Here’s an interesting link from the Economic Development Corporation of Kansas City about that city’s two-tiered test for tax increment financing for developers.
The curiosity grows out of the growing discord between City Hall and the Sedgwick County Courthouse over how far government should go to utilize all of the tools in its chest to incentivize development, in this case downtown.
It’s a given, I think, that redeveloping Wichita’s downtown – be it office buildings or the arena neighborhood – needs to be a public-private partnership. We’ve spent decades watching nothing happen downtown without it, and the success of Old Town speaks to the potential that tax increment financing brings to our city.
However, it’s also clear that the process needs to be tweaked for the highest level of confidence – and return – among elected officials and the public. Does the creation of a commission and a cost-benefit analysis accomplish that?
A Washington-area health management company is making news this week for setting up a system for employees, doctors, insurance claims managers and pharmacists to interact online.
Point to Point Healthcare is being likened to a virtual health clinic: Your doctors can interact and message one another, you can schedule check-ups online, create a wellness journal, rate your physician. The Washington Post writes:
It lets employees create a personal network uniting their insurance claims manager with multiple doctors and pharmacies to better coordinate treatments. An online concierge helps workers find new specialists, and a message system reminds them to pick up prescriptions.
Some worry about Internet privacy and identity theft. Others worry that employers will have too much instant access to wellness data that could too easily be individually identifiable. (The targeted users are small to mid-size businesses.) I’m wondering if physicians — not to mention employees — are ready to grasp a virtual world of health care management.
And physicians may also point out: How will they get reimbursed for their online time? There’s no code for that.