What did you learn today? Part II

Jane B. said:
That was at about 7:45 am yesterday (Apr. 3, 2017) CDT in St. Louis. It was on TV there right away. Three people were killed and two critically injured. One guy was killed at the box company where the explosion happened. The new employees killed where a guy & gal at the Linen company where the debris came down through the roof.

More here http://www.kmov.com/ I am not sure how long it will remain the first story on the site but it should remain up even if you have to scroll a bit.
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You live near there or something?
 
I learned that four inmates died at one of our state's prisons this morning. The coroner hasn't said anything yet other than "the inmates' deaths don't appear to be natural." Ya think?! Duh!
 
As someone adapting to early retirement I learned that if I am making a doctor appointment that I do not know how to work the system for the best bang for my limited buck.
For instance I suspect that when they ask, "do you have insurance?" that means, "can we overcharge for your appointment?".
Now to my mind overcharging my insurance is overcharging me.
There is also, "who is your insurance carrier?". I suspect that means some insurers are more likely to spring for a higher charge or have a more generous code system or worse they are more difficult to get money out of so the doctors office goes for more money.
Or should I just say I will pay out of pocket?
Turn it into my insurance myself?
Or will I get overcharged for that for some other reason that makes no sense to me?
We pay the highest medical costs in the US here in Alaska. I learned that again today just shopping doctors.
 
goodonya said:
As someone adapting to early retirement I learned that if I am making a doctor appointment that I do not know how to work the system for the best bang for my limited buck.
For instance I suspect that when they ask, "do you have insurance?" that means, "can we overcharge for your appointment?".
Now to my mind overcharging my insurance is overcharging me.
There is also, "who is your insurance carrier?". I suspect that means some insurers are more likely to spring for a higher charge or have a more generous code system or worse they are more difficult to get money out of so the doctors office goes for more money.
Or should I just say I will pay out of pocket?
Turn it into my insurance myself?
Or will I get overcharged for that for some other reason that makes no sense to me?
We pay the highest medical costs in the US here in Alaska. I learned that again today just shopping doctors.
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Sharing your insurance information is actually likely to make it cost less for both you and the insurance company. Insurers negotiate block fees with doctors to drive their own costs down, though they are often keyed to medicare fees per service.

The people who get overcharged are the self-pays... but, sometimes when you are paying for yourself you can negotiate a more reasonable fee face-to-face.

In your case working the system for cost effectiveness will often hinge on some your keeping your own records and paying close attention. If one specialist orders blood work, what is he ordering? Did you have that done for different doctor 6 weeks ago? Stay on top of all that and you help everyone.

I take a file of medical records to every appointment, having refreshed myself ahead on what was done most recently. Need my neck MRI? Is 2015 OK? Got it right here.
It can be difficult to ask politely EVERY time for a record of what was done that day. Any radiology work can be put on a CD within 20 minutes if you can wait. Sometimes they tell me to wait until the verbal analysis is attached, then they forget to send it so I put it on my calendar and call back. It has become game with me.

So very few patients take charge of their own care and records that my requests are unexpected. It can feel time consuming but it takes less time than waiting for an office to process my request by mail. This is getting more commonplace.

One big time and money waste is redundancy. "I want to see you in 3 months." If the issue is not critical I counter offer with 4 or 6 months. It's fine with most doctors.

Some insurers now have all your records accessible online. You sign up, get a password, and can save all your computerized records on your own machine. When you change doctors this is a huge help.

Time to shut my fingers off...
 
goodonya said:
Tetra, I thank you for such a great response!
I will use your advice.
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Also they overcharge insurance carriers because they know they'll get less than what they charge so they'll overcharge to get what they really want.

Be aware that insurance companies are now preventing providers from offering lower costs to non-insured. I saw a sign in my dentist office where they said they can no longer offer discounts for non-insured because the insurance companies "are watching". (Can't remember the exact wording). So be sure to ask what the provider will charge.

I, too, used an older CT scan for my CI evaluation. It was about 2-1/2 years since I had it taken but the CI surgeon said it was fine after he looked at it, so I saved myself by not having to get that done.
 
I have thought for many years about how the capability is here now for a home stand alone(no internet access) desktop that acts as a personal reference library and birth to death medical record storage for each family member.
Even not being a techie I can see it being interactive on a day today basis as well with various interesting monitoring and testing add ons.
It won't replace doctors but it could eliminate a lot of outrageous holes in the system along with actually contributing to having more privacy and oversight and convenience and cost effectiveness for our personal health goals.
The mind boggling cost of our present system will drive innovation and hopefully streamline things so good doctors can do medicine instead of being jammed into being business people first and physicians second.

In the meantime whoa nelly this is a monster that needs taming. Unfortunately it has become politicized to the point that it is a whole new thing that needs a place in our Constitution as a right for all Americans not a privilege and that as a spot point for the beginning of the smackdown of the many headed ravenous beast.

Grrr... smiles here... good morning Love Blue, greetings from Alaska!
I hope your CI journey goes well. Thank you for good advice.
 
That it's no fun having no internet. :( tech support is coming out Monday.
 
LoveBlue said:
Be aware that insurance companies are now preventing providers from offering lower costs to non-insured. I saw a sign in my dentist office where they said they can no longer offer discounts for non-insured because the insurance companies "are watching". (Can't remember the exact wording). So be sure to ask what the provider will charge.
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In this case one could ask to see the price paid by insurance companies, not what is charged. Then offer to pay the same as they are paid by insurance, including a co-pay, of course. That way you would at least be on an equal footing with insured people. An office will be as cooperative as whomever is the receptionist, I suppose.

For a person with patience to search, the is medicare page is a start toward knowing typical coverage costs since many insurances track medicare rates now.
https://www.medicare.gov/coverage/surgery-estimating-costs.html
Keep in mind, however, for many tests there will be hidden costs such as the doctor who reads the scan. The whole process is endlessly complicated if you want to give up video games and twitter for a real life challenge!
 
Jane B. said:
No internet ? I agree but it looks like you have more than one device that can connect since you posted the above.
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Good grief... Don't you know there's WiFi in many locations such as Starbucks. Using mobile hotspot is another option. Obviously many people have more than one device.
 
Jane B. said:
No internet ? I agree but it looks like you have more than one device that can connect since you posted the above.
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It could be cellular internet (Verizon, AT&T, T-Mobile, Sprint). I used cellular internet when my DSL is down.

AlleyCat said:
That it's no fun having no internet. :( tech support is coming out Monday.
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Sorry to hear, did you use satellite internet? or DSL?
 
Calvin said:
Good grief... Don't you know there's WiFi in many locations such as Starbucks. Using mobile hotspot is another option. Obviously many people have more than one device.
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Jane stuck in 1980s. :lol:
 
Okay, great! Lets beat up Jane B.! Just cause she isn't up to date. Who has steel toed boots to kick her while down?
 
I'm using satellite (cellular data) off my phone. I can connect to the internet that way. No laptops or iPads, though.
 
And I'm posting this from my phone using cellular data. How cool is that.

Hope you get your internet back on Monday, AC. Hate to be paying for something that you can't use.
 
I use cellular data as well as my home WiFi.

AC, hopefully you have your Internet restore soon. You can request a credit for the outage.
 
They connected remotely to our house (not a clue how they do that,) but we could see on the laptop that the modem is ok, it's the dsl line. They seem to think it's coming from inside the house. I've not had this issue before so this is a new one for me.

It isn't so bad, just that I can't use other devices and I'm using cellular data (I do not have an unlimited plan so I've got to be careful.)
 
My DSL used went down and up all time, until they permanently fixed the issue about 3 months ago, but we are going switch to cable this year after installation completes.

Ok, cellular wireless is actually from big and taller antenna tower over the country and you will see red/white flashes at night.

AC, hopefully, your internet recover soon.
 
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