Visitors to the site may have noticed a few changes over the past week. I’ve been working behind the scenes for a while now, and I’m pleased to announce that Version 3.0 of Making it Make Sense is now officially live!
Network Contract Watch
The biggest improvements are to the Network Contract Watch, which is now more flexible and easier for readers to navigate.
You can now browse and sort contract negotiations by:
- Health Plan Carrier;
- State;
- Provider Name; and
- NEW! Negotiation Status.
The other major change is that each contract negotiation now has its own permanent page. Instead of creating a new post every time there’s an update (which quickly became confusing), I simply update that negotiation’s page. This makes it much easier to follow the history of a dispute from the opening negotiations through contract extensions, resolutions, or terminations.
I’ve also refreshed the contract pages themselves along with the archives and summary lists. Negotiation status and the most recent update date are now visible before you even open an individual contract page, making it easier to see what’s changed at a glance.
For the WordPress folks out there: Network Contract Watch is now powered by a custom post type with several custom taxonomies, giving me considerably more flexibility than the previous system. I should also probably mention that the changes meant that all of the URLs have also changed, so this may affect search engine rankings for a while.
Social Media Feeds & Mirrors
Along with these upgrades, I’ve also overhauled how the site publishes to social media. Bluesky is now the site’s preferred platform, but posts are also mirrored to X and to my personal LinkedIn profile so you can follow updates wherever you prefer.
I’m also considering adding a Facebook page as another mirror. If that’s something you’d find useful — or not useful — I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments.
Within the social media feeds, you can use these hashtags to find specific types of content:
- #NCW — Network Contract Watch updates
- #BenefitMiMS — General Benefit MiMS posts, including both Current Events & Updates and Employee Benefits Explainers
- #CurrentEvents and #BenefitsExplainers — Individual content categories
If social media isn’t your thing, you can also subscribe via RSS:
Looking Ahead
Every website is a work in progress, and this one is no exception. Now that this major functionality upgrade is complete, I’m planning to spend at least the next month focusing on content rather than new features. There may still be the occasional minor tweak here and there, but my priority is getting more information published while collecting feedback on how the new system works in practice.
There are already a few items on the roadmap. The biggest one is a multi-filter search for Network Contract Watch that would allow readers to combine multiple search criteria at once. I’m also considering adding a resources section featuring infographics, checklists, glossaries, and other reference materials.
My hope is that these updates are genuine improvements, not simply changes for the sake of changing things.
As always, I’d love to hear what you think. If you notice something that isn’t working quite right, or if you have ideas that would make the site more useful, please leave a comment below or drop me a line. Your feedback helps shape where Making it Make Sense goes next.