Posted on Fri, Apr. 18, 2008
MIKE ARMSTRONG: Coming up: Imagine Thanksgiving without the Eagles game. That may be the reality for many cable customers throughout the country. We’ll tell you why. And should a health insurer pay if a doctor operates on the wrong part of your body? Hospitals say yes, but Cigna is saying no. We’ll give you the details. Philadelphia Business Today starts now.
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MIKE ARMSTONG: The war over the NFL Network continues. Comcast is on one side and the National Football League is on the other. The NFL Network was created in late 2003 and from the beginning, Comcast has had it on a special sports tier that cost around $5 a month. The NFL wants to be on basic digital cable and now it’s saying it will take the fight to the FCC. The real story? Comcast thinks the NFL Network belongs on a higher priced sports tier because it has only eight games per year and very little else to offer the viewer. The NFL wants to be on a broader cable package so it can reach a bigger audience and charge higher rates for advertising. By filing a complaint with the FCC, the NFL hopes to force Comcast to make its network more widely available. And what about that Thanksgiving Eagles-Cardinals game on the NFL Network? Philadelphia fans shouldn’t be worried. It’s a home game and one of the local over-the-air broadcast stations will carry it.
If a hospital makes a big mistake, like operating on the wrong leg or even the wrong person, Cigna’s not going to pay for it. The Philadelphia health insurer becomes the latest to deny payment for the kinds of medical errors that should never happen. Cigna is following the lead of other private insurers and Medicare, which last summer, started the trend. Hospitals will have to absorb the cost. Locally, Aetna is also refusing to pay for mistakes, but Independence Blue Cross, the dominant insurer, has not altered its policies.
Altecom for sale? The Mt. Laurel software maker says it’s retained the investment banking firm of Jefferies and Co. to pursue one. The company has been facing a number of financial and legal troubles, including a possible civil action by the SEC. Altecom has also been struggling with its accounting. It’s been restating its financial results for the last three years.
Casinos in Atlantic City are a $5 billion a year industry. But other local companies have benefited from the growth of gambling. A.C. Coin and Slots supplies slot machines and other equipment to more than 300 clients throughout North America. Inquirer reporter Suzette Parmley talked Mac Seelig, founder and CEO of A.C. Coin. Among the issues they addressed was how the industry has changed in the last 30 years.
MAC SEELIG: The player as well as the operator are looking for different experiences than we had years ago. Years ago, we had a handle, you pulled the handle and…it had tremendous feel, you thought you were controlling the machine, and the reels were mechanical and you felt a tremendous amount of pulsing. Coins used to come out of the machines, actual money, and hit trays and it was very loud, it was music to the player’s ear. And that was what everybody thought the machine had to be and over the last five years, ten years, that’s all changed. It’s much more computerized and the- and the player today is not the player of 30 years ago, when I started. So, you know, the players are changing as well as technology. And it’s a good thing because it keeps us, on our side of the business, going. And there’s more decisions per hour for the operators, so the operator is dealing with less of the, the nonsense. The shuffling machine did the same thing for the table play. So I think as we progress in the business, you know, the machine of today…will be so different in five years from now because we’re right now in a technology change.
MIKE ARMSTRONG: That’s it for this week. At the Inquirer, I’m Mike Armstrong for Philadelphia Business Today.
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