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Believe in Heroes Through the Wounded Warrior Project

Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. John 15:13

One of the new trademarked slogans of the Wounded Warrior Project is Believe in Heroes™.  We borrowed this short write-up from the Wounded Warrior website.  Please read, and if you can, Donate to the Wounded Warriors to our American Heroes.  AutoGov - through the Tough Mudder and Wounded Warrior Project and Under Armour - will always support our heroes!

At 11 a.m. on November 11, 1918, "the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month," a cease-fire came into effect that would end World War I. For this reason, the date is generally regarded as the end of "the war to end all wars." Eighty-three years later, on September 11, 2001, 19 terrorists hijacked and crashed four commercial airliners, killing thousands of Americans. The events of that day would inspire droves of brave men and women to answer the call to duty to enlist in our country's all-volunteer armed services.

All veterans face challenges as they return to society, and today's wounded warriors are meeting extraordinary obstacles. These include visible, physical injuries as well as invisible ones, like post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Our challenge goes beyond just raising awareness for veterans, but by addressing the real hurdles our warriors face as they return to civilian life.

Believe in Heroes™ is a Wounded Warrior Project™ initiative that calls on Americans to recognize the enormous sacrifices made by our newest generation of veterans and to honor the service of these individual over a two-month campaign leading up to Veterans Day. The Believe in Heroes campaign will provide the American public with an opportunity to show their support and appreciation of our veterans in their communities, and across the nation.

Trace Adkins believes in heroes and has supported the Wounded Warrior Project with his song, "Till the Last Shot's Fired.  Sung with the West Point Glee Club and brought to life here with this amazing photography.

Happy Thanksgiving from AutoGov to you! God Bless America!

Making Sense of Medicaid

Medicaid and Medicare are a maze of rules and regulations. For ordinary citizens, Medicaid can seem like a chemistry experiment that only an expert can do.

I have noticed that the term “spend down” when talking about Medicaid long term care can cause a lot of confusion for people. The explanation is full of jargon and confusing rules.

Today though, I came across this article that explains what a “spend down” means, and provides a detailed account of how it works.

“Contrary to standard procedure when investing for retirement, where you are looking to maximize your   assets, under the spend-down, the government, before it will pay, is looking not to how you have maximized your assets but to how much is left.” Excerpt from “Column: Making sense of the Medicaid spend-down”

Getting educated and prepared for the adventure of applying for Medicaid is the hardest part. There are a plethora of stories, articles, and/or blogs that you can find to help break down the government “lingo” and can steer you on the right path with less frustration and confusion. Here’s one we recommend:

To read the article mentioned above, “Column: Making sense of the Medicaid spend-down”, visit http://bit.ly/uWz4aZ.

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AutoGov's Library Shelves Are Proof That We Are What We Read!

AutoGov's library shelves are full of books that support our fanantical interest in data mining, business analytics, statistics and business focused books. Our recommended reading list builds on these themes and a few more that make us click.

http://www.squidoo.com/autogovs-library-shelves

All fees generated through our Squidoo reading list are donated to our favorite charity - in fact, the worlds best - Room to Read.

AutoGov Salutes Our Veterans

2011 has been a big year for us at AutoGov. We have implemented projects, met deadlines, and rebuilt our corporate technology structure. All of that is great for a small business, but it is good to look beyond just AutoGov. We would like to take a moment to thank all of our friends, collegues, and family that have served America.

Thank you for your sacrifice and keeping us out of harms way. 

To those still deployed, please come home safe.

Be Your Own Backstop or How to Handle Chaos

When the going gets tough or you have no idea what to do next, too often we see folks looking around for help.  Finding none, some people are willing to throw up their hands and walk away.

Walking away - especially from a client need - is the worst thing a small business (any business) can do!

AutoGov met last week to begin the process of developing standard operating procedures or SOP's for every facet of our business, ranging from the simple and mundane to the complex. 

We began with one that I thought would be simple - "What to do when you have no idea what to do."  This was subsequently named the "Chaos" SOP by the participants.  Far from being simple, we spent hours following every rabbit trail we could think of and put each possibility through the Chaos flowchart.

Walking away from an issue? Not likely.  Everybody learned that it is critical to be your own backstop even when chaos ensues and nobody is there to help you except you!

Ten Data Mining Mistakes to Avoid

John Elder presents an excellent tutorial in this top ten (actually 11!) list. Three mistakes that jump out at AutoGov's data mining team are those we learned of early in the development of CaseVue's model: 1) it is a mistake to proceed without data, 2) it is a mistake to extrapolate, and 3) it is a mistake to listen only to the data.

A Life Under Medicaid

This video is a touching story of a 94 year old former nurse aid who has come to love the "family" she has found in her nursing home.

Naming Conventions Make for Good Manners

As AutoGov grows we're finding that almost everything we do requires a written procedure. Otherwise every day is ground hog day -- a terrible resource waster.  We're striving to avoid the curse of small business where only one person has the key to the mailbox.

Today we tackled how to establish standard methods for naming our files.  Scintillating, I know.  But let's tell the truth here.  How many valuable heartbeats have you wasted searching your email attachments, your C Drive, that extra jump drive you carry around, your old laptop, blah, blah, blah -- looking for that document you swear that you have somewhere? We just want to be able to find our stuff!

So off we went, launching our "Naming Convention" work session.  Thirty minutes later we were done with the job.  And we had reached consensus on how to name our documents, the categories for cataloging and electronic filing processes.  Surprisingly this seemingly dull task gave rise to some interesting suggestions and the result reflected the wisdom of the group. It was a thoughtful thirty minutes. 

I liken some of these mundane office processes to good table manners.  Table manners are only really important to us when you're stuck eating with a real slob.  Miss Manners 911.  Same is true at work.  Being able to readily retrieve information is never more critical until you have spent half your day searching for that detailed flowchart "we already did" that you just have to have for the client deliverable that is due in two hours,

 Be kind to yourself and your co-workers.  Embrace the mundane!