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Tag: no-fault car insurance
PIP car insurance, built to curb lawsuits, spurs record pile instead
A no-fault car insurance system that was supposed to reduce lawsuits in Florida has instead produced an all-time high mountain of more than 60,000 of them in 2017, a new report shows.
Source: Florida Justice Reform Institute report.
That represents a stunning rise of close to 50 percent in one year, according to data from The Florida Justice Reform Institute, a group that says it fights against wasteful litigation.
So are insurers rushing to tell legislators to repeal Florida's Personal Injury Protection system before the session ends in early March? Guess again.
An insurance industry group never mentions PIP in its statement on the lawsuit report and has urged lawmakers to put off repeal another year.
Who benefits from keeping the current system? Florida's top 25 car insurers have raised PIP rates up to 54 percent since the start of 2017, and on average hiked them 35 percent faster than overall premiums, The Palm Beach Post reported.
Florida drivers pay among the nation's top six car insurance bills in one of the few states that retain a no-fault system. The state forces drivers to buy $10,000 of PIP to cover the driver's own injuries in an accident regardless of who is at fault, no matter how much health insurance the consumer already has.
One of the justifications for PIP when it was created the 1970s was to reduce lawsuits after minor car accidents.
Almost half a century later, PIP's relatively small benefit has hardly changed and in no way kept up with medical inflation, yet it is driving consumer rate increases and, in a final irony, leading the lawsuit parade.
Who's suing? The lawsuits measured in the report are typically not filed by ordinary drivers but chiropractors, clinics, imaging centers and other medical providers suing insurers to get paid for PIP claims, researchers say.
PIP represents by far the largest source for a type of lawsuit that FJRI officials say is responsible for more than half of the state's overall insurance litigation and is driving up consumer costs. It's associated with an arrangement known as "assignment of benefits" or AOB.
It happens when third parties like a repair contractor or medical clinic tell consumers we'll handle the claim for you if you sign this form assigning us the insurance benefit. It's not uncommon in health care and other fields. Insurers say the trouble is, Florida's laws provide too many incentives for some of the third parties take the insurers to court.
Yet you'd never know that PIP was involved in any way from an insurance industry group's statement on the AOB lawsuit report. The focus is exclusively on property insurance claims representing about one-sixth as many suits compared to PIP, and auto windshield claims representing about a third as many. Insurers say these categories are growing, and PIP repeal must wait for reforms affecting lawyer fees that have stalled in the legislature for half a dozen years and seem likely to deadlock again.
"We are seeing an increase in the number of property and auto glass claims because one-way attorney fees are incentivizing AOB abuse,'' said Logan McFaddin, the Florida-based regional manager for the Property Casualty Insurers Association of America. "Legislative reform is desperately needed to curtail the number of fake or inflated claims and lawsuits. Now is the time for legislators to protect Floridians from these bad actors and help reduce insurance costs."
OK, but how about repealing PIP and lopping off the source of the majority of AOB suits in one stroke? Then pursue additional lawsuit reforms? At least two important insurance lobby groups in Tallahassee say no thanks.
The net effect: drivers keep paying rising premiums to insurers. A state-commissioned actuarial report said drivers could save up to $81 per car if Florida repealed PIP and required bodily-injury liability coverage. A bill that passed the House 88-15 would do that. Florida is one of only two states that do not require BI insurance to make drivers responsible for injuries to others.
A Senate PIP repeal bill remains stuck in committee as the session nears its end. Asked by a Post correspondent about the issue, Senate President Joe Negron, R-Stuart, offered a recap of committee stops with no comment on whether leadership believes it merits further attention or a vote on the floor.
"That bill has moved through one committee in the process with a favorable vote and is now in health and human services appropriations (committee), so it would be up to that committee to decide whether they want to take up the bill in the final time we're here for session," Negron said last week. "The short answer would be it's undetermined."
Instead of championing a chance for driver savings, insurers put out their own report that said rates would go up 5.3 percent under the House bill. The report prepared by Milliman Inc. for PCI acknowledged it used unverified, unaudited data from a subset of member companies that could be "biased" and chose to ignore any savings from eliminating PIP fraud. A group representing trial attorneys blasted it as not credible and inconsistent with the state report and with consumer savings in other states that dropped no-fault systems, including Colorado and Georgia.
So what's the story? Insurers raise rates up to 54 percent in a year for PIP. Then lobbyists claim late in the session that rates would also go up under the House repeal plan. They encourage legislators not to believe a state-commissioned actuarial report that said drivers could save an average of near 6 percent on their overall bills after PIP repeal.
Now a report shows PIP is responsible for most of the lawsuits insurers are complaining about. It's the elephant in the room, the biggest part of the mountain.
But apparently it's not fit for mention.
See an expanded story version of this post here.
Author Charles ElmorePosted on February 22, 2018 February 23, 2018 Categories car insurance, UncategorizedTags Florida Justice Reform Institute, lawsuits, mobile breaking business, news, newsfeed, no-fault car insurance, pbpmobile, PIP, Property Casualty Insurers Association of AmericaLeave a comment on PIP car insurance, built to curb lawsuits, spurs record pile instead
PIP repeal: House panel votes to overturn no-fault plan in Florida
A drive to repeal the state's no-fault car insurance system after nearly half a century cleared an early hurdle in a renewed run Tuesday. Its next stop: The House floor when the 2018 session starts in January.
Rep. Grall advocates for PIP repeal in the House commerce committee Tuesday.
HB 19 sponsored by Rep. Erin Grall, R-Vero Beach, repeals the state's Personal Injury Protection law in place since 1971 and replaces it with required bodily-injury liability coverage, which nearly all states require and most Florida drivers already have.
The 18-7 vote offers hope to drivers who are fed up with the current system. They stand to save up to $81 per car or nearly $1 billion annually according to actuarial studies — by no longer having to pay for a form of car insurance long plagued by fraud and high costs.
"Why should they have to buy more health insurance but only for their car?" Dale Swope, president of the Florida Justice Association, said before the committee. "It makes no sense to our older drivers and veterans."
For that matter, the same question applies to the vast majority of Florida drivers who have health insurance from employer plans or other sources.
Groups representing doctors, emergency providers and others in the medical industry voiced opposition. Whatever its problems, PIP provides coverage providers can count on for medical expenses after accidents, said Fraser Cobbe, representing the Florida Orthopedic Society.
"We are very concerned about components of the bill," Cobbe said, indicating he will continue to talk with sponsors about including mandatory coverage for medical payments.
But supporters of medical-payments coverage typically want everyone to be forced to buy it, not just those lacking health coverage.
Representatives of insurers including Allstate and Progressive chose not to speak but indicated opposition to the bill. Some industry groups said they want lawmakers to reform Florida's "bad faith" laws they say drive up costs in lawsuits.
The Personal Injury Protection system is designed to provide $10,000 to cover injuries in minor accidents regardless of who is at fault. Reform attempts in 2012 reduced "non-emergency" benefits to $2,500 and barred acupuncture and massage, but that was followed by a spike in the percentage of claims that purported to be for emergency care.
A string of reforms have failed to prevent rising premiums for coverage that duplicates health insurance most drivers already have from Medicare or other health plans, bill supporters said.
The bill is nearly identical to legislation that passed the state House last year, 81-29.
A Senate version requiring $5,000 "medical payments" coverage, to help make sure emergency medical providers receive at least some reimbursement, did not reach a vote in the full chamber last spring. Supporters of the House bill say required "medical payments" coverage just renames PIP and wipes out most driver savings on car insurance.
Florida drivers pay among the five highest car insurance premiums in the nation, for some of the lowest required coverage amounts, a state Senate panel heard last session. Florida lets unsafe drivers avoid responsibility while safe drivers are forced to pay the bill, repeal supporters say.
Florida is one of two states that do not require bodily-injury liability coverage, Grall has pointed out.
Two dozen states have dropped no-fault systems in recent decades, leaving Florida among a dwindling number that retain them. Colorado drivers saved 35 percent on their overall car insurance premiums after dropping a no-fault system there.
Drivers like Dick Natalizio of Palm Beach have called Florida's system a "joke" as PIP premiums have shot up an average of 25 percent since the start of 2015. Even drivers who never get in an accident are forced by state government to buy it.
"I have Medicare," he said. "They force me to buy PIP. It's so ridiculous."
Author Charles ElmorePosted on November 7, 2017 November 7, 2017 Categories car insurance, PIPTags -, Florida, mobile breaking business, news, newsfeed, no-fault car insurance, pbpmobile, PIP, Rep. Erin Grall3 Comments on PIP repeal: House panel votes to overturn no-fault plan in Florida
Big House majority votes 89-29 to repeal costly no-fault driver plan
A car insurance system many Florida drivers reject as a costly and fraud-prone duplication of their health insurance would end after almost 50 years under a bill that passed the Florida House 89-29 on Wednesday.
That puts the ball in the court of the Florida Senate with the session winding down, but the House vote sends a ringing message that drivers like Dick Natalizio of Palm Beach Gardens welcomed.
Driver Dick Natalizio of Palm Beach Gardens wants PIP repealed.
"Fantastic," Natalizio said. He has called the PIP system created in 1971 a "joke" that forces drivers to pay twice for health insurance they already get from Medicare, employer plans or other coverage. PIP rates have shot up an average of 25 percent in Florida since the start of 2015, but drivers have no choice except to pay even if they are never in an accident.
An actuarial study commissioned by the state last year found drivers could save up to $81 per car by repealing a state requirement to buy $10,000 of Personal Injury Protection, which covers a driver or passenger's own injuries regardless of who is at fault in an accident.
Researchers found average driver savings would be about 5.6 percent by repealing PIP and instead requiring bodily-injury liability coverage to cover others when the driver is at fault in amounts of $25,000 per person or $50,000 per accident, as the House bill does. More than 90 percent of Florida drivers already carry at least some BI coverage, and two out of three carry 25/50. So it repeals a costly mandate and imposes one most already meet, putting them into a position to save money.
Florida is one of two states that do not require bodily-injury liability coverage, HB 1063 sponsor Rep. Erin Grall, R-Vero Beach, reminded colleagues on the House floor Wednesday. That means drivers are not required to take any responsibility in their insurance for injuring others.
Two dozen states have concluded no-fault systems are costly failures in recent decades and dropped them, so that only a handful now remain. Colorado drivers saved 35 percent on their overall car insurance premiums after dropping a no-fault plan.
"It is time to repeal PIP," Grall said.
Florida drivers are required to buy some of the lowest coverage amounts in the nation, yet they pay among the eight highest average premiums.
State Rep. Julio Gonzales, R-Venice and an orthopedic surgeon, said he fully admits the PIP system is "broken," but he opposed the bill because PIP at least makes sure drivers without health insurance have some coverage at emergency rooms. By some estimates about 13 percent of Floridians do not have health insurance, though hospitals are required to treat them in an emergency.
"I do not think we can bring this plane in for a landing without addressing the slew of physicians standing by to take care of us," Gonzales said.
A Senate bill, SB 1766, would repeal PIP and require BI but also mandate $5,000 in "medical payments" coverage to cover a driver's own injuries. Grall said the problem is that largely just preserves PIP under another name. Studies show it would wipe out potential driver savings, and still force responsible drivers in effect to pay twice for health insurance. The bill is still in committee.
The office of Senate president Joe Negron, R-Stuart, office did not immediately respond to a request for comment on whether he supports PIP repeal getting a full airing in the Senate this session.
Author Charles ElmorePosted on April 19, 2017 April 19, 2017 Categories car insurance, PIPTags bnblogs, news, newsfeed, no-fault car insurance, pbpmobile, Personal Injury Protection, PIP, repeal, Sen. Erin GrallLeave a comment on Big House majority votes 89-29 to repeal costly no-fault driver plan
Poll: Should Florida kill its no-fault car insurance system?
It's been one of our top stories in the past week: A new bill proposed in Florida would end the state's controversial no-fault car insurance system.
Florida is one of a handful of states requiring drivers to purchase Personal Injury Protection (PIP) medical coverage for possible car crashes, and maintain that in addition to already-existing health insurance coverage.
State Sen. Jeff Brandes, R-St. Petersburg, filed the bill, and told The Palm Beach Post, "The system is broken and rife with fraud and abuse. There is no amount of tweaking that will fix PIP."
Is it time for the practice to end? We want you to weigh in.
Vote in our poll below, then comment to share your thoughts on no-fault car insurance.
Read more about the proposed bill.
Author Kristina WebbPosted on December 21, 2015 December 21, 2015 Categories Business, car insuranceTags allpbc, Florida, insurance, Jeff Brandes, legislature, mobile breaking business, news, newsfeed, no-fault car insurance, Personal Injury Protection, politicsLeave a comment on Poll: Should Florida kill its no-fault car insurance system?


As a Professional Account Manager, Marie-Line Eyermann helps business owners develop their activity in order to turn their plans into reality. Her job combines the two things she likes most—finance and human relationships. Let's meet this passionate manager.
I offer financial support to entrepreneurs, including freelancers, liberal professionals, craftspeople and shop owners. This support covers every step in their project—from creating to developing their activity. I work with them to define their objectives and needs in order to provide the best advice for managing their professional activity and their personal assets. Proximity is an important aspect of my job, since most of my customers have their offices near my branch. That allows me to keep a close eye on their activity and act as a reliable partner on a daily basis.
On that note, what is the key to building a trusted relationship with your customers?
For me, the secret is maintaining a close connection with customers. To do that, you have to get to know them and stay in touch with them to learn more about their activity. One trick is to put yourself in your customer's shoes. Often, that helps you understand and anticipate their needs. Responding fast is another key factor. The faster you respond to a customer request, the more likely they are to trust you and even recommend you to other business owners.
Can you walk us through a typical day in your job?
Actually, there is no typical day in my job. It all depends on my customers' needs. However, there are certain tasks we carry out every day. For example, the very first thing I do when I get to the office in the morning is check my schedule and prepare for the day's meetings. I also have to plan my upcoming visits to my customers. After that, I have to answer all my urgent requests, either by email, phone or secure message service. I also have to ensure adequate management of risk and compliance. In other words, I have to make sure customers meet the deadlines and terms outlined in the contract they signed with us. If that doesn't happen, I have to take action as quickly as possible. Finally, every day I check the financial news and seek out new customers.
What reflexes does it take to do this job?
The first reflex is to stay curious—take an interest in your customer, their industry, the issues they face, etc. The more curious you are, the better you will be at finding pertinent solutions for your customers. The second reflex is organization. When you have more than 500 customers in your portfolio, it is crucial to manage your schedule closely and plan your meetings as far in advance as possible.
This also includes promoting the digital tools available to help customers with their routine operations. Leveraging synergies is another key asset for this job.
Depending on the needs of your customers, you may need to contact experts or specialist advisors who can offer personalized advice. This brings up another important part of the job: teamwork. Professional account managers often fly solo, but it's also essential to get involved in the daily operations at the branch, in order to learn about other businesses and work together with everyone else. It's a great way to grow your knowledge and find innovative solutions.
The first reflex is to stay curious—take an interest in your customer. The more curious you are, the better you will be at finding pertinent solutions. The second reflex is organization.
You started your career as a wealth advisor. How does that experience help you today?
It's important to remember that a professional account manager not only helps their customer to manage their professional activity, but also their personal assets. My experience as a wealth manager is extremely helpful, because it gives me a level of credibility when I have to advise business owners about their personal assets. In addition, this experience taught me the reflexes I need today, such as listening to customers and staying updated on economic news.
All the interaction. I really enjoy meeting new people and helping them with their professional plans. It's satisfying when a business owner thanks you for helping them to develop their activity. The most gratifying part is when a customer recommends you to other entrepreneurs. It's a nice feeling when your strengths are recognized.
It's also exciting to discover new sectors and businesses. For example, I recently had the opportunity to meet some food-tech entrepreneurs working on fascinating projects. Lastly, things are always changing in this job, which gives you a certain amount of freedom: many times you have to think outside the box to put together a unique financial solution.
What makes you proud of the work you do?
So I am very proud that I recently convinced several young female entrepreneurs to get funding from BNP Paribas.
I recently formed a trusted relationship with a customer's certified accountant. Little by little, it led to a national partnership between BNP Paribas and their accounting firm. Another topic I care about is female entrepreneurship. Women entrepreneurs use banks less than their male counterparts. So I am very proud that I recently convinced several young female entrepreneurs to get funding from BNP Paribas. I notably helped them access credit, a solution they had not previously considered, and that helped kickstart the development of their activities. I hope I'll have the chance to help even more women in the future.
What image would you use to explain your job to a child?
Like a family doctor, a professional account manager listens to their patients, who are business owners. They take an interest in their financial issues, study their symptoms, then issue a diagnosis. Next, they have to reassure their patient and recommend the best remedy. Then, they monitor the patient's progress over time and help keep their business healthy. If the symptoms persist or exceed the bounds of their expertise, a professional account manager may refer their patient to a specialist. In short, their goal is to give entrepreneurs peace of mind, so they can focus on developing their professional activity.


text:
Womb-of-All, Home-of-all, Hearse-of-All Night
Spelt from Sibyl's Leaves
by Gerard Manley Hopkins
Earnest, earthless, equal, attuneable, ' vaulty, voluminous, … stupendous
Evening strains to be tíme's vást, ' womb-of-all, home-of-all, hearse-of-all night.
Her fond yellow hornlight wound to the west, ' her wild hollow hoarlight hung to the height
Waste; her earliest stars, earl-stars, ' stárs principal, overbend us,
Fíre-féaturing heaven. For earth ' her being has unbound, her dapple is at an end, as-
tray or aswarm, all throughther, in throngs; ' self ín self steedèd and páshed—qúite
Disremembering, dísmémbering ' áll now. Heart, you round me right
With: Óur évening is over us; óur night ' whélms, whélms, ánd will end us.
Only the beak-leaved boughs dragonish ' damask the tool-smooth bleak light; black,
Ever so black on it. Óur tale, O óur oracle! ' Lét life, wáned, ah lét life wind
Off hér once skéined stained véined variety ' upon, áll on twó spools; párt, pen, páck
Now her áll in twó flocks, twó folds—black, white; ' right, wrong; reckon but, reck but, mind
But thése two; wáre of a wórld where bút these ' twó tell, each off the óther; of a rack
Where, selfwrung, selfstrung, sheathe- and shelterless, ' thóughts agaínst thoughts ín groans grínd.
Dashed Off XXII
It is problematic to treat florilegia as a bunch of texts piled together rather than as building an impression in 'brushstrokes'.
the perlocutionary effect of a philosophical dialogue
--look at Thomas Roderick Dew's adaptation of Burke and Hume in *Review of the Debate in the Virginia Legislature of 1831 & 1832*
liturgy as monumental history
the Filioque and the appropriateness of mediation to the Second Person of the Trinity; the Word as Mediator
'the grace of imitating the apostolic way of life'
Chandi in Chandi Charitar as mythological/allegorical representation of victory of divine good over evil
The possibility of sin is in itself the possibility of hell.
Analytic philosophy of religion, when talking about higher theological topics (beyond basic natural theology) seems very often to conflate subjective effect and objective nature.
Anyone rational enough to evaluate evidence is rational enough to evade it.
A schismatic church tends to be a church subservient to secular pressures.
Perfect understanding of sin requires union with God.
The horror of sin is such that it involves deadening us who sin to the horror, like drugs that cloud the mind as they kill us in degrading ways.
Guru Granth Sahib as lyrical philosophical contemplation
"The syllable gu means darkness, the syllable ru, dispeller; because of the power to dispel darkness, the guru is so named." Advayataranka Upanishad 16
"it would be in vain for a thing to be tending to what is impossible for it to reach." Aquinas DC 132
"heavy and light bodies are moved by the generator or the remover of impediment" Aquinas DC 148
DC 165: Every natural body must have a natural inclination to some kind of change, and thus a natural aptness to be moved, if it is to be moved even by compulsion, which must be from a proper inclination by a stronger force.
Every irregular motion or change possesses intension, power (maximum), and remission.
the Mass as linking public and private prayer
pro bono work as a common constituent of humanitarian traditions
Sometimes by attempting to find a way to communicate a position simply, we find its pure cure.
"Beauty is a transcendental, a perfection in things which transcends things and attests their kinship with the infinite, because it makes them fit to give joy to the spirit." Maritain
poetry as trying to capture things by remotion, eminence, and causation
the being-in-the-story aspect of reading
the three great philosophical contemplations: self, world, God
The generated intimates the ingenerable.
the rejection of idolatry, murder, and adultery as key to proper understanding of the image of God in us
"Piety is nothing else than the recognition of God as parent." Lactantius
"A poet of original genius is always distinguished by his talent for description." Hugh Blair
Arguments persuade not directly but by raising the recognizable cost or increasing the recognizable benefit of a position. These costs & benefits may be rational or not.
Anything that can calculate is to that extent a computer; but in this sense there is no meaning to talking about something being 'merely' a computer.
"The sound method of demonstrating a truth is to expose the fallacy of the objections raised against it; and the disgrace of the deceiver is complete if his own lie be converted into an evidence for the truth. And, indeed, the universal experience of mankind has learned that falsehood and truth are incompatible, and cannot be reconciled or made coherent; that by their very nature they are among those opposites which are eternally repugnant, and can never combine or agree." Hilary De Trin 5.6
A template exists as a such only within a larger system.
The 'primitive' character of folk ballads is often really a quality of 'undergrowth', arising from their unsupervised and sometimes even outlaw or clandestine character.
Integrity concepts have to have a tolerance for defect or no one has integrity.
positions as methods for drawing conclusions
"In their several assertions and denials, there are points in which each heresy is in the right in defense or attack; and the result of their conflicts is that the truth of our confession is brought into clearer light." Hilary DT 7.7
"Our method is that of using bodily instances as a clue to the invisible. Reverence and reason justify us in using such help , which we find used in God's witness to Himself, while yet we do not aspire to fina parallel to the nature of God. But the minds of simple believers have been distressed by the mad heretical objection that it is wrong to accept a doctrine concerning God which needs, in order to become intelligible, the help of bodily analogies." Hilary DT 7.30
The danger of apologetics is losing the forest in the trees.
Anthony of Padua & concordantia as an exegetical principle
'Argent' and 'silver' are conceptually linked, but they are, as it were, differently tinged, and this is not a mere difference of sound or marks, but of associations that affect fitness of application. Substituting 'silver' for 'argent' may not affect truth value, but in many cases it will be a less fit term to use, because it will not have the right library of classifications and shared associations.
Utilitarianism is the theory of everything having a price.
territorial, national (ethnic), and ritual principles of ecclesial jurisdiction (noticeably, things can get very tangled when they conflict)
imperfect duties as character-focused
Every constitutive principle implies regulative principles.
Procedural fairness requires systems of honor to uphold the procedures and apply them properly.
Genuinely practical reasoning may nonetheless be highly abstract.
a natural stimulus to philosophy: reflection on the limits of application of aphorisms
"Every novelist ought to invent his own technique, that is the fact of the matter. Every novel worthy of the name is like another planet, whether large or small, which has its own laws just as it has it is own flora and fauna." Mauriac
the constative and performative force of sacraments (to show Christ to us and to make us Christ)
entertaining a proposition and judging it to be apparently possible/coherent/intelligible (I entertain the possibility that p, or the coherence or intelligibility of p)
Shelley's Prometheus Unbound as an allegory of the human mind
Vice obscures.
faith, hope, and charity as related to the natural structure of good marriage
one : remotion :: true : supereminence :: good : causation
teaching, sanctifying, and governing as all tending to hierarchical structure
The office of each bishop flows out to all the Church by (1) communion with the See of Peter; (2) communion under the see of Peter; (3) collegiality with fellow bishops.
Narrative retold tends toward stylization.
"The spirit of the world cares much for words but little for works." Francis de Sales
The Silmarillion as a myth concerned with Free will (cf. Letter 153)
docilitas and active participation in the liturgy
natural : conventional :: necessary : contingent
emotive theories of ethics & the experience of music
the meaning of music & shared expressive/emotive meaning (music as dialogical, at least semi-dialogical like the epistolary) -- note that Stevenson's view is indeed cooperative in this way
music & interjections (Uncle Toby is a good place to see the basic similarities)
The fashions of the world ape the powers of the world.
passions, moods, interactions of moods (ambiences)
the Tower of Babel and the temptation to try to seize divine gifts by method
Computing machines operate as parts of interpretation loops.
Dooyeweerd's theory of enkapsis seems to work best for artifacts.
an argument from per accidens causal series on the model of the Third Way
Sometimes when people speak of historical memory, they really mean historical unforgiving.
It is remarkable that science fiction often depicts futures that have no science fiction.
The power of a law is cumulative and builds slowly; it requires consistency in interpretation and enforcement.
An infinite per accidens series is only possible through the action of a cause outside the series that has infinite power.
the three primary episcopal munera/officia: (1) unity of faith; (2) integrity of sacraments; (3) harmony of the churches
"Every good poem must be wholly intentional and wholly instinctive." Schlegel
"Everything in a truly poetic book seems so natural -- and yet so marvelous." Novalis
Scholasticisms eventually collapse under their own weight because human ingenuity cannot rise to higher-level simplifications fast enough to keep up with the complexification that comes from human discursive reasoning.
Hume's account of causation has difficulty making sense of temporally extended effects except as mental conveniences; this follows from the role of successive contiguity.
All per accidens causation requires a larger causal system.
Bellarmine's discussion of the notes of the Church as an outline of a theory of motives of credibility
truth as (defeasibly) recognizable by: label, primordiality, durability, consensus of many, provenance, temporal coherence, structural coherence, internal goodness, efficacy, goodness-causing, diagnostic sign, predictive confirmation, confession of adversaries, detriment of denial, benefit of acceptance
"The emotive meaning of a word is the tendency of a word, arising through the history of its usage, to produce (result from) affective responses in people. It is the immediate aura of feeling which hovers about a word." Stevenson
moral sense of responsibility // musical investment
- a musical sense theory (cf. Hutcheson on the sense of harmony)
Music is motivating, in at least a vague way.
Disapproval cannot be mere dislike, and comparison of cases of disapproval shows that it generally has reference to a standard.
It is remarkable how often emotivist and expressivist accounts of ethics read as if they were written by people who have no conception of human emotional life or its expressions.
obligations arising from the need to do good before death, if possible
fiction : lying :: lending : usury
hypothesis as fiction under inquiry, postulate as fiction under practical problem-solving
the diversity of rites as allowing self-correction and redundancy
self-correction, redundancy, cooperation, complementarity, hierarchy, restraint, rich perspective
exemplar-occasion, exemplar-agent
That we can have means to ends establishes that there are causal dispositions.
Experimental design is planning using knowledge of causal dispositions.
deontic limitation as intrinsic to the notion of marriage
hidden decency as a narrative trope
Nietzsche on objectivity as intellectual castration.
Evening Note for Thursday, October 12
Thought for the Evening: Of the Logic of Imperatives
Inference is often assumed to be a matter of assertions; but there are good reasons for thinking that you can infer with imperatives. Consider, for instance, these arguments:
Don't brake while accelerating. (A little later) You are accelerating; therefore, don't brake.
A: Drive to Cleveland to see your mother.
B: I cannot drive to Cleveland unless I rent a car.
A: So rent a car!
Act only according to that maxim that you can at the same time will to be universal law. The maxim to lie to get money is not such a maxim. Therefore do not act according to it.
A: You have to go to town, either by bus or by car.
B: I can't go by car; my car's in the shop.
A: Then go by bus.
A: Take all of Joe's things to the station.
B: Does this belong to Joe?
A: Yes, so take that.
All of these seem to be reasoning involving imperatives, with imperatives in either the premises or the conclusions. Because of the assumption that inference is tied to assertion, though, there was a big dispute, as far as a logical dispute can be big, a few decades back, over whether you could have a logic involving imperatives, in the proper sense. Héctor-Neri Castañeda (who is still absurdly underappreciated) was probably the most influential voice arguing that you could indeed have such a logic. In the course of the dispute it became clear that the two major arguments against were (1) the fact that imperatives have no truth values; and (2) that trying to do an imperative logic on analogy with that for assertions creates some anomalies.
The first of these is certainly the major obstacle for most people; it has become common to associate logic so much with truth values and truth conditions that the prejudice against a non-truth-value logic is quite strong. But it's clear enough that you can have things that are analogous to truth values -- the one that I think is usually most useful is concerned with whether a command or imperative is 'in force', but there are others. I, of course, am on record saying that you can be interested in many other things beside truth values and truth conditions (possibility values and possibility conditions, for instance), so I am utterly unimpressed with this line of argument. But it also, I think, serves to distract from another, more important point, which is that you can obviously give rules governing reasoning with imperatives.
We can identify rule-governed phenomena involving imperatives. For instance, we can identify contradictories:
Go to the store. Don't go to the store.
Obviously, this is because we have some form of negation. We can find imperatives that are equivalent:
Go to Canada. Go to the country that is second largest by land area.
That means that we can substitute imperatives for another. Some imperatives include each other. For instance, 'Do this' and 'Do something' are related in that if you have conform to the former, you have also conformed to the latter, although the reverse is not true. This is at least something like an implication. We can have conjunctions (Talk to Bob and talk to Jane), disjunctions (Talk to Bob or talk to Jane); we can eliminate the conjunction by taking one of the conjuncts, and we can eliminate the disjunction by something that looks very like disjunctive syllogism. These are not arbitrary moves; they are rule-governed, and so there should be some logic to them.
The second major reason used by doubters is that we get puzzles if we take a logic of imperatives to be very like a logic of assertions. To some extent, this objection only gets its force by assuming that a logic of imperatives and a logic of assertions would have to be isomorphic, which was a common supposition in the attempt to build a logic of imperatives, but I see no reason to assume such a thing farther than the evidence requires. (It should be noted, that some anomalies are arguably not. For instance, one of the most common examples makes use of disjunction addition: 'Post this letter; therefore, post this letter or burn it.' But this is not a problem. Because disjunction addition is not standard for natural language assertions, either; it is a rule that is proposed not because it fits the way we talk -- it very much does not -- but because it simplifies the organization of the formal logical system. Thus some of these problems are due to the complications that come from trying to translate between natural languages and artificial languages, and are not actually unique to imperatives.) But there do seem to be some differences. The most obvious one, of course, is that you can't understand arguments based on imperatives to have validity in the sense of truth-preservation. Rather, there needs to be an analogous kind of validity -- in-force-preservation, perhaps.
I think there's another big issue that hasn't been considered at all in the literature. Every attempt at formulating a logic of imperatives that I have seen has focused on building the logic on the model of propositional logic. But there seems good reason to think that this will inevitably give us some odd results. Many imperatives seem to work not like unitary propositions but like predications. We have a subject (usually You), and what we do is apply the imperative to the subject: (You) -- go to the store. This is perhaps not true of all imperatives (if I say, 'This shall be done' as a command, it seems like the imperative is being treated more like a proposition and than like a predication), but it does seem true of enough that we should consider that a propositional-logic model might sometimes not fit things very well.
Various Links of Interest
* Thony Christie discusses the logician Christine Ladd-Franklin.
* Ralph C. Wood, J. R. R. Tolkien's Vision of Sorrowful Joy
* Razib Khan, The 100 Million Killed Under Communist Regimes Matter
* Clare Coffey, Addictions flourish when people are left to manage pain
Giuseppe di Lampedusa, The Leopard
Maximos the Confessor, On Difficulties in the Church Fathers: The Ambigua, Volume II
Cajetan, Commentary on St. Thomas Aquinas' On Being & Essence
Edith Stein, The Hidden Life: Essays, Meditations, Spiritual Texts
Originality and Eccentricity
The odd manner in which Mr. Mill worships mere variety, and confounds the proposition that variety is good with the proposition that goodness is various, is well illustrated by the lines which follow this passage:-- "Exceptional individuals ... should be encouraged in acting differently from the mass" --in order that there may be enough of them to "point out the way." Eccentricity is much required in these days. Precisely because the tyranny of opinion is such as to make eccentricity a reproach, it is desirable, in order to break through that tyranny, that people should be eccentric. Eccentricity has always abounded when and where strength of character has abounded, and the amount of eccentricity in a society has generally been proportioned to the amount of genius, mental vigour, and moral courage it contained. That so few now dare to be eccentric makes the chief danger of the time.
If this advice were followed, we should have as many little oddities in manner and behaviour as we have people who wish to pass for men of genius. Eccentricity is far more often a mark of weakness than a mark of strength. Weakness wishes, as a rule, to attract attention by trifling distinctions, and strength wishes to avoid it. Originality consists in thinking for yourself, not in thinking differently from other people.
James Fitzjames Stephen, Liberty, Equality, Fraternity, Chapter II
Subject to Truth and Free Because of It
The will to know, and to know freely, corresponds to the idea of creation. The created world is rational, and this means that we can know it. Its rationality is a harmony that one contemplates: theory comes from theorein which means to contemplate: the truth draws to itself like the good and the beautiful. Indeed, creation is the work of a transcendent author, thus infinitely complex, the comprehension of which is never exhausted. Hence the idea of a truth always to be sought and mined. It cannot be contained in a single book, as totalitarianisms (Stalin) or total utopias (Orwell) or fantastic literatures (Borgès) would want.
The regime of truth, under which we live, implies two essential consequences or characteristics:
Truth implies universality, because a true proposition is everywhere and for all. While a myth is only valid for a group, a tribe, a culture.
Truth implies freedom, because in the regime of freedom an arbitrary authority cannot impose dogmas according to its good pleasure: the human mind is at the same time subject to truth and free because of it.
Chantal Delsol, "L'idée d'Université" (my translation).
John of St. Thomas and the Verecundia Problem
I've noted before that there are some puzzles about Aquinas's treatment of verecundia as an integral part of the virtue of temperance. I noticed, recently reading John of St. Thomas's Introduction to the Summa Theologiae of Thomas Aquinas (as translated by Ralph McInerny), his interpretation of it:
He treats modesty first, whereby one fears to be confused or tested by the base. It differs from penance because penance grieves for sin as such as offensive to God, but modesty flees the baseness of sin insofar as it fears its dishonor and disorder. Thus this does not pertain to the perfect man, nor is it a virtue, but rather a laudable passion, since it does not directly seek the good but flees evil because of the dishonor of it. Thus modesty is not a component part of temperance but disposes to it.
[John of St. Thomas, Introductionto the Summa Theologiae of Thomas Aquinas, McInerny,tr. St. Augustine's Press (South Bend, IN: 2004) p. 129.]
This is a very reasonable interpretation; verecundia
(1) is counted as a quasi-integral part of temperance;
(2) is not a virtue because it is inconsistent with complete virtue;
(3) is instead a laudable passion.
The major problem with putting these together is that temperance itself is required for complete virtue, and we have the puzzle of how temperance can be required for complete virtue when one of its integral parts is inconsistent with complete virtue. This is handled by the next point,
(4) verecundia is not a component part of temperance but dispositive to it.
This resolves the complete virtue puzzle completely: verecundia disposes to temperance, but is not required for temperance as such. Aquinas says as much at ST 2-2.144.4ad4. But it raises questions of its own.
This very neat and clean summary makes it easier to identify the verecundia problem. An integral or quasi-integral part of virtue is "in likeness to integral parts," that is, in the sense that wall and floors are parts of the whole that is a house, "so that the things which need to concur for the perfect act of a virtue, are called parts" (ST 2-2.44.1). Therefore, it seems that:
(a) if verecundia is a quasi-integral part, it should not be merely dispositive;
(b) if verecundia is inconsistent with complete virtue, it cannot be required for the perfect act of temperance.
Billy Joel,"Miami 2017". A bit of sci-fi apocalypticism from 1976.
Fortnightly Book, October 8
If we want things to stay as they are, things will have to change.
Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa, born in Palermo, Sicily, spent a considerable portion of his life thinking through a novel. He had the idea of writing a story about nineteenth-century, in the time of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies, based loosely on the life of his great-grandfather, who was Prince of Lampedusa in that period, and he worked on it, off and on, for decades. Every word, every sentence was closely scrutinized. Finally, in the 1950s it began to take shape, and he knew it to be good. So he submitted it to a publisher. It was rejected. He submitted it to another publisher. It was rejected. One of those rejections may or may not have been due to a clerical error. But Lampedusa was dying of a tumor in the lung, and so he never saw it published. His will asked that his heirs do everything in their power to get it respectably published, and so it was, in 1958, a year after his death, under its final title, Il Gattopardo. It is often regarded as the greatest Italian novel of the twentieth century.
A gattopardo is apparently a serval, but the English title has always been The Leopard. I will be reading the Pantheon Books edition, translated by Archibald Colquhoun, which is based on a more careful examination of the manuscript (Lampedusa had only one final draft manuscript) than some of the early published versions, and has an introduction by Gioacchino Lanza Tomasi, Lampedusa's cousin and heir, who was involved in the process of getting it published.
It is the 1860s, last decade of a divided Italy; the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies, decadent and degenerate, is on the verge of destruction by the Risorgiomento. Garibaldi has already started the process that will bring the Kingdom to its knees. And, among the soon-to-be-extinct aristocracy, Don Fabrizio Corbera, Prince of Salina, must decide whether to uphold the older values of the aristocracy or, as his nephew Tancredi advises, change so as to maintain the family's influence. Either way, much will crumble to dust.
Susan Cooper, The Dark Is Rising Sequence
Opening Passage: From Over Sea, Under Stone:
"Where is he?"
Barney hopped from one foot to the other as he clambered down from the train, peering in vain through the white-faced crowds flooding eagerly to the St Austell ticket barrier. "Oh, I can't see him. Is he there?"
"Of course he's there," Simon said, struggling to clutch the long canvas bundle of his father's fishing rods. "He said he'd meet us. With a car."
Behind them, the big diesel locomotive hooted like a giant owl, and the train began to move out.
"Stay where you are a minute," Father said, from a barricade of suitcases. "Merry won't vanish. Let people get clear." (p. 1)
From The Dark Is Rising:
"Too many!' James shouted, and slammed the door behind him.
"What?" said Will.
"Too many kids in this family, that's what. Just too many." (p. 3)
From Greenwitch:
Only one newspaper carried the story in detail, under the headline: TREASURES STOLEN FROM MUSEUM. (p. 1)
From The Grey King:
"Are you awake, Will? Will? Wake up, it's time for your medicine, love...."
The face swung like a pendulum, to and fro; rose high up in a pink blur; dropped again; divided into six pink blurs, all of them spinning madly like wheels. He closed his eyes. He could feel sweat cold on his forehead, panic cold in his mind. I've lost it. I've forgotten! Even in darkness the world spun round. There was a great buzzing in his head like rushing water, until for a moment the voice broke through it. (p. 1)
From Silver on the Tree:
Will said, turning a page, "He liked woad. He says--listen--the decoction of Woad drunken is good for wounds in bodies of a strong constitution, as of country people, and such as are accustomed to great labour and hard coarse fare." (p. 1)
When the Dark comes rising, six shall turn it back;
Three from the circle, three from the track....
The series follows the adventures of the Drew children (Simon, Jane, and Barney), Will Stanton, and Bran Davies as they find themselves enmeshed in a great cosmic war between the Light and the Dark, a war in which they fulfill a role in prophecies with the help of Merriman Lyon, the oldest of the Old Ones.
...and the grail gone before
The first in the series, Over Sea, Under Stone, is the one that is most different from the rest of the series, being less fantasy and more mystery that alludes to, but for the most part does not much depend on, larger fantasy elements. Invited to the fishing village of Trewissick, in Cornwall, by Great Uncle Merry (not literally their uncle, but a longstanding family friend), the Drews discover an ancient map and find themselves in a race to discover the long-lost grail before the sinister Mr. Hastings and his associates.
Six signs the circle...
Will Stanton, born on Midwinter's Day as the seventh son of a seventh son, discovers that he has been born into a prophetic role as the last and youngest of the Old Ones, guardians of the Light, and that his task is to gather the six signs, powerful relics that can aid the Light in turning back the Dark. Completing the circle of the Old Ones, he must complete the circle of signs; but the Dark is at its strongest in the days after Midwinter's Day, and the Rider of the Dark will stop at nothing to prevent him from succeeding. He walks a path laid out by prophecy -- but the Dark has its own prophecies, and victory cannot come without great risk.
Power from the green witch, lost beneath the sea...
The grail has been stolen from the museum where it had been housed, and the Drew children return to Trewissick ready to discover how to get it back. They are very disappointed when they discover that Merry has invited a boy named Will Stanton, as well, which will make hunting for the grail much more difficulty. In Trewissick, it is the time of the Greenwitch, an ancient festival in which the townspeople make a figure out of green branches and cast it into the sea for luck. Jane will discover that the Greenwitch holds a secret on which the fate of the world depends -- and the Greenwitch is a thing of Wild Magic, with no allegiance either to the Dark or to the Light.
Fire on the mountain shall find the harp of gold...
Will is recovering from hepatitis, which has caused him to forget something absolutely essential; he can remember nothing more about it than that it starts with "On the day of the dead". He is sent to family in Wales to recover, and there meets Bran Davies, an albino boy. Together, they unravel the secret protected by the Grey King, one of the most powerful of all the agents of the Dark, as well as the secret of Bran's past.
All shall find the light at last, silver on the tree.
The Dark has begun its final rising, a rising greater than any since it was partly back by Arthur, the greatest champion of the Light, and the Old Ones prepare for their last chance to stop it. Will returns to Wales with the Drews to find the crystal sword of the Pendragon, the last great relic of the Light needed to take the silver mistletoe on the midsummer tree, which grants great power to those who have it.
Fantasy relies on seeing the world, as we know it, not as an encompassing whole but as a thing with borders, beyond which is another world in which things work very differently and which can be explored imaginatively. Proper handling of those borders is the most important element in what is usually (and sometimes misleadingly, since it need not be a border that literally divides worlds) called 'world-building' when speaking of fantasy. Much of Tolkien's pre-eminence, for instance, comes from his deft constructions and handling of borders within borders within borders -- the hobbits are over the border from the reader, but the hobbits themselves are shielded by a border from a great world, and that greater world has its own border. Once you establish the border dividing our world from the other-worldly, there are many things you can do it. The mundane can stumble into the other world; the other-worldly can intrude into the mundane; they can run in parallel; one can stay entirely on the side of the mundane but in such a way as to suggest the existence of the other-worldly; one can stay entirely on the side of the other-worldly; if your story is sophisticated enough, you can mix these in various ways. Cooper is quite good at giving us a diverse treatment. The Drews at first don't cross the threshold, but find hints of the other world; in the next book, Will crosses it; in the third and fourth, the other world intrudes on the mundane in significant ways; in the fifth, we are in a sense always on the otherworldly side, but have to cross from other world to even stranger other world. All of these are handled well.
I think the series overall struggles a bit when it comes to integrating the "three from the circle" (Merry, Will, Bran) and the "three from the track" (the Drews); indeed, I think it struggles somewhat in integrating the mundane from the other-worldly in general. Within a single book, it does not interfere with the story, although I think it is nonetheless noticeable in SOTT; OSUS avoids the problem by deferring it, and TDIR manages to hide it by interweaving the story with the liturgical and paraliturgical elements of the Christmas season (somewhat ironically, since TDIR also makes clear that the series assumes a non-Christian cosmos). But the scale of things in the last three books is so great that the world of the Drews and the world of the Old Ones sometimes jar against each other a bit. Nonetheless, one needs both. For one thing, it is only because of the Drews that we can take the Light to be actually good, rather than just a different faction in a largely inexplicable war; we learn already in TDIR that the Light can be rather ruthless, and it is strongly hinted in TGK that Will's serious illness was simply a tactical move by the Light. The Light does benefit from the associations with Arthurian legend, but the associations are all stripped of exactly those things that would mark the Light as unequivocally good -- Arthur is not a Christian king, and the grail is not an instrument of divine grace. It is really the Drews who provide a reference point that lets us treat the victory of the Light as the victory of good.
TDIR is in many ways the best book of the series. I remembered liking Greenwitch quite well on my last reading, and I think it actually holds up. It is usually regarded as the weakest in the series (and I have held the same at some point), but having read it again, I'm still inclined to think it the second best, although its story is complicated somewhat by being the first book in the series definitely to make the series a series; OSUS and TDIR could practically stand alone, since the only thing relating them before Greenwitch starts tying them together is Merriman Lyon. It is also, I think, only Greenwitch that gives the Light an unambiguously moral victory; OSUS shows the cleverness of the Drews and TDIR the determination of Will, TGK gives us a victory that is (unsurprisingly) grey and mixed, and the victory in SOTT is so abstract as to border on allegorical, but the victory of the Light in Greenwitch depends entirely on human compassion. The series trades very heavily on the moral overtones of 'Light' and 'Dark', but for most of the series, you could just name them 'Red' and 'Blue' without all that much change, beyond the fact that "The Blue is rising" lacks that ominous and urgency-inducing ring. But Greenwitch is a struggle not just between the Light and the Dark, but between light and dark in precisely a moral sense.
Besides some excellent characterization and 'world-building', the series also is strengthened by the fact that there many very memorable scenes -- the dog Rufus coming to the rescue in OSUS, the Christmas party and also the flood in TDIR, the agent of the dark painting his spell and also the rise of the Wild Magic in Greenwitch, the riddle test in TGK, and the train to the midsummer tree in SOTT stand out particularly.
Favorite Passage: A part of one of the strongest portions of Greenwitch, a point at which it makes a forceful turn:
"You are a made creature only, you will do as I say!" Arrogance sharpened the man's tone, gave it an edge of command. "Give the thing to me, at once, before the Dark shall blast you out of this world!"
The children felt Captain Toms gently but urgently drawing them all back against the wall, into a corner almost cut off from the spot where the two figures confronted one another on the quay. Nervously they moved as they were told.
From the blackness that was the Greenwitch came a hair-raising sound: a long low lamenting, like a moan, rising and falling in a mumbling whine. Then it stopped, and the creature began muttering to itself, broken words that they could not make out. Then there was silence for a moment and all at once it said very clearly, "You have not the full power of the Dark." (p. 107)
Recommendation: Recommended.
Susan Cooper, Over Sea, Under Stone, Aladdin (New York: 1989).
The Dark Is Rising, Aladdin (New York: 1986).
Greenwitch, Margaret K. McElderry Books (New York: 2013).
The Grey King, Collier (New York: 1986).
Silver on the Tree, Collier (New York: 1986).

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


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Though small in stature, there was nothing small about the impact that Leslie "Goldie" Harris had on the students he taught and coached or on the adults who were fortunate enough to know him and work with him. Leslie Harris, referred to affectionately by some as "Coach" and by others as "Goldie," served as football, basketball, tennis and track coach and as geometry, history and biology teacher in Seguin ISD at Ball High School, Saegert Middle School and Seguin High School. Under Coach Harris's leadership, Ball High School was the state runner-up in football in 1955, state runner-up in basketball in 1947 and state champion in 1949. The school also produced the 1949 girls state 200-yard relay champions.
Mr. Harris received his Bachelor of Science in Physical Education from Southern University in Louisiana in 1941. His coaching career was put on hold as he entered the armed forces, seeing time in the European Theater in World War II. Following his service to his country, Coach Harris returned to begin his employment with Seguin ISD in 1945. He continued his education with graduate work at Texas Southern University.
In addition to his dedication to public school education, Coach Harris volunteered his time to his church and to many civic and social organizations in Seguin. He was a longtime member of the NAACP and held the position of president of the local chapter. During his term as president, the local group added its annual Martin Luther King, Jr. Day Freedom March and annual awards banquet. Mr. Harris also served on several civic committees including the City of Seguin Planning and Zoning Committee. He was a 1994 Vision Award winner presented by the Seguin Gazette-Enterprise.
After his retirement, he continued a life of service in the community, including mentoring the youth of Seguin and serving as their role model until his death on April 3, 1995. Leslie "Goldie" Harris Gymnasium was named in his honor by the Seguin ISD Board of Trustees on August 13, 2002 and was dedicated on August 15, 2004.


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Remote Interpreting: Feeling Our Way into the Future | Barry Slaughter Olsen
It was very interesting to read Barry Slaughter Olsen's article in the May-June issue. I've just experienced the full impact of this change in my work as a medical interpreter. I hope my story can help explain why the change to remote interpreting has been viewed in a negative light so far in this field and how we can improve the situation.
Last February the health care network where I've worked for the past five years let 50 of my interpreter colleagues go. About 20 of our team remained. Only 10 of us were in full-time positions, since an interpreter was needed to cover each hospital and two interpreters were necessary to cover all the clinics in town. The rest of the work was left to phone and video remote interpreting.
I was probably one of the people left on the team because I've always promoted the use of new technology. At the clinic where I worked, I prompted nurses to use phone interpreters for all phone calls to patients. I was expecting the arrival of an iPad, hoping it could be used for the appointments that my colleague and I couldn't cover, or so we could finally take some time off without leaving the clinic unattended. We also started discussing plans to implement telemedicine. I had also suggested the possibility of having us be able to work remotely, considering one of the clinic's big challenges was the limited amount of space available.
When the health care network's leadership implemented remote interpreting technology, it happened very swiftly. They didn't ask for feedback from interpreters or providers, and they didn't consider the differences in needs and requirements for each setting, like Mr. Olsen's article very wisely recommends.
The implementation of remote interpreting capability turned out to be a fantastic development for many areas within the health care network. Adult clinics, for example, had language access for the very first time. Speakers of languages other than Spanish suddenly had immediate access to an interpreter, no matter how rare the language, where before they had none.
Unfortunately, in other settings like pediatrics, the change has been short of catastrophic. For example, I was sent to a pediatric clinic to help relay a sensitive diagnosis to a mother. When I introduced myself to her in the waiting room, I was horrified when she told me she had been asked to bring a family member who could interpret for her. I immediately corrected this misunderstanding and contacted the manager. The manager was apologetic and said she had already talked with her staff. It turns out the providers were refusing to use the phones and video remote interpreting system, in part because of connectivity issues. The implementation had been so swift that there had been no time to test the technology before it started. The connection often dropped, not all rooms had phone jacks, there were dead spots in hospitals where the iPads didn't pick up the connection, there were not enough phones and iPads, and the technical team was not prepared to deal with all the requests. However, these are all things that can eventually be fixed.
The most concerning reports were about the actual interpreting service. Even though the interpreting company contracted by the health care network had promised to hire certified medical interpreters, in actuality very few of them were certified. As a result, providers working in genetics started to complain about phone interpreters not being knowledgeable enough to handle the appointments smoothly. Providers in highly complex or sensitive clinics in the network also complained about interpreters not being adequately prepared. Another colleague observed a video remote interpreting encounter where the interpreter seemed very qualified, but was apparently based in Costa Rica and had trouble understanding the TexMex jargon and the cultural cues.
A nurse saw me as I was walking through the hospital and asked me to help with a hospital discharge. I encouraged her to use the phone or the video remote interpreting system, but she waived me off saying, "It's ok. The patient speaks enough English and can help his mom." Horrified, I ran after her to stop the nonsense. When I saw the patient, I blanched. I knew him. He was a patient from my old clinic who suffers from a mild intellectual disability. He had been interpreting the encounter.
These are only a few of the innumerable frightening stories I've seen during the past three months. In short, the difficulties for providers have been so great with the new system and the lack of quality interpreting that they find it more effective to "wing it" in Spanglish with the patients.
Why is this happening? The answer has nothing to do with resistance to new technology. It's happening because there was no research and no consulting with interpreters and providers before implementation. It also seems that greed got the best of some interpreting companies, and rather than hiring certified interpreters, they're hiring any bilingual individual because they can pay them less.
Technology is a tool. When used as such, it can help us accomplish great things within our profession. However, when technology is employed as a way of replacing human knowledge and expertise to save money, it can only lead to poor and often dangerous results.
While the leadership in the medical world figures this out, I recently handed in my resignation and have accepted a position as a translator with the local school district. I'm excited to go back to translation and return to the educational setting. Change is not only inevitable, but also nice once in a while.
Let's welcome change and progress in our professions, but always on the basis of research and best practices. We should never lose the ultimate goal of guaranteeing smooth communication between our clients. The medical world will eventually figure out that technology should only be in the capable hands of certified interpreters. In the meantime, I can only hope that the translation world will handle the advances in neural network technology more wisely.
—Melissa González, NBCMI-certified medical interpreter-Spanish, ATA-certified English>Spanish translator, Austin, Texas
2 Responses to ""
Elizabeth Olson says:
I read this article and literally felt like my personal job experience was on stage.
The hospital I was employed at also decided to close our Interpreter Services department for 'financial' reasons last year.
First it began with taking away weekend interpreters. Then a few months later taking away the overnight interpreters.
A telephonic service was implemented with sporadic training by someone in house, not even a trained expert from the company was provided to do the training. 4 months later we were all laid off.
Medical staff was upset and frustrated with the news. Many had yet to be trained.. Many questioned about true emergencies and what about the departments where you cannot use outside equipment? No one seemed to have an answer. It was all about saving money and everyone will be fine you just need to have patience.
I was fortunate enough to find a job 3 months later in the same community and continue to hear stories of the lack of medical interpreting that continues at the hospital with the new telephonic system.
Patients are having to fend for themselves using their cell phones or sit and wait until the medical staff can get someone on the phone or the medical staff themselves use their personal cell phones or hand gestures to communicate.
Some of the medical staff is unwilling to use the equipment because it takes too long or the knowledge of the 'medical' interpreter online, the calls get dropped, not sure of the dialect, and let us not forget the Spanglish which many feel is good enough to use for medical interpreting, etc. The hospital will get it's quarterly reports and of course it will show savings. What they are not admitting to is the telephonic service is not being used to it's full potential. As long as the hospital feels the savings is greater to use a machine vs a staff medical interpreter no changes will be made. I also agree that new technology has it's place in all walks of life but when it comes to medical interpreting a machine is not always the answer just because it saves a dollar or two! We are talking about a human being not an object to be figured out at random by a machine!
Thank you Melissa Gonzalez. Your story gives me hope to push forward.
Alice Jefferson says:
It has been traumatic to lose such wonderful, professional care givers and coworkers. Where once translation was a right it seems to have been devalued to a luxury. We all lose.
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Mad Max 5 Headed For Greystones Harbour!
A member of the Greystones Camera Club, Anna O'Rourke has just been announced as the winner of the recent Canon/Journal.ie photographer of the year competition. And it couldn't have happened to a nicer photographer.
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