Monday, May 2, 2016

CMS Happy Talk Animated Breezy Explanation of MACRA

CMS released an animated three minute explanation of the 950 page MACRA rulemaking.  It's on YouTube, here.  


These are boom days for explanatory animations where you either see graphics and words appearing as if hand drawn in real time, or, you may (as here) see the animators hand whizzing on and off the animation.   Khan Academy was an early producer of these.  Vi Hart produces particularly offbeat ones on math and other topics (here).   Hart once remarked it takes two weeks or more to produce a 2 minute video of this type in her style.

This category of explanatory animation video may have (or deserve) a dedicated name, but I haven't found it.

While it lacks music, the CMS video may remind musical fans of the Dr. Pangloss description of the workings of the world in Candide, see here at the 18:00 minute mark.  Of course, Pangloss was being portrayed as a happy talk idiot by Voltaire and his later theatrical partners.