Aetna’s presentation at an investor conference addressed the acquisition of Coventry and provided just a bit of insight into their plans for workers comp…

Here’s what CFO Joe Zubretsky  – who some have said is “no fan of workers’ comp) said…

“The second point I would make — so there is specialty revenue. The second point I would make is, and we didn’t count this as well, but I’m quite excited about it, because it’s been a vision of ours for many, many years, to unlock the value of workforce optimization by combining the skills of long-term disability, health care, and workers compensation. And when you think about it, all of those three lines of business and coverages intersect with the healthcare system, and somebody is not at their desk every day.

With this morning’s post, we’ve moved to WordPress as the publishing platform.  We’ve also updated the look and feel of MCM to make it a bit “sleeker”, easier to navigate, and more user-friendly.  Julie Ferguson and Chris Miller (boss at Artefact Design) have done all the work; I just write the checks (and the posts).

MCM has been around for eight years now, a lifetime in the brave new world of social media.  Over those years, we’ve published 2471 posts, all accessible via the search function on the home page (yup, kept my unfortunately wrong ones too; Rob Gelb you haven’t been forgotten).

We’re up to 3471 subscribers (after cleaning up the list a bit) and average around 1700 readers a day (with pretty wide swings).

Couple things worth noting

What is ‘publishable’

Folks either are a) eager to get their name/company/new product-customer-idea published in MCM or b) anything but.  Many of my conversations with industry execs start with “this is confidential, right?”  The answer is always “Yes”.  I could not survive in the consulting world if my clients feared they’d appear on MCM (without their express approval).

At the other end of the spectrum, I am often approached by people eager to use MCM to get some publicity.  Mostly, I gracefully decline (ok, sometimes not so gracefully).  Occasionally the approach is professional enough, and the ‘thing’ topical enough, that it merits publication.

MCM ‘attitude’
Every now and then I get myself into a bit of hot water (sometimes an ocean’s worth) over a post, a characterization within a post, or an honest mistake. I’ll continue to retract and apologize for errors. I will also continue to opine assertively when I think the issue merits assertive opining. When I hear something that’s newsworthy, I’ll post it (after verifying thru at least two sources). And of course you can always rely on MCM to debunk stories, press releases, and flat out BS, with the tone and histrionics directly in proportion to my level of outrage.

Comment policy
You would not believe the spam comments I get – over a hundred a day, and sometimes two hundred. We’ve tried everything to ensure your comments get thru (even ones I take issue with) while blocking spam; for now I have to review all comments before they go thru. Hopefully this new platform will help.

As always, rants and comments disagreeing with me will not be posted unless opinions are backed by sources cited accurately. That’s not to say I won’t post different opinions; always have and always will.

What’s coming up.

The election season – also known as the Silly Season – is upon us (painful sigh).  My politics are well known (sometimes to my detriment) but I won’t hide my views.  If you don’t like my stance, I’m happy to hear from you – keep it professional and courteous.  If you are tempted to insult, I’d suggest you consider this.

About a year ago, I received a particularly nasty string of emails from someone on the opposite end of the political spectrum calling me, among other things, a commie, socialist, leftist, idiot, liar.  This person’s boss’s boss is also a subscriber and has become a friend – even though he’s also very conservative. He offered to discuss the issue with my antagonist; I declined.

The internet is forever, folks.  Be smart, be professional, be respectful.