I am in Kirkland, WA right now. I just got done with a day of doing paperwork and tracking down medical payments and billing stuff… which is never a good time. I blogged a few months ago about my love of the medical insurance industry. Lets just say that the passion is still there. Anyway, decided it was time to share a bit about something way more fun… skiing in Chile!

We went to La Parva this time which was new to me. A few of the guys had been there before, way back when, but for the most part it was a new adventure for all of us. It was quite nice. Refreshing. We had a good set up: condo right next to the hill, a cook (Anita) who made lunch and dinner for us…all and all it was really well done. We were all packed into a fairly tight space, but it seemed to work out just fine.

The skiing was good… a bit soft, but we got a lot of volume in training GS and I got back on the speed skis, which I have to say was a highlight. It was a pretty smooth transition back into speed for me, helped by the mild and mellow conditions. I had a great time getting up to speed and making some longer turns. We had a pretty small group, so the courses stayed really decent the whole session, even though it was soft. Just got a few days on the DH boards, but we had some good days of SG as well.

Another highlight was a few days of powder we got in during the mid-camp storm. There was a couple great runs that were a 30 min hike away- a couple of great faces and a nice narrow chute to explore. Marco is peering into that chute in the photo- notice the massive double cornice on the top behind him. That photo was from one of the last days we were there, so the wind had added to the lip. The really nice powder day, it was just the lower cornice, which looked massive at that time.

The final great point of the trip I will mention is the sunsets, fittingly. Every night we enjoyed both being above the smog of Santiago and enjoying the fact that the smog made for incredible sunsets up in the mountains.

Till next time…

Whew! Just coming up for air after our Ski and Tee fundraiser at Mt. Hood in Oregon. I ended up shouldering most of the burden of the organization of the event, but it turned out really well. The people who came had a great time and got to spend a lot of time close to all the athletes on the Men’s Alpine team. For a few days there, I was either coaching (more about that later) or on my cell organizing the tourney, items, other guy’s travel schedule, people dropping out, etc. I actually had a good time at the event, especially after I turned off my phone, had a beer and started to play golf on the last day. I think I finally relaxed on the 3rd hole. My group had a really fun round. I played with an old coach and friend of mine, Lloyd and his brother and nephew.

The week before the tourney, I coached up on Mt. Hood with the program I grew up with, Crystal Mountain. It was pretty fun, even though it was slalom. I wouldn’t say that my slalom technique is the freshest around, but in the end and especially with younger skiers, the basics of a good stance, turn and tactics were plenty to talk about. I was coaching with Paul McDonald as well, who has been on the national team the last few years and is one of the “invitees” to train with the team this year. Paul was putting on a clinic for the kids on how to do modified javelin turns and boot-top gates. I put on a clinic on how to ski a few gates while the courses were brand new and then take the coach’s stance or throw salt/ put gates back in. It seemed to work for everyone involved.

Paul and I had a phenomenal time coaching the kids and hanging out with the other coaches, Alan and Bill. In the end, a string of semi-late nights and really early mornings brought me into the fundraiser a bit wiped out.

I have also been talking to WCSN, which is now Universal Sports, about getting some content onto my website, www.scottmacartney.com. We are setting it up now, but it should be pretty cool in the winter to check out race runs and read the latest about me and the team on both websites.

Thanks for everyone who donated or helped with the fundraiser and I hope everyone is having a great summer!

Happy Spring/Summer everyone!

I just completed 8-9 days on snow out in Mammoth, CA! It was my first time back on snow with the team. I was doing the “return to snow” program but it was great to be back on skis and with all the guys on the team again. Return to snow is basically a lot of freeskiing, drills and working on your movement patterns in a really slow and controlled manor. I spent a lot of time on slalom skis, which allows you to feel the arc of the turn at slower speeds, while still getting the same movement. It was slow and controlled, but I was actually having a lot of fun making turns around the mountain. It was just great being out on snow again. By the last day of the camp, I was running easy GS again.

The weather there was “varied”. It was a tropical 65 or so degrees on the hill one day, then two days later I skied in 4-5 inches of fresh snow. It snowed the last two days of our camp. Crazy!

Other than getting back on snow, I have been busy planning a fundrasier for the Men’s Alpine Team. There are 5-6 guys on the team (including top World cup performers like Bryon Friedman, Erik Schlopy and Dane Spencer) that will be self-funded going into the this coming season.

The fundraiser is a Ski/Golf event, skiing in the morning (dual GS format) and 18 holes of golf in the afternoon. Teams of 4. It should be a lot of fun. We are also hosting a clinic the day before where people can ski with an athlete in small groups and learn from the best. If anyone is interested, send an email to nonprofit.sfi@gmail.com. We are a registered non-profit so all donations are tax deductible. I have included info below. We should have a website put together soon with current info on it, but not at this point.

As for me, I am headed on a surf trip with my brother to Tofino on Vancouver island. Should be fun, as long as I don’t freeze!

Men’s Alpine Ski and Tee
Mt. Hood, Oregon: Skiing at Timberline, Golf at Resort at the Mountain, Welches.
July 19th Schedule:
Registration/Breakfast- Timberline lodge- 6:30am
Clinics with Athletes- 7:00am lifts, 8:30am- meet group.
Video w/athlete- after skiing.
6:30pm- Dinner/ Auction Resort at the Mountain.

July 20th Schedule:
Registration: Timberline Lodge- 6:30 am
Dual GS, Team format- Start time TBD.
Golf: Tee time 1pm, Scramble format. Awards, 6pm.

Pricing:
Total weekend package: $600 *Gold Level* $1000
Just Clinic: 250 (includes ticket, clinic with athlete, training with coaching, video, breakfast and lunch at Timberline)
Just Dinner: 100 (Dinner, Auction, free giveaways)
Just Ski Golf: 325 (includes ticket, race, breakfast at Timberline, 18 holes with cart)
*Gold Level includes recognition of your support on our website and at the event, plus other bonuses

I have a good rant as promised- Medical bills. The insurance category might be one of the shadiest operations in all of business. Their business model is basically to take in money (from your premium) and then pay out far less than what they bring in, overall. If something big happens- a Katrina sized incident, they rely on the creativity of their lawyers, who drafted in clauses like “an act of god”. Then they deem Katrina an “act of god” and wipe their hands of it, leaving thousands of loyal premium-paying customers screwed. But I digress… In the medical side, it is the same business model, take in more, delay by sending you countless forms to fill out (while earning interest on your premium and hoping that those forms get lost in the mail or not filled out properly) then pay out less than what is brought in. You have to play the game though… the cost of health care is so high that you can’t chance it without insurance. My favorite is the form they send you to see if there is anyone else they can sue related to the incident. Don’t fill that out and get it back to them? They deny. Lets take a look at one of “Scott’s” bills.

Scott has an incident. Scott gets medical treatment for said incident, supplying provider with cards and info for his medical insurance. The provider bills insurance. Primary insurance denies claim until $25,000 has been paid (don’t ask). Secondary insurance comes into play. Provider: “Oh, We don’t bill that insurance company… we only bill in our network”. What the heck?? Don’t you want to get paid? Ok, no problem… Pass bill to Secondary. Secondary needs denial explanation from Primary. Primary wasn’t actually billed properly because of a change to the system half-way though incident time frame. Third insurance gets involved. (yup.. got three) Everyone points fingers at everyone else saying that they someone else should pay “we need explanation of benefits from the other two”. Useless “incident reports” are mailed to me, threating to deny all claims unless filled out. 8 months pass. I throw away letters that inform me that “we have received information in regard to your claim and are currently processing it…”(yet not saying what they received or what they were going to do about it) what a waste of paper. Secondary still needs Primary’s explanation of benefits to process claim. Now that 8 months has passed, it is too late to re-file that claim.

Sent to Collections. Mean sounding man calls me asking for my credit card “you need to pay today, sir”. I bore him with the depths of my trifecta insurance debacle until he hangs up. Amount in this debate $89… damage to my credit… priceless. Problem: the hospital did not bill first insurance properly so I could send the denial to the second, even after two separate calls from me to rectify the situation.

Claim in a different state/ city than where the insurance company has their “network”? Oh boy, this is fun. Get some PT one place, a surgery in another, rent your CPM machine from another (as one has to). Each area based on the location of the service provided, has a different network, “Out-of-Network” charges, “We Don’t Bill That Insurance”. That would be more manageable if things didn’t change mid-stream. When the insurance providers change over (reached your max for example) for THE SAME PROVIDER, the new insurance pays a different amount or isn’t in their network, so they can’t bill them or not for the same amount or it is no longer covered.

I called an agent and asked why they couldn’t just get the info directly from the other insurance company… She replied that her company does not talk to the other company involved “Insurance companies don’t talk to one another”- it was my responsibility to get them the info. Ok… I know they don’t want to do anything that would expedite them actually paying on a claim, but they have to communicate with one another… otherwise they would overpay if they didn’t know what the other company had already covered.

Your co-pay… You owe 20% of the first $5,000 paid. Think that is just $1,000? Wrong. With “insurance math” that is actually $1250. (You owe 20% until THEY have paid $5,000 so you owe more)

Scorecard? Scott 0, five inch stack of paperwork, 1.

Oh, and providers… They will bill you $1000 for a knee brace… but they will take $150 to clear up the bill. I used to wonder about that, until I realized that they have to do that to get paid what they need to by the insurance companies. It is not so much the providers… it is the insurance that needs to be smote with a swarm of locusts.

Whew… think I am done. That felt good.

My life has more or less officially shifted gears into the off-season. I have been out of competition mode for a few months now, but I was still hanging onto winter vicariously, watching races on WCSN and talking with all my teammates. I am starting to train again. It has been 4 weeks since my knee surgery so I have been back in the gym for about a week and a half or so. I am starting fairly slow, but it has been nice to be active again.

I went down to LA again to announce the “Nature Valley US Alpine Championships on Versus”. It was pretty fun and a great experience but way, way more difficult than the show I did with WCSN. Just a different format. WCSN was basically live so if you messed up you just corrected and rolled with it and all the timing was the rhythm of the race, which I am very used to.

This show was already “cut” with features we did not talk over and commercial breaks and interviews from the finish, but we did not know when those were coming up in the program. They would just appear… and we would mess up and start that section over. Steve Porino and I spent most of our time trying to end our comments and pass it off to Caroline Lalive in the finish or to commercial break or whatever in the right amount of time. It was tough.

Luckily, Porino had most of the “welcome to the US Alpine Championships intros….” and “passing duties” but I had to be on my game as well — passing back and forth on comments with Porino as well as coming up with something relevant to say for everyone. It ended up being tough to focus on the skiing. We ended up watching each racer at least 3 times on course, so the “live feel” was diminished a bit. By the end, I didn’t have any idea what I had said for a guy at the top of the course since we had done so many takes in different stages along the way. I hope it came off ok. We ended up in the studio for 5 hours to put a 45-minute show together. I made my flight back to Seattle out of Burbank by minutes. I showed up to the airport (outside) 10 minutes before the flight left. They were calling my name as I ran to the gate…it was tight.

The show aired on Sunday on Versus…I missed it. Anyone out there see it? How was the show?

If I sucked but the show was great, or any combination there of, you can tell me. I will be fine with that.

I am also working on my medical bills…it is awful. I might have a rant on that coming up soon. We will see how long I can take it.

Enjoy the transition into spring!

Hello All-

A couple things to report on this week. First off, I had a great time down in LA doing commentary for WCSN last weekend! I heard from several people that said that they enjoyed my insights, which was great to hear. It was fun but also pretty difficult- more so that I imagined. First of all, you have to be almost out of control, over the top, comically animated to come across as just moderately fired up over the air. Something about not seeing our facial expressions or hand gestures or something. Steve Porino told me about that before going in, but after listening to my calls of a few racers, I sounded pretty laid back when in reality, I was very excited. It was also tough watching my teammates hit the nets. Marco went down twice and Steven hit the nets once. Unless I saw them on TV from the top before I went at a race, usually I have talked to them in the finish and have eaten lunch with them before I ever see it on video. It was also difficult, and certainly added to my “laid back” sound, to avoid swearing when you see something like that. I would usually say, “oh s#!t, what the hell happened there Marco…” if I saw it live hanging out with the boys, but I wasn’t sure that would fly on the air.

We were doing the show “almost live”. Early in the morning west coast time, but not at 2 A.M. or whenever we would have had to be awake to call it actually live. I avoided knowing any results so I could call it with that live feel (to be honest I just wasn’t good enough to pretend to not know the results). Porino avoids knowing the results as well, whenever he can. Also, we were in a very small padded sound booth and we were not always sure where the feed we were watching was going to take us. Switched over to footage of elk wandering the plains of Kvitfjell… go with it! Guy crashing into the nets… no radio to call and see what is going on in the booth, just a hold and a break for us and on to the next guy.

So with all that in mind, it was extra difficult watching the Lanzinger crash. I watched it just once, during our live call, in full speed. It was enough for me to see that he had injured himself very badly. I refused to watch it when they slowed it down on replay. Our producer came on during the hold with an update on his condition for us (which wasn’t much at the time) but as I followed it over the next two days I was just shocked at the aftermath. I just can’t believe such a thing can happen in 2008, at a World Cup event. I don’t know the full story and the details but from what I have gathered it sounds like there was some serious delay in getting treatment for him that could have been avoided. Even a week later, I still can’t really believe it.

Change of subject- I had a quick knee surgery on Wednesday. Just a scope, so minimally invasive and not too much work- just cleaning up some meniscus and a few things here and there. Should be good to go in a week or two. From what my doctor tells me, “everything went great”, so I don’t see too much more couch time in my future.

–My best wishes and strong recovery for Lanzinger–

Hello everybody-
Quite a few pieces of news for this blog so I guess I will get right after it. After meeting with our team doctors, medical director among others in Whistler I determined that I can not make it back in time to race this season. I know this makes my mother and our medical director very pleased since it gives my head more time to recover from my incident before risking it to another. What made the decision for me was the fact that I simply was not in good enough shape to go out and race in the next few weeks. I had spent too much time unable to work out (I was on a heart rate restriction for almost a month) so I had lost a bit of weight, not to mention the power, endurance and strength I would need to race fast. There is really little point to coming back early if I was going to come back and suck because I was out of shape, so it was actually an easy decision. Most of the other people involved had already come to that conclusion almost immediately following my accident, but I was a bit slower I guess. Head injury, remember?

My second piece of news is much more fun. I am going to commentate for WCSN! Heads up Bob Beattie and Nick Fellows! I am coming to LA to help Steve Porino announce the Kvitfjell races- DH on Friday (make up for Val d’Isere), DH Saturday and SG on Sunday. I believe the times are 10am ET for the DH on Friday and then 1pm ET for the Saturday DH and SG but you should check on the site for more details.

Since I have no idea how to do commentary I am doing a bit of homework… I looked up the actual names for all the features of the course in Norway. We tend to say something in course reports like “set up just a bit coming into the right-footer above Virgil so you come in about 11o’clock.” Which, to be honest, won’t mean a thing to anyone else out there, especially on TV. You would have to had inspected the course that morning (so you knew where Virgil was during inspection), known that Virgil is actually Chris Brigham, our head coach and known what direction you planned on going off of the jump (that is if 11 o’clock based on 12 o’clock being a straight line past the inside gate) and if that direction means more or less than you inspected.

Whew… I really am going to have to change my game plan for this gig. We sometimes us the correct names if they are common, famous or otherwise noteworthy. Otherwise the name of the person you saw there during inspection is an handy way for us to talk to each other and our coaches. To be honest, I don’t know the correct names of most of the sections of world cup courses, even though I have been to some half a dozen times. Beaver Creek, Kitzbuhel and Wengen probably have the most names we use on course reports. Probably because “Hund-schopf” (a jump in Wengen) rolls across the tongue slightly easier than “Bukkerittet” or “Orresvingen” two names in Kvitfjell.**** Looking forward to it though!

These pictures are not totally random by the way. On my way back from Kitzbuhel with Virgil we blew out our rear tire on the way to Munich.

What is humorous about that, aside from the 3 hour delay it caused, was that I had no recollection of it until I got back home and downloaded my pictures off of my camera. Then it all came back to me though, like hearing a key phrase to bring back a whole memory. Also the Kitzbuhel finish stadium, just after we inspected on race day.

Be sure to let me know what you think of the Broadcast. Cheers- Scott

I was hoping to write my next blog with news as to the direction my season is headed. I still don’t know that direction, as of yet. I haven’t made the decision on whether I will be able to come back to racing this year or next year.

I have been doing great though. I had a couple of doctors visits last week — with some optometrists — to check on some slight blurriness in my right eye. It is the same side that I had the impact on. Lots of improvement though — basically no problems. I can hardly notice any difference right to left and my vision has got back to basically normal — slightly better than 20/20, so no complaints. No headaches, memory seems basically back to normal. Lots of people getting in contact with me from my past, so my memory has been tested. I am still working with Olympic PT here at home to fix a pretty stiff neck and some upper ribs, but nothing that would cause me to even miss a day of training.

Still not cleared to ski though. I went up to Crystal this weekend to see all my ski friends and check out the little kids race — the “Cherry Tree Charge”. It was my first ever race when I was 7. It was a downhill back then, but kids aren’t allowed to do that any more. Anyway, Libby Ludlow and I did some filming with Allen Schauffler and the local King 5 news at the finish of the race. They were getting some footage to use in some stories running about the upcoming events in Whistler and the 2010 Olympics. It is pretty big here in Seattle and they are doing a ton of coverage because it is so close- less than 3 hour drive to Vancouver. It was pretty fun and low stress. I have done a bunch of different things with Allen and he asks good questions and makes it easy on us, so it was nice. I wasn’t cleared to ski, as I said, but being on snow and seeing the race and all the people skiing around in the sunshine made it tough not to rip a few turns myself.

I am headed up to Whistler, which will be fun. A mixture of fun and anguish I guess since I won’t be racing for sure. I will get to see all my teammates and my coaches and say hi to a bunch of other people I haven’t seen since I left the start at Kitzbuhel, so that will be really good.

Also when I was home I had a surprise party. My family and friends deceived me with ruse and guise, confusing my already impacted state and actually surprised me. I had no idea what was going on, walked into my parents house to do some faxing (that I legitimately had to do) while Chrissy (a friend from high school) “checked out my parents remodeling so she could get some ideas for her parents”. I was on my way to “meet some high school friends for dinner” and was carpooling with Chrissy. It was really fun. Tons of people I hadn’t seen for a while all there to wish me a happy birthday and a “glad you’re not dead”. Since both of those events were on the same day anyway, it was fitting to put them together again.

My mom made me a helmet for the night… I thought that was pretty darn clever. More to come when I figure out what I am doing for the rest of the season!

Hi All-
I thought it was necessary to do another update and answer a few of the questions out there that I have seen brought up by people on YouTube, Ski Racing magazine and on. First off, an update on how I am doing.
Generally, I am doing really well. I am at home after spending some time in Park City being looked at by some doctors and generally being under observation. I have been restricted to “taking it easy” but I have spent the time catching up with a lot of friends, answering a lot of emails and calls and even going to a Sonics game with my old coach, Alan Lauba. Sonics broke a horrible losing streak in that game by winning in the last few seconds, by the way.

I wanted to clear up a few issues that I have seen out there. The first one is “the POC helmet”. I have read things online and even comment in Ski Racing questioning the performance of my helmet during that crash.
I know for a fact that that helmet saved my life. POC engineers put out one of the (if not THE) safest helmets you can use in ski racing. The helmet did what it was supposed to - absorb as much of the massive impact before that energy reached my head. The hard outer shell of the helmet cracked because it was designed to do so, further absorbing the energy of the crash. It was unfortunate that it cracked enough that the part holding the chin strap (which did not come undone as some have assumed) came apart. At that point, the big impact was over and I was already on the ground. Even so, I would have rather had the absorbing properties of the helmet when it was on for the initial impact than have a “more durable” helmet that would pass along a harder impact to my skull. The slight wear and tear on my face will be gone in a matter of weeks. It is my understanding that POC is working right now to improve the way that the helmet’s chin strap is attached to the helmet in next generation (so that it can absorb as much impact and still stay on the head under extreme conditions.) My final point on this matter: It was estimated that I hit with about 14-16 times as much force as the helmet companies are required to test at. I am just happy that a company like POC seeks to maximize the overall impact safety of their helmets.

A disclaimer: While I am sponsored by POC helmets, they don’t pay me enough to lie or toy with my own safety. As for other comments on YouTube… I am, in fact, not dead.

Moving on… I am pretty proud of Marco Sullivan winning his first World Cup last week! Well Played Marco and congrats on the first win! I understand the team is back in action in Val d’Isere on a tough course that hasn’t been run since 1992. Word from the trenches is that it has awkward rhythm and is very controlled. That is about it from me right now. Thanks again to all the people that have contacted me with their well wishes… I am working on getting back to everyone.

I just wanted to say hello to all the people that have wished me good luck in my recovery. A quick update for everyone: I flew to Salt Lake City and I am up in Park City right now getting checked out by some of the U.S. team doctors that are in the area. I haven’t done anything yet, but I imagine I will be doing some tests and getting checked out by the experts. I will then head home to Seattle for a break after doing that for a few days. I will update you all if there is some cool test I get to do or anything like that.

A general update: I feel a bit beat up though the neck and shoulders, a bit like I was kicked in the head to top that off. A bit slower on my memory, but that seems to be improving fairly quickly.

Really fast before I go, Thank you for your best wishes and notes that you all have sent either to my e-mail address or to the site. I read them all and I am slowly working through them. You guys are the best.

If you are wondering what happened, there is plenty of video on youtube to check out. My early thoughts as to what happened are that I hit just a little lip on the left ski and it floated on me. I tried to pull under it but it floated high and twisted me too fast. I blame the 142-kph heat I was carrying.

thanks and more to come… Scott