Some of WellPoint's Owners (Stockholders) Allege Their Hired Executives Hid Political Contributions

We have frequently had reason to question the actions of WellPoint, the second largest for-profit health insurance company/ managed care organization in the US. 

Hidden Political Contributions

The Washington Post reported yet another one,

Health insurance giant WellPoint is the latest target of an increasingly aggressive campaign to force disclosure of corporate political and lobbying expenditures, including payments to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, which has become more active in elections over the past decade.

The WellPoint campaign, set to be formally announced Thursday by a coalition of activist investor groups, demands the resignation of two WellPoint board members, including Susan Bayh, the wife of former senator Evan Bayh (D-Ind.), for allegedly failing to oversee 'high risk political spending.'

The shareholder coalition cited WellPoint’s reluctance to answer questions about a transfer of $86 million from the health insurers trade association to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce in 2010, when the Chamber was actively opposing President Obama’s health-care overhaul. WellPoint is a member of the association, America’s Health Insurance Plans.

'This is the most egregious clandestine campaign funding we have ever seen,' said Michael Pryce-Jones of the CtW Investment Group, a labor-affiliated organization that is part of the shareholders’ coalition, referring to the payments from the trade association to the Chamber of Commerce.

However,

At WellPoint, officials dismissed the notion that the company has been secretive about its political giving. On the contrary, spokeswoman Kristin Binns said, the firm discloses a great deal on its Web site.

'WellPoint complies with all disclosure requirements under federal, state and local laws,' she said, noting that the company publishes a 'very extensive' annual report on its political contributions.

But,

That report does not include details of the sort of special payment that the shareholders coalition said WellPoint made to the health insurers association.

So, to summarize, WellPoint management is accused of spending tens of millions on political lobbying while hiding the spending from the public and from the company's nominal owners, that is, its stock-holders, by laundering it through a third party.

WellPoint's Sorry Ethical Record

This is just the latest questionable behavior by WellPoint we have discussed. Previously, we have noted incidents in which the company  ...
 

• settled a RICO (racketeer influenced corrupt organization) law-suit in California over its alleged systematic attempts to withhold payments from physicians (see 2005 post here).
• subsidiary New York Empire Blue Cross and Blue Shield misplaced a computer disc containing confidential information on 75,000 policy-holders (see 2007 story here).
• California Anthem Blue Cross subsidiary cancelled individual insurance policies after their owners made large claims (a practices sometimes called rescission).  The company was ordered to pay a million dollar fine in early 2007 for this (see post here).  A state agency charged that some of these cancellations by another WellPoint subsidiary were improper (see post here).  WellPoint was alleged to have pushed physicians to look for patients' medical problems that would allow rescission (see post here).  It turned out that California never collected the 2007 fine noted above, allegedly because the state agency feared that WellPoint had become too powerful to take on (see post here). But in 2008, WellPoint agreed to pay more fines for its rescission practices (see post here).  In 2009, WellPoint executives were defiant about their continued intention to make rescission in hearings before the US congress (see post here).
• California Blue Cross subsidiary allegedly attempted to get physicians to sign contracts whose confidentiality provisions would have prevented them from consulting lawyers about the contracts (see 2007 post here).
• formerly acclaimed CFO was fired for unclear reasons, and then allegations from numerous women of what now might be called Tiger Woods-like activities surfaced (see post here).
• announced that its investment portfolio was hardly immune from the losses prevalent in late 2008 (see post here).
• was sanctioned by the US government in early 2009 for erroneously denying coverage to senior patients who subscribed to its Medicare drug plans (see 2009 post here).
• settled charges that it had used a questionable data-base (builty by Ingenix, a subsidiary of ostensible WellPoint competitor UnitedHealth) to determine fees paid to physicians for out-of-network care (see 2009 post here). 
• violated state law more than 700 times over a three-year period by failing to pay medical claims on time and misrepresenting policy provisions to customers, according to the California health insurance commissioner (see 2010 post here).
• exposed confidential data from about 470,000 patients (see 2010 post here) and settled the resulting lawsuit in 2011 (see post here).
• fired a top executive who publicly apologized for the company's excessively high charges (see 2010 post here).
• California Anthem subsidiary was fined for systematically failing to make fair and timely payments to doctors and hospitals (see 2010 post here).

Yet despite this amazing recent record, WellPoint's top executives continue to prosper.  Earlier this month the Indianapolis Star reported that WellPoint Chair and CEO Angela,

Braly, 50, received 2011 compensation valued at $13.2 million, according to an Associated Press analysis of the Indianapolis company's annual proxy statement. That represents a 2 percent drop compared with 2010.

Braly, who has served as CEO for nearly five years, received a $1.1 million salary in 2011, a total that has stayed flat since 2008. Her compensation also included a performance-related bonus of nearly $1.9 million, stock and option awards totaling about $10 million and $216,279 in other compensation.

While her compensation dropped 2%,

WellPoint's earnings fell in the final three quarters of last year compared with 2010, capped by a 39 percent drop in the fourth quarter. In total, the insurer's earnings sank 8 percent compared with 2010.

The compensation above did not take into account that

Braly also made about $6.9 million last year mostly from previously awarded restricted stock units that had vested.

Summary

WellPoint CEO Angela Braly, like many of her fellow top hired managers of health care organizations, has become more wealthy every year despite her company's record of questionable conduct, and out of proportion to her company's financial results.

Based on illusory promises of greater efficiency that would benefit everyone, we have handed health care over to large, increasingly for-profit organizations, and we have handed control over these organizations to hired managers. We have made these managers accountable to no one, so they seem to run their organizations to benefit themselves first. Is it any surprise that organizations run to benefit top insiders do not much benefit patients' or the public's health?

Maybe the campaign by some of WellPoint's nominal owners to at least make what the company pays to influence politics transparent is a tiny first step to making the leadership of health care organizations accountable both to the organizations' owners (when they exist) and to patients and the public at large. Until they become so accountable, do not expect any improvements in health care cost, quality or access.

#communitysport blog: Steve Perks

Our latest blog in our Community Sport series comes from Steve Perks. Originally from Llanelli, Steve Perks became Welsh National Event Coach for Sprints and Relays in 1990 and was Head Coach (Athletics) at the Commonwealth Games Victoria Canada 1994.

Under his stewardship, in 1998, the British relay squad became the first team to win the European title in Budapest a feat they repeated in Munich (1999 & 2003) four years later. At the World Championships they achieved two Silver medals establishing a new British and European Record at Seville 1999. Then 2004 saw the ultimate achievement for the team – winning Olympic gold in Athens.

2004 Athens Olympic relay gold medallist Darren Campbell

I began to compete for the Boys Brigade and realised that I enjoyed the races and went from there to secondary school and developed.

I had very supportive parents and other people who were willing to give me their time - coaches and teachers.

School sport is instrumental in giving young people an opportunity to participate, experience and compete, hopefully in a range of different sports.

Clubs in the main can develop the interests further by giving either a greater competitive aspect or different experiences.

The main issue is to get young people enthused about the worth of keeping healthy and that there are a host of different ways in enabling this to happen, whether it is on an individual basis, within a group of people or whether within a team based sport.

Getting involved is so easy and so rewarding. When you are asked to get involved - do so; you never know where it can lead!

This blog was written in conjunction with the launch of a strategy for Community Sport in Wales.  If you’d like your say, get involved in the debate on twitter – using the hashtag #communitysport and you can mention us @sport_wales

#communitysport blog – Kelly Davies, Vi-Ability

Our latest blog in our Community Sport series comes from Kelly Davies. Kelly is an ex-international football player with 36 caps for Wales who has also played for Arsenal and Liverpool Ladies. She is also the youngest woman to obtain an MBA in the Football Industries.

During her studies, the idea came to her for a social business that could tackle the issues of commercially unsustainable football clubs and youth disengagement in education. Vi-Ability was born.

Kelly Davies founder of football social enterprise Vi-Ability

For me, community sport means doing two things: (1) Providing participative sports opportunities for all members of the community regardless of their age, gender, ethnicity, ability or social status; and (2) Broadening the scope of that sporting activity to include educative/sport initiatives, social inclusion/cohesion projects and other community related activities.

In my opinion, the two have to go hand in hand and be done in an innovative/ entrepreneurial way for community sport to become financially self-sustainable in the long term, and to be given the opportunity to thrive – something which is of paramount importance to attract interest and get people hooked for life; particularly from those individuals who have historically struggled with motivation towards sports and would hysterically laugh at you if you asked them to join a fitness class because they thought it was a joke. 

Two problems, which I knew existed, spurred me on - Well three if you include my Dad telling me - in the politest possible way - at the age of 21 that I needed to get an alternative career because I wouldn’t earn enough as a footballer and he wouldn’t keep paying for his little princess for the rest of his life.

The first problem was the alarming number of football clubs threatened by or going into administration. In the simplest terms, football clubs go into administration because they do not operate like a business. In my opinion key people at the club make irrational decisions with their money. Instead of investing in a commercial director - to improve the business side of things through the maximisation of current income streams, and the discovery of alternative sources of revenue - football chairmen get seduced by the promises of football managers that buying another decent centre back and forward will turn the club’s fortunes around. Yet the reality is nothing can be guaranteed. For example, what happens if the new players get injured in the first game?

The second problem was the rising number of young people not in education, employment or training. For me, this was an even bigger concern as it was an enormous waste of a young person’s potential and the positive contribution they could make to their community and the economy. 

I felt I had solutions to both of these problems…and came up with the idea of Vi-Ability.

At the moment, because training and supported employment (i.e. apprenticeship schemes) within the sports industry is predominantly focused on promoting instructor qualifications and careers - most individuals the Vi-Ability project will look to engage will have a misconception that ‘if they aren’t a football player or football coach’ they won’t find a job in the industry. The reality is very different!

Whilst on programme with us, individuals are given an in-depth insight into the varied job opportunities that exist within a football club. Participants don’t just shadow existing employees within operational departments - they actually carry out specific responsibilities in order to acquire valuable experience and gain greater understanding of job expectations. For example, if they are running an enterprising activity they have to project manage it. This helps participants to gain transferrable skills, such as planning and delegation that will help them compete in an ever-changing labour market in the future.

Because of its innovative nature, we believed that it was of paramount importance to get the programme accredited so there was a) recognition for the individuals completing the work; and b) protection of the intellectual property. This soon happened, and we now have a customized BTEC in Football Industries award, certificate and diploma. We have exclusive delivery rights and can now generate sales from it. 

All the people that have enrolled on one of our courses (which now includes one lady of 82 years) have changed their life in a positive way through sport to varying degrees. For example; some may have just developed confidence or increased their self-esteem, some may have made conscious healthy life style changes or become better parents or neighbours, whilst others have gained employment. Last year alone, we helped 56 individuals gain jobs, which is absolutely fantastic!

The Vi-Ability programme has been designed so that every few weeks an activity will be undertaken to add value to both the participant and the local community. An example, that best demonstrates this is recently a young group of participants were asked to design, plan and run a project for the community that helps address a social, health, or educational issue. They decided to run a ‘late night football’ project. This activity not only helped the participants to improve their ability to coach youngsters with challenging attitudes and behaviours, but it adds value for the community in that it ‘keeps kids off the street’, which helps tackle antisocial behaviour and makes residents feel safer.

I’ve managed to galvanise the community and bring lots of partners together by creating a friendly atmosphere and offering lots of cakes and biscuits! No on a serious note…it’s by being open and involving staff, volunteers, members of the community and other organisations in what we do and plan to do in the future. We’ve recently achieved the ‘investors in people’ mark for this.

Follow Kelly, and Vi-Ability, on Twitter @Vi_Ability

This blog was written in conjunction with the launch of a strategy for Community Sport in Wales.  If you’d like your say, get involved in the debate on twitter – using the hashtag #communitysport and you can mention us @sport_wales

today is a wordless wednesday b/c i'm still not 100%....except have you seen amber's pillow collection??  it's awesome!!  ok- off to recover.

*images courtesy of blushing apples, laurie perez, amber interior design

Al Khawarizmi, si Penemu Angka Nol dan Aljabar

Unik Informatika - Dunia Barat boleh mengklaim bahwa mereka adalah kawasan sumber ilmu pengetahuan. Namun sejatinya, yang menjadi Gudang Ilmu Pengetahuan adalah kawasan Timur Tengah (kawasan Arab maksudnya, bukan Jawa Timur-Jawa Tengah). Mesopotamia, peradaban tertua dunia ada di kawasan ini juga.

Masyarakat dunia sangat mengenal Leonardo Fibonacci sebagai ahli matematika aljabar. Namun, dibalik kedigdayaan Leonardo Fibonacci sebagai ahli matematika aljabar ternyata hasil pemikirannya sangat dipengaruhi oleh ilmuwan Muslim bernama Muhammad bin Musa Al Khawarizmi. Dia adalah seorang tokoh yang dilahirkan di Khiva (Iraq) pada tahun 780. Jika kaum terpelajar lebih mengenal para ahli matematika Eropa, maka kaum biasa juga mengenal ilmuwan Muslim yang menjadi rujukan para ahli matematika tersebut. 

Selain ahli dalam matematika al-Khawarizmi, yang kemudian menetap di Qutrubulli (sebalah barat Bagdad), juga seorang ahli geografi, sejarah dan juga musik. Karya-karyanya dalam bidang matematika dimaktub dalam Kitabul Jama wat Tafriq dan Hisab al-Jabar wal Muqabla. Inilah yang menjadi rujukan para ilmuwan Eropa termasuk Leonardo Fibonacce serta Jacob Florence.

Muhammad bin Musa Al Khawarizmi inilah yang menemukan angka 0 (nol) yang hingga kini dipergunakan. Apa jadinya coba jika angka 0 (nol) tidak ditemukan coba? Selain itu, dia juga berjasa dalam ilmu ukur sudut melalui fungsi sinus dan tanget, persamaan linear dan kuadrat serta kalkulasi integrasi (kalkulus integral). Tabel ukur sudutnya (Tabel Sinus dan Tangent) adalah yang menjadi rujukan tabel ukur sudut saat ini.

al-Khawarizmi juga seorang ahli ilmu bumi. Karyanya Kitab Surat Al Ard menggambarkan secara detail bagian-bagian bumi. CA Nallino, penterjemah karya al-Khawarizmi ke dalam bahasa Latin, menegaskan bahwa tak ada seorang Eropa pun yang dapat menghasilkan karya seperti al-Khawarizmi ini.

sumber : forum indowebster

Azab Allah kepada Yahudi Laknatillah

Unik Informatika - Siapa tak kenal dengan salah seorang pemimpin durjana dunia Israel yang satu ketika dulu semasa pemerintahannya melakukan banyak kerusakan dan kezaliman ke atas bumi Allah Palestina. Pembunuhan, penyembelihan, penindasan dan bermacam macam lagi kekejaman tentera Israel Laknatullah dibawah arahan beliau. Dan sekarang, Ariel Sharon menerima akibatnya. Petunjuk dari Allah tentang kekuasaanya yang tidak boleh ditandingi siapapun. Ariel Sharon kini umpama mayat hidup atau “Mumi hidup” yang bernyawa tetapi “mati”

Tubuh Sharon Membusuk Sedangkan Ia Masih Hidup.

Diberitakan bahawa para doktor di Hospital Hadasa telah memasukkan Ariel Sharon (Bekas PM Israel yang Yahudi)ke ruang operasi untuk dilakukan pembedahan. Ia memiliki luka membusuk dan tidak sadarkan diri selama beberapa minggu.

Operasi tersebut dilakukan untuk menyambung bahagian-bahagian ususnya yang telah membusuk dan telah menyebar ke bahagian tubuh lain.

Demikianlah kita saksikan keadaan musuh Allah Subhanahu Wata’ala dan musuh islam yang gemar menumpahkan darah. 

Penyumbatan yang terjadi di otaknya menyebabkan kerusakan di sekujur tubuh.

Ini sebagai akibat penindasannya terhadap umat Muhammad Shalallahualaihi wassalam yang berlangsung terus menerus siang dan malam. Akhirnya ia menderita kelumpuhan di seluruh tubuhnya dan tidak bisa menggerakkannya walaupun hanya menggerakkan mata. Dialah yang memimpin para tentara untuk menyerang Sinai dan Lebanon . ia juga yang menyembelih para tawanan Mesir. Saat ini ia tidak sadar sama sekali dan tidak mengetahui sekelilingnya.

Akhirnya Allah Subhanahu Wata’ala memperlihatkan kepada kita keadaan thaghut yang suka menumpahkan darah ini dengan ayat-ayat Allah Subhanahu Wata’ala yang agung, yaitu membusuknya jasad sedangkan ia masih hidup. Demikianlah, mereka (para doktor) akan mengamputasi anggota tubuhnya satu demi satu hingga terakhir sedangkan ia masih hidup. Benarlah firman Allah SubhanahuWata’ala :”Kami akan memperlihatkan kepada mereka tanda-tanda (kekuasaan) Kami di segenap ufuk dan pada diri mereka sendiri, sehingga jelaslah bagi mereka bahwa al-Qur’an itu benar “(Fushilat:53)

Dia telah koma selama 4 tahun dan doktor doktor mengatakan dia akan terus koma sehingga umur 90 tahun dan tidak mati. Begitulah siksa dunia yang Allah tunjukkan . Belum lagi siksa akhirat. Dan dikatakan berat Ariel Sharon semakin menyusut dan dikatakan berat sekarang cuma kira kira 15 Kilogram. Jika benar, maka ia satu siksaan yang nyata dan pedih didunia.

Kenapa kita perlu benci terhadap kelakuan Sharon laknatullah?

1. Bayangkan sharon mengambil seorang bayi daripada ibunya dan dilempar bayi itu ke dinding.

2. Bayangkan seorang gadis berusia 10 tahun yang dirogol dengan kejam dan akhirnya matanya telah diambil.

3. Bayangkan sekumpulan keluarga, disuruh beratur depan rumah, dan ditembak.

4. Bayangkan wanita hamil, dirogol, dengan kaki terbuka luas, dan akhirnya perut wanita dihiris, meninggalkan perempuan ini ke dalam kematian berdarah bersama kandungannya.

Dan semua mangsa itu adalah umat Islam Palestin yg ditindas Ariel Sharon.

Lihatlah betapa zalimnya yahudi!!!

Android HD Wallpaper Free Download

Unik Informatika - Keindahan akan sesuatu itu tidak bisa disangkal akan luar biasa pengaruhnya, lebih-lebih pada suatu benda yang mereka sayangi, jika anda pengagum berat mesin pintar atau komputer, keindahan dan kerapian isi dalam suatu komputer sangat berpengaruh bagi anda, termasuk saya. Anda bisa liat di category Wallpaper di blog ini.

Start Orb, Wallpaper, Icons, Theme, dan lain-lain. Kali ini saya mempunyai Android HD Wallpaper Editions yang saya bagi menjadi 2 part yang saya kumpulkan dari berbagai sumber yang saya rangkum ke dalam sebuah winrar. 

Jika anda ingin menunduh, saya sudah siapkan link pengunduhannya melalui Indowebster, biar proses download lancar gan ! hehe

Android HD Wallpaper Download Link :

Jika sobat Unika mempunyai keluhan, bisa di komen di bawah ini atau join ke fans page kami disini!
Tunggu update Wallpaper berikutnya di posting kami berikutnya !

Kaskus HD Wallpaper Free Download

Unik Informatika - Keindahan akan sesuatu itu tidak bisa disangkal akan luar biasa pengaruhnya, lebih-lebih pada suatu benda yang mereka sayangi, jika anda pengagum berat mesin pintar atau komputer, keindahan dan kerapian isi dalam suatu komputer sangat berpengaruh bagi anda, termasuk saya.

Start Orb, Wallpaper, Icons, Theme, dan lain-lain. Kali ini saya mempunyai Kaskus HD Wallpaper Editions yang saya bagi menjadi 2 part yang saya kumpulkan dari berbagai sumber yang saya rangkum ke dalam sebuah winrar. 

Jika anda ingin menunduh, saya sudah siapkan link pengunduhannya melalui Indowebster, biar proses download lancar gan ! hehe

Kaskus HD Wallpaper Download Link :

Jika sobat Unika mempunyai keluhan, bisa di komen di bawah ini atau join ke fans page kami disini!
Tunggu update Wallpaper berikutnya di posting kami berikutnya !

Tips Mengatasi Keygen dan Patch yang Bervirus

Unik Informatika - Keygen, Crack dan Patch adalah tiga buah kata yang sangat berhubungan dengan kehidupan software dalam peradaban kita saat ini, karena tanpa itu mungkin kita tidak dapat menikmati software-software mahal yang menyediakan layanan lebih jika teraktivasi menjadi pro dan ada juga software yang memang tidak bisa kita nikmati tanpa proses aktivasi, sungguh sakit bukan? apabila kita telah mendownload nya dalam jumlah ukuran cukup besar lebih dari 500 MB lah kira-kira, bagaimana perasaaan anda?

Kalau ditanya saya sih, pasti sakit kan? yaiya lah sakit, soalnya kita udah rela ke wi-fi ambil bandwidth orang, hehhee ! Bukan masalah download yang akan saya bahas pada posting saya kali ini melainkan sebuah trik yang menggunakan sebuah software bernama SandBoxie atau dalam bahasa Indonesia disebut kotak pasir, untuk apa software tersebut? Sandboxie adalah sebuah software yang berfungsi sebagai alternatif untuk menjalankan Keygen atau Patch/Crack yang bervirus, untuk bisa kita mamfaatkan.

Menarik bukan? Cekidot cara penggunaannya :

Untuk Keygen berVirus :

1. Download Software Sandboxie, link nya sudah saya sediakan pada tombol 'download' diakhir postingan ini.

2. Setelah didownload, kemuadian Install dan Jalankan aplikasi ini.

3. Matikan antivirus anda untuk sementara.

4. Kemudian klik kanan pada file keygen yang ingin dijalankan kemudian pilih Run Sunboxed.

5. Kemudian yang terakhir adalah pilih DefaultBox.

6. Keygen berVirus sudah siap dihidangkan.

Untuk Patch berVirus :

1. Download Software Sandboxie, link nya sudah saya sediakan pada tombol 'download' diakhir postingan ini.

2. Setelah didownload, kemuadian Install dan Jalankan aplikasi ini.

3. Copy file patcher ke folder software yang ingin anda krack.

4. Kemudian klik kana pada folder software tersebut dan pilih Run SandBoxed.

5. Setelah folder muncul, lakukan patch seperti biasa.

6. Setelah proses patch selesai, masuk ke SandBoxie Control, bisa diakses melalui systemtray ada icon berwarna kuning, klik icon itu.

7. Pilih Menu SandBox, kemudian DefaultBox, kemudian pilih Quick Recovery dan klik tombol Add Folder dan arahkan ke folder software tadi.

8. Setelah itu akan muncul file hasil patch, kemudian anda bisa mengklik tombol Recover to Any Folder.

9. Selesai...Mudah kan?

SandBoxie Download Link :

Hanya ini saja penjelasan saya pada tutor 'Tips Mengatasi Keygen dan Patch yang Bervirus' kali ini...

Wassalam, terima kasih untuk kunjungan nya sobat UniKa...! :D