Author: Serkadis

Kaiser Health News offers a fresh look at health policy developments with Dwane Powell’s “Woolly Mammoth.”

House Democratic leaders faced an impasse late last week as it became clear that a liberal version of the public option did not have enough support in the caucus.

Roll Call reports that the House Democratic leadership huddled Friday to find a way to move forward — particularly on a public option and its inclusion in the House bill — but “ended without a decision. … Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) had hoped to ‘freeze the design’ of the package last week, but moderate pushback to her preferred approach to the public plan — one that would reimburse doctors and hospitals at rates pegged to Medicare — forced another delay” (Newmyer and Dennis, 10/26).

Politico reports on how the public option feeds into the struggle to get congressional proposals to meet the President’s price tag target. “Costs and the political calendar are catching up with health care reform.
Having bet the farm, President Barack Obama needs a win and is willing to settle for a cheaper bill and a weaker public insurance option. Democrats in Congress, increasingly worried about the 2010 elections, want stronger medicine for fear the reforms will prove to be a house of cards if working-class voters can’t afford the coverage promised.” In the House, Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., “needs the strongest possible public option for the cost control savings it promises,” while Senators face pressures of their own (Rogers, 10/26).

Meanwhile, The Hill reports that urban and rural House Democrats are fighting over the Medicare deal announcement in the House: “A group of Democrats announced the Medicare reimbursement rate agreement Thursday after months of negotiations with Democrats from large cities. Lawmakers from rural areas have long believed the Medicare formula shortchanges their local doctors and hospitals in favor of urban centers” (Allen, 10/24).

The health insurance industry is likely to benefit from a health care overhaul, but industry profits are not as high as many seem to believe.

“As President Obama’s push for a healthcare overhaul moves toward its final act, the oft-vilified health insurance industry is on the verge of seeing a plan enacted that largely protects its financial interests,” The Los Angeles Times reports. Legislation that includes an individual mandate and subsidies for those who can’t afford coverage would mean “millions of new paying customers” for the insurance industry, representing a major lobbying success. “What’s more, there are likely to be no limits on what insurers can charge, while at the same time the plan is expected to limit competition from any new national government insurance plan that lawmakers create.”

“These anticipated wins — from an initiative that has at times been portrayed as doomsday for health insurers — is the result of a strategy developed by one of Washington’s savviest lobbyists, Karen Ignagni.” Many are surprised “that lawmakers have not wrung more from an industry that, surveys show, is held in low regard by the public,” but “[f]or much of the last three years, industry leaders have been laying the groundwork for this battle.” The industry’s push for universal coverage was a shift from the early 1990’s but has allowed them to shape proposed legislation in favor of insurers (Levey and Girion, 10/26).

American Medical News reports that managed care companies are also angling to get a piece of the expanding Medicaid market. Enrollment in Medicaid has swelled, thanks to unemployment rates topping 10% in many states, a trend that also has sent commercial membership diving. … Even under best-case scenarios, the profit margins are more modest for Medicaid than for commercial insurance or Medicare Advantage. But Goldman Sachs investment analyst Matthew Borsch predicts the smaller managed care organizations that specialize in Medicaid will be gobbled up by the big national plans, which want to expand their presence in the growing business without having to start from scratch” (Berry, 10/26).

Meanwhile, The Associated Press reports that health insurance company profits are not as high as many believe. “In the health care debate, Democrats and their allies have gone after insurance companies as rapacious profiteers making ‘immoral’ and ‘obscene’ returns while ‘the bodies pile up.’” But actual profits tell a different story. “Health insurance profit margins typically run about 6 percent, give or take a point or two. That’s anemic compared with other forms of insurance and a broad array of industries, even some beleaguered ones. Profits barely exceeded 2 percent of revenues in the latest annual measure. This partly explains why the credit ratings of some of the largest insurers were downgraded to negative from stable heading into this year, as investors were warned of a stagnant if not shrinking market for private plans” (Woodward, 10/25).

Senate Democrats will need to move quickly if they want to pass some version of health overhaul legislation by the end of the year.

The Associated Press: With “time growing short,”  Senate Democratic leaders “still face key decisions…” In the Senate, that “means deciding whether legislation will give the government a role in the marketplace at all, and if so, what rights individual states would have in deciding whether to participate.” The Senate is weighing its final choices as negotiators work to merge the bills from Senate Finance and from Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committees. The latest talks have focused around getting rid of any mandate on businesses to provide health insurance for their employees (Espo, 10/26).

The Wall Street Journal reports that the Senate’s finalized health bill could be ready as soon as early this week, when the leaders will submit the bill to the Congressional Budget Office for scoring. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid “spent the weekend shoring up support for the bill from Democrats in the chamber. But some key moderate Democrats signaled Sunday that they remain uneasy about main planks of the legislation.” Although some details could change, the “broad outlines are becoming more clear”  (Adamy and Hitt, 10/26).

Politico reports that Sen. Chuck Schumer also believes 60 votes are within sight. But “Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said that Democrats still have work to do in rallying support within their ranks, pointing to last week’s overwhelming vote to strike down a so-called doc fix to Medicare physician reimbursement that would have added nearly $250 billion to the deficit. A group of Democrats crossed party lines on the vote” (Isenstadt, 10/25).

The New York Times: “Several Democratic senators voiced optimism on Sunday that Congress would pass a health care bill containing at least the germ of a government-run insurance program. Their expectations were grudgingly seconded by Senator John McCain, the Republican presidential candidate in 2008. ‘I think the Democrats have the votes, and in the House, Blue Dogs bark but never bite,’ Mr. McCain said on CBS’s ‘Face the Nation,’ using the nickname for conservative Democrats.”  

Democrats who said they see a public plan passing include Sens. Claire McCaskill, of Missouri; Chuck Schumer, of New York; and Russ Feingold, of Wisconsin. Sen. Ben Nelson, D-Neb., said he was willing to look at the proposal if the Senate allows states to opt out of that part of the plan (Berger, 10/25).

CNNMoney: “Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., is poised to proceed with plans to introduce a Senate health care bill with a public health insurance option that would allow states to opt out, a senior aide to Reid told CNN on Sunday. The aide, who did not want to be quoted by name when talking about private deliberations, said a final decision would be made Monday. Reid is likely to make the move without having firm commitments of support from 60 senators, the number needed to break a filibuster, according to the aide” (Bash, 10/26).

Bloomberg: “The Senate is considering a version of the public option that would have to negotiate rates with providers, as private insurers do, likely resulting in higher reimbursements. There are other compromises, including (Maine Republican Sen. Olympia) Snowe’s plan to trigger a public option if there isn’t enough affordable insurance on the market” (Jensen and Litvan, 10/26).

Reuters has a rundown of the different proposals for a public plan in both the Senate and the House including the opt out plan, the trigger plan, a “robust” plan offered in the House, one with negotiated rates and one that would instead set up non-profit cooperatives (Smith, 10/25).

Politico reports that Democrats are trying to make the benefits start by 2010 to sell the plan to the public: “With Republicans expected to make next year a referendum on health care reform, Democrats are quietly lobbying to push up the effective dates on popular programs, so they’ll have something to run on in the congressional midterms. Democrats are anxious to mix the good with the bad since some of the pain would be phased in early, including more than $100 billion in industry fees that critics say could be passed on to consumers.” Billions in new taxes in the plans will already come due in 2010 (Budoff Brown, 10/25).

“Unions representing thousands of teachers and state and local government workers are bracing for the worst if Congress adopts a proposed ‘Cadillac’ tax on health insurance,” Newsday reports. “The 40 percent levy on health care costs above $8,000 for individuals and $21,000 for families passed the Senate Finance Committee on Oct. 13. If the tax were to become law, experts said, government employees in New York would be hit hard because their powerful unions have negotiated benefits that go beyond medical and prescription drug coverage to include, among others, dental and vision.” Although the tax would be paid directly by insurers, they are “expected to pass it along in the form of higher premiums, deductibles and co-pays.” Some state government employees have plans that could fall into the “Cadillac” bracket.

“Supporters of the ‘Cadillac’ tax, proposed to take effect in 2013, said it would act as a brake on runaway health care costs,” but opponents “said people with comprehensive insurance plans would be unfairly pitted against those with lesser ones, in order to pay for coverage for the uninsured” (Madore, 10/25).

Get out your buying wallets because the Palm Pixi is coming to Sprint stores on November 15.

Pricing details are as follows:

It will cost just $99.99 with a two-year service agreement, after a $50 instant rebate and $100 mail-in rebate and be available at Sprint stores, online at www.sprint.com, through telesales at 1-800-SPRINT1, and at Best Buy, RadioShack and select Wal-Mart stores.

To refresh your memory, the Palm Pixi is the second WebOS phone, this time with a Treo-esque keyboard. The current WebOS device, the Pre, now costs $79.

Palm Pixi Available Nov. 15 for just $99.99
Exclusively from Sprint
Application development for Palm webOS devices powered by America’s most dependable 3G network will be a leading topic at Sprint’s Open Developer Conference starting today
OVERLAND PARK, Kan. – Oct. 26, 2009 – Sprint (NYSE: S) today announced Nov. 15 as the first day of nationwide availability for Palm® Pixi™, exclusively available on America’s most dependable 3G network1 from Sprint2. It will cost just $99.99 with a two-year service agreement, after a $50 instant rebate and $100 mail-in rebate and be available at Sprint stores, online at www.sprint.com, through telesales at 1-800-SPRINT1, and at Best Buy, RadioShack and select Wal-Mart stores.
“We are excited to offer the new Palm Pixi to our customers in time for the holiday season, and it’s a great addition to Sprint’s industry-leading device portfolio,” said Kevin Packingham, senior vice president – Product Development, Sprint. “Simply put, this phone is fun and easy to use; with its multi-touch screen and full QWERTY keyboard, it’s a great device for messaging and social networking at a price everyone can enjoy, and delivers so many of the great features people love about Palm Pre™ in a fantastic new form factor, making it a huge hit for consumers.”
Running the Palm webOS™ mobile platform, Palm Pixi lets the user keep multiple activities open and move easily between them, like flipping through a deck of cards, using natural gestures. This allows for easy movement between messaging and email or searching the Web while listening to music, and items are rearranged simply by dragging them. Universal search also makes finding things easy, providing results from both the device and the Web.
Palm webOS brings together the user’s most important information from their phone, at work or on the Web into one logical view. In addition to linking information from Google™, Facebook®, Microsoft® Exchange ActiveSync® and LinkedIn®, Palm Pixi adds Yahoo!® integration to Palm Synergy™3. Palm Synergy offers:
• Linked contacts – A single view that links contacts from a variety of sources, so accessing them is easier than ever.
• Layered calendars – Calendars can be seen on their own or layered together in a single view, combining work, family, friends, sports teams or other interests, and the user can toggle to look at one calendar at a time, or see them all at a glance.
• Combined messaging – See all the conversations with the same person in a chat-style view, including MMS, even if it started in IM and switched to reply with text messaging. The user can also see who’s active in a buddy list right from contacts or email, and start a new conversation with just one touch.
A new Facebook application will be available with Palm Pixi, so users can see and comment on all the latest news from friends and easily update their status. Palm Pixi features an exposed full QWERTY keyboard, multi-touch screen and a durable, removable rubberized back cover.
While Palm Pixi comes with a charger included in the box, Palm recently introduced the Touchstone™ charging dock, the first inductive charging solution for phones. Touchstone, along with the Touchstone compatible back cover (both sold separately), allows Palm Pixi to be set on top of the dock without worrying about connection, orientation or fit. The device remains active while charging, allowing access to the touch screen, movies or video, or the speakerphone option. Touchstone is available in Sprint stores nationwide for $79.99 and includes a Touchstone charger and USB wall charger. The Pixi Touchstone back cover is also available for $19.99 (plus taxes).
Palm Pixi requires activation on a pricing plan including unlimited data, such as Sprint’s Everything Data plans with Any Mobile, AnytimeSM, which give customers unlimited mobile calling on the Sprint network to and from any U.S. wireless carrier, unlimited nationwide texting, email, Web browsing and much more, starting at just $69.99. The Simply EverythingSM plan from Sprint offers a truly unlimited experience for only $99.99 per month, a savings of $1,200 over two years versus a comparable AT&T iPhone® plan4. (All price plans exclude surcharges and taxes. Other exclusions apply.)
Customers who subscribe to an Everything Data plan are also automatically enrolled in Sprint Premier, the industry-leading loyalty program. The Premier program provides customers with great benefits such as annual upgrades, discounts on accessories, anniversary rewards, rate plan checkups and “first to know” information about the latest at Sprint.
Palm Pixi will take advantage of the Sprint Mobile Broadband Network (inclusive of data roaming), which reaches more than 269 million people, 18,652 cities and 1,838 airports. The Sprint Networks (inclusive of data roaming) have more than twice the coverage of AT&T’s current 3G network and more than 15 times the coverage of T-Mobile’s current 3G network, both based on square miles5.
Sprint is also the only wireless carrier to offer Ready Now with trained retail associates to work one-on-one with customers to personalize their Palm Pixi, set up features and demonstrate how it works before the customer leaves the store. Customers have the choice of sitting down with a Sprint retail associate at the time of purchase or they can schedule an appointment for a later time at www.sprint.com/storelocator.
Application developers will have a chance to learn more about Palm webOS at Sprint’s ninth annual developer conference beginning today in Santa Clara, Calif. The Sprint Open Developer Conference is open to all developers and will feature information through speaker sessions and coding camps on developing applications for a range of platforms, including webOS. Palm is a premier sponsor of the conference, and Ben Galbraith and Dion Almaer, directors of Developer Relations for Palm, will be giving a keynote address in addition to running several breakout sessions and coding camps focusing on the webOS platform. For details, go to http://developer.sprint.com/devcon2009.
Customers who would like to register to receive additional information about Palm Pixi can register at www.palm.com/pixi.

Verizon today made it official, the BlackBerry Storm2 will be released on October 28th and will be priced at $179.99 (with a 2-year agreement, after a $100 mail-in rebate). The BlackBerry Storm2 will ship with BlackBerry OS 5.0, features a new SurePress “clickable” display and feature built-in WiFi. Full specs available after the break.

BASKING RIDGE, NJ, and WATERLOO, ONTARIO — Verizon Wireless and Research In Motion (RIM) (NASDAQ: RIMM; TSX: RIM) today announced that the BlackBerry® Storm2™ smartphone will be available in Verizon Wireless Communications stores, online at www.verizonwireless.com, and through business sales channels beginning Oct. 28. The BlackBerry Storm2 with BlackBerry® OS 5.0 evolves the BlackBerry® touchscreen platform with hundreds of hardware and software enhancements – including new SurePress™ “clickable” display technology and built-in Wi-Fi® – delivering the exceptional multimedia experience and communications capabilities customers have come to expect from their BlackBerry smartphones.

Key Features:

• Smooth design and premium finish with sloped edges, chrome accents, glass lens and stainless steel backplate
• Large (3.25”), dazzling high-resolution 480 x 360 display at 184 ppi
• Capacitive touchscreen with integrated functions (Send, End, Menu, Escape) and new SurePress technology that makes clicking the display practically effortless
• 3G and global connectivity support for making phone calls in more than 220 countries and accessing data in more than 185 countries (with more than 80 destinations in 3G)
• Network Connectivity: EV-DO Revision A; UMTS/HSPA (2100 MHz); and quad-band EDGE/GPRS/GSM networks
• Supports Wi-Fi (802.11 b/g)
• 256 MB of Flash memory
• 2 GB of onboard media storage and a microSD™/SDHD memory card slot with a 16 GB card included

Software Updates on BlackBerry Storm2:

• Features BlackBerry OS 5.0, which includes typing accuracy and selection improvements, as well as usability and visual enhancements such as inertial scrolling, spin boxes that make it easier to set dates and times, gradient shading on buttons, and more use of animation
• BlackBerry® Browser is improved with faster JavaScript and CSS processing as well as support for Gears and BlackBerry Widgets
• Customers running BlackBerry® Enterprise Server 5.0 will gain the ability to set follow-up flags, manage e-mail folders, access remote files (Windows Shares), forward appointments, view calendar attachments, and more

Additional Features and Specifications:

• 3.2 megapixel camera with autofocus, Image Stabilization (IS), flash and video recording capabilities
• Premium and easy-to-access phone features, background noise suppression technology, loud distortion-free speakerphone and face detection (proximity sensor) that prevents accidental clicks and blanks the screen while the customer is on the phone
• Media player for videos, pictures and music, plus support for BlackBerry Desktop Manager for both PCs and Macs, and BlackBerry® Media Sync, for easily syncing Windows Media® Player music with the smartphone*
• 3.5 mm stereo headset jack and dedicated volume controls
• Bluetooth® (v2.1) capable with support for Secure Simple Pairing, hands-free headsets, stereo headsets, car kits and other Bluetooth peripherals
• Built-in GPS for maps and other location-based applications, as well as photo geotagging; and Verizon Wireless’ VZ NavigatorSM service is pre-loaded
• V CAST Music with Rhapsody
• Access to BlackBerry App World™, featuring a broad and growing catalog of third-party mobile applications developed specifically for BlackBerry smartphones, with categories including games, entertainment, IM and social networking, news, weather, productivity and more
• Support for Verizon Wireless’ Mobile Broadband Connect tethering service
• Removable, rechargeable 1400 mAhr battery that provides up to 5.5 hours of talk time or up to 11.2 days of standby time

Pricing and Availability:

• The BlackBerry Storm2 smartphone is available beginning Oct. 28 for $179.99 after a $100 mail-in rebate with a new two-year customer agreement on a voice plan with an Email and Web feature or an Email and Web for BlackBerry plan. Customers will receive the mail-in rebate in the form of a debit card; upon receipt, customers may use the card as cash anywhere debit cards are accepted. Data plans for the BlackBerry Storm2 smartphone begin at $29.99 when added to any Nationwide voice plan.
• New Operating System for Existing BlackBerry Storm Customers
• Existing BlackBerry Storm customers will be able to update their handsets to the new BlackBerry OS 5.0 software via Web software load (www.blackberry.com/update), BlackBerry Desktop Manager, or from Verizon Wireless’ download site (www.verizonwireless.com/storm). The software is available today.
• For additional information on Verizon Wireless products and services, visit a Verizon Wireless Communications Store, call 1-800-2 JOIN IN or go to www.verizonwireless.com. Business customers can contact their Business Sales Representatives at 1-800-VZW-4BIZ.

* Certain music files may not be supported, including files that contain digital rights management technologies.

AOL has named eight members to serve on its Board of Directors, once the company’s separation from Time Warner is Complete. The members have experience in Internet media, entertainment, marketing, and finance.

1. Former Amazon Senior Vice President and CIO Richard Dalzell holds a B.S. in engineering from the U.S. Military Academy, West Point. He has also worked as Vice President of the Information Systems Division at Wal-Mart.

2. Karen Dykstra is a partner at Plainfield Asset Management LLC, and has been COO and CFO of Plainfield Direct Inc. since 2006. She received a B.S. in accounting from Rider University and a M.B.A. from Fairleigh Dickinson University.

3. Bill Hambrecht founded and has been Chairman and CEO of WR Hambrecht + Co since 1998. He also co-founded the United Football League, which premiered earlier this month. He is a Princeton graduate.

4. Patricia Mitchell has served as President and CEO of The Paley Center for Media, a global non-profit cultural institution. Before that she was President and CEO of the Public Broadcasting Service. She has served as President of Time Inc. Television and CNN Productions, and was a partner in an independent production company, which focused on women’s programming. Mitchell serves on the board of Sun Microsystems and she holds a B.A. in English/drama and a M.A. in English literature from the University of Georgia.

5. Michael Powell has served as a Senior Advisor to Providence Equity Partners since 2005. Powell is also Chairman of the MK Powell Group and has served as the Chief of Staff of the Department of Justice’s Antitrust Division. Powell has a B.A. in government from the College of William and Mary and a J.D. from the Georgetown University Law Center.

6. Fredric Reynolds was with CBS Corporation and its predecessor companies from 1994 until he retired earlier this year. He was Executive Vice President and CFO of CBS Corporation from 2005 to 2009 and President and CEO of the Viacom Television Stations Group. He was also President of the CBS Television Stations Division.

7. James Stengel has been President and CEO of The Jim Stengel Company since 2008. He is also a marketing professor at UCLA’s Anderson School of Management. He has been Global Marketing Officer  at Procter & Gamble and he serves on the board of Motorola. He holds a B.A. from Franklin & Marshall College and a M.B.A. from Pennsylvania State University’s Smeal School of Business.

8. Jim Wiatt served as Chairman and CEO of the William Morris Agency. He is a graduate of the University of Southern California, and is a member of the Board of Councilors of the USC School of Cinematic Arts, former Chairman and current member of the Board of the Los Angeles Police Foundation, and on the Board of Directors of the Music Center of Los Angeles.

"AOL is very fortunate to have an exceptional group of proven leaders to serve on our board of directors. AOL is on a mission to help create the future of media and content and the AOL Board will play a central part in helping us focus the strategy and also operate the company with the highest ethical standards," said AOL CEO and Chairman of the Board Tim Armstrong. "These individuals bring independent judgment and a dedication to building shareholder value, and they will be a tremendous resource for our company, our employees, and our future."

Time Warner plans to have the separation of AOL completed by the end of the year.

The U.S. health care system wastes between $505 billion and $850 billion every year, according to a new report from Thomson Reuters, the parent company of the Reuters news service. “The U.S. healthcare system is just as wasteful as President Barack Obama says it is, and proposed reforms could be paid for by fixing some of the most obvious inefficiencies, preventing mistakes and fighting fraud, according to a Thomson Reuters report released on Monday,” Reuters reports. The report cites several examples of waste including in paper-based records systems, unnecessary care, fraud, administrative inefficiency, medical mistakes and preventable conditions.

“All this could help explain why Americans spend more per capita and the highest percentage of GDP on healthcare than any other (Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development) country, yet has an unhealthier population with more diabetes, obesity and heart disease and higher rates of neonatal births than other developed nations” (Fox, 10/26).

“As Congress nears votes on legislation that would overhaul the health care system, many small businesses say they are facing the steepest rise in insurance premiums they have seen in recent years,” the New York Times reports. “The higher premiums at least partly reflect the inexorable rise of medical costs, which is forcing Medicare to raise premiums, too. Health insurance bills are also rising for big employers, but because they have more negotiating clout, their increases are generally not as steep.” The increases could be politically inconvenient for insurance companies, which continue efforts to ward off a proposed government-run health insurance plan (Abelson, 10/24).

Meanwhile, “[s]mall business groups are lobbying Congress to allow firms with as many as 100 employees to purchase health insurance through new exchanges that would be created through health care reform legislation,” Portfolio.com reports. The Web-based exchanges allow consumers to pick between standardized benefits packages offered by different companies, and compare insurers based on price. The exchanges proposed in the Senate Finance Committee bill would also allow companies to purchase coverage from insurers in different states, which is currently not allowed (Hoover, 10/26).

The Tampa Tribune: “The cost of health insurance is the number one concern of small business owners, according to a new report released by Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius and Small Business Administration Administrator Karen Mills. The report, ‘Insurance at Risk: Small Business Employees Risk Losing Coverage,’ examines the health care status quo that has left employees at risk of losing their insurance and underscores the financial difficulties small businesses face when providing health insurance to their employees. The complete report is available now at www.HealthReform.gov” (10/25).

Andrew Bonnano has joined Kohlberg & Co. as managing director of business development. He previously was VP of business development for American Capital’s New York-based buyouts team.

PRESS RELEASE

Kohlberg & Company, L.L.C. today announced that Andrew P. Bonanno has joined the firm as Managing Director of Business Development. Mr. Bonanno, who will be based in the Firm`s Mt. Kisco office, had most recently served as Vice President of Business Development for American Capital`s (NASDAQ: ACAS) New York-based Buyouts team. In his new role, Mr. Bonanno will primarily be responsible for building relationships with the Firm`s external deal sources, as well as developing and leading Kohlberg`s proprietary investment sourcing programs.

Mr. Bonanno brings more than 14 years of principal investment experience. In his previous capacity at ACAS, Mr. Bonanno spearheaded the N.Y. Buyouts team`s go-to-market strategy and relationship management efforts. Prior to this appointment, Mr. Bonanno was at GE Capital, the finance arm of General Electric (NYSE: GE), with most of his tenure being spent at GE Equity, GE Capital`s private equity group. Over his time at GE Equity, Mr. Bonanno led venture capital, growth, buyouts and distressed debt investments in various industries, including Industrial, TMT, Consumer and Business Services.

About Kohlberg & Company

Kohlberg & Company, L.L.C. is a leading U.S. private equity firm which acquires “middle market” companies (valued from $100 to $500 million). Since its inception in 1987, the firm has organized six private equity funds, through which it has raised $3.7 billion of committed capital. The firm`s objective has been to realize substantial capital gains through control investments in a diversified portfolio of companies. The firm has completed approximately 100 platform and add-on acquisitions with an aggregate value of more than $6 billion. Kohlberg & Company invests in companies where it can work in partnership with senior management to identify growth opportunities and implement fundamental operating and strategic changes, resulting in substantial increases in revenue and cash flow. The firm`s use of moderate amounts of debt financing in acquiring companies affords them the financial flexibility necessary to attain these corporate objectives.

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Granite Ventures has promoted Chris McKay to managing director. He serves as a director with Arcot Systems, Lucid Imagination, Sendmail and Symplified.

PRESS RELEASE
Granite Ventures, LLC today announced that Chris McKay had been promoted to managing director.

“Chris has been a key member of Granite’s investment team, and we are delighted to add him to the management team,” said Standish O’Grady, Granite Ventures’ managing director. “Chris will continue to apply his investment experience and instincts on trends surfacing in infrastructure and applications software, consumer Internet and digital media to identify and capitalize on key technology growth sectors. We look forward to his continued contributions to the firm.”

Chris began his career in venture capital as an analyst at Hambrecht & Quist. He serves on the boards of directors for Arcot Systems, Lucid Imagination, Sendmail and Symplified, and is a board observer for Convio. Chris previously served as a director of Purisma (acquired by Dun & Bradstreet) and was involved with the boards of Actional (acquired by Progress Software), Connected (acquired by Iron Mountain), Cardiff (acquired by Verity), and Shutterfly (SFLY).

About Granite Ventures, LLC

Granite Ventures has been helping early-stage technology companies build solid foundations for success since 1992. Granite has managed over $1 billion in venture capital and has invested in more than 100 private companies. They partner with promising and successful entrepreneurs to create businesses that have a competitive edge, and help those businesses achieve category leadership. More information can be found at www.granitevc.com.

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An average of 74 million people visited newspaper websites in the third quarter of 2009, representing 38 percent of all Internet users, according to a custom analysis by Nielsen for the Newspaper Association of America (NAA).

Newspaper website visitors generated more than 3.5 billion page views during the quarter, spending 2.7 billion minutes browsing the sites over more than 596 million sessions.

The NAA says there are higher levels of subscribers keeping subscriptions, with subscriber "churn" falling dramatically to 31.8 percent in 2008, compared with 54.5 percent in 2000.

The higher retention rate among subscribers could be due to the fact that in 2008, 92 percent of newspapers offered a discount for participating in a recurring payment plan; 38 percent of new subscriptions were sold on a recurring payment plan while only 28 percent were sold with no initial payment required.

In addition, 32 percent of newspapers priced their daily edition at 75 cents at the end of 2008 (vs. just 2 percent in 2006), while the average seven-day, home-delivery weekday rate rose 8.6 percent at the same time newspapers are increasing retention

"Newspaper publishers continue to aggressively reinvent their business models, leveraging trusted brands to attract a growing and sophisticated audience in the digital space," said NAA President and CEO John F. Sturm.  "At the same time, industry executives have adopted smarter circulation strategies that are growing circulation revenues even though paid circulation numbers are lower." 

"This places the focus where it belongs:  retaining core readers who deliver maximum value to advertisers while harnessing digital platforms to broaden our medium’s audience and position us strongly for the future."

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> Americans’ Trust Of News Media At New Low
 

Several news outlets report on Medicare and insurance fraud.

Medicare “provides a rich and steady income stream for criminals who are constantly finding new ways to steal a sizable chunk of the half trillion dollars that are paid out each year in Medicare benefits,” 60 Minutes reports. “In fact, Medicare fraud – estimated now to total about $60 billion a year – has become one of, if not the most profitable, crimes in America.” Medicare fraud leaves little evidence: an FBI agent in South Florida said “the only visible evidence of the crimes are the thousands of tiny clinics and pharmacies that dot the low-rent strip malls. You don’t even know they’re there because there’s never anyone inside. No doctors, no nurses and no patients.” Yet one of those offices, a “tiny medical supply company” charged Medicare “almost $2 million in July and a half million dollars while 60 Minutes was there in August, but we never found anybody inside, and our phone calls were never returned.”

Kirk Ogrosky, a top Justice Department prosecutor, says the Medicare fraud business is now larger than the drug business in Miami. “But it’s not just Miami: in March, the FBI arrested 53 people in Detroit, including a number of doctors, and charged them with billing Medicare more than $50 million for unnecessary medical procedures. And in Los Angeles, the City of Angels Medical Center recruited homeless people off the street to fill their empty beds, offering them cash and drugs plus clean sheets and three square meals a day, while billing Medicare tens of millions of dollars for their stay.” 60 Minutes also spoke with U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder as well as a Medicare fraudster who bilked the system of about $20 million (Kroft, 10/25).

Minnesota Public Radio: Medicare fraud is difficult to find and prosecute without whistleblowers, says Minnesota federal prosecutor Gerald Wilhelm. “‘Medicare cases are often what I call the death of a thousand ankle bites,’ Wilhelm said. ‘Every bad claim is a dollar, but there are a billion bad claims so it’s a billion dollars, and so to look at all of those claims is impossible.’” While some cases are obvious, “many cases fall into a gray area that mean second-guessing a physician’s decisions.” But “[t]he Medicare statute itself prohibits the government from interfering with the practice of medicine. Wilhelm said the question with Medicare is often whether a clinic billed the government for a more complex procedure than it performed or than the patient needed. He said it’s like buying a Chevrolet and charging the government for a Cadillac” (Stawicki, 10/26).

The Minneapolis Star Tribune reports on another type of insurance fraud. One couple in East Bethel says they were ‘royally duped’ into buying health coverage that wasn’t insurance,” which is not uncommon. No one knows how many customers have fallen into this trap. But dubious health plans are “spreading like poison oak all over the country,” says James Quiggle of the Coalition Against Insurance Fraud, a nonprofit watchdog in Washington, D.C. Consumer advocates say companies are taking advantage of the recession and the growing number of uninsured people — 1 in 5 American adults under age 65 — to sell ‘health coverage’ that evaporates when customers try to use it, or provides far less than promised” (Lerner, 10/25).

It’s open-enrollment season, meaning large companies are offering workers a chance to change their health plans, but the choices are grim: The cost of premiums is rising even as benefits packages shrink, the Associated Press reports. “Workers and employers both are looking at higher health tabs for next year. And with proposed health care overhauls at least three years away, cynicism about the state of the nation’s health care is running high. It’s enough to give some insurance health fairs all the pizazz of a dour mandatory lecture” (Wyatt, 10/25).

Politicians all the way up to the White House have pledged that health reform won’t cause people to lose their current, employer-based coverage if they like it, Time reports. “Yet the numbers behind that system show that it may be just as unsustainable as — if not more than — the U.S. health-care system as a whole, in which health care costs nationwide are on pace to exceed 20% of our gross domestic product by 2018” (Pickert, 10/26).

Of course, the situation of people who get ever more expensive insurance from their companies may look enviable to some. CBS News reports: Sixty percent of businesses in this country currently provide health benefits for their employees. But only half that number cover part-time workers.” Whole Foods is among the rare companies that offers reasonably priced plans to part-timers (Miller, 10/25). 

The Kansas City Star examines the working uninsured:  “As a statistical group, they are massive and diverse but speak of a singular concern. Medical coverage often stays beyond their reach even with a regular paycheck, leaving them in the same vulnerable place as those with no work or those scratching out the most meager of livings. It is hardly because of a lousy work ethic. Of the approximately 46.3 million uninsured individuals in the United States, 27.8 million are adults with jobs. Full time. Part time. Multiple part time” (Adler, 10/24).

“In Washington, there are two ways to wage legislative war: fight to kill and fight to tweak,” the Washington Post reports. “With a growing sense that Democrats may have the votes to pass health-care reform, many participants are now attempting to shape the components of landmark legislation rather than to defeat it.” Lobbyists, corporate executives and lawmakers say the time has come for last-ditch efforts to influence the health bill, with a Senate-wide draft bill expected to go to the budget office for a cost estimate Monday. “We’re entering the final stage, and everyone is maneuvering to get the best possible deal,” said Kaiser Family Foundation president Drew Altman (Connolly, 10/26).

Lobbyists such as Ken Raske, president and CEO of the Greater New York Hospital Association, have been working towards this moment all year. Raske’s group has spent more than $1 million on lobbying Washington in 2009, The Hill reports. A top fundraiser for the Democratic Party, he’s “collected donations worth more than $152,000 for the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC) in September alone, according to the latest FEC report”  (Bogardus, 10/25).

Others may not feel they are getting a fair hearing. The Washington Post reports in a separate story: ” The chief lobbyist for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce alleged Sunday that there is a White House campaign of ‘invectives’ and ‘name-calling’ against his organization, and said the business group is eager to ignore the heated rhetoric.” President Obama’s anti-lobbyist rhetoric – part of his campaign platform – has led to clashes with Washington groups (Shear, 10/26).

Okay, so Apple just updated the Mac Mini, iMac, and totally redesigned the white MacBook. But what about the MacBook Pros? PC manufacturers are already stuffing Intel Core i7 and i5 CPUs into their flagship notebooks, but the MacBook Pros are still rocking Core 2 Duos. That might change soon according to the OS X 10.6.2 update.

Buried within a configuration file of the software update, there are MacBook Pro models designated with a different naming scheme. The current MacBook Pros use the 5.(x) model number, but these are referenced as MacBook Pro 6.1 and MacBook Pro 6.1b. It only makes sense that Apple would load the latest and greatest Intel mobile CPU into the MBP line, which hasn’t seen an update since June. The only thing is no one knows when these new models will be available. [Applesana.es via appleinsider]

Some House Democrats opposed to abortion are threatening to thwart health care reform legislation if it does not clearly steer away from funding abortions. Congress Daily reports: “With Republicans likely to try to use the emotional issue to draw support and money for 2010 contests, Democrats tried to make the bill ‘abortion neutral’ — maintaining existing federal policy without further restricting abortion rights. But anti-abortion rights Democrats are forcing the conversation, and leaders have to answer because there are enough of them to disrupt the overhaul effort. Rep. Bart Stupak, D-Mich., says he has gathered a group of about 40 lawmakers who are willing to vote to prevent House leaders from bringing the health overhaul to the floor unless they allow a vote on an amendment to explicitly outlaw federal funding for abortion.”

“Leaders are at an impasse on the issue, with both Stupak and House Energy and Commerce Chairman Henry Waxman refusing to give ground. … The topic is one way to get leadership aides to deviate from sunny pronouncements declaring smooth healthcare sailing and point instead to a litany of unresolved issues — medical devices, revenue measures, regional disparities and hospitals were all on one leadership aide’s list. … If leaders can’t agree on changes to the abortion language, they will have to court anti-abortion rights members one by one, hoping to peel enough away to strip the group of its power to hold up the bill. The question is whether other changes will resolve the concerns of members who might not be willing to derail all of health reform because of abortion” (Hunt, 10/26).

Over the weekend, a number of news outlets were reporting on Stupak’s comments and the legislative maneuvering. “Stupak, who is conservative on social issues, told CNS News that he has organized the voting bloc to support his amendment that would strip the abortion provisions from the legislation,” The Hill reported. House Rules Committee chairwoman Louise Slaughter (D-N.Y.), according to Stupak, said that there is ‘no way’ her panel would provide a vote for his amendment. The group of 40 would join House Republicans in voting against procedural measure that would draft rules for debating the bill on the House floor. Passage of the measure is necessary for the House to hold a floor vote. … With 177 Republicans in the House, Stupak would need at least 41 Democrats to cross the aisle and vote against the rule. Stupak’s amendment was originally defeated by the House Energy and Commerce Committee during mark-up” (Fabian, 10/24).

NPR‘s Scott Simon interviewed health policy correspondent Julie Rovner about the controversy: “Now, the main deal that’s now in both the House and Senate bills was cut in the House Energy and Commerce Committee back in July. … The idea, remember, is to write language that freezes in place current law on abortion. So, the amendment says that all funds that will pay for abortion will have to come from premiums paid by individuals, not from the federal government. That within each ‘exchange’ — these are the new marketplaces where people will go to buy their insurance, if they buy it on their own or if they’re small businesses — in each exchange, there’ll be one plan that does offer abortion as a benefit and one that doesn’t. And that, in any case, funds that will pay for abortion will have to be segregated from any federal funds” (Rovner, 10/24).

St. Petersburg Times’ Politifact put some of abortion claims through the Web site’s “Truth-o-Meter: “Republican John Boehner said that the Democrat-backed House proposal ‘will require (Americans) to subsidize abortion with their hard-earned tax dollars.’ We found that the federal government will not send tax dollars to abortion providers, so we rated his statement False. However, we found that health care plans that receive public money to help low-income people pay for insurance will be able to offer abortion coverage if those particular services are paid for with patient premiums, not the subsidies. So the National Right to Life Committee earned a True for its statement that a Senate bill ‘contains provisions that would send massive federal subsidies directly to both private insurance plans and government-chartered cooperatives that pay for elective abortion’” (Drobnic Holan, 10/25).

Another noteworthy event in the long, strange tale of the Microsoft-Yahoo deal has occurred: about 15 months after securing his seat on Yahoo’s board of directors, Carl Icahn has resigned the position.

It’s important to note that the move isn’t supposed to be interpreted as the first step in starting another fight.  Or even as a sign of disapproval.  In fact, in a letter announcing his resignation, Icahn made it sound more like a case of "mission accomplished" and "time to move on."

"When I joined the Board, the company was in a state of turmoil," he wrote.  "In the period since then, we have all worked together to achieve much for the Company, most notably bringing Carol on to be the CEO and then consummating the search deal with Microsoft.  I am proud to have played a role in both these decisions.  Carol is doing a great job and I believe the Microsoft transaction will provide great long term benefits, the potential of which many still do not understand.

Icahn then continued, "I don’t believe that it is necessary at this time to have an activist on the Board of Yahoo! and currently, my attention is focused on other matters."

Then here’s one more important detail: Icahn remains a major investor in Yahoo, with a 4.5 percent stake.

Still, shareholders don’t seem to have taken news of his resignation well.  Yahoo’s stock is down 1.39 percent this morning even though the Dow and the Nasdaq have both made slight gains.