It took all the way until the month of June, but we finally got it a slate that is riddled with some pretty bad weather There are three or four spots where we could legitimately see post-pomans due to Thunderstorms both the Midwest and on the East Coast As always that sucks. It's not fun to navigate around that But the plus side is what they should be able to play a decent number of those and there are decent alternatives Both that pitcher and for stacking we can still feel good about so we're gonna break down today Slate for MLB DFS let you know which spots may be at risk how to navigate that and where to go Should the weather wind up being a beast for tonight welcome on into the solo shop That's right here on the fan dual podcast network and number fire calm My name is Jim Saunas. I am a senior writer and analyst for number fire here to break down Friday's 13 game main slate We hope 13 games with locks out for 705 p.m. Eastern for today Let's start things off with listing off those games where the weather could get gross First one is in New York for the Mets and the Blue Jays. They could be in trouble there So be wary of players there similar forecast in Boston for the Red Sox and rays I think both those games pretty seriously at risk of a postponement in the Midwest There's a chance of thunderstorms in Minneapolis for the twins and guardians and in Kansas City for the Royals and Rockies I think all these games are pretty similar in terms of their risk levels as far as whether or not they're able to play So again the games that could be dicey are in New York for the Mets and Blue Jays Boston for the Red Sox and rays Minneapolis for the twins and guardians in Kansas City for the Royals and the Rockies Make sure you're checking back on timelines for those games later on Check the weather reports before you finalize your roster before you head off for the day Just to make sure those games are good to go There are just three games with temperatures under 70 degrees for today Those games are in San Diego for the Padres and Cubs Los Angeles for the Dodgers and Yankees and San Francisco for the Giants and Orioles So while we're downgrading other games due to potential risk of postponement These ones for batters are downgraded due to the weather So again, San Diego for Padres and Cubs Los Angeles for Dodgers and Yankees and San Francisco for the Giants and the Orioles We're gonna dive into how to navigate that which guys are in fine weather or in domes Hopefully to allow themselves to get around that and much more in just one second But first a reminder to make sure you're subscribed to the number fire daily fantasy podcast feed Wherever you get your podcast We of course are an apple podcast Spotify Stitcher Google podcast wherever you get your podcast You can find us there while you're there if you like what you hear leave us a five start ratings Well, of course all these shows the solo shots do go up over on the Fandall YouTube page If you like what you hear there subscribe to the Fandall YouTube page for all the other great content and also leave us a thumbs up It is almost time to crown an NBA champion and Fandall wants you to be a part of the excitement because right now New customers can get a no sweat first bet up to $2,500 that's $2,500 back in bonus bets if your first bet doesn't win There's no better place to bet all the finals action than America's number one sportsbook Fandall official sports betting partner of the NBA must be 21 plus and president select states first online A real money wager only $10 deposit required refund issued is non withdrawal bonus bets that expire in 14 days Restrictions apply see full terms at fandall.com slash sportsbook Fandall is offering online sports wagering in Kansas under an agreement with Kansas Star Casino LLC gambling problem Call 1 800 gambler or visit fandall.com slash RG in Arizona 1 800 next step protects next step to 533 for 2 in Connecticut 1<PHONE_NUMBER> or visit CC PG org slash chat in Indiana 1809 with it in Wyoming in Kansas 1 800 5 22 4700 we're in Kansas KS gambling help calm Louisiana is 1807 770 stop in Massachusetts gambling helpline ma.org or call<PHONE_NUMBER> for 24 7 support in a Maryland MD gambling help org in New York 1877 8 hope and wire text open Y and in West Virginia go to 1 800 gambler Pitching preview for this Friday main slate. There are a lot of guys with salaries above $9,000 So here is the list from of all this is at the top his salary 11 to follow by Logan Webb at 11 1 Zach Wheeler 10 9 show he o'tonny 10 8 Clayton Kershaw 10 3 Louise Castillo 10 2 Merrill Kelly 10 1 Bailey over 10 flats with Justin Verlander at $9900 Chris Bassett 96 Charlie Morton 95 Michael Walker 93 Tyler Glass on 92 John Gray 9000 with we Severino Aaron Savalli Josiah Gray Dean Kramer and Jack Flaherty as the others at $8,000 for hire So again weather risk, but we got a lot of guys to choose from so that does help things for sure and Luckily a handful of the best pitchers and I think the best pitchers the best three are all in Situations where the weather will not impact them. The first one is because he's in a dome We got a handful of good pitchers on this slate Some of them are in solid matchups, but in terms of raw ceiling I feel like show hey o'tonny has to be the guy for tonight He just has the best strikeout potential of the bunch O'tonny's facing the Astros and this offense is getting healthier Which means their power numbers are finally creeping up But they're also still not the low strikeout offense They were the past couple years where they're a bit below average or a bit better than average in that regard but not a low strikeout offense and That to me is enough to give us a green light on o'tonny We're up to 11 starts on o'tonny so far this year. He is still letting out just a 29 percent hard hit rate He didn't let up a single hard hit ball in 13 balls in play last time out It was against the Marlins, so it deserves an asterisk, but there's still a big league team So it's absurd what he's doing right now the skill interactive era for o'tonny at 3.30 is expected 2.87 and it comes with a 35 percent strikeout rate and a 14.9 percent swinging strike rate That's strikeout rate for o'tonny is actually higher on the road than it is at home, which is odd But you'll take it as he goes to Houston tends to be a pretty high strikeout location as well Even against tough teams. We've seen o'tonny rack up strikeouts. He faced Houston once this year That guy may 9th and so I think that's enough time where it's not a huge concern enough separation where it's not a familiarity issue I have o'tonny projected for 8.5 strikeouts here. Nobody else is within one strikeout of him so Even though other guys had better matchups. I think o'tonny has the best ceiling and That's how I play things so o'tonny to me the top pitcher for today Zach Wheeler is a better matchup from a floor perspective Which may make him the play for cash games But I don't think his upside is quite as high for tournaments So I still like Wheeler enough to rank him second, but that's why I have o'tonny first Wheeler's facing the nationals, which is both a good and a bad thing because the good is they're bad They have an 87 wrc plus against righties a 127 iso and they never draw walk, which is awesome for floor The bad is that they also don't strike out their strikeout rate against righties is 19 percent That is the lowest number on the slate and that definitely does impact wheelers upside But he has pitched really well this year. He has a 3.4 to skill interactive r.a With a 28 strikeout rate and a 13.4 percent swinging strike rate Wheeler has faced much tougher teams and done well against them He had 12 strikeouts against the brains on the road last time out and the task this time is much easier So I don't blame you if you want to go with wheeler over o'tonny Because the floor is better here for sure, but my personal process is to gun for ceiling and o'tonny's is higher I wheeler projected a 6.5 strikeouts because the matchup is so Meh in that regard and that is enough for me to put him second on this list But it's not enough to put him above o'tonny So if you want the floor go wheeler if you want the juice the ceiling the upside I would go o'tonny my personal preference my personal process is to go for The highest upside guy I can get and that it winds up being o'tonny So to me the ranking for turnies is o'tonny one then wheeler two Now because we have guys like wheeler o'tonny ball des et cetera et cetera on this slate I don't want to sacrifice points at pitcher, which means if i'm spending down I still need upside I think john gray is the lowest I can go while still getting that upside So to me he is the top value play of the night with a salary of $9,000 on fan dual Gray is facing the mariners and they're a good offense, but they're definitely one that will strike out 25 percent strikeout rate against righties on the current active roster We talked about this last week, but gray has cut back pretty dramatically on his foreseeing fastball usage It did go up a back back up a smidge in his most recent start But in that game, he was still very effective eight strikeouts there That's his second time getting eight strikeouts in this four start spam He had a 16.3 percent swinging strike rate If we open up the sample and look at all four starts with fewer foreseamers gray's strikeout rate is 27 percent And that is a big deviation from what he was doing before Now gray did start the stretch against the mariners, which means they saw him in his current state That was back on may 8th. It's pretty recent, but I think it's enough cushion where familiarity is not a massive massive red flag So it's still a small sample on gray doing this, but we've seen it now for four starts We've seen the underline numbers like swinging strike rate have correlated with this He's been getting with against pretty good teams. So I like what he's been doing. The advanced numbers are great That's enough for me to make john gray. That's how value for today at 9 000 and a guy I am willing to use Because I think he can get me on a great day 10 strikeouts and that's enough on this slate So john gray at 9 000 lowest I'm willing to go on fan dual for tonight So top three pitching options all things considered shohio tani zack wheeler and then john gray The stacking options also do begin with some teams that are not playing in bad weather That started things off with the cardinals basing rones and contraris who made a relief appearance last week But he's now back in the rotation I kind of understand why his spot in the rotation is a bit shaky The peripherals for contraris are a bit underwhelming across his nine starts so excluding that one relief outing He has a 5.47 skill interactive era with a 16 strikeout rate and an 11 walk rate The era for contraris as a starter is still decent at 4.50 But the bad at ball data not great either He's led up a 42 hard hit rates with a 43 fly ball rate And he's facing a pretty tough cardinals offense 108 w rc plus against righties minimal strikeouts and added bonus for tonight Is that it is very very warm in pittsburgh 90 degrees That is the second warmest game on the slate behind just the one in arizona where the roof should be open for tonight So not a ton of great stacks that I love on this slate Especially once you consider weather but of the bunch. I think this is the best one So the cardinals to me are the top stack on this friday main slate And we talked about contraris talked about the bad at ball issues I think an underrated part here in stacking the cardinals is how Almost all their guys run Only three players on their active roster have zero stolen bases against brand of pitching so far this year Seven guys have multiple stolen bases So Yeah, the power is there for most of these guys But the speed is two So let's say hypothetically contraris Get you know, isn't letting up long balls tonight. I think they can still get there They can still pay off for dfs even when that doesn't happen and I am a huge fan of that personally Also does sound like jordan walker should be back for tonight Wasn't phenomenal when he was up the first time still trying to increase that uh that fly ball rate But he's minimum salary probably going to bat eighth or so. I think that's fine I think that whether as a one offer within stacks He's pretty fun If you want to get to a tani while using the high upside guys in the cardinals lineup I would say probably want to give walker long consideration something I personally am very willing to do For the second stack, let's talk to you about the white socks They're facing Reese Olson making his debut for the tigers And if this matchup had happened a few weeks ago, I probably would have ignored it because the white socks How we're missing a lot of key players, but they're getting healthier now And I think we can stack them in this matchup Olson's Coming up from AAA where he did get some strikeouts down there Also did a good job of getting ground balls But it didn't really translate to results down there. Olson had a 6.38 era. His exit was 4.68 He was walking too many guys and that was kind of the key driver in the the rougher numbers So You could look at that and say, um, you know, do we trust it? But he did that in the lower miners as well Now he moves up to talk to face the majors the white socks Still not great 91 wrc plus against righties, but they've got bodies back. They're starting to trend up I'm not convinced Olson will succeed right away in the majors Which means I think we have the leeway to stack the white socks against him on this slate Eloy Jimenez just getting back from his appendix issue. Your core impacts pretty much everything So always a concern having legitimate surgery down there And he's also dealing with a leg injury apparently Since coming back from the appendix issue though Jimenez does have two doubles and a home run in 18 plate appearances He did see the ball pretty well in his plate appearance in his rehab stint because drew a lot of walks down there So I don't think he's like a massive priority relative to where he typically would be But um, he's in play at least I think I've seen enough to say he's in play I don't think he's gonna be the top guy in the stack, but He's okay and a guy I feel okay proceeding forward with Based on what we've seen so far since he returned Finally for our third stack This is where the weather starts to play in because there is some potential weather in this game That's the Royals and Rockies. Uh, the Royals facing chase Anderson tonight And I think we want to give them consideration if the weather Gives us the green light to do so Anderson has been awesome in his three starts He has a 1.72 e array and all three of those were of course field. He's not there for tonight So That's a positive but I also want to follow the transactions and the actions teams have taken because Anderson opted out of his contract at the reds and then the rays claimed him and then released him The reds didn't see enough there to promote him The rays didn't see enough to keep him and I do think that that stuff does kind of matter at some point Plus the peripherals for Anderson are still not great across those three starts his skill interactive e array is 5.38 He has a 13 strike out rate He has done a good job of suppressing hard contact But it's a question of whether he can sustain that over a larger sample The Royals offense is not phenomenal, but they do at least have some pop They have a 41 fly ball right against righties, which ranks third on the slate So I don't want to stack them super super often But I think this is a spot where we can do so and feel okay while doing it we did see bobby wicket bumped down the order last week and That can always be a concern because it means maybe he's lacking confidence Maybe the team is down on him, but clearly didn't bother him He responded well with a pair of dingers a few days later And I don't think that the dingers for wit were a huge surprise His expected loba is 334, which is almost 40 points higher than his actual loba His barrel rate is 11.5 percent that is higher than what it was last year His hard hit rate is also up to 43 percent and he steals all the time So the royals Needed to make a change apparently they bumped him down the order, but I don't think we should bump him down at all Uh, I think he's still the key cog in this offense and second the royals given He is a guy with two sources of upside the power should come in Probably pretty short order So I think wit despite the demotion now batting in the clean out spot definitely makes a lot of sense there Not too concerned personally about his outlook going forward Things to watch for tonight There are a couple other spots that I like for stacking, but they're also dependent on weather The first one is arrays facing Garrett Whitlock who is stretching back out into being starter this year He was not lights out before he missed in time And now he has to face the rays and Whitlock does do some things pretty well, but it's the rays So if the weather allows I am very okay stacking them here Because Whitlock not a guy we need to avoid in the rays great offense on a slate That's pretty thin on stacking options. So if we if the weather is okay in boston, I'd be okay stacking the rays I'd also be okay at the Rockies as one off against Jordan Lyles He's had massive issues this year with a lot of fly balls let up As discussed yesterday the Rockies are not a fun team to stack because they don't have a lot of guys with juice But if you need a final batter And one of these guys fits I think that's fine. I just wouldn't actively seek them out Here even if the weather does wind up being okay Finally if not for the cool temperatures I'd be on the giants for stacking tonight and if other spots get a lot of rain like let's say worst-case scenario all four of the Weather spots wind up being bad Maybe we have to get to them anyway giants are facing dean kramer who is letting up a lot of hard contact since he started to reduce His sinker usage It's a good offense against righties and the giants So if the weather cuts down on this slate the giants would be a team I'd consider Despite the fact the weather is pretty bad for stacking for tonight Let's finish up here the dinger calls for this friday the boring one Got to go to that cardinals game and go with nolan gorman. Thank you just for the best pure raw power hitter On this offense right now Hair above gold schmidt and rnado More than the hair above rnado based on the way things have gone this year, but above gold schmidt So nolan gorman hits yaks of salaries pretty high at $3,700, but i'm still on board So nolan gorman in a bit of a slump right now But a guy i'm willing to buy into For a dinger call here the fun one mj nolendes I feel like i've made a dinger call like 16 000 times or so give or take this year But it's for good reasons because he's making a lot of hard contact barrel in the ball But it hasn't led to results. Melendez is a value play $2,800. I think that uh the match for the anderson lots of enough fly balls We get the all clear on the weather there. I think melendez is a good option If not i'll go jordan walker We'll go back to the cardinals for our second one too just because i'm probably in favor of him Hope he comes back up and does well not a big power like a home run guy because of the launch angle But still a guy who is who i enjoy so melendez the primary fund one walker the backup Should things get gross in kansas city? That is all that we have here for today on the solo shout be back with you again on monday to break down all of next week's mlb dfs slates to get those slates those podcasts as they are posted Make sure you're subscribed to the number fire daily fantasy podcast feed wherever You get your podcast and if you like what you hear you must say five star rating as well If you've got any questions for me. I am on twitter at jim saunas j i m s a n n e s you can also follow the fan dual podcast network at fan dual podcast I want to thank you all for tuning in for today. Good luck to you with your mlb dfs lineups Have a fantastic weekend. We'll talk to you once again on monday. This has been the solo shot right here on the fan dual podcast network


This is the house health care committee and this afternoon we are taking testimony as background information to House Bill 266, which is an incremental approach to health insurance for hearing aids. Health insurance coverage for hearing aids. And so that folks who are listening to this or who listen to it later on YouTube can anticipate our health care committee will take further testimony on House Bill 266. Next Thursday, February 24 from 9 to 10 30 am. And at that time we will be hearing from some advocates for this bill and for some members of the community who will benefit from this bill. Before we begin before we go any further, I want to acknowledge that we are that we have with us, Corey, who is on the screen and doing sign language interpretation. Welcome. We appreciate your assisting us and assisting those who are watching and listening. We also have in the background, as I understand it, a live transcription, a live transcriptionist, a person who is doing live transcription as well. I think we what what might be helpful if we determine what might be helpful for us to each go around and simply say our name with representative in front of it, as we go around the table so that Corey can hear our voices and hear our name. So can we start with representative Goldman and I'm just going to ask you each to go around to say your name. I hope that you can hear through the mask, but it's representative Leslie Goldman from rocking him. Representative Peterson. Representative Elizabeth boroughs of West Windsor. Representative and Donahue from Northfield. And I'm the chair of the committee representative bill Lippert from Heinsberg representative Lori Houghton from Essex Junction representative woodman page from Newport. Representative Alyssa black of Essex representative Mari Cordes from Lincoln. Great. Thank you all. And we have Mike for on from legislative operations, assisting us in the background in case there's any technological issues, he can help problem solve for us. Thank you Mike. So with that I'm going to turn to the agenda for this afternoon for early for the next hour, we anticipate we've scheduled that amount of time, I think we'll probably need that amount of time. We'll try to cover two different pieces of information, both of which are relevant to House bill 266. One is, I want us to hear about the process and the recommendations around what are called essential health benefits. And this is a process that I will just acknowledge started last legislative session with this committee, working with the department of financial regulation. About our desire and their desire to move ahead with an assessment. And I see that I'm going to ask Emily Brown, I see, I'm looking trying to see if I have Emily. Yes, when all the witnesses if you come on the screen with your photos that'd be great. Emily, Addy, and Nissa. So, Emily, would you, perhaps, do you want to start or Addy, do you want to introduce it because my understand because the department Emily Brown is from the Department of Financial Regulation. Addy Stromelo is the Deputy Commissioner of the department for my department of health access diva. My back is here. She's the director of health care reform at the agency of human services. And Nissa James is also with us from diva. But I'm going to turn it over to Emily and perhaps I'll turn it over to you to start because the Department of Financial Regulation, fondly known as DFR is has taken a significant role in moving this forward and I believe there's also a slide deck somewhere that's someone they wish to share. So Emily, I'm going to turn it over to you. Great. Thank you. My name is Emily Brown. I'm the director of finance insurance regulation for the Department of Financial Regulation. And I'm joined, as you mentioned, by my colleagues, Addy Stromelo, Nina Bacchus and Nissa James. And so actually what we're going to do I'm going to turn it over to Addy, who will be running through some slides. I don't know. Oh, there I'm allowed to share my screen if that's okay. And is your preference that we share. Oh, display the slides, because we're, we're happy to, if that's easiest. But not now. I have it on my list, but I keep forgetting. Sorry, we were having some technical issues in the in the room. Our speaker vibrates and makes an odd noise occasionally. Hope it's not too disturbing. It's slightly disturbing to us, but we will have it addressed by our IT staff eventually. Okay, I'm sorry, I got distracted. So, Emily, you're turning this over to Addy. Yes, I'll be turning it over to Addy and should, Claire, should we share the slides that we submitted earlier or would you like, or would you like to share them. I think if we'll have to disrupt the interpreter. If the interpreter could just be spotlight when you share the screen, then I will make I will continue to be on the screen with the slides. Okay. So, can we do we know how to do that. That was my question. Yeah, let me let me share and then see if I can spotlight. Corey, do you know if that's something that the share the presenter does the person who is the host, just all you do is click on the three buttons on the top right click on them, and then spotlight or pin should be one of those options. You are you are on the screen Corey. With the upper right hand corner of the screen. Perfect. And can I just say one other piece of introduction the reason we're talking about essential health benefits. And the reason one of the primary reasons was that there is a strong interest in looking as to whether hearing aid services could be integrated into the essential health benefits like benchmark plan, which I'm, we're going to say more about right now. Okay, thank you very much. Addie strumlow deputy commissioner department of Vermont health access. And as Emily said, as soon as you started speaking at the court the interpreter left the screen so we. We need to. Apologies, I thought we were all set but clearly there's something else we need to do to ensure that sign language interpretation is seen on the screen while we're doing screen sharing. Is that my front is there anything you can assist us with or. Well, but we're good until Addie starts to speak and then. Addie can also be spotlight, and then the two of us will remain on the screen, regardless of who's talking. Should I test. Is Corey still on if I speak. That's perfect yes. We don't know what's happening out in on YouTube though. So folks this is well maybe we shouldn't show slides. We can just speak through the slides. Okay. On YouTube they see Corey. Is they can be seen on YouTube. Can you speak a couple minutes I'm getting confirmation on what is seen on YouTube. Sure. Testing. We're here to speak about essential health benefits. Just so you know I'm watching it on YouTube and then zoom at the same time and it's not showing Corey. Yeah, me too. It jumps to that. This is Jen. It jumps to the committee room when somebody in the committee room talks and then it jumps to addie when Addie talks. So for a moment I can see it Corey. Perhaps it would be most straightforward for us not to display the slides. Okay. This is Mike front and I agree. I think we, I think you either need to share slides or not. And I think with this particular issue, I would not share slides. Okay, great. I'll take them down. Okay. So we will slides will be available on the website of the house health care committee. And without trying to explain that on the legislative website, the Vermont legislature under the house health care committee. But we will provide more information as we are able to assist. Now because great spotlight feature. That's why we're seeing only one large screen. Okay, well this is. Okay, let's continue and I think we have any an illustration of the challenge of having full access. That's useful for us to struggle with. But we I just apologize. I thought we had problem solved everything ahead of time but we have not thought of everything. So let's continue. And go from here. Thank you. Once again, Addie stromello department of Vermont health access. And as you know I'm here with my colleagues from department of financial regulation and the agency of human services office of health care reform. And I wanted to highlight an update on a process which as you mentioned has been long underway related to essential health benefits. I know Emily in particular has been here recently to talk about the process that DFR convened related to a grant opportunity and then reporting out on examining additions of benefits to our essential health benefits benchmark plan. So I'm here to kind of pick up on that and clarify where we are in the process. We thought it would be helpful to first start with a refresher of what we're talking about when we talk about essential health benefits. Under federal law the Affordable Care Act. Health plans in the individual and small group markets are required to cover certain essential health benefits. The way that the federal government defines these is by a state selected essential health benefits benchmark plan. Federal regulations provide options from which states can select a benchmark plan. Another exercise that's been going on for the last year is looking at the existing benchmark plan and evaluating gaps and areas where we might want to add more benefits. One reason that this process is is what is used to add benefits into the health insurance products is that it avoids something called state defrayal. This is a federal requirement that states pay for additional insurance mandates enacted after 2012. That's a feature of the Affordable Care Act. So by adding benefits through a selection of a benchmark plan, we avoid that potential state cost. Instead the cost of any additional benefit through the benchmark plan would play out in the plan design and rate development process for qualified health plans. So maybe I'll just pause there and see if there are any questions about the process itself and then we'll get to what's happening on the state level. There are a lot of underlying questions that probably aren't clear to someone listening for the first time but I think we should continue because we use a lot of terms that are familiar to us but not familiar to everyone. Representative Coleman you have a question. I'm just wondering for clarity to say who the benchmark plan covers just to be clear on the population that this is addressing. That's a great question. It applies to the individual and small group markets in any state. And here in Vermont as you know we have a temporarily unmerged individual and small group market, also known as a qualified health plan market. This covers about 70,000 individuals in the state. And that is the population we're talking about being impacted by any changes to the benchmark plan. That's very helpful. So, so that's the federal framework. Under state law, it's the Green Mountain care board that has the responsibility of approving changes or any benefits in that qualified health plan market. And they are required to do so with recommendations from the Department of Vermont health access. So, having gone through this stakeholder group again convened by the Department of Financial Regulation. The state came together and and put together recommendations which we this week presented to the Green Mountain care board for consideration. So with respect to the benchmark plan. The federal government provides three options. If a state wants to change it. One is to pick a benchmark plan from another state. The second is to replace certain categories of benefits with those from another state. And the third is kind of a generic option which is to select a set of benefits to become the state's benchmark plan. So the recommendation that we made this week is to select that federal option three. What we recommend is that the state create a new benchmark plan, again for the qualified health plan market, which would include all the benefits in the existing benchmark plan, which is the blue cross and blue shield CDHP HMO plan. So we recommend creating that new plan and then adding a new benefit, which is hearing aid coverage. And I'll get into the specifics of what that benefit would look like, but we see that as filling a critical gap in the current benchmark plan. And then the third aspect of the recommendation is that the state submit this change to the federal government for approval for plan year 2024, which is the earliest that we could have this change go into effect. So that that is what's covered in the slides and again what we presented to the Green Mountain Care Board this week, as is our statutory responsibility but I'll just reiterate this has been a very collaborative process with our colleagues in the other agencies as well. The hearing aid benefit description would cover an annual hearing exam for adults and children based on medical necessity up to one hearing aid per year every three years. There would be no age limitations that's a federal limitation or restriction on having age limitations. And then issuers would determine the cost share amount for each plan and that's something that would play out in what is known as the plan design process that happens annually, and talks about what cost sharing each qualified health plan has. One of the considerations in making this recommendation to add hearing aids are that we expect it to improve the quality of life for many Vermonters currently unable to afford hearing assistance, specifically improved mental well being an additional in support of health and equity. This change would close a gap in Vermont's current EHB coverage. Sorry, I started to use the abbreviation essential health benefits, known as EHB Vermont is currently one of only two Northeast states without hearing aid coverage. Finally, as I mentioned, federal anti discrimination regulations require that such a benefit when medically necessary be covered without any age limitations. Because I know you had testimony from Emily earlier the session about the report and the working group we did want to mention that there were other benefits under consideration for addition into the benchmark plan. And we are not recommending those additions but would support additional exploration for future years. And Emily can speak about what that process would look like a continuation of the, the actuarial work that went into this, this presentation. I think maybe I'll pause there and happy to take questions again. It's this, we've made the recommendation to the Green Mountain Care Board, I believe they're planning to vote in the next several weeks there's a public comment period associated with that. And then, as I mentioned the plan, if approved the plan would be to then submit for the application to the federal government in April for playing year 2024. Can we just say with, can you be explicit about when we say plan year 2024. What, when that coverage would start. Yes, the plan year for this market coincides with the calendar year so we're talking about beginning January 1, 2024. And we do not have the ability to accelerate that into any earlier plan is that is that accurate. Correct. And for two reasons, one is the federal government requires a significant runway to approve these changes so the deadline that they have this may is for 2024. That's one piece. The other piece is that the plan design for 2023 has actually already been approved by the Green Mountain Care Board so as I know we've spoken about over the years that the process of designing the plans and and that whole plan to prevent body of work begins very early the previous plan year. I think to those, those outside of the world of insurance plan changes. Always find at least I'll speak for myself, I know initially was like, it was like, I couldn't believe how far in advance, one had to work to change to impact an insurance health and health insurance plan. This is having done the analysis having done now the recommendations to the Green Mountain Care Board. It sounds like it's important that the Green Mountain Care Board act before the, before a deadline coming up this spring is that correct. Correct. Or for us to get this into the 2024 plan. I see some questions in the room. Can we take questions and, and then maybe hear from Tina back as well from the Green Mountain. No, I is not from the Green Mountain Care Board. Sorry. Used to be one time. Let's call my time I think. But, okay. Question representative black to two very simple questions. I don't know does Vermont Medicaid currently cover. That's actually our next topic. So we're going to talk about that. Wait, I'll wait on that. My other question is, do we have any sense of the self insured market, how much of that self insured market takes the, the essential health benefit plan that is created and just moves that into. Their coverage as well. Great question. Yeah, I can take that one atty. So, to, to answer your question representative black, we don't see those plant the plan designs for self insured employer groups or other self employed groups. It's usually up to that group to decide what benefits they want to offer their employees. So, having this benefit added could then lead an employer to decide that they want to offer the benefit but it wouldn't require them to offer the hearing aid benefit. As I said, currently we don't, we don't have the authority to collect those plans. So we're unsure at this point how many of those plans cover hearing aids, and if, if they would decide to in the future. And I also add to that that I have asked pose the same question to blue cross blue shield who is the administrator for many of those self insured plans. They, they will try to give us an answer in some future testimony, but I don't believe they were clear as well. Also, I guess stuff there was another five check in. President bros. Just because I wasn't hearing you very well. Did you say one hearing aid per year, per year. It was every three years. The one hearing aid every three years so a person who needs to hearing aids per year. Every years. That's what I miss her. Thank you. I think we've said it, we've said it several different ways. So that's, let's say it again. My understanding is the recommended recommendation is one hearing aid per year. Every three years. Is that the recommendation. That's correct. Is that consistent with other essential health benefit plans that you have reviewed. Emily, do you want to speak to this. Yeah. And I, I can try to pull it up quickly. So when we were looking at what benefit design would make sense in Vermont. It was the request of stakeholders and after discussion in the working group. That we align the benefit with Vermont Medicaid. So if you look at Vermont Medicaid current benefit. It, it really says that hearing aids are covered subject to medical necessity. But then when we dug a little bit deeper into how Medicaid was defining medical necessity, we discovered that. Their current benefit design allowed coverage of. One hearing aid per year every three years. As, as their kind of medical necessity determination. So we felt that it was appropriate to model the benchmark plans benefit after Vermont Medicaid. So if you'll give me one second, we did look at other states hearing aid. Coverage and found that it varied throughout the Northeast, which is where we focused our analysis. States, some states did have a 36 month coverage period similar to, to what we're proposing here. There were, there was variation, for instance, Connecticut had a 24 month coverage period, while New Hampshire had a 60 month coverage period. So there were, you know, variations in either direction. And other benefit design restrictions, for instance, one, one state. Excuse me, one state classified the hearing aids as BME some states actually had age limits, which aren't currently allowed. But we, we felt that modeling the benefit after Vermont Medicaid seemed to make sense in the situation so that's, that's what we did. And that was also based on the recommendation of interested parties. That's an acronym that you used earlier. I think it was durable medical equipment that you were said, when some states. Yes, some states classify hearing aids, I believe it's Connecticut classifies hearing aids as durable medical medical equipment or DME. Okay. Any questions, representative page. Yes.  Do we also know what type of hearing aid this is this is going to be the cheapest of the cheap, or is it going to be, you know, middle of the road or do we have any information on the actual hearing aid itself and the quality. Yeah, so those decisions will ultimately be up to the health insurers to decide and again, using that term medical necessity, the health insurers will be required to cover hearing aids but then they will determine for instance if there's a slew of brands that cover that will be, you know, part of their covered benefit but this this benefit recommendation we're making here does not specifically refer a brand, or a type of hearing aid that will probably largely be determined by the prescribing provider. And then what what will then happen is that, for instance, if there's a certain type of hearing loss or, or level of hearing assistance that someone needs and that's prescribed by the provider, as long as it's medically necessary then that should be covered but just with all other benefits that are covered usually insurers do have certain restrictions on their benefits, one to control costs but then also so insurers can know what what is covered and know what to expect when they're using a benefit. Yeah, just follow up on that. Thank you. Follow up on that I imagine you will get a certain amount of money that you can use to purchase a hearing that would seem to me. It would be $4,000 and if you choose to get a higher quality hearing aid than that, you would be on you to pay the rest. Can you foresee something like that. Yeah, so I also just wanted to follow up. Sorry, the last question. I just lost my train of thought I'm sorry it will come back to me but to answer your question. The ACA does not allow dollar limits on benefits so in the plan document they're not allowed to say for instance will only cover up to $4,000 they they have to just say hearing aids. They can put cost share on hearing aids for instance if you if you need hearing aids and you're using your insurance plan, there might be some cost share that will be associated with using that benefit but under current insurance are not allowed to put a dollar limit. And I just remembered the last question before I forget was do hearing aids only last three years. I think there's variation with that I think some probably can last more than three years, but by putting an annual, you know, an annual allowance or an annual number in there, like what we're proposing here three years. And then kind of taking the guesswork out for insurance and the insurance company to say okay it's been three years I can now get a new pair of hearing aids or if you don't need them, you can keep the ones you have. I know we heard that with children, especially as your, your ears grow. You, they might lose hearing aids or need new ones depending so this also addresses that issue of of allowing someone who needs either replacements or maybe they're hearing loss has changed to get a new pair every three years but it wouldn't require them to Okay, and just kind of delve in just a little bit deeper. I think there's a cost share so they're not going to restrict you to a certain maker model of hearing aid are they. They could they could with their so they might an insurer might choose and I believe Vermont Medicaid does this currently. And I'm not the expert on on this by far but they can say we'll cover X Y and Z brands of hearing aids. But if there is a hearing aid that you need for your hearing loss, it should be covered. They shouldn't be able to to by restricting for instance to certain brands they shouldn't be able to then restrict your access to hearing aids so if you need a hearing aid you should be able to access one, regardless of brand but I'm going to be parameters around just like first control for instance there's certain brands that are covered under you know for contraception, and that's just a way to, you know, let insurers know as well as restrict, or I shouldn't say restrict but utilization management techniques that you know control costs but also allow people to access the benefit. Thank you. I'd like to page. Yes, I realize we're, we're dealing with hearing aids that fit inside the year, and that you can remove. Is there any surgical care. Yes, that might be covered or is that out of this year. Yes, so when we did an analysis of the current benchmark plan it was, it was discovered or it was found that cochlear implants are currently a covered benefit. The current benchmark plan cochlear implants are covered. And this would be adding the actual, as you said the in ear hearing aid as well as hearing exam for children and adults. And again, just because I know I questions have been posed to me as I've been trying to anticipate us taking this issue up there, there will be and there are no, there are no restrictions by age. It's either the essential health benefit plan recommendation so it's not like a different standard for children versus adults or adults for children. And I believe is that I want to just confirm as well because we've kind of backed into hearing about the Vermont Medicaid benefit, but you mentioned it and is it. And I'm sure that there is not a different benefit for adults versus children in Vermont Medicaid's hearing aid service benefit. So I, I don't think I can speak to that I don't believe there is that Addie, you. Okay, I'm sorry, I think I was speaking to someone from diva at that point. Okay, no, no, I mean, I was recalling a conversation that I had, but I was trying to confirm have that confirmed publicly if I'm accurate if I'm not accurate I would want to know that. So I don't know if Nissa, I think, perhaps in our exchanges you may have spoken to that or, you know, email exchange. Can can you speak to that or I don't know who to address this to add your Nissa. We'll go ahead, go ahead, Nissa. Thank you for the record Nissa James, Department of Vermont Health Access. Let me just check and make sure that everything is good on the screen and changing speakers since it's been predominantly Emily and Addie. Addie, are we okay? I believe so. Fantastic. So there have been a couple of questions posed and my colleague at DFR has handled all of those questions beautifully but as the chair indicated it is it is important for Vermont Medicaid to go on the record for a couple of different applications. One, first and foremost, Vermont Medicaid does provide coverage for audiology services. And when we say audiology services, this means services related to the diagnosis, screening, prevention, and correction of hearing and hearing disorders. The Medicaid also provides coverage for hearing aids, and this is defined in rule as meaning wearable instruments or devices to compensate for impaired hearing. Under the covered services, audiology services are further detailed to mean audiologic examination, hearing screening, hearing assessments and diagnostic tests for hearing loss. And coverage for hearing aids comprises the categories that my DFR colleague had referred to health insurance being able to implement related to analog or digital hearing aids plus their repair, replacement and modification prescriptions for hearing aid batteries. This would be an area where Vermont Medicaid does provide coverage for hearing aid batteries, sitting orientation and checking of hearing aids, and also your mold specific to hearing aids. The second question was related to the clinical criteria that are in place for conditions for coverage of hearing aids. And specific to our clinical coverage criteria, it's for those who are over the age of 21 and have hearing loss to various degrees. For children under the age of 21, the criteria is that the hearing aid is medically necessary. There's one point of clarification that I would like to provide related to what you heard in terms of the coverage being every three years for a hearing aid for each year. There is the ability to use a prior authorization if additional coverage needs to be explored prior to that three-year limit. I don't want anyone to walk away thinking that because there is that three-year limit, there's not an alternative method for exploration if needed. I think I had all three questions, but let me stop there because I'm sure that may have generated others. This is the chair, Bill Liburd. Thank you, Nissa. I would like to just further clarify the last statement that you made, which I think is important and helpful to understand. Am I with that? There could be further coverage, if you will. Maybe I want to make sure I understand that if there was additional significant change in hearing loss before a three-year period or something akin to that or related that you could there could be further benefit if it was determined through a prior authorization to be medically necessary. Am I understanding that even close? So this is documented in our provider manual and I can send this to the committee if it would be helpful, but we do make sure that providers are aware that there is an opportunity to use the prior authorization process to submit requests if there's a medical necessity or clinically appropriate need prior to that three-year limit. So it would be the provider approaching Vermont Medicaid to make the recommendation of a medically necessary change prior to the full three-year period. Is that correct? That's correct. Okay, that's helpful to understand. I was just curious, how hard of hearing or how much hearing loss does one have to have in order to qualify for assistance with hearing aids? Sure. So for those patients who are over the age of 21, the hearing loss in the better year is greater than 30 decibels and based on an average taken at 500, 1,000 and 2,000. Unilateral hearing loss would also be a criteria and that's when it's greater than 30 decibels and it's again based on an average taken or it's hearing loss in the better year is greater than 40 decibels, but it's based on an average taken at slightly different. So it's 2,000, 3,000 and 4,000 or word recognition is poorer than 72%. Thank you. I think that's, we were joking with each other a little bit that you gave us the correct answer and it's more technical than we're able to comprehend right now. So maybe we'll explore that again another time and another way. Yeah, I was wondering if you could keep data on how many prior lots have been requested and how many are approved. You know, I don't know the answer to that off the top of my head that is a great question and I'm happy to take that back and see if we could disaggregate data in our prior authorization system to break it down to that level. I would just say as an aside, I'm guessing this is motivated in part by our committee's interest in the administrative burden of prior authorizations generally throughout the medical system. We have some initiatives underway, we've tried to have some initiatives underway to try to see whether they are in fact effective and useful or become an administrative burden for providers. It's just, if I may, an opportunity to say that you do it but it doesn't really happen either. The other side of that question. Okay, I think representative Hovind has a question. Yes, I'm going to change Woody's question a little bit but maybe try to get to the same goal which like what do you can tell me if I'm wrong but. Do you hear complaints that it is hard for people who need hearing aids to actually receive them because of the medical necessity. Is it easy for people who need hearing aids? That's a great way to reframe the question. And I will share that no, we have not received any constituent or provider complaints into the diva commissioner's office related to access. So that's first and foremost. Second, I would say that in consultation with our clinical operations team when H266 was released, we crosswalked our coverage to what was in H266 of 2021 and did not determine that that would impact what we're currently doing. So that's also point two to now. And as part of that process further getting to your question rep Houghton, our chief medical officer did contact several of his colleagues to specialize in audiology to make sure that the references that we had used in determining clinical criteria as an example. We're still up to date and appropriate and there weren't recommendations for revising that clinical criteria. So for all of those reasons I'm comfortable saying no we are not hearing that currently. Thank you. Okay, this is all I think this is very helpful and I think we've, did you have further questions? Okay. I'm sorry, can I just clarify, please. I just want to make sure for those listening that that question was directed to diva for Medicaid. So that is the Medicaid response not necessarily other entities other insurance. EHR this whole. Thank you. Thank you, Rob Houghton. This is James representing Vermont Medicaid. Thank you. Right. Okay, so one of the questions was, and this is going. Actually, I don't know if Nissa has this, or at least drama has the numbers available for the number of Vermonters covered by Vermont Medicaid this benefit in Vermont. But let me say what I'm interested in, and Nolan, Nolan Langwell from the Joint Fiscal Office of Legislative Joint Fiscal Office is on the screen and I had, I'm anticipating I'm wanting to ask him to replicate a chart, which we've seen in the past which shows which net which which health insurance types of health insurance represent how many covered lives in Vermont. Because the reason I wanted to have this as kind of foundational information for taking a look at H266, which we will do next Thursday is that we also need to understand, we all collectively need to understand and we as legislators need to understand where the impact is currently and which Vermont lives are covered by which types of insurance coverage and which parts of insurance coverage we have any impact we can have any impact on and which we cannot and where we can have an impact what it requires. It's a much more nuanced and somewhat complicated framework than is necessarily obvious at the outset and some of us had to come to terms with that as we sit on this health care committee. So Nolan, if you can if you understand what I'm asking you had a pie chart in your health care 101 that at the time had emerged small group and individual market but if you would update that for us and indicate the differing numbers of Vermont lives as best you know in round figures. I think that would be helpful then when we look at the bill next Thursday to understand where benefits exist currently where benefits don't exist, etc and understand where we can influence things and where we may not be able to. So, I appreciate. Thank you for thank you. Emily, Addie. Is there anything you wish to add I'm happy to have you've been with us but we didn't direct any questions to you today other days we've directed lots of questions to you. Is there anything that you wish to comment on at this point or, if not that's fine too. Thank you for the opportunity for the record enough back as director of health care reform at the agency of human services and I will only comment briefly that the director of health care reform does have a role in this process in the coordination of the effort across the agencies and departments that are involved, and that we are very pleased with the process on the whole, and pleased to be offering the recommendations here for you today. Thank you. Thank you. And this whole process of particularly the essential health benefits process is a has been, as someone said a long time coming. This has been talked about thought about for many years, and it was only last year as our committee inquired about what was possible as we were working and talking with the Department of Financial Regulation and the Department of Health Access that way. Thank you for having your young person join us it's lovely. It brings the screen considerably. Really lovely, really lovely. Brian join you. Oh no, he's right. That's lovely. Thank you actually we all need a good smile. But just to say that the, again this the process of getting to where there's a recommendation now in front of the Green Mountain care board for updating the essential health benefits within the qualified health plans. I believe is a significant achievement and it's only so they've been able to be achieved by the incredible work from the Department of Financial Regulation from diva and others in the agency to coordinate all this. We will then be looking to the Green Mountain care board. Hopefully to approve this change, and we'll be we'll want to hear from them as well, because they ultimately have, they may be part of the process that I don't yet understand that will be revealed when we talk to them. So with that, I think we'll. This is very useful to understand what the Medicaid Vermont Medicaid benefit is currently and how that mirrors or interacts with the essential health benefits. So with that, I think we'll stop for this part of the afternoon. Thank you all for being part of this. Thank you Corey for your assistance. Sorry about the bumps along the way at the beginning where we will be more adept, hopefully, next Thursday. Perhaps you'll join us or perhaps one of your colleagues will and thank you to the transcriptionist to in the background is making what we're doing more accessible as well. With that, I'm going to suggest Claire that we will go off live.


Hey guys, welcome back to my youtube channel Daniel Rosal here today's video is a bout ordering from Aliexpress to Israel And specifically how long you can expect that to take based on my experience now Israel has emerged as one of the world's largest consumers of Aliexpress and that's a large factor. I think a few dynamics really one is that the Domestic market is quite small stuff in Israel tends to be very expensive and the product selection on Aliexpress Is second to none so Aliexpress has become actually massively popular in Israel to the extent that a small country like Israel has emerged as one of Aliexpress Aliexpress is leading buyers. It's quite funny. You'll commonly be browsing on Aliexpress for products And you'll see stuff like you know customized doormats for instance and some of the product photos are in Hebrew because Those are the ones that their customers have ordered that they're using to demo now regarding the question of how long Aliexpress Takes to come so firstly. I've been ordering from Aliexpress for more than seven years I'm a platinum member and my order count is embarrassingly high I will just say that it's in the thousands. I order literally everything from Aliexpress the LED light that is lighting me with this remote control is from Aliexpress my little Box for keeping breath mints is from Aliexpress What else is from Aliexpress my? No, that's not from Aliexpress the mouse map But anyway, I order a hell of a lot of stuff from Aliexpress a lot of tech gear a lot of camera gear and you know It's got its pros and cons as a platform But generally I find it quite good now the major con by the way just because I don't want to make this video by Chipping times, but the major con is that the customer service is really bad There is no real such thing as human customer service on Ali you get through to bots if stuff arrives broken or whatever It's a dispute process versus Amazon. It's a far far inferior Purchasing experience as a buyer. Let's focus today on shipping or transit time So in my experience buying from Aliexpress it really really depends now. There's a few times when Shipping can be particularly slow. The average is around. I would say 30 days in my experience ordering stuff to Jerusalem However, I have had outliers. I've had freak orders that arrived in less than two weeks I've had one that arrived my record was eight days I have no idea how an untracked Ali express parcel made it from China to Israel in seven days But it can happen. It's very rare. However, when Ali express is running fast I would say it's probably in two to three weeks There's a lot of things that can affect the transit time between China and Israel one of those is the stuff getting out of China Now that can be slowed down due to a few factors One of them is the Chinese Spring Festival or Lunar New Year So check it when that's on that is a period when it's actually the world's biggest internal migration very interesting stuff Chinese families go home and you'll start getting messages from your Ali express shops or suppliers saying, you know, hi dear They always say hi dear we're gone home for Lunar New Year. So expected late in your order So that's the time when You can expect stuff to be delayed because of the pandemic right now. There's apparently a There's a there is a delays on the Chinese side at the moment due to COVID-19 Restrictions so that's an unusual situation because hopefully the pandemic won't be forever, but that can affect transit times as well Then on the Israeli side. Okay, so we have two sides to the logistics chain here on the Israeli side Basically this ready postal system was just not Designed to deal with the massive influx of Ali express packages stuff It's the best my knowledge tends to get sorted in a huge sorting center in Modi in and you'll often see on traffic That there's a bottleneck in Modi in your stuff will get stuck there It'll like get from China to Israel pretty quickly and then it'll just sit in Modi in now Somewhat recently Ali express started doing something called consolidated orders If you search my YouTube channel or search YouTube in general you might find my video about that and that's when Ali express Suppliers if you're a regular buyer like me They'll bundle different orders together now What will happen is that they use these things called consolidation warehouses on the Chinese side your stuff will arrive to a Consolidated warehouse then they'll use an expedited shipping method to get your stuff from China to Israel So it's a weird system and you'll end up with these like big boxes Again, I did a video a while back on them from a tax and customs point. That's technically could be problematic Because the order values being increased against your will But I haven't had issues with it so far. So Consolidated orders. I think it probably works out about the same transit time because of the fact that Yeah, you're gonna wait for stuff to arrive to the consolidation warehouse But then they're going to use expedited shipping to get it from the consolidated warehouse over here to Israel So I find about the same transit time. Now. This is all talking about on track So you get to Modi in on the final thing that can affect the transit time is delays on the Israeli side if it's a Israeli Jewish holiday if it's the ha if it's a hageem, etc. So you've got to think about Chinese holidays Jewish holidays Logistics, so there's a lot of moving parts that can break but generally about a month now Let me just show you guys a couple of Things so here's something I just walked from Ali express typical small order of stuff I couldn't be bothered finding locally. So I source it from Ali bookmarks, right? Everyone needs bookmarks if you read books. So I said, okay lovely 30 bookmarks I'm always losing bookmarks or bookmarks or running short of bookmarks I'll get myself a little pack of 30 bookmarks. Now you see here free shipping to Israel Now most people will just click on free shipping or they'll click on buy now And they'll never see this button here. Hang on. I need to make myself a little bit smaller. Oh No, I don't sorry. Okay, they'll never see this button here that says my options And when you click on that option, you'll get yourself a variety of different Shipping methods starting with your basic free shipping via can I don't I never know what to pronounce this? But this is like the basic Basic Ali express shipping method and it's saying it's going to be combined delivery now On the when stuff gets here to Israel is it'll either be delivered by Israel post or sometimes it'll write via cheetah That doesn't in my experience. I've ordered a lot of stuff with this basic free shipping option Some of it's come as a small packages to the through the post network Other stuff has come to you through an Israeli career last mile career like cheetah So there seems to be no rhyme or reason for how it works It's just how Israel the Israeli postal system automatically sorts it But if you do want to go for better ordering, there is there are better. There are better ordering options For instance, if we just pay 85 cents We can get trapping we can get a tracked Logistics method and you can see here estimated delivery July 17th 18th That's not really any quicker, but at least you should be able to see where it is through the supply chain We've got another another method here via standard Ali express This is Ali express standard shipping. This is Ali express saver shipping. Then we have here Ali express selection super economy global and if we go down a little bit further, we're going to get the Better shipping options now. These will become very expensive or not very expensive But you know clearly to state the obvious it would not make any sense to order a $1 You know a bundle of bookmarks and then pay $56 to have them shipped via EMS or $60 via FedEx Now when it comes to Israel's tax The the cost of the shipping and handling is not supposed to be is not included for tax purposes But I've heard stories of people being charged Release fees from customs from DHL. So when these shipping options would make sense I have used them in a couple of times so you can see UPS expedited and you're getting The very best option we can get is almost a hundred dollars for DHL and that's getting our delivery down to eight days So very quickly when there's then when this would make sense if you're saving a lot of money Versus if you find a real bargain than Ali express versus, you know buying something locally here in Israel It might actually be worth it to pay that one hundred dollars or eighty dollars To get stuff to move very quickly from China to Israel via something like EMS or DHL or UPS shipping So that's basically the skinny on how it was it wasn't so skinny in the end But it was a skinny as I can make it how long it takes for orders to arrive from Ali express to Israel The summary is as I said in general, I would say about 30 days I've had freak orders arrive in as little as seven days And don't forget that there is that more shipping options button so that if you want to pay you can often pay a little bit more For something called e-tracking. I forget the shipping method There's a slightly better one and if you're ordering anything of value You know not these you know these these one dollar bookmarks, but anything of some value I think it's really worth paying a few extra books Just to get some proper tracking for yourself. Oh, and there was one more thing that I wanted to show you guys excuse the chaotic The chaotic nature of this video. Here's a website called parcel app comm so you can track your stuff via the Ali express Interface by going into my orders clicking on tracking, but then you need to log into Ali express What you can do is go on to this website parcels parcels app comm I'm just going to type it up here. So Parcels app comm And what you can do is you can put in your tracking number then click on track package And now what this will do is it'll pull in the tracking data from Ali express But what you can then do it'll give you unique URL a unique web page So you can then bookmark that and have it in your tracking folder So that you don't have to log into Ali express every set every single time just to track an important item And you can label it like I don't know my new microphone or whatever There's other apps for tracking Ali express products But this is the one that I find very useful and whenever I'm ordering something of you know value like Maybe a microphone or a phone or a tablet I will bookmark that so that I can keep an eye on it if there's any unexpected delays and That finishes up my spiel. So I hope this video is useful Thank you guys as ever for watching and to get more videos for me click on the subscribe button. Thank you for watching


SCP-176 is an abandoned chemical factory, situated near Data Expunged. When the main building is entered via the loading dock or employee entrance, no anomalies are observed, merely an empty room in severe disuse. When the observation room is entered via the second floor outside door, a factory observation room consistent in disuse and disrepair to the rest of the building is found. However, when the factory floor is viewed through the observation room windows, the anomalous property of SCP-176 is visible. The view from the observation room window shows a static repeating scene that lasts approximately 11.3 seconds before repeating.


Welcome to digital asset news to get top squares and crypto and bring out a bite size pieces They just the thumbnail suggests There's an evolution going on in the crypto and digital asset space and it's gonna make things like social media and banking Or so obsolete and we're gonna get into that also talk about Bull run top indicators because the market just popped off. So the question is when is it gonna fall down? I'm gonna talk about hacks and secret meetings Solana social media and gaming and then finally we'll take a look at a little meld update Which the project that I've been following pretty closely So before we get into that let's take a look what's going on the market. So today. It's a great day. It's the 8th the 9th November Yeah, 9th of November. It's a Tuesday beautiful day And this is what we got as far as tokens and things going well So Bitcoin itself is up almost at 67,000 I know we hit an all-time high yesterday and who knows we could keep going on What mark caps almost at three trillion depending on where you look could be three could be not But the big thing is over the last 24 hours Cardano is up 9% and Litecoin is up 18% it just goes to show you that it doesn't matter what you think the market's gonna do Which ones are just gonna blow up because of either a great partnership or a great story or some TA that comes out it just kind of happens when it happens and When these things I always take a look at this I always take a look at the products that haven't done anything for quite some time and I get real excited by those projects I go, you know what if they haven't moved in a while They are due and the same thing happens right here Litecoin and Cardano really took a major pump also Binance Armistice Bitcoin Cash and They're in classic sure for whatever reason also if you're a big trader We're using trade the chamber since been analysis I'm gonna take a look at the projected range for one hour one hour If you're a big trader take a look at loop ring looks like within the next hour or so You're looking at between plus seven and plus sixteen percent and then some other ones down here So to take a look at trade the chain is a link in the description. You can check that out And that's what's going on the market. Now. Let's get to some big stories some big stories, but some indicators and Because we've just seen our mark up hit three points something trillion dollars a question I keep getting asked is when is the top gonna actually happen? I have no idea because I'm not no Stradamus, but I can direct you to something That's really I've been featuring on the show for quite some time It's the pie cycle top indicator and yes retroactively It did look back and said that when you take the 111 day moving average Which is this yellow line right here as it crosses over the 350-day moving average times two that's usually the top and when they took back the last three times It said yes, that would happen in April 2013. It also happened in November 2013 It also would have predicted the November or to me December 2017 top and also it correctly predicted the April 2021 top and when we take a look at this that yellow line has to cross the 350 or the green one Look how much space we have Before it crosses again, and if you just take a look over time you've got a lot of time to do these things So where could this end up my personal opinion is what I've always said It's gonna be somewhere around a hundred and thirty K I don't know if it's gonna be super high or super low, but that's kind of like my point. This is not financial Advice just financial opinion. That's where I see things going and it's pretty much confirmed by the pie cycle top And of course TA people you're welcome to sound off in the comments because I know you got an opinion on that So that's what's going on there. Let's take a look at some good news and a little bit of bad news So first up the good news. I think one of the reasons why Cardano may have pumped is because World mobile token, which is that token right there in the bottom left-hand corner They just put out sweet and said, hey, there was secret meetings held by IOHK the the founding arm of Cardano blockchain Secret meetings and I was like, is this really a secret? I mean Charles went to Africa Do you think he didn't meet the heads of state because if he has a digital ID with a Tala Wouldn't that be something I really want to know about also they're bringing telecommunications in with world mobile token When that's something they play I want to talk about I would assume so but I mean, hey world mobile token Sure, good enough. They sent out the tweet Maybe something maybe this or something else happens But just one of those things where it goes might have been a little bit of a reason on top of that Here's some bad news. The bad news is Excuse me. If you have a Robin Hood account like I do It just got hacked Yesterday so another example of a centralized organization being hacked yet again and your information is Floating around on the internet yet again along with all the other hacks that you have throughout time so Just get used to it because if we're gonna keep using the centralized entities Just you know, you should just put a big billboard of your name your social your date of birth and everything else your likes and dislikes Just on I-10 and have people look at it because that's essentially what's gonna keep happening. Anyhow This is what happened hackers Access some personal information of roughly 7 million users then demanded a ransom payment Ah, can't wave us the online trading platform said it believes no social security numbers Bank account numbers or debit card numbers were exposed and the customers have seen no financial losses because the intrusion I will just point your attention to this right here where it says the online trading platform said it believes this information was not Validated or whatever just so you know, that's just a belief. That's not either saying we're a hundred percent sure it didn't happen so Public service announcement if you have Robin Hood like I do go in there and put all the Security settings that you can like put up the pin put up a two-factor authentication And then I'll change your password because you never know when they could drain your account So just be safe instead of being sorry later on so that's what's going on in the good news bad news and then Lastly before we get into meld Solana so Solana was a little bit late to the game I didn't pick it up at pennies like some people did good for them But the double digits. I'm still pretty happy about how things are going on. I wish I would have picked up more but that's how trading goes and this is what I'm talking about as far as crypto is evolving and taking over These services these corporations that are centralized just like a Robin Hood just like centralized banks Just like centralized social media just like centralized gaming platforms It's really going to take over everything and here's the prime example So this is a Sam Bakeman freed and he said social media is a massive opportunity for Solana Here's what he's talking about He says he was just talking about the future of blockchain on a round table and he says Well, first you first, you know FTX has close ties with Solana they Launched a marketplace for Solana NFTs via FTX if you don't know they have at their own NFT marketplace. It's great. I bought a couple of entities. Also. I use the phantom wallet. It's seamless. It's fast It's quick. Oh and also Unlike MetaMask, you can actually see your NFTs within the wall. It's great Solana could benefit from the growth of the so-called game fi space He added that it was possible that two-thirds of all crypto users could be on board via gaming in the coming Years and so just to talk about gaming. I mean sure I'm not a big gamer and I know that like there's a lot better people to listen to than me about blockchain gaming That's for sure But I can see how it will be a big poll because if whatever you were a kid I'm sure you played games and you know how addictive they are Well now take that addiction and then with and then add on top of the fact that you could also make a little Money as far as in crypto. That's where we're at. So if I was a kid, I'd be playing Super Mario's 24-7 just like get the actual Crypto that was off it. So that's just one part and I think the reason why he's talking about this cuz Solana has pretty fast transaction speeds and It's a room to scale. So that's one thing to consider. Also, he thinks social media on the blockchain could be Absolutely huge before explained that he thinks Solana is the best network for it to be built because of thing We just talked about. So yeah, so the things like we just saw here with Robin Hood.  So I think it's just a normal progression So imagine just replacing a Facebook with some type of social media platform That's run on Solana and then of course all your data It doesn't really matter then you can interact and you can share wealth You can make payments and everything else not just within certain countries But any country to any person for hopefully some low fees not a theory fees, but you know what I mean And then lastly it states here in July Vitalik Buterin discussed how a theorem could act as a base layer that would allow users to claim ownership of their identity And you know the network has to expand Beyond DeFi and I have to agree with them as far as like expanding beyond DeFi the projects that we have right now are just a natural progression of Evolution of what things are doing right in the beginning You just kind of just you would trade clams I suppose as far as a monetary base and then of course you would put that into golden silver because that would be a Storo value then of course you could put it into banks because banks could you know have it there and store it be safe FDIC insured and of course now we see a progression into Decentralized types of payments and even like loans like loans now we have like we have a block fi We have Celsius which I've used myself But it is a centralized finance platform that is true later on they're gonna move into DeFi But what if we could take the best part of DeFi, which is cut out the middle man Actually get a loan and here's the best part not have to pay back the principle of the loan But just the interest and to explain a little more about that I'm gonna bring in Ken Oling who's a CEO of meld Which they are promising to do just that which is a natural evolution of crypto and digital assets So let's jump right in getting some more information and I want to introduce Ken Oling He is the CEO co-founder of meld Ken. Thanks for coming back to the show. We appreciate your time It's always great to be here Rob. Oh, yeah fantastic a lot of things going on a lot of things moving quickly we could say and For those of you who who don't know as far as what meld is we did a video about this I'd say about I don't know four months ago or somewhere around there Yeah, it was like two and a half months ago two and a half months I know exactly and what I'll do is I'm gonna link this video at the very end so everybody can check it out But just real quick so everybody kind of understands exactly what meld is so meld is it is built on Cardano on the Cardano blockchain and the thing is we just go down here. This is this is my favorite part Melding crypto digital currency stay long get cash me you don't have to cash in your crypto these days You can take loans against it, which is what the things that I'm doing to buy Real estate in the real world and in the virtual world and also you get to keep your keys And I think that's a big differentiator between some of the other loan different C-fies out there and then this is how it works you take out a loan they pay you in cash But you get to earn yield on your crypto because your crypto collateral is added to meld's liquidity pools to generate yield So you know like in other places they'll say give us your crypto. Here's your money We're gonna take that crypto and do whatever you want with it and you don't get to keep your keys Well meld you don't have to do that and they actually you get to keep your keys They actually gain yield on it. So it actually helps you to pay back your principal Of the actual loan and of course you have to pay back the interest they pay back the loan Interest in principal and he gets to earn all the time that is essentially it a nutshell Ken. What did I miss? No, you sort of summarized it pretty pretty straightforward So it's not a it's not a complex concept and you know the reason why we can do it is because it's it's non custodial So everything is on the blockchain. Everybody can see all the transactions So it forces us to really behave in a really responsible way. Yeah makes sense, right and then the last thing I will just make mention is You guys had a pretty pretty great way to do things about as far as getting out Meld itself he did a an ISPO an initial stake pool offering So instead of doing like an ICO where you get a bunch of people and all these VCs And you get to just you know congregate and concentrate different currencies or different digital assets You say look here's what we're gonna do if you want to earn in meld. All's you have to do is just Allocate some of your ADA to our stake pools and instead of earning in ADA You're going to earn in meld and there was there was some Not limits, but a combination of both we could actually earn a little bit of ADA a little bit of meld and that took place Well, actually when we did this video two or three months ago And now we're coming up on the time when all the meld tokens are going to be released But which was I think December 9th, right? Correct, correct, right? But I think there's a little bit of a change. Tell us what the change is and why does it change? Well first the the ISPO filled Yes, so it's not over. It's not it's not closed or it's not it's not done But we've managed to fill the full set of 12 pools 640 million ADA It's gone down a little bit since then so one of the things I'd like to tell people is that, you know It's not over you can still keep your ADA and you still earn meld in the stake pools But if you do take your ADA out now and you try to put it back in then it won't count So just leaving it in there until December 9th is The best thing for you to do if you want to be able to earn it if you don't that's totally fine You can take it out anytime you want. There's no lockups Which is nice, right? That's the best part about staking. There's no lockups You get to keep your keys you get to keep in your wall dead list or Yoroi or a delight wherever you're using and off you go So that's the big thing and now December 9th is upon us. Yeah, it's all gonna work with you know Yeah so we have we have the we've had the launch of Alonzo on September 12th, and we've been working towards being able to Deliver and sort of do the Genesis event for the tokens on December 9th and launch the token launch the platform But because we've now had a lot of time to get our hands on the main net been working on the test net been working closely with other developers We are going to delay our actual launch from December 9th to January 31st So we're going to delay by just about two months The reason why we're delaying is because we don't feel confident enough that enough of the sort of Core bugs in the main net have been addressed We see the progress of these bugs being fixed. They happen on a very fast pace basis So we see that we see the sort of light at the end of the tunnel But we didn't feel that launching right now would be a safe way of putting our protocol out there And we want to make sure that when we put our foot forward We're putting it in a way that we're not going to expose either us or any of our customers digital assets at risk And so therefore we decided to postpone these two months. There's a couple of things to sort of keep in mind in this process Those that are Invested in meld that have bought tokens that have a vesting period. So the private sale Their vesting period starts on December 9th regardless So they don't have to the vesting period doesn't start after what based on this postponement So the vesting itself won't make any won't change based on what we're doing But we wanted to make sure that that when we did launch that there was no possibility of any kind of potential security breach or anything like that But the biggest issue has to do with performance in regards to speed There's a lot of work that's being done by the cardano team to get The infrastructure that supports d apps To operate a lot faster and that's where a lot of our Sort of work is going. It's where we're focusing a lot of our attention doing bug fixing working on cardano with the team To make sure that these this infrastructure can perform at a level that will be acceptable by the community Yeah, and that's a big thing. So okay So we're going to delay a little bit and I can hear everybody thoughts right now As they're screaming out there at their screen They're saying well, why don't you just give us our mel tokens on December 10th when everything stops And what's going on here? Are you going to do something malicious? So right is it a rug pull etc. Is it a rug pull? So tell tell us why this is a bad idea to distribute those tokens It's not a bad idea at all. It's not a bad idea in the slightest the issue is that if we provide tokens without any functionality Then that is considered a security in many countries And so we need to be able to deliver The automatic bridge the ability to do staking the ability to mint tokens these kinds of things all of this Functionality has to be in place Otherwise, we're exposing all of our potential customers people that are holding the token to risk in regards to security And so that's the driving force. It's a legal consideration. It's not because we can't do it Yeah, and that makes a lot of more sense because You know, there's this there's this entity. It's called the sec and for some reason They don't really like when Securities are being thrown around and they seem to want to get companies in To actually find a living tar out of them unless you can actually prove it's it's a utility So, okay, that makes a lot of sense. So this is not just the sec, right? This is also, you know finna and baffum and lots of other Securities in exchange or securities organizations in lots of other countries So this isn't specifically some sort of focus on the u.s. This is also many many other countries Because the vast majority of the people that have participated in our ispo and participated in the private sale are not Americans And so we have to make sure that we're acting responsibly and we're not going to expose our customers to any unnecessary regulatory problems See and there I go again always putting myself first Just thinking America only see this is one of my problems. It can't. Thanks. That makes a lot of sense So we're taking a look at that and then there's another issue that has that has come up and I think Me as a stake pull operator and I've heard some of the complaints from other stake pull operators like you know what I don't like the fact that And we'll just take a peek at it that meld has I mean not only do they Fill it up so fast But you got like you said 12 12 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 this one But let's say we'll just say round numbers we'll say 12 right you got 12 pools and a lot of them are are full So What's going to happen at the very end of this because once people say okay? Well, I have my I have my meld tokens on January 31st Does everybody just keep their aid of there because I think a lot of the a lot of the complaints are hey This isn't centralized you guys are almost like I mean take your pick. There's a lot of different stake pull operators that have like 10 Like finance. Yeah, etc. So what are we going to do here? Yeah, so so like we've always said We're going to shut down all of our stake pools except one That one meld one will stay open The the the commission on it will go back down to one or two percent So it'll be just like every other stake pool out there but as part of both sort of launching the protocol as well as Taking into consideration a lot of the the things that the ispo participants are asking us we get this question a lot Can we continue to stake here? Can we continue to stake here? And we would love to but we've already committed to not doing that So we're not going to do that and we are committed to decentralization Um, so as part of the actual protocol itself um, the protocol will be Utilizing a lot of stake pool Sort of resources and so we're putting together a consortium of stake pools that work with the meld protocol And these this consortium will be connected to the meld protocol and the protocol will then distribute Ada to all of these different state pools as part of the protocol As a way of generating yield So all of the stake pool operators will be operating on the same level with the same set of parameters So everybody will be fair and be equal and we'll be able to delegate to those state pool operators At the end of the ispo We'll be making creating a list of both stake pool operators and other ispo's that we think are Really really good projects To inform people about where they can send their ada once they've sort of left or been kicked out of the meld pools but as part of that we're also going to be introducing a novel nft solution And so this nft will be available to all of the people that have been part of the ispo And this nft will then help track Where and when anybody have sent their ada to another stake pool and it'll calculate that Based on The fact that you've sent your ada to a new stake pool this nft will then Make it possible for you to earn a higher yield When the meld staking pools open So this will give you the ability to earn more In the meld staking when you're taking the actual meld token So it's a kind of a way to say thank you And to kind of apologize for the fact that we're delayed by two months Put together In an nft because we think nfts are very interesting and this is a very kind of novel way of using them Awesome. Yeah, and I'll take that apology any day of the week. Thanks. Ken fantastic. So now everybody at home I just want to make just talk about lastly The reason why I Have ken on my show when I work with certain projects Is because I trust certain projects and like I've always talked about look for projects that of course one have real world utility They do what they say they're going to do and they actually have a good team when you invest in people things usually work out And here's living proof of that. So ken makes a lot of sense. I appreciate anything else before we take off Any other announcements that you can say legally? Um We have our our community groups. We have telegram and discord if anybody has any questions or comments or is upset or angry because of these delays or You know feels like they're not getting enough information. Uh, please reach out. We're happy to answer any questions We're trying to act as as responsibly as we possibly can and that means we have to respond to all of the criticism um So, please, uh, you know speak to us and you know air your grievances And we'll do our very best to explain and give you the the reasons why We've made the choices we've made. Uh, we'll be publishing a roadmap document tomorrow With a very very detailed technical explanation as to What's happening where things are going why the delay has happened What things are being fixed and what we expect to happen by january 31st Sounds good. All right then So I will put the link of the telegram and the discord group in the description below. You can check that out ken Appreciate your time. Thanks so much and now we'll always really talking to you rub Sounds good. Let's jump back. All right. See you. All right. So that's it So it's a little bit longer video today, but there's a lot of things to go over So if you found value in that video give it a thumbs up also consider subscribing And we do these every day a lot of things are going fast and furious, especially in the next two months It's going to be insane So uh, go ahead and subscribe. Uh, thanks so much for sticking with me. I appreciate it. See you on the next one