My Mom has a wonderful way of dispelling fear, anxiety and trouble with just a few words. I guess when you make it to 82 (don’t tell her I told you how old she is!), you pick up a few things along the way.
About things in the future that could be problematic: “Don’t borrow trouble! Today has enough!” Read more
It was the best of times, it was the worst of times in the Bertaut household, and, oddly enough, both times were happening simultaneously.
On Wednesday, Oct. 7, I started feeling a bit puny. Sinus-y and a little fuzzy around the brain. Over the next couple of days, those symptoms stayed about the same and I started feeling fatigued. On Saturday, Oct. 10, my daughter, who lives with us, started feeling bad and had a fever. She got tested for COVID-19. Her result was positive. My wife and I decided to go get tested. I was positive; she was negative. Read more
In the data world, we always have options. Sometimes, way too many options.
As COVID-19 took hold here in March, and we began to see just how serious it was going to be, it became clear that finding strong, reliable data that was EASY TO COMMUNICATE to everyone was going to be a challenge.
After watching some data sources and results get shot down by naysayers, and knowing how important it was going to be to our economic success that the data I presented here via Straight Talk was reliable AND believable, I settled on three main areas of data that I want to track and communicate to you all. I believe these points are strong indicators of how close we are getting to Phase 3. In this post, we will tackle the first one: How many people are COVID-positive and in the hospital? Read more
These things always seem to start simply enough. I was driving to Shreveport one frosty November morning about five years ago to give a speech and spend a couple of days educating folks on health insurance compliance. Just north of Alexandria, I stopped at my favorite barbecue place for lunch. As I was getting out of the car, my back brushed the seat, and I got a pain in my side –a really strong, kind of burning pain. Very unpleasant!
“Getting old is just DELIGHTFUL!” I remember thinking to myself.
Over the next few days, the burning sensation got more painful and started to spread across the middle of my back and around my sides toward my chest. I kept looking in the mirror, expecting to see something, but there was nothing. By the time I got home, it hurt a LOT! What the heck was going on? Read more
I get it, I really do.
Science, as the media reports it, which affects what we hear, see and read, can be inconsistent. Just in my lifetime, the simple hen’s egg has gone from being considered an important part of everyone’s diet, to being considered really, really bad for your diet, then to not so bad and now, back to being considered an important, healthy source of protein again. It’s like “science” can’t make up its mind. So, I get it. It’s confusing to know which reports are “correct.” Read more
As healthcare economist for Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Louisiana, I figure my job looks pretty mundane to most people. Above all things, my job is studying, understanding, reporting and predicting, in that order.
I spend the vast majority of my time reading. Over the past 15 years, I’ve cultivated sources via journals, email blasts, Twitter, LinkedIn and blogs that help me keep track of trends in healthcare and our economy, both here in Louisiana and nationally, if I think it has ramifications for our state.
The real key to my process is to quickly identify things that could affect all of us, and our healthcare in Louisiana. Read more
