend on water. Livestock, crops, and wildlife need a substantial amount of water to thrive; thus, an ideal property is one that at least has a creek or a river running through or adjacent to it to ascertain a year-round and reliable water supply.

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3. Land type. The rancher should first determine his purpose before starting to study this aspect. Different purposes require different land types. For example, if a rancher is interested in possibly raising wildlife for hunting purposes, then he should consider a property that resembles wildlife’s natural habitat with natural vegetation.

4. Land cost per acre. Because real estate prices fluctuate depending on market conditions, an aspiring rancher should consult professional help in timing the purchase. Real estate properties which are bought in time of overvaluation may be poised for correction, resulting to an inequitable loss.

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Charles Crispin is the owner of Hammock Walk Ranch in Florida. Learn more about ranching by visiting this Facebook page.

Primary Care Physicians May Be Hard To Find By Newly Insured Patients

This Medical News Today article talks about one of the possible effects of the Affordable Care Act.

Implementation of the Affordable Care Act - now assured by the re-election of President Obama - is expected to result in up to 50 million currently uninsured Americans acquiring some type of health insurance coverage. But a study by researchers at the Mongan Institute for Health Policy at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) finds that a significant percentage of the primary care physicians most likely to care for newly insured patients may be not be accepting new patients. The investigators note that strategies designed to increase and support these "safety-net" physicians could help ensure that newly covered patients have access to primary care.

"This study raises very serious concerns about the willingness and ability of primary care providers to cope with the increased demand for services that will result from the ACA," says Eric G. Campbell, PhD, of the Mongan Institute, senior author of the report to be published in the American Journal of Medical Quality. "Even with insurance, it appears that many patients may find it challenging to find a physician to provide them with primary care services."

In 2000 the Institute of Medicine published a report on the health care "safety net" - physicians and organizations caring for a significant proportion of uninsured or Medicaid-covered patients - that noted a lack of enough safety-net providers and the chronic underfunding of Medicaid. The Affordable Care Act was designed to ensure almost universal health insurance coverage, including expanding the number of individuals eligible for Medicaid. The authors of the current study note that many newly covered patients are likely to turn to physicians in the already-stressed health care safety net and that areas where such patients are likely to live often have limited primary care services. In addition, studies have suggested that physicians caring for disadvantaged groups of patients may provide lower-quality care.

The authors set out to better understand the physicians in the primary care safety net, to determine their willingness to accept new Medicaid patients and to assess their attitudes about and interest in quality improvement activities. As part of a 2009 survey of medical professionalism, physicians were asked to indicate the approximate percentage of their patients who were covered by Medicaid or were uninsured and unable to pay. They also were asked whether they were accepting new Medicaid or uninsured patients, along with several questions regarding services they provided to vulnerable populations and their attitudes towards and participation in quality improvement activities. Because of their focus on the primary care safety net, the investigators restricted their analysis to responses from internists, pediatricians and family practitioners.

Of 840 primary care physicians responding to the survey, 53 percent were safety-net providers, defined as having patient panels with more than 20 percent uninsured or Medicaid patients. Half of all responding primary care physicians indicated they were accepting new patients who either were covered by Medicaid or had no means of paying for their care. But safety-net physicians were considerably more likely to accept both patient groups, with 72 percent taking new Medicaid patients and 61 percent taking new patients with no medical coverage. There were no significant differences between the physician groups in reported attitudes about or participation in quality improvement efforts, and safety-net physicians reported greater awareness of and efforts to address disparities in health care than did non-safety-net physicians.

The authors note that the concentration of care for Medicaid and uninsured patients among a limited number of safety-net physicians and the fact that 28 and 39 percent, respectively, of those physicians are not accepting new Medicaid and uninsured patients indicate that the current health care safety net may have reached its capacity. In addition, they note, safety-net physicians' interest in quality improvement and attention to health care disparities suggests that reported differences in the quality of care they provide probably reflect limited resources available to their practices or barriers to care within the local communities.

"We found the attitudes of safety-net primary care physicians are consistent with providing equitable, universal care, and they were almost twice as likely to look out for possible racial and ethnic disparities within their practices," says Lenny López, MD, MPH, MDiv, of the Mongan Institute, corresponding author of the report. "We're already aware of the need for more primary care physicians, and these results make it apparent that the need for safety-net PCPs is even more critical. We also found that safety-net physicians were more likely to be women, under-represented minorities or foreign medical graduates, so efforts to bring more such physicians into primary care, along with efforts to close the income gap between safety-net and non-safety-net PCPs, could help expand the safety net."

Source: http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/253242.php

The Claim: Exposure to Plants and Parks Can Boost Immunity

This New York Times article discusses some of the ways how nature benefits people's health.

This time of year, allergies and the promise of air-conditioning tend to drive people indoors.

But for those who can take the heat and cope with the pollen, spending more time in nature might have some surprising health benefits. In a series of studies, scientists found that when people swap their concrete confines for a few hours in more natural surroundings — forests, parks and other places with plenty of trees — they experience increased immune function.

Stress reduction is one factor. But scientists also chalk it up to phytoncides, the airborne chemicals that plants emit to protect them from rotting and insects and which also seem to benefit humans.

One study published in January included data on 280 healthy people in Japan, where visiting nature parks for therapeutic effect has become a popular practice called “Shinrin-yoku,” or “forest bathing.” On one day, some people were instructed to walk through a forest or wooded area for a few hours, while others walked through a city area. On the second day, they traded places. The scientists found that being among plants produced “lower concentrations of cortisol, lower pulse rate, and lower blood pressure,” among other things.

A number of other studies have shown that visiting parks and forests seems to raise levels of white blood cells, including one in 2007 in which men who took two-hour walks in a forest over two days had a 50-percent spike in levels of natural killer cells. And another found an increase in white blood cells that lasted a week in women exposed to phytoncides in forest air.

THE BOTTOM LINE   

According to studies, exposure to plants and trees seems to benefit health.


Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/06/health/06real.html

Charles Crispin: Analyzing billing issues and preventing hospital overcharges

Charles Crispin Image credit:wbur.org

As if being confined in a hospital isn’t difficult enough, patients and their families still have to brave the sight of the medical bills. Fortunately, Charles Crispin’s job as an expert in managed care reinsurance and healthcare economics prevents clients from becoming victims of hospital overcharging.

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Crispin serves as senior vice president at Evergreen Re, one of the largest healthcare consulting firms in America that offers a vast gamut of financial solutions, including reinsurance and insurance risk management, accountable care organization solutions, and network access solutions. One of the renowned services of the firm is its hospital bill review which utilizes a proven system of audit to obtain the most accurate fiduciary results. It’s the firm’s mission to guard patients’ best interest and maintain a culture of fairness, which is why it devotes so much time in examining disputed medical bills and coding errors.

Charles Crispin Image credit:insurancethoughtleadership.com

Charles Crispin would likely associate medical overcharges with the lack of standardization in hospital pricing. This discrepancy gives healthcare providers the freedom to inflate medical fees in one way or another to compensate for their losses associated with the economy under strain. While living on a tight budget, people can’t help but see red over the epidemic of phony medical services, questionable fees, and incorrect billing. Since the plans to heighten the advocacy for cost-effective and high quality medical bill review appear to fall through, patients can rely on Evergreen Re to provide them with the best and most reliable hospital bill assessment.

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Charles Crispin on “Pulp Fiction”: Reeling in the glory of ‘90s pop culture

Charles Crispin has an overt preference for the works of director Quentin Tarantino, and undeniably so. Whenever someone asks him to list down his favorite films, these two top the list: Inglourious Basterds (2009) and Pulp Fiction (1994). While both are critically acclaimed, Pulp Fiction remains to be Tarantino’s best reviewed and most popular among his masterpieces.

Charles Crispin. Image Credit: imdb.com

Considered as one of the most influential films of the ‘90s, Pulp Fiction is famous for its stylized direction, unconventional plot structure, and recurrent cultural references, albeit it is the latter element that has elevated it to its current cult status. The film is a veritable hodge-podge of classic cinematic references that is hewn in seven sections, chronologically disarranged.

Charles Crispin. Image Credit: imdb.com

It is this never-before-seen cinematic oddity that manages to hook long-time fans like Charles Crispin into faithful followership.

The most famous example is the dance competition scene featuring lead stars John Travolta and Uma Thurman. It is purportedly a homage to Jean-Luc Goddard’s film, Bande à part, which incidentally is also the namesake of Tarantino’s production company.

Several other film bits have been found to be homage to directors such as Stanley Kubrick, Alfred Hitchcock, Francois Truffaut, and Robert Aldrich—all of whom have influenced Tarantino in one way or another.

Although it primarily capitalized on the prevalent pop culture of previous generations, the movie eventually went on to become a distinct pop culture phenomenon altogether. As Ken Dancyger put it, its imitative yet innovative style represents “a new phenomenon, the movie whose style is created from the context of movie life rather than real life.”

It’s no wonder that even after 18 years, it still continues to captivate generations upon generations of movie geeks the world over.

Charles Crispin. Image Credit: imdb.com

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Charles Crispin: Delving in the intricacies of managed care reinsurance

Charles Crispin’s name has almost become synonymous to “managed care.” With over a decade of experience in the healthcare industry, it’s hard to see why not. From 1997 to 2010, Mr. Crispin was affiliated with Evergreen Re, one of the largest and most comprehensive brokers of managed care reinsurance.

Charles Crispin. Image Credit: flickr.com/photos/goulao

Managed care reinsurers use dynamic, actuarially tested risk analyses to provide health plans, physician groups, and health management organizations (HMOs) essential information and premium services and solutions to serve as protection from ruinous claims and financial downturn. Reinsurers also align nicely with a health plan’s interest in minimizing its reinsurance premium increases through effective medical management, always striving to achieve best patient outcomes.

Managed care reinsurers, like Charles Crispin, have also taken healthcare farther by including services that help small and medium health plans control the cost of the most expensive cases.

Charles Crispin. Image Credit: flickr.com/photos/harwig

One way to have this done is by helping HMO clients manage potentially costly cases so that reinsurers can help reduce their own risk. HMO reinsurers try to lower the risk by offering medical management expertise, usually at little or no extra cost.

But more than the amount of reduced risk is the high quality of outcome that results from the recommended options. Reinsurers, as a rule, would not suggest anything that does not promote a favorable outcome. Since solutions, no matter how short-term, are always seen in the context of long-term results, then much deliberation is being conducted prior to effecting any action. As a result, incentives are very much aligned to the healthcare goals for the patient.

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