Buffett upbeat about future despite trailing S&P

OMAHA, Neb. — Billionaire Warren Buffett is confident that Berkshire Hathaway will be a mainstay of the U.S. economy for the next 100 years, regardless of whether it sometimes underperforms bull market runs, like it did last year.

In his annual letter to shareholders released Saturday, Buffett didn't disclose any new information on Berkshire's plans for succession once the 83-year-old someday leaves the helm. But he emphasized that the company he's led for 49 years is built on a "rock-solid foundation" and will endure long after he's gone.

"A century hence, BNSF and MidAmerican Energy will still be playing major roles in our economy," Buffett wrote. "Insurance will concomitantly be essential for both businesses and individuals — and no company brings greater human and financial resources to that business than Berkshire."

"Think of all the admired investors out there. How many ever refer to something they owned or investments they're making and talk about how well they're going to be doing a century from now?," says Bill Smead, founder of Smead Capital Management.

In 2013, Berkshire spent roughly $18 billion to buy NV Energy and about half of foodmaker H.J. Heinz, and paid $3.5 billion to buy out the rest of two manufacturing firms, Marmon and Iscar. Subsidiaries committed to spend $3.1 billion on 25 other smaller acquisitions. Berkshire now sits on roughly $48 billion in cash and owns 8 ½ businesses big enough to be part of the Fortune 500 if they were separate companies.

"Only 491 ½ to go," Buffett quipped.

Buffett said he and Vice Chairman Charlie Munger will continue to look for other investments and acquisitions that allow them to bet on the future of the American economy.

"Charlie and I have always considered a bet on ever-rising U.S. prosperity to be very close to a sure thing," Buffett wrote. "Indeed, who has ever benefited during the past 237 years by betting against America?"

He suggested that the Heinz deal, which Berkshire bought along with private equity firm 3G Capital, could prove to be a model for some future acquisitions. Typically in the past, Berkshire has bought entire companies itself.

Andy Kilpatrick, author of "Of Permanent Value: The Story of Warren Buffett," notes that Buffett also mentioned winding down several complex investments such as selling off Energy Future Holdings bonds after losing $873 million on them. He's also trusting Berkshire's two other investment managers, Todd Combs and Ted Weschler, with their own $7 billion portfolios and helping Berkshire subsidiaries make their own acquisitions.

"I think he's really cleaning it up to hand it off," Kilpatrick said.

Berkshire's net income surged 31 percent to $19.48 billion last year on total revenue of $182.15 billion. Buffett touted performance gains at auto insurer Geico and in its "Powerhouse Five" — a group of non-insurance businesses including Burlington Northern Santa Fe railroad and electric utility MidAmerican Energy that posted pretax earnings of $10.8 billion for 2013, up nearly $760 million year-over-year. In total, Berkshire owns roughly 80 subsidiaries, including clothing, furniture and jewelry firms. It also has major investments in such companies as Coca-Cola Co. and Wells Fargo & Co.

"On the operating front, just about everything turned out well for us last year — in some cases very well," Buffett wrote.

However, Buffett's preferred measure of Berkshire's performance has traditionally been growth in book value — its assets minus liabilities — though he says the company's intrinsic value is much higher. Berkshire's book value gained a substantial 18.2 percent in 2013, but couldn't match the S&P 500's 32.4 percent run-up. That marks the fourth year out of the past five that the company has underperformed the S&P. Since Buffett took over the Berkshire textile mill in 1965 the company's only fallen short of the S&P 500 in 10 of those years.

But in his letter, Buffett noted that over the latest full six-year market cycle — which would include S&P's rock-bottom market year of 2008 when it lost 37 percent — the company outperformed the benchmark index.

"Through full cycles in future years, we expect to do that again," Buffett wrote. "If we fail to do so, we will not have earned our pay. After all, you could always own an index fund and be assured of S&P results."

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Follow Josh Funk online at www.twitter.com/funkwrite

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Online:

Berkshire Hathaway Inc.: www.berkshirehathaway.com

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Berkshire Hathaway's 4Q profit up 10 percent

OMAHA, Neb. — Warren Buffett's company said Saturday that fourth-quarter earnings rose 10 percent to nearly $5 billion as its insurance, rail and energy businesses generated major gains in the improving economy.

Berkshire Hathaway's insurance companies, which include Geico and General Reinsurance, reported a $394 million underwriting profit for the final three months of 2013, compared with a $19 million loss a year earlier. The Omaha, Neb., company also benefited from the strong performance of its non-insurance companies including BNSF railroad and electric utility MidAmerican Energy.

Berkshire Hathaway Inc. owns roughly 80 subsidiaries, including railroad, clothing, furniture and jewelry firms. Its insurance and utility businesses typically account for more than half of the company's net income. The company also has major investments in such companies as Coca-Cola Co., IBM and Wells Fargo & Co., and last year bought NV Energy and a major stake in H.J. Heinz.

Berkshire's fourth-quarter report and Buffett's annual letter to shareholders released Saturday show the company doesn't face any significant business issues in the coming year, said author and investor Jeff Matthews, who wrote "Warren Buffett's Successor: Who It Is and Why It Matters."

"Life is good at Berkshire Hathaway," Matthews said Saturday.

Quarterly net income rose to $4.99 billion on revenue of $47.05 billion from $4.55 billion on revenue of $44.72 billion in 2012. Buffett has said he thinks operating earnings are a better measure of how Berkshire is performing because they aren't affected by swings in the paper value of investments and derivatives. Operating earnings, which exclude investments and derivatives, grew to $3.78 billion, or $2,297 per Class A share.

Berkshire earned $19.48 billion for 2013 on total revenue of $182.15 billion. That's up from $14.82 billion in profit and revenue of $162.46 billion in 2012. Strong gains in the value of its investments and derivative contracts added $4.3 billion to the results, up from $2.2 billion the previous year. That included gains Berkshire recorded last fall as it redeemed warrants for General Electric and Goldman Sachs stock and Mars and Wrigley repaid Berkshire for an investment made during the financial crisis.

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Follow Josh Funk online at www.twitter.com/funkwrite

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Online:

Berkshire Hathaway Inc.: www.berkshirehathaway.com

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Long waits frustrate callers to health exchanges

ANNAPOLIS, Md. — For those trying to enroll through online health exchanges, help has long been advertised as just a phone call away.

Yet the challenge in some states has been trying to get a call through at all, never mind the multiple transfers once contact has been made.

Long wait times of an hour or more have been commonplace in some states, primarily those running their own health care exchanges. California, Maryland, Minnesota, Nevada and Washington are among the states in which consumers and insurance agents have complained. One consequence is that people just give up because they are unable to wait indefinitely.

"If I had to use one word, I'd use 'frustrating,'" said Jacki Manley, a stay-at-home mom in the western Maryland town of Keedysville, who has been trying since mid-December to enroll in a health plan through that state's health exchange.

With a child who is almost 3 and another who is 5 months, the 20 minutes she can spare on hold often have not been enough. She estimates she has reached someone at the Maryland call center three out of about a dozen times she has called, but then she gets passed between different people and cannot get definitive answers to her questions.

"It just seems like all the right connections aren't being made," Manley said, adding that she believes she has successfully enrolled her children but is unsure whether she and her husband have been enrolled after more than two months of trying.

Manley said she has given up calling. Now, she uses Facebook to try to get the help she needs.

The telephone frustration is just one more obstacle consumers are facing as the March 31 deadline for open enrollment approaches. Technical glitches and software meltdowns on the federal and some state-run exchanges deterred many people from signing up after enrollments under the federal Affordable Care Act began in October.

With many of those technical problems solved, enrollments across the country have been brisk since the start of the year. Yet even with 4 million signed up for policies through the exchanges, the Obama administration will be challenged to meet its own projection of 7 million enrollees by the deadline.

Long wait times for consumer won't help.

In California, an operational review of the state-run exchange's first three months showed consumers waiting 45 minutes to an hour for an employee to answer, and insurance agents have said they have waited hours to make human contact. The exchange's goal was to answer 80 percent of the calls within 30 seconds.

"We did not meet our standards," said Yolanda Richardson, Covered California's chief deputy executive director.

The most recent statistics, from the first week of February, show the average wait time for those dialing in to a California call center at about 47 minutes.

Sherrie Larsen, a 49-year-old truck driver in Tacoma, Wash., said the first time she called the exchange, she was told after waiting an hour and 27 minutes that the computer system was down, and she would have to call back. She called the state insurance commissioner's office to complain, and said she didn't get a lot of help or understanding there. The next day, Larsen called the exchange again, and was told the wait time would be about 29 minutes. After more than an hour on the phone, she finally got the help she was seeking, but no apology or explanation.

"It's very, very, very frustrating," Larsen said.

In Nevada, Claudia Lamb complained publicly about spending more than 100 hours on the phone to a call center, then waiting by her phone for hours more for return calls that never came.

Lamb and her husband first tried to apply in early October when the system went live, but she only received confirmation they had been insured on Feb. 12. That was 129 days after she first applied.

"I once waited three hours and 40 minutes to get through to a manager who cycled the problem back through to his subordinate," Lamb testified about her experience with Nevada Health Link, the state's exchange. "The subordinate's solution was to do another application."

Wait times for call centers on the federal marketplace that is running in 36 states have been much shorter to reach a customer service representative. The average wait time in October was just more than one minute, dropping to 38 seconds in November. It rose to about eight-and-a-half minutes in December, when more people were trying to get coverage for Jan. 1.

The federal call centers have about 14,000 employees.

Maryland's problems have been particularly embarrassing because officials there were quick to support President Barack Obama's health care overhaul.

Gov. Martin O'Malley, a term-limited Democrat who is weighing a White House bid, and Lt. Gov. Anthony Brown, who is running to succeed him, had hoped to make Maryland a national model for health care implementation. Instead, the state has had one of the rockiest rollouts of the 14 states operating their own exchanges, with the call center problems coming on top of constant problems with the online enrollment portal.

For example, some Maryland residents early on were prompted erroneously on the exchange website to seek help by calling a telephone number that led callers to the owner of a pottery shop in Seattle.

The disastrous rollout forced the previous director of the Maryland exchange to resign.

Officials in some states, including Maryland, Nevada and California, have taken steps to address the long wait times.

Nevada has boosted its call center staff from 50 to nearly 250, and wait times reportedly have been reduced significantly. California is adding 350 to 400 more call center employees by the end of March, while Maryland has tripled the number of call center employees from 120 to about 360 at the state's call center in Baltimore, said Carolyn Quattrocki, the interim director of Maryland's health exchange.

Quattrocki said she is optimistic the boost in staff at Maryland's call center, expected to cost about $6 million, will be enough to handle the expected increase in activity as the enrollment deadline nears. She said wait times and abandonment rates have gone down since the middle of January.

Covered California also created a dedicated phone line for insurance agents and counselors, increased the number of bilingual staffers and added an online chat feature to help take pressure off the phone lines. Exchange officials there said they were somewhat surprised by consumer behavior that exacerbated the long wait times.

They designed the exchange so people could shop, compare, select a plan and be done with the process in one stop. Instead, they found that people often had questions after visiting the website and wanted to speak to someone by phone. They often called back two or three times before selecting an insurance plan, adding to the volume of calls coming into the service centers.

Still, Covered California Executive Director Peter Lee said the exchange is not making excuses and is working hard to reduce wait times.

"We've heard their concerns," Lee said. "We've stepped up to say we're going to make it right."

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Associated Press writers Sandra Chereb in Carson City, Nev.; Patrick Condon in St. Paul, Minn.; Tom Verdin in Sacramento, Calif.; and Donna Blankinship in Seattle contributed to this report.

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A strong February wipes out S&P 500's January loss

NEW YORK — After two months of trading, the stock market is back where it started.

The Standard & Poor's 500 index rose 4.3 percent in February, the biggest gain since October 2013, helped by strong corporate earnings and a Federal Reserve that seems to have Wall Street's back at every turn. But the rise in February must be taken in the context that investors spent the month making up the ground they lost in January.

"February looked a lot like January, just moving in the opposite direction," said Scott Clemons, chief investment strategist with Brown Brothers Harriman Wealth Management.

Investors are also now staring at a stock market, while numbers-wise is basically where it was on Jan. 1, that is a lot more defensive than it was two months ago.

Utilities and health care stocks — two traditional "safe" places for investors because of their low volatility and higher-than-average dividends — are the biggest gainers so far this year. Utilities are up 5.7 percent in 2014 and health care is up 6.6 percent.

Investor caution was also evident in the bond market, which has done reasonably well in the last two months. The yield on the benchmark U.S. 10-year Treasury note has fallen from 2.97 percent to 2.65 percent in the last two months as investors returned to the relative safety of government debt. The Barclays U.S. Aggregate bond index, which tracks a broad mix of corporate and government bonds, is up 1.6 percent this year.

"The sentiment now is, 'bonds may not be as bad as I originally thought,'" said Michael Fredericks, a portfolio manager of the Multi-Asset Income Fund at Blackrock.

February's rise came in spite of several economic reports that showed the U.S. economy slowed in the previous month.

It started with the January jobs report, which showed employers only created 113,000 jobs that month. It was far fewer than economists had expected. Other economic reports told a similar story. Consumer confidence, manufacturing and the housing market all fell sharply in January.

Investors blamed the weather, and rightly so. Many companies, particularly retailers, said winter storms of the past two months dramatically impacted their business. Macy's said that at one time in January, 30 percent of its stores were closed because of inclement weather.

Home Depot had a similar story.

"We don't like to use weather as an excuse but we think we probably lost $100 million in the month of January," Home Depot's chief financial officer, Carol Tome, said in a conference call with investors this week. "Atlanta was frozen, for example. It was tough here."

Even with the economic concerns, investors were able to set aside the volatility of January for three reasons, market watchers said.

First, corporate earnings for the fourth quarter overall turned out to be pretty good. Earnings at companies in the S&P 500 index grew 8.5 percent over the same period last year, according to FactSet. Revenue growth also picked up, albeit slightly.

The Federal Reserve, once again, also came to the market's side. Janet Yellen, who in February took over the role as chair of the Federal Reserve, reaffirmed that the central bank plans to keep its market-friendly, low interest rate policies in place for the foreseeable future.

Lastly, weather, by its very nature, is temporary.

Spring will come, at some point, and the winter storms that have kept businesses closed and consumers away from stores will fade, investors say. All that pent-up demand will help the economy recover some of the ground lost in January and February.

"I think 70 percent, 80 percent, of the weakness we saw in January and February was weather related and we will pick up strength in the spring thaw," said Bob Doll, chief equity strategist at Nuveen Asset Management.

Investors will have less information to work with in March than they did in February.

Earnings season is basically over. Of the companies in the S&P 500 index, 484 have reported their results, as have all 30 members of the Dow, so investors won't have any corporate earnings news to respond to.

In the absence of company news, investors would typically look to the steady stream of economic data to find direction. However the severe winter weather of last two months is likely to make the upcoming economic reports even more difficult to interpret.

"You're going to be able to put on spin on any report: 'well that better than it should have been' or 'well, it was the weather,'" Clemons said. "We'll get more trustworthy numbers in April."

On Friday, the S&P 500 rose 5.16 points, or 0.3 percent, to 1,859.45. It was the second all-time closing high for the S&P 500 in a row. The S&P 500 is now up 0.6 percent for the year.

The Dow Jones industrial average rose 49.06 points, or 0.3 percent, to 16,321.76. The Nasdaq composite lost 10.81 points, or 0.3 percent, to 4,308.12.

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MIT’s Sloan conference gets competitive

The word for Day 2 of MIT's Sloan Sports Analytics Conference was competition.

For eight years, the conference has united professional sports teams, sports industry organizations and cutting-edge academics, all in the pursuit of appreciating and understanding sports and athletic performance with greater, more sophisticated clarity. Each attendee has expertise or interest in innovation, due to personal passions, professional obligation, or a combination of both.

Maybe sports are only a game, but at Sloan, as there is in any game, there are winners and losers. The lifeblood of the Sloan Sports Analytics Conference is the prestigious research paper competition, where academics make their cases for the next big thing in sports analysis.

Kirk Goldberry, a nationally noted visual analytics expert, visiting scholar at Harvard and three-time Sloan research paper finalist, described his research's victory as "the biggest moment of my professional career, to be honest."

"The recognition is secondary to the kind of exposure (the work) got. There are very few outlets to get this kind of exposure to the media, and this is obviously the premiere one in the sports domain."

The researchers were competing, but the games still happen on the courts, in the fields, and even in the hills. Discussions surrounding those competitions centered around fairness and competitive balance.

At the Doping & What it Means for Sport panel, disgraced former cyclist Tyler Hamilton discussed how much the unfair advantage he gained through cheating had burdened him. "I led a double life," he said. "I lied to my parents."

The Marblehead product added, "I was more worried about getting caught than winning. It took a huge toll on me."

U.S. Anti-Doping agent Travis Tygart delved into the mechanics of unfair advantages.

"Whether it's putting a small engine in a bike or taking the subway six stops in a marathon, it's unfair."

Tygart compared drugs to allowing baseball players to use aluminum bats.

"It is not going to be an even playing field," he said. "People's bodies respond differently. So it's not giving everyone an aluminum bat, it's giving someone one and the other a wood one."

New NBA commissioner Adam Silver was relieved that PEDs were not a chief concern of his league.

"I have no reason to believe that use of PEDS is widespread in he NBA, both because we test, and, No. 2, it's not part of the culture of the NBA," Silver said at the Malcolm Gladwell-moderated Commissioner's Perspective panel.

"I've been in the NBA for 22 years, I talk to players all the time, I talk to retired players all the time, and I don't hear about it."

Pressed on what made him so sure there was no NBA PED scandal lurking, Silver said, "It's hard for me to believe that, with roughly 450 players a year, a lot of players moving through the league, if there was (rampant drug use), people would be talking about it. There would be somebody. There are great journalists out there. Somebody would have found somebody that was willing to talk about it."

Cheating isn't the only realm of competitive imbalance, though. As Celtics fans are aware, NBA teams draft players via a weighted lottery system, one that, many argue, encourages teams to intentionally lose in the pursuit of talented college prospects.

Recently, and around the conference, there has been increased discussions about altering how the draft order is determined. One proposal, submitted by Celtics assistant GM Michael Zarren, made its way to the commissioner' desk.

"Mike came up with this proposal where over the course of 30 years, you move throughout (the first round) in terms of your draft pick," Silver said. "This goes to show why you really need to study these issues, because when Mike first brought it to me, I thought 'Wow, that solves our problems. Teams can plan for the future, they have absolutely no incentive to do anything but win the maximum number of games per season. They know where the draft pick is coming from.' "

Rival GMs raised concerns about the ramifications of such a system, but, importantly, as the commissioner noted, "I'm open to taking a fresh look at it."

Sharing ideas like a new model for the NBA draft lottery is what the Sloan Sports Analytics Conference is all about. Rishabh Desai, a first-year basketball operations analyst for the Sacramento Kings, discussed the kinds of information being shared by competing sides.

"(Sometimes) it's really broad, because no one wants to share their 'secret sauce,' or whatever they're doing," he said, "but it's just 'Hey, are you guys using this program?' compe"

For all the competitive edges that can be quantified, there are still many that elude even the most active imaginations. At the 10,000 Hours vs. The Sports Gene panel, "The Tipping Point" and "Outliers" author Malcolm Gladwell discussed the greatness of Wayne Gretzky, sharing an anecdote about The Great One being transfixed by a televised hockey game as a toddler who would burst into tears when the games would finish.

"Even at (a young age) there was something about the game of hockey that satisfied him and thrilled him on some deep emotional level, before he could execute any of the physical moves associated with it. The game fit his imagination. I don't know what that means; it must be something innate. But it's something quite different from what we normally associate with hockey skill. In other words, Wayne Gretzky has a series of physical attributes that make him as great hockey player, but he also has this weird thing about how the game fits his imagination. So it's almost as if we're talking about Wayne Gretzky the same way we would talk about a musical composer."

The winner of the 2014 Sloan Sports Analytics Conference research paper competition was "The Three Dimensions of Rebounding," which broke down crashing the boards into three dimensions — positioning, hustle and conversion. Presented by Rajiv Maheswaran and compiled alongside a team of researchers, the paper explored the reasons players like Kevin Garnett, Tim Duncan, Andre Drummond and Kevin Love are so efficient, despite vastly different skill sets and playing styles.

Unlike sports games, however, there were no real losers. Even the papers that did not take home the $20,000 prize had their ideas heard, and made their contributions to the budding athletic analytics field. These are the minds that will lead to the next generation of player evaluation, strategic efficiency, and organizational success.

These ideas will lead to real wins, in every sports field.

And as Hamilton put it, when asked about the motivations looking to cutting edge for a leg-up in competition, "The culture here in the United States is all about winning, whether it's in sports or business."

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App will put you in your spot

Parking in the Hub is getting easier, thanks to a new crop of apps and services designed to put your car in a spot without the hassle or stress of searching for one.

The newest of these apps is SpotHero, which is now live in Boston. Touting itself as the Orbitz of parking, SpotHero matches drivers looking for a spot with discounted spaces in garages and lots that otherwise would go unfilled.

"We help drivers know exactly where they are going to go and how much they are going to pay for a parking space," said Jeremy Smith, co-founder of SpotHero. "Our vision and our dream is to make life easier for the daily driver."

Using an app, drivers can punch in an address or neighborhood, see nearby garages that have open spaces and pay for and reserve the spot from their phones. "You get peace of mind just by knowing exactly where you are going to go," Smith said. "You also know exactly how much you are going to pay. It's peace of mind."

The average space, Smith said, is discounted 20 to 25 percent, but some drivers in Boston have gotten as much as 40 percent off the advertised price. The average cost of parking in Boston for 12 hours is $25, Smith said.

SpotHero also brings in more money for lot owners and operators, Smith said, because more spots are filled.

Smith began searching for a better way to find parking after he racked up thousands of dollars in parking tickets.

"It just turns out that there are a lot of people in the same boat," Smith said.

SpotHero is also available in six other cities, including Chicago and New York City, but the idea of making parking easier and smarter is nothing new in Boston.

In December, the city rolled out Smart Parking Sensors in the Innovation District, which show available metered parking spaces on an app.

"You see a lot of smart technologies in the transportation space," said Kris Carter of the Office of New Urban Mechanics, which helped develop the system. "People are able to make better decisions about where they're going to go."

Part of the reason for the sensors was to examine demand and use in the area. Carter said snowy weather has prevented New Urban Mechanics and the Department of Transportation from collecting significant information, but he expects the data will begin to flow in the spring.

TicketZen, an app that lets drivers who stayed at the meter too long pay off those neon orange tickets, also launched in December. Users pay off an average of $65 in parking tickets, creator Cort Johnson said.

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Area hospitals get healthier

The sustainability trend is finally coming to the hospital industry in a big way.

Dozens of Massachusetts hospitals — including six in just the past month — have signed on to a national initiative to get "healthier" by improving their food options, cutting waste and reducing energy use.

"We felt we needed to be part of the solution by providing a healthier environment," said Vanessa Kortze, spokeswoman for Lawrence General Hospital, which joined the Healthier Hospitals Initiative last week.

Lawrence General is starting with changes to its food and beverage options. Already, the hospital has cut sugary sodas from its catering menu and almost entirely from patient menus, and rearranged drinks in its cafeterias so water, not soda, is eye-level. Next, food and nutrition director Rick McIsaac plans to revamp the hot meals.

Some foods — fried chicken, Alfredo sauce, onion rings — have no place in a hospital, McIsaac said.

"That's not really appropriate to have inside a health care institution," he said. "It should be 'come get your grilled chicken on a bed of lettuce with a seltzer water.'"

At Partners Healthcare, John Messervy, director of capital and facility planning, acknowledged such changes can come with higher costs.

"That's one of the struggles: how do you balance the increased cost of the locally grown produce against the health benefits of that," Messervy said. "Some of our hospitals have said it's not a significant difference and others are still wrestling with it."

But the region's dominant health care system, which was one of the founders of the Healthier Hospitals Initiative in 2012, has made other changes that already are paying back, he said. Partners spent $60 million to reduce energy use, but that investment was returned in less than four years.

"Often, people think going green is more expensive. What we've been able to show is sustainability is a smart business decision," said Seema Wadhwa, director of the Healthier Hospitals Initiative. "Wasting less means saving more."

The initiative has enrolled about 900 hospitals nationwide, which agree to tackle any of six categories: engaged leadership, healthier food, leaner energy, less waste, safer chemicals and smarter purchasing.

These seemingly different goals are grouped together, Messervy said, because, "In the end it really is about looking to reduce the chemical exposure of our patients and our employees. The chemical exposure comes from lots of different areas: from carbon-based fuels, from additives in food, from various toxic chemicals ... even some of the clinical instruments."

The Massachusetts Hospital Association, which officially became a supporter of the program in February, is working to enroll more hospitals and share best practices with them.

"Our hospitals and staff are extremely busy right now," said Anuj Goel, the MHA's vice president of legal and regulatory affairs. "They don't have time to do a lot of searching nationally and see what is out there. We're getting all that and saying 'here you go.'"

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Volvo needs 20 minutes of highway driving to warm up

I have an issue with my car warming up slowly when the temperature gets down around 0 degrees F. The car is a 2011 S40 Volvo with the T5 engine. The dealer confirmed that the issue I describe is happening but say they checked another 2011 S40 they had on the lot and it did the same thing. I find it strange that it takes 20-minutes-plus on the highway to reach operating temperature and that if you stop and run the heater at full output the engine temperature drops.

You didn't mention how long you've owned the vehicle and whether this is the first winter in which you've experienced this problem. Regardless, I'm surprised the dealer didn't at least check the thermostat for proper function. Like most liquid-cooled engines, your vehicle utilizes a thermostat to restrict coolant flow until coolant temperature reaches 194 degrees F, then maintains coolant temperature in the 194-221 range.

If the thermostat fails to close properly when the engine is cold or sticks in a partially or fully open position, symptoms will be precisely what you've described — long warm-up times and the inability to maintain operating temperature, particularly in cold weather.

Why not apply the KISS principle and try the simple stuff first — replace the thermostat and make sure the coolant level is full. Keep in mind that if the coolant temperature gauge reads significantly below normal, but you're still getting hot air from the heater system, the issue may be a faulty coolant temperature sensor mounted on the thermostat housing.

I like to back my 2009 Silverado Hybrid 6.0-liter V8 into my driveway. That way I don't have to back out, which is considerably safer. I currently have a large snowbank at the end of my driveway. On two occasions I have backed my truck into the snowbank. The tailpipe ended up obstructed with snow and ice. When I started the truck the next day, the engine idled very roughly — almost violently — and the "Low Engine Power" alarm appeared on the dashboard. The snow and ice melted from the tailpipe fairly quickly and the engine eventually regained power and operated normally. Ultimately the "Service Engine Soon" alarm cleared on its own. It has been over a week since the second occurrence and I have noticed no ill effects after the engine started operating normally again. Is there any possibility of undetected damage?

I don't think so. The warning lights, alarm and driveability issues were directly related to the restricted exhaust. A failed catalytic converter or physically damaged exhaust pipe could cause the same thing. Potential damage, although very unlikely in this case, could include engine overheating, catalytic converter failure, pre-ignition/detonation or burned exhaust valves.

In the "Low Power" mode of operation the engine management system operates in a self-protective mode to prevent any damage — which "saved the day" in this case.

What is the current thinking on the value of daytime running lights (DRL) as a safety feature? Some states have legislated their use. Our 2006 Buick Lucerne has them, but our new Chrysler minivan does not.

The idea behind DRLs is to increase visibility of your vehicle to other vehicles around you. There is no federal mandate but some carmakers install DRLs as standard equipment. Because they need to be visible in daylight, there have been complaints that some DRLs are too bright but with the increased use of HID and LED systems I believe this issue will fade.

Paul Brand, author of "How to Repair Your Car," is an automotive troubleshooter, driving instructor and former race-car driver. Readers may write to him at: Star Tribune, 425 Portland Ave. S., Minneapolis, Minn. 55488 or via email at paulbrand@startribune.com. Please explain the problem in detail and include a daytime phone number. Because of the volume of mail, we cannot provide personal replies.

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Review: Mass. health lobby spent $100M since 2007

BOSTON — Last fall, the Massachusetts Association of Health Plans hosted its annual conference at Boston's Seaport Hotel, bringing together hundreds of industry officials and a handful of lawmakers, administration officials and legislative aides. Attorney General Martha Coakley addressed the crowd.

The tab for the Nov. 15 event, $104,544, turns out to be just a tiny slice of the tens of millions of dollars the health care industry has spent in recent years making sure its voice is heard on Beacon Hill.

In 2013 alone, hospitals, insurers, doctors, unions and pharmaceutical companies doled out more than $18.8 million lobbying state officials, according to an Associated Press review of state records.

That's a 74 percent jump compared with the nearly $10.8 million the industry — already an economic powerhouse in Massachusetts — spent in 2007, the year Massachusetts' landmark health care law took effect.

That, in turn, is just a portion of the $103 million the industry has poured into lobbying in the seven years since the law took effect, according to the AP review.

"When people look at the amount of money spent, they're always shocked," said Pam Wilmot, executive director of Massachusetts Common Cause. "Interests spend a tremendous amount of money lobbying our elected officials in order to get either a seat at the table or to get their policies accepted."

Despite the eye-popping totals, the number of companies responsible for the spending is relatively small. Just 217 firms, for example, were responsible for the $18.8 million spent last year.

Some of the region's biggest health industry names were responsible for the heaviest spending, including Partner's Health Care, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts, the Massachusetts Nurses Association and Children's Hospital.

Hospitals, health care providers, medical professional groups accounted for the bulk of the spending — $60.6 million since 2007 — compared with medical, dental and mental health insurance providers ($18.8 million), and pharmaceutical companies ($23.7 million).

The industry defended the spending.

Lora Pellegrini is president and CEO of the Massachusetts Association of Health Plans, which spent more than $4.2 million since 2007. She said the group's legislative agenda has focused on ways to make health care more affordable, including partnering "with the business community to hold the line on costly new mandates and other legislative proposals."

The surge in lobbying comes during a time when there have been major health care changes in Massachusetts — from the implementation of the state's 2006 law, to passage of President Barack Obama's 2010 federal health care law, to the state's push to rein in health care spending.

But the lobbying often has to do with more specific concerns, such as monitoring a certain bill or the annual state budget debate.

And while the lobbying doesn't include direct donations from companies to lawmakers, which is prohibited, many of the lobbyists whose salaries makes up the bulk of the lobbying spending are free to make contributions.

House Speaker Robert DeLeo, for example, collected nearly $48,000 in donations from hundreds of lobbyists representing all types of industries and organizations in 2013 while Senate President Therese Murray collected about $23,000.

Other lobbying costs include catering, rent, phones, staff salaries and events. Children's Hospital, for instance, reported spending $1,694 to cover the cost of a breakfast last April with elected officials and staff members.

And not everyone in the health care sector has the same agenda. Pelligrini's group, for example, is often at odds with doctors and hospitals, blaming what they charge for medical services as "the major factor for rising health care costs."

At the top of the health care lobbying pyramid is the Massachusetts Hospital Association, which doled out more than $4.7 million from 2007 to 2013.

The group defended the spending, pointing in part to changes in health care payment and delivery systems.

"It has been essential for the hospital community to take part in those public policy debates," the association said in statement, adding that it "works continually with state leaders, policymakers and other health care stakeholders" to ensure access to quality patient-centered care.

Doctors and nurses have also tried to catch the ear of lawmakers.

The Massachusetts Medical Society, which represents 24,000 physicians and medical students, pointed to the need to monitor hundreds of bills and regulations on everything from electronic medical records to medical marijuana. The group spent $2.3 million in the past seven years.

"It is critical that lawmakers and regulators hear the perspectives of those" on the front lines of patient care, the group said.

Donna Kelly-Williams, president of the Massachusetts Nurses Association, which spent more than $2.7 million between 2007 and 2013, said the group has been "trying to educate lawmakers to the fact that the hospital industry is putting profits before patients."

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Mass. health care lobbying totals from 2007-2013

What some of the top hospitals, insurers, unions and health care groups spent lobbying Massachusetts lawmakers between 2007 and 2013:

1. Massachusetts Hospital Association: $4,751,767

2. Partner's Health Care: $4,483,976

3. Massachusetts Association of Health Plans: $4,289,017

4. Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts: $3,361,740

5. Massachusetts Nurses Association: $2,762,524

6. Harvard Pilgrim Health Care: $2,682,964

7. Tufts Associated Health: $2,599,319

8. Massachusetts Medical Society: $2,305,776

9. Children's Hospital: $2,165,709

10. Tenet Healthcare/Vanguard Health Systems: $2,113,136

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Source: Massachusetts Secretary of the Commonwealth's Office

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