Health Tips

She’s not Tim Tebow. Allison Melangton won’t be kneeling to pray before any Super Bowl crowds this week. But like Tebow, Melangton would give credit to Jesus Christ for her ability to balance hundreds of her duties in preparing for the Super Bowl.

Melangton, president and CEO of the Super Bowl Host Committee in Indianapolis, is the behind-the-scenes detail manager alongside committee chairman Mark Miles.

Miles frequently credits Melangton with helping land the big game for Indianapolis because she tracks the big picture as well as the details. “On both sides of her brain, the creative and the analytical, she’s loaded with ability,” noted Miles.

Melangton cheerfully attributes it all to her personal faith, yet does not point to any dramatic conversion to Christ.

A native of Auburn, Maine, she grew up in a church-going family and planned for a sports management career in Colorado after going to Colorado State University.

Melangton came to Indianapolis in 1983 to work for USA Gymnastics. She also met the man who became her husband, Tom Melangton, a heating and cooling business executive. They became members of East 91st Street Christian Church, then under the leadership of long-time pastor Russ Blowers.

“Between my husband, Tom, and the preaching of Russ Blowers, I came to a new depth of faith,” she recalled. The Melangtons now attend Radiant Christian Life Church in Westfield, Ind.

Melangton climbed the ladder of success in sports management, working for the Indiana Sports Corp. She’s also won four Emmys as an associate producer of gymnastics for NBC Sports during its Olympic coverage.

Her associates marvel at her ability to juggle hundreds of details. A friend and occasional prayer partner is former state Rep. Carolene Mays, now with the Indiana Utilities Regulatory Commission. “Allison has one of the most beautiful spirits of anyone I know,” said Mays. “She walks with that light, kind touch.”

A gradually growing faith in Christ has helped Melangton keep sports in perspective. And now that she’s 47, she thankful she’s managing a Super Bowl now, rather than 20 years ago: “If the Super Bowl defined who I am, I would be a big ball of nerves and stress. I’ve grown into that perspective of knowing what really defines me.”

She added, “The most important thing in my life is my faith in Christ and my family.” The Melangtons have one son, a high school senior.

Similar to former Indianapolis Colts coach Tony Dungy, Melangton is an example of how faith in Christ can strengthen capacity to respond to stress gracefully. Like Dungy, she also is a role model for keeping life’s priorities in the right order.

from: http://online.worldmag.com/2012/02/03/keeping-the-super-bowl-in-perspective/

The San Francisco Department of Public Health says it is ahead of the curve in rolling out databases that keep tabs on tens of thousands of patients across a citywide network of clinics and hospitals. The rollout is needed not just to make a local form of “universal health care” work, but also to meet a 2014 deadline under national health reform…

An incomplete survey of technology costs borne by the clinics themselves this year reveals spending of at least $15 million in addition to what was budgeted for the whole program, adding at least 8.5 percent to the total cost. But that sum is likely millions higher, since eight clinics could not or would not say how much they spent or were planning to spend integrating their patient records…

One already financially stressed clinic, Lyon-Martin Health Services in Hayes Valley, which caters to the gay, lesbian and transgender communities, said buying a new electronic records system might break the bank.

Full post by Angela Hart at The Health Care Blog.

from: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheJohnGoodmanHealthBlog/~3/4FnV6B3NT4k/

This is actually a more interesting question than I originally thought. Here is Robert Book at the Apothecary:

The health reform law passed in March 2010 provides for a substantial expansion of the “must cover” population – essentially anyone from a family with income below 138% of the federal poverty line (an amount that varies based on family size). This is a major component of the health reform law: according to the Congressional Budget Office, half the uninsured who they project to become covered as a result of new law will obtain coverage because of the Medicaid expansion…

The constitutional issue, however, is what would happen if a state declined to pay for that portion of the Medicaid expansion not paid for by the federal government? Suppose, for example, a state decided to just forgo the expansion entirely, on the grounds that it could not afford to pay its share of the cost? In that case, the health reform law contains a built-in retaliation – the state would lose all federal Medicaid funding.

from: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheJohnGoodmanHealthBlog/~3/cbT2Iq7xo1A/