How Healthcare Works, LLC

Millions of Americans are waiting with bated breath to see what will happen with the unemployment supplement provided during the coronavirus pandemic. However, the supplement end date has passed and no new legislation extending or even modifying the supplement has been enacted. As such, those millions of unemployed workers who were depending on their unemployment benefits to get them through the virus are now scrambling and flooding the job market. Without a doubt, possibly millions of resumes will be sent out this week in hopes of alleviating the financial pressure Americans are feeling this week.  If you are one of those Americans looking for a job, I would like to provide you with some useful tips so you only apply for jobs for which you are qualified. I know, there are stories about people sending out mass resumes and blanket resumes to companies, and they land jobs. However, in reality, those stories are rare. During my healthcare administration career, I have reviewed poss...

Okay, I'm sure you read the title of this post and thought I was going to say something about doing your research for papers or presentations. Or, you might have thought I meant to do your research before you post randomwebsite.com latest COVID-19 news on social media. No. That's not what I am talking about. Do your research on yourself. After all, part of what How Healthcare Works is about is personal and professional leadership development. 1. Google Yourself. I remember when I first started "Googling" myself. Actually, "Google" wasn't even around then. We were still calling the internet the "worldwide web," and I probably used Netscape or Internet Explorer to conduct my web search. But, the thing to do, just for fun, was to search your name and see if it came up anywhere. And, my name did...here and there. I thought it was cool, and I didn't think too much of it. As time went on, my name appeared more and more. Now, that I have a pret...

I'm going to throw some facts out at you and let you digest them. Please know that I am aware that I have primarily only included two racial/ethnic groups in this post. That is intentional on my part. If you would like a post with similar information regarding a different racial/ethnic group, I would be happy to do so at a later date.  Government Assistance Whites without a college degree (less than an associate's degree) are the largest racial/ethnic group recipients of government assistance programs.   *40% of Medicaid recipients are white. In 20 states, over half of the recipients are white.  *21% of Medicaid recipients are black. In Washington, D.C., and 2 states, Louisiana and Mississippi, over half of the recipients are black.  *32.7% of TANF (Temporary Assistance for Needy Families) recipients are white. In 16 states, over half of the recipients are white. *31.0% of TANF (Temporary Assistance for Needy Families) recipients are black. In 17 states, over ha...

In this post, I am going to teach you how to use a process improvement and problem-solving tool. It is called "idea mapping." Some people may call this brainstorming, but it actually goes a bit further than brainstorming. Idea mapping is about getting your usable, real ideas, goals, and areas for improvement down on paper, and then applying an actual process for how you are going to achieve those goals. You are basically going to go from a jumbled group of goals to the finish line of a completed goal. For my example idea map, I picked "Move to a New City." I chose this one because it's that time of year when a lot of students just graduated from college, and now they are looking for a new adventure. Or, maybe they found their first big job and they are going to have to move. Maybe you have a family, and you have to move somewhere with your family. Maybe after all of this business with COVID-19, you have decided you really want to move away from where you live...

When applying for a new position, the qualifications or position requirements may say, "bachelor's degree, five years experience, master's degree preferred, or demonstration of progressively responsible experience." What is progressively responsible experience, anyway? Progressively responsible experience basically means you "climbed up the ladder." In each position, you should have gained more responsibilities than in the last. A good rule of thumb is at least a 20% increase in responsibility or a 10-20% increase in salary. Those two things do not always necessarily coincide. Here are items that demonstrate progressive responsibility. 1. Increase in the number of job duties. Many frontline positions start off with one primary job duty. The more job duties you have, the more things for which you are responsible. For example, a patient access clerk is primarily responsible for registering patients. However, imagine that the person receives a position as an...

Even though I was in sports when I was younger, I never considered myself much of a runner. I remember running around the edges of the softball field for both softball and tennis and doing oh, so many line drills. I even was in track in 7th grade. In college, I played soccer, and we had to run several miles a week. I was so self-conscious about my running, that I ran at night so no one would see me. I didn't feel self-conscious about walking, though. Interestingly, perhaps purposefully, I lived right near many walking trails. Watching so many other people walking by and enjoying the trails made me want to walk and enjoy the trails as well. I don't know how far I walked and for how many years. I would guess I averaged about 5 miles a day everywhere I lived. In 1997, I bought the book, "The Wish List" by Barbara Ann Kipfer, which I basically use as my life list. (I love this book so much that I have gifted it to several other people.) One of the things in the book ...

We are in the midst of the coronavirus crisis right now. And, I have been posting a lot on social media and talking a lot about public health. My first job in healthcare was about 24 years ago, in 1996. I started off as a medical records clerk in a family practice clinic in Nebraska. In case you don't know, medical records back then weren't electronic. It was all paper. Literally, I was a paper shuffler, all day every day. I didn't care for it that much and was deciding between continuing to work at the clinic and becoming a history and government teacher. I had a B.A. in History and a Secondary Education Endorsement from Graceland University and had my teaching license. The clinic administrator met with me one day and asked if I would still try to become a teacher if I was given a promotional transfer to be a medical transcriptionist at the clinic. I said no. I was going to get a raise and was going to make more than substitute teachers made (back then I believe subs ma...