Latest / The SEANC View / Dolly Parton's library gets funding, and the State Health Plan meets with Atrium

Transcript

Dolly Parton's library gets funding, and the State Health Plan meets with Atrium · The SEANC View

0:00
Hello, and welcome to another edition of the Scenic View podcast.
0:04
I'm Jonathan Owens, along with Artis Watkins, Suzanne Beasley, and Samantha Klein.
0:09
The legislature returned this week to tie up some loose ends,
0:13
and they actually created some news.
0:15
So we have some things to talk about. Let's get to it.
0:30
So, the legislature did come back this week, as I said, and they took up a bill
0:36
called the Technical Corrections Bill, which is usually just some dotting of
0:41
I's and things, right? I was thinking of T's. And it was the Senate.
0:44
The House will come back next week to take it up. So, yeah, it was the Technical Corrections Bill.
0:50
But this time it made a little more news than it usually does,
0:53
right? So it seemed like there was a few stories that I saw come out about things
0:59
that were in the technical corrections bill. It was a 51-page bill this time.
1:04
And it included they put back a
1:06
few jobs that they had cut in the original budget, including $3.8 million,
1:12
in vacant positions for the Department of Agriculture and some positions at
1:16
the Department of Insurance. And Commerce.
1:20
Yeah. National and Cultural Resources got some stuff back. And they included $25 million,
1:26
for the Military World Games at UNC Charlotte and $40 million in potential incentives
1:33
to allure a PGA Tour Championship Series event to the Triad.
1:38
Well, you know. It's the important thing, y'all. Yeah.
1:42
It's the important things. I guess the idea is sports bring in a lot of money
1:47
that goes back into the conference. You know, goes back into the coffers with
1:51
tax dollars. Like, that's got to be the only, you know. Yeah.
1:56
Visits to our state. Thought there.
1:58
It did make some policy changes, though. Elaine Marshall's pick for the local
2:04
government commission was removed.
2:06
And so the state auditor, the state treasurer, and the secretary of revenue are still on the board.
2:14
And the seat now will be filled by the legislature, specifically an appointment
2:19
coming from Senator Berger. Yeah. Don't know who that is.
2:23
Stein's appointments will need to be.
2:26
Yeah, they'll need to be confirmed by the legislature, so. Just more power grab
2:30
and stuff, right? Yeah, it is.
2:32
So any takes on the technical corrections bill?
2:35
I know it didn't put back all the jobs that we had hoped, but it did extend
2:42
the funding for Dolly Parton's Imagination Library to 2032. Do not mess with Dolly.
2:49
So they must have heard your... That was a good move. They listened to our podcast.
2:53
I'm sure that's what it was. Had to be. I mean, that was a good move.
2:57
That was the right thing to do.
2:59
Wait a minute. We cut Dolly Parton's money. Let the children have the books.
3:03
We did that. Put that back in. You know, it's that time of session.
3:08
Since they didn't, like, adjourn, adjourn, they're still coming back once a
3:12
month all the way up to the end of the year.
3:14
I think it'll be after elections before they address any of the last-minute
3:18
things that they want to hammer out before, you know, the General Assembly changes,
3:22
with whoever wins in the elections.
3:25
And the House is due back next week? Yeah, they'll come back and— They'll probably
3:29
take this bill up? They'll take this up, yeah.
3:31
Okay. So state employees were hoping this week that extra billion would get
3:36
spent on them in terms of bonuses and for retirees, you know,
3:42
more bonus money as well.
3:43
So what I'm hearing from you is do not expect that. Yeah, don't expect that.
3:47
Don't expect that. Obviously, we'll still be there to, I mean,
3:50
like I started to say a minute ago, I got sidetracked.
3:52
You know, it's that time of session where you've just got to watch everything that's moving.
3:56
Yeah. You know, just to make sure that things don't get slipped in or moved out.
4:01
So, yeah, it would be nice to see some of that billion dollars spent on the
4:05
working people of North Carolina.
4:07
But still no word on what the billion dollars is going to be spent on. Baseball.
4:12
Right. Yeah. Or maybe spend on the state health plan from all the talk we've
4:17
had. There are people who would be A-OK with putting a billion dollars into
4:21
it. Of course, you would need $2 billion next year.
4:24
You wouldn't have it. The only other big news item that came out of this week
4:30
was there were two election-focused bills, House Bill 834 and House Bill 958.
4:38
They dealt primarily with elections.
4:42
The biggest takeaway is that early voting periods will shrink from 17 days to
4:46
10 days, and the state auditor will conduct a post-election audit of county election systems.
4:54
Now, you know, that doesn't directly I mean, it does Directly affect state employees
4:59
and retirees But my question is Where is the evidence That any of this is necessary?
5:06
Yeah I haven't seen any Like, there should be some sort of Impetus for these
5:11
changes, right? Like, what is driving it?
5:14
Yeah, I mean, North Carolina is actually Considered to have a pretty clean System.
5:21
And I mean, if not how did the supermajority, the folks in charge happen, right?
5:29
How are the people who have won elections, federally and on the state level,
5:33
have won all these elections? Why are they complaining about elections?
5:36
Well, it's a good question.
5:38
Nonetheless, it's just kind of the thing du jour, the thing that gets people's
5:43
attention. And it's one of those deals, though. Like, I live in County A,
5:48
and I'm fine with County A.
5:50
I think we're doing it right. Right. It's county C over there that I think is cheating.
5:56
Yeah. You know, it depends where you live, who you vote for.
6:01
The beauty of scenic, as we say often, is because we're not tied to parties,
6:05
we're tied to people who do the right thing or seem to intend to do the right
6:10
thing for state employees and retirees.
6:13
We're all over the map with who we support.
6:16
Yeah. And we don't get tied down in this kind of stuff.
6:19
We're really interested in what gets done, policy. But I know that early voting
6:24
is very popular, especially, I mean, even with our members.
6:27
It is. And both, it seemed like, I know at first it was more of a Democratic
6:32
thing for people, you know, Democrats vote earlier, maybe.
6:36
But it seems like now both sides are taking advantage of early voting.
6:41
I usually vote early, and it's always, like, packed with people from both sides.
6:46
And I think more people will come out and vote because there's flexibility in
6:50
being able to pick a time.
6:52
I mean, I can remember the days when you just went on,
6:55
election day. Yeah. Well, the last few elections, there has been a huge trend
6:59
in North Carolina and in other places where a bunch of Republicans intentionally early voted.
7:07
It was part of an overall strategy. And so I do think you're right.
7:11
Things have changed. I don't think it's one group more than the other.
7:15
I think people's work schedules are all over the place.
7:18
And certainly, like you said, with state employees, their work schedules can
7:22
be very bizarre depending on the job they do. So we definitely want to see them
7:27
have as much availability to vote as possible because they also need to be a parent.
7:32
Yeah, all the things. And everything, all the things. And we don't all have
7:35
an eight to five job. I mean, not even the legislature. Hello.
7:39
So, you know. And we've talked about how people at, you know,
7:42
prisons can't guarantee they can get off on a random Tuesday to get off. Absolutely not. Yeah.
7:47
You can't leave it in an unsafe situation. Yeah. Well, more unsafe than it already is. Right. Exactly.
7:53
Sammy, did you have any takes on, I asked you to look into this issue,
7:58
did you have any takes on the election bill?
8:01
From what I read, it does just seem, as one person said in one of the articles
8:05
that I was looking at, it just seems like a power grab.
8:08
Yeah. That's all I can really say about it.
8:12
Now, have you always voted as our Gen Z representative?
8:17
Have I always voted? Yeah. Okay. Do you find that people of your same age group,
8:23
feel the same way? I mean—,
8:25
Is voting a big deal for your... Do y'all early vote or do you vote on election day?
8:29
I think it's kind of across the board is a lot of Gen Zs are very similar.
8:34
A lot of us are in the work field now and we don't always have the capabilities
8:39
to take off on election day. So a lot of them do early voting.
8:43
Obviously here at Scenic, I do have the capabilities to go in and vote on election
8:48
day if I need to. Let's try to give your folks time off to vote if you're listening.
8:51
It should be a holiday. It should be.
8:53
Yeah. Yeah, but I feel like Gen Zs across the board, they're very,
8:57
very vocal, and it's very important to them to be able to vote.
9:01
And so I think that a lot of Gen Zs will be very upset about reducing from 17
9:07
to 17. I feel like Gen Z votes more at this age than we did at that same age.
9:13
Percentage-wise, numbers of them voting, you mean?
9:16
Yeah, like it's more—I mean, I may be completely wrong. It just feels different
9:20
because of the age difference. We'll have to ask Chris Cooper to come be on
9:23
the podcast or something. Well, that'd be cool. That'd be fine,
9:26
yeah. I always like his stuff, so.
9:28
I do know that Gen Zs I've seen in comparison to when I was younger and what
9:33
I saw from the media is that Gen Zs are a lot more outspoken,
9:37
when it comes to talking about elections and getting out there than maybe some
9:41
of the previous generations were at our age.
9:43
But I'm not sure statistically.
9:46
You made the remark that folks your age at that time were really kind of scared
9:53
to talk about politics or voting with one another because of risk of alienating each other. Yeah.
9:59
Do you think that's better? No.
10:03
I don't think it's necessarily better. I think Gen Zs are still kind of one or the other.
10:08
They're either very comfortable with speaking out and aren't afraid to say anything
10:12
that comes to their minds because they've gotten so comfortable doing it maybe behind a screen.
10:18
But I do think there is still a large group of Gen Z's who are.
10:25
Fearful of retaliation and fearful of not because not just that,
10:29
like in social settings and friend groups, but also somewhat in family settings as well at this point.
10:36
How about jobs? Are they worried about jobs?
10:38
I think they can be somewhat whenever it comes to being very vocal online about
10:44
their beliefs, because I've seen personally there are people who will post things.
10:49
And then two weeks later or one week later, they're talking about how they got
10:54
in trouble with work because they may have said something that their supervisor
10:59
or their boss doesn't agree with. Yeah.
11:02
And then they're kind of told it's almost more of like a silencing technique,
11:07
it seems like, is saying, hey, you can't talk about that stuff on your social media platforms.
11:13
That's not a bear. Come on.
11:15
I just did a quick look, a quick look up. Yeah. And it does Gen Z's at this
11:20
age, 28 percent voted, 28 percent voted compared to the Gen Xers in 1990 was 23 percent. So.
11:28
So, yeah, you guys. Yeah, but 1990 was boring.
11:31
There was no reason about 1990. Everything's much more dramatic now.
11:36
Yeah. I don't know. I wouldn't know.
11:39
I might say something different about that. We just had other things.
11:43
Well, but you're right. I mean, everything's so polarized right now.
11:46
There's never been in our lifetimes a time like this.
11:51
So that's legislature talk for the week. Yeah.
11:53
We finally had a little legislative talk to. Yeah. Well, something other than just the health plan.
11:58
So let's get back to the health plan. Our last two episodes of nothing but health plans.
12:03
It's hard to get away from it right now. Yeah, it really is.
12:06
So it looks like Treasurer Brad Briner and Thomas Friedman from the state health
12:10
plan met with atrium officials last year.
12:13
Yesterday, no real insight into what they talked about, except there will be.
12:17
No, they just say they're still working on it.
12:20
Yeah. The meeting was constructive with both entities expressing a commitment
12:25
to working toward a path forward.
12:29
That's a lot of jargon there. That should have been great if Atrium had been,
12:34
that mindset. Supposedly a year ago. I mean, they were invited a year ago,
12:38
right? According to the timeline the Treasurer's office put in.
12:40
It's almost like, we didn't think you'd really do it.
12:42
But yeah, there's a whole lot of found out.
12:47
So, maybe they are so surprised. So, let's set the stage for all of this. What's going on?
12:55
I see some reactions to this that are like, thank God the treasurer has come to his senses on this.
13:03
And he'll take Atrium back. And, you know, Atrium's the victim here.
13:07
And there's just like no way to explain.
13:11
People don't believe that what we said last week could ever come true.
13:17
I saw someone say, the health plan couldn't go bankrupt. The legislature would just have to fund it.
13:22
Newsflash. They won't. Yeah. The legislature put $4 billion into it.
13:27
At some point, the legislature would in fact say, here's a thousand bucks,
13:32
if that, go find your own insurance. Right, absolutely they would do that.
13:36
I mean, we fought that back before.
13:38
You do not want to play that game of chicken.
13:41
But why would you? More importantly, why would you even risk that?
13:47
And why do you want to write a blank check to people that apparently they're
13:52
not showing much signs of giving a poop about you?
13:55
Yeah, it just seems like people think that Briner or the state health plan is
14:00
trying to punish Atrium.
14:03
But Atrium is the one punishing you, the state health plan users.
14:08
You know, this is all a direct result of their own prices.
14:13
It's their choice, their choices. Their choices are to set their prices high
14:17
enough to where it's so high, it couldn't be competitive to even be accessed here.
14:24
And so that's a choice. If you want to leave the prices that high,
14:28
that's your statement to folks about how you feel about them.
14:32
I think one thing that can solve all of this turmoil and all of this,
14:36
they just need to release what their prices are. Right. Show everybody that
14:40
you're not charging people a lot of money.
14:43
And people get confused, too, with now that you've said that.
14:47
You can call Atrium and find what they charge for. The cash price of something.
14:51
Yeah, that is a whole different thing than what we're talking about seeing, you know.
14:56
If you have insurance and you go through the third party, you have to know what
15:00
that third party's contractually obligated to pay Atrium or any other provider.
15:06
And that's what we cannot have by law. Yeah. Because it's considered, quote, a trade secret.
15:12
And we suspected all along we knew why they were clinging to this idea of trade secret.
15:18
And the argument behind trade secret exemption is that if other hospitals knew,
15:24
then, you know, they couldn't offer these great prices because other hospitals would know how to,
15:32
you know, make more because they'd realize, oh, they're charging so low.
15:38
The argument is literally the opposite of what's apparently happening.
15:41
What's apparently happening is that they're overcharging so much.
15:44
And so that's a different kind of trade secret. That's not one that is to encourage
15:49
competition. It's to say, you can't see my stuff.
15:53
Yeah. And therefore, we don't have to worry about competition.
15:56
You just write me a blank check and don't you worry about what it is.
15:59
And we don't have to worry about backlash.
16:02
And we can continue to misinform. And I know that there were people who took
16:06
issue with us using Medicare reimbursement as a reference point.
16:11
They thought we were saying, pay Atrium or WakeMed or anybody else that didn't,
16:18
meet access or preferred tier, pay them Medicare reimbursement rates.
16:24
No, obviously that's not what we meant at all. We said as a reference point.
16:30
And using Medicare as a reference point, it's about 200% of Medicare up to 220,
16:37
where a hospital can make a healthy profit but still run a safe, efficient hospital.
16:43
But we're talking about, apparently, what people are putting on social media
16:49
who are in the healthcare industry, we're talking about double that.
16:53
At least with Atrium. That's just so many legs. Every time you mention something,
16:57
there's another leg that you could talk about.
17:00
Right. Yeah. So I think in the end, we've kind of given up.
17:06
I think, not that we're defeated, but like. No, no. We just can't.
17:10
No, you can't keep up with all of it.
17:12
We just can't keep arguing people on Facebook, though. I mean,
17:14
that's not changing anything.
17:15
You know, we were happy to answer questions. Well, at some point we were talking in circles.
17:19
Yeah. When you have this kind of thing going on, the PR campaign that is so
17:23
well-funded, because there's plenty of money to fund it from certain hospitals,
17:28
you expect that it's going to be huge.
17:29
And it's exactly, it's playing out kind of exactly like we expected,
17:33
I'm sure, exactly like the health plan expected.
17:36
But to be honest, what's the amazing part is that so many hospitals did come
17:42
to the table with something reasonable.
17:44
That part, 10 years ago, we would have told you, no way.
17:50
So, you know, credit to Treasurer Brunner, but also credit to Treasurer Falwell,
17:54
who's the first one that put it out there that it could be done to actually,
18:01
say that we refuse to write blank checks anymore.
18:03
And Treasurer Brunner gave Treasurer Falwell, you know, credit for us for starting
18:08
that. So, you know. Yeah.
18:11
But you simply can't keep you can't get raises. Retirees can't get anything,
18:16
if we keep writing these blank checks to hospitals. That's the bottom line of
18:20
it. And I don't know that people get that connection either,
18:22
or our people, state employees.
18:24
The General Assembly cannot spend money on the state health plan,
18:28
you know, other benefits for state employees.
18:32
And you still expect to get money for a raise or a couple of retirees,
18:37
any of that. And they have to, the General Assembly also has to fully fund our retirement system.
18:42
So to give you another example from someone in Anne Kemsky, who is,
18:47
you know, one of the experts nationally that we often look to,
18:51
but she posted something this week that was fascinating and.
18:55
Atrium, apparently, despite having tons of money, a strong double-A bond rating,
19:03
huge war chest of hedge funds, private debt, we talked about it.
19:06
They have $10 billion in reserve. Atrium does.
19:09
So despite all that, they've been underfunding, according to Ann Kemsky,
19:14
their pension for their employees.
19:16
And that's huge.
19:18
The state of North Carolina is not underfunding the retirement system for its employees.
19:24
Now, we're still, you know, we're still trying to work back to getting colas,
19:27
but if they were underfunding it, we'd be that much further away from getting the colas.
19:33
So, if you think Atrium's been a good actor to you, this is what,
19:38
according to a national expert, they're doing to their own employees about retirement.
19:43
So I don't know that your ability to afford your health care is in the best hand. Right.
19:51
And I think they just as soon, the state, spend all the money they had on.
19:57
Overpriced health care for state employees through the health plan at Atrium
20:00
rather than being able to fully fund the retirement system, rather than being
20:05
able to give raises, rather than having to cut positions.
20:08
Well, clearly, if, you know, for me and Kempke, those are not priority issues
20:13
for them, even with their own people. So, certainly not for state employees.
20:18
And, you know, talking about the legislature just continuing to pile money into
20:23
it to make it work, make everything work out.
20:25
I mean, that would take away your colas. Yeah. Any chance you'd ever have.
20:29
Any kind of benefit enhancements. And, you know, this is a moment to give the
20:33
General Assembly some credit.
20:35
You know, we're constantly beaten on the General Assembly like we do anybody
20:41
for our members that's not giving them what they deserve.
20:45
But the bottom line is the General Assembly could have tried to step in the
20:48
way a previous General Assembly did when Dale Falwell said, you're ripping off
20:53
state employees and I'm going to stop you, hospitals.
20:57
You know, and the hospitals were banding together to stop Falwell and went to
21:01
the General Assembly for help and found it.
21:04
And this General Assembly so far has not shown signs of getting in the way of
21:09
Treasurer Briner for actually trying to look out for the plan members and keep
21:13
a health plan. Not have it go bankrupt.
21:17
I mean, that's something. So, obviously, we'll continue to watch that.
21:21
But there's pressure on them. There's pressure on those legislators,
21:24
though. Oh, yeah, definitely.
21:25
And we're seeing that crop up. They're going to have some town halls,
21:28
some listening sessions in some pivotal areas, we've noticed.
21:32
I saw a video from one of them, one of the legislators who had obviously been
21:38
here and think he represents one of the areas with just one,
21:42
you know, like Haywood or something like that.
21:44
With just one hospital and it's an atrium hospital. So yeah,
21:48
they're obviously getting some heat.
21:51
And if you're listening and your hospital's not in the network,
21:55
And you would like. Well, that's not true. If they're not, if they're a non-preferred,
22:01
because I think that's a lot of confusion. You're right. I said not in the network.
22:05
Because there's no such thing as in-network and out-of-network again.
22:08
Exactly. You fall into one of the tiers. Yeah.
22:11
But if they're a non-preferred. Right. If they're non-preferred or non-access level. Right. Yeah.
22:16
And you've been told by your hospital, if you're state health plan,
22:20
you're going to have to pay more than you did last year.
22:23
Yeah. And you would like to hear from somebody at the health plan,
22:26
please let us know at our website address for the podcast.
22:31
Yeah. It's podcast at scenic.org. Podcast at scenic.org, S-E-A-N-C dot org.
22:37
So podcast at S-E-A-N-C dot org. If you would like to have Thomas Friedman,
22:42
the executive administrator of the health plan, come out, they've asked all
22:45
the groups to let our members know.
22:47
They'll go anywhere and they'll come talk to you. Maybe we can host some town
22:51
halls like we did earlier this year.
22:54
You know, it doesn't take effect until January 1st. So we have some time,
22:58
I guess, to put something together.
23:01
I think it's 28. No, no, 28's the Blue Cross switchover, which we didn't talk
23:05
about last week. No, we did not. Yeah.
23:07
We talked about it with Treasure Briner, though, the week before.
23:10
True, true. Yeah, it all melts together. Yeah, it does.
23:14
But yeah, the changeover to Blue Cross will be 28. 22, yeah.
23:18
So what do you think? Like, do you think that one day we'll just wake up and
23:21
they'll say, we have a deal for Atrium, or do you think that it's just not probably in the cards?
23:28
I don't know. Depends what kind of statement Atrium wants to make.
23:30
If they want to give up the business, you know, they may make a decision that
23:36
they don't have such density of state employees that they're willing to let
23:40
it go, let the state employees go somewhere else.
23:43
But again, that's a choice Atrium would make, and it would be Atrium turning
23:47
their backs on state employees in that situation, not the reverse. Yeah.
23:52
So the only other news item I had was not really a news item,
23:55
but the Washington Post had an opinion article about our state employees in
24:01
North Carolina, specifically the,
24:04
Public Workforce Modernization Act that passed, which we have talked about at length on here.
24:09
From this Office of State Human Resources, the bill that modernized some of the hiring practices.
24:15
And I think that the Washington Post angle mostly was about getting rid of poor
24:22
performance employees.
24:25
But it was a kind of strange article to me because it said only 13 employees
24:31
from the overall workforce of around 70,000 were dismissed for poor performance in the last year.
24:39
And yet they're writing an editorial about it.
24:42
But it kind of gave human resources director Stacey Meyer some kudos for the changes in the act.
24:50
And I know that we worked with them on some of those changes.
24:53
It was vital to modernize that act.
24:57
And yes, it's vital to make things fair for the employee and the state.
25:03
Because employees don't want to be done wrong.
25:06
But they also don't want the idea that if they're doing everything right,
25:12
but their neighbor's not, that their supervisor has nothing they can do about that.
25:16
So, you know, trust when we tell you state employees want all state employees
25:22
to work at their top level just as much as you, the taxpayer,
25:26
does, because they're working in that environment and somebody's got to do the work.
25:30
So, I think modernizing was important. The deal is, though, you can't modernize,
25:37
in terms of the accountability for the employees.
25:41
If you don't have employees. Yeah, and say, we're not going to accept mediocrity,
25:46
if you give mediocre pay and benefits. And that's where we are right now. We're below mediocre.
25:54
So, that can't stand. Yeah, and you can't recruit and retain members,
25:58
I mean, workers in the first place. Oh, you're going to get,
26:01
you know, really poor quality folks who don't stay. Yeah. Or you don't want to stay.
26:07
Now, touch base with Director Myers' person yesterday. She's going to come join
26:11
us here soon on the podcast to talk more in depth about these changes.
26:16
Yeah, that'd be good. I think that we need to have a little more of an explainer
26:21
on it. I know it's pretty broad, and I think people would like to know the ins
26:25
and outs of it. Yeah, so stay tuned. We've got her coming on.
26:29
But overall, I guess our maybe argument to the Washington Post is that our crisis
26:36
is a recruitment and retention of workers, not just HR overalls. So that's my piece.
26:42
Anyway, we kind of did Gen Z moment already.
26:46
But do you have anything else? This isn't really a Gen Z moment.
26:49
But while I was driving to work today, I saw something kind of interesting on
26:55
the side of the road. There were some signs, some little picket signs that said,
27:00
Wake Med, our hospital, and no atrium takeover.
27:04
And artists, you mentioned that there was a town hall on Monday where speakers
27:08
kind of came out because I found an article on that.
27:11
It was at the St. Ambrose Episcopal Church, and there were some speakers out there.
27:19
And one of the speakers had said, we need guarantees that services will not
27:24
be cut and guarantees that charity care will not be weakened,
27:28
guarantees that staffing will not be reduced.
27:31
This deal does not give patients the guarantees we need. They asked to see the contract.
27:36
They did. From what the news story is. And the CEO of WakeMed said it's a private
27:42
agreement between a separate private entity.
27:45
It's got competitive information in it. Oh. And said that that will not be happening.
27:49
We've heard that before. Where did we hear that?
27:55
Oh, me. That's getting so old.
27:58
But did say that county leaders are getting a closer look and that three more
28:03
Wake County commissioners, including Cheryl Stallings, as well as county attorneys,
28:09
are allowed to view more of the deal.
28:12
Well, I would invite any of the Wake County commissioners that would be willing
28:18
to come on this podcast. It's a critical issue for our members and listeners,
28:22
and especially Don Mile, who's the chair of the county commissioners.
28:26
I think what we are not seeing from the Wake County commissioners is them publicly
28:30
making themselves available to discuss this.
28:33
Yeah, it's all been between Atrium and the state health plans,
28:37
not really any input from them.
28:39
No, not the state health plan. Atrium and the county commissioners.
28:41
Atrium and the county commissioners.
28:43
And that's, you know, the Wake County commissioners are not part of a competitive
28:48
business deal, as Don Gensig described it to the media.
28:52
And good for those folks for getting together and speaking out.
28:56
People aren't, they're not easily fooled. They know this is not likely to go
29:00
well for the folks who've counted.
29:02
There were hundreds of people who showed up, packed the pews to voice their
29:06
concerns over this proposal. So it seems like it was a very,
29:09
very large turnout concerned community members. So cool beans.
29:13
Well, it's time for the John's Wacky Weird question of the week.
29:17
I think I need a shorter title for that, but we'll go with that.
29:28
So our website launched a couple weeks ago, and it's been awesome so far.
29:34
I think we're slowly learning how to use it, right, Sammy? Yes.
29:38
Sort of. It's a process. It really is. But, you know, we're getting there.
29:43
But one of the coolest things on it is this AI chatbot that is helping answer
29:49
all of our members' questions.
29:51
And I've actually been excited to watch the people. So I can kind of watch the
29:55
back end and see all the questions they're asking and things.
29:59
So my question is, how do you feel about something like AI helping you, not just with Scenic?
30:04
I mean, this is a small, small potatoes item, but things like chatbots and AI.
30:11
Are you open to things like that helping you? Oh, yeah. Okay.
30:15
I would totally be open to that. I mean, because like the chatbot,
30:19
that's cool because we may not always be available to answer somebody's question
30:22
right there. And if we've already got answers loaded to, you know,
30:26
questions that we get asked often, then somebody can get their answer.
30:29
It's really cool that. I just don't, I mean, I don't think AI is completely
30:33
going to take over. You still are going to require a certain amount of people.
30:37
I think it's cool that when it first launched, it didn't get a lot of questions
30:42
right, but it was learning.
30:44
Yeah. And it learned really fast. And things are like, I'll see it answer questions
30:48
now. It's like, wow, that was like the right answer. So we're getting there.
30:53
But how far is too far, I guess, is my question.
30:56
Well, I mean, it learns from everything that we answer. So, I don't know.
31:02
When we're talking about privacy, I guess, not scenic specifically,
31:05
but what would you not trust an AI bot with?
31:09
I'll tell you where my line is. Okay, what's your line? Not taking my order
31:12
because I do not like the different fast food chains that have already switched
31:18
and said, hey, AI's running our drive-thrus.
31:20
No. Bojangles does that. If I want to make sure that something is taken off
31:25
my burger or sandwich or whatever I'm ordering, I don't trust AI to make sure
31:30
it's getting taken off. We're going to say like your credit card information,
31:33
but no, it's your burger.
31:35
That's where the line is. Take that lettuce off. Hey, that line is very early in the sand.
31:41
I'm drawing it. I think that. Sharp right there.
31:45
Yeah, I think that there are things like that that maybe you wouldn't think is very private.
31:50
Yeah, your finances. And then if I have to call someone, like call a business
31:54
or something, I still will, or like I'm calling customer support,
31:58
I still will yell at the AI bot and say, talk to a representative.
32:02
Yeah, I get that a lot, especially with like the VA. I do a lot of the VA for
32:07
my dad and they do a lot of chat bots with their answering.
32:12
And it just, you just find yourself in a loop. Yeah. You know,
32:15
you just find yourself going back and forth.
32:18
So luckily that hasn't, I haven't seen that happen with ours so far,
32:21
but yeah, you're right. Like, especially something that's critically important
32:25
that you need an answer to.
32:27
I wish there was an option to speak to a representative, which there is with ours.
32:31
Yeah, Spectrum probably has a voice recording of me yelling, Spectrum is the worst.
32:38
South Park had the best skit in the world about cable companies and their customer service,
32:44
or lack thereof if you if you ever want to see something funny kind of very off color but funny,
32:51
look it up south park cable company yeah but i don't love i don't want to give
32:56
ai any information yeah but technology hypocrite because i do love a rumba yeah,
33:04
if ai can or you know not ai but if technology can help me get the dust off
33:08
the floor i love it i've yeah you're that's fair along those same lines i really
33:15
want one of those ai powered,
33:17
lawnmowers oh wouldn't that be cool those are a fortune though map your area
33:22
and know where to go oh man it's like.
33:26
Like $3,700. Those were a fortune. Maybe I don't agree with that,
33:30
but that's because my parents' lawnmower is like a toy for them.
33:34
I remember them having just like a simple lawnmower and then at one point my
33:39
dad decided he was dead set on getting one of the mowers that has like the two
33:43
handlebars that come over it.
33:45
And he can twist and turn around on it. He is obsessed with that thing.
33:49
It is like a toy. It is like a toy.
33:53
I think at some point in life, If all men are either barbecuers,
33:57
lawnmowers, or bird watchers. And I think I'm a bird. Yeah, you did the bird
34:01
watchers thing. My dad's over here building me and my brother,
34:04
like, live wooden shelves.
34:06
Yeah. So he's. Well, I'll tell you the thing. The difference between mowing
34:09
the yard and taking care of the floors in the house. One of those things happens once a week.
34:15
The other thing has to happen pretty much every day. Yeah. Especially when you
34:19
have dogs. Yeah, the Roombas. Yes.
34:21
Well, that's probably our 57th AI question of the week.
34:26
I'm sorry about that. Scenic members, go check out the new website.
34:28
Yeah, but please check it out. And down in the bottom right corner,
34:31
there's a little chat with us.
34:33
Check that out, too, and it can answer all of your scenic questions.
34:36
Well, most of them we're getting there, but we'll learn from our mistakes and
34:41
keep moving forward. And subscribe to this podcast. So, yeah, very important.
34:45
You usually get this podcast from YouTube. That's what we put in the scoop.
34:50
And that's what we put on our Facebook and our social medias because that's
34:53
like the easiest way for people to access it.
34:56
But on the YouTube player, it'll have a little button that says subscribes.
35:01
Please just push that button and you'll get our podcast first before anyone
35:05
else and all of our videos and it's really cool.
35:10
Please do that. And we'll see you next week.