What if I outlive my money?

I got an ad for assisted living for seniors! Ha!

...well, maybe if it was coed...

:gig
 
Jared, I can certainly see the necessity of the tests and precautions the ER staff has to take, but was it really necessary to give me a pregnancy test at 64 years old?:rolleyes:
 
Gee...all I get for banners is a coca cola ad and another ad for the Wall St Journal :lol:
 
Jared, I can certainly see the necessity of the tests and precautions the ER staff has to take, but was it really necessary to give me a pregnancy test at 64 years old? :rolleyes:
Maybe they felt you were lying about your age? :P

Seriously though I can't see why they would do that other than a money grab. One more thing to bill for and collect on. Its one more thing to push a few dollars out of you or your insurance company. Honestly I think its disgusting and that's the kind of oversight that we need in the healthcare community. Someone to go through these things, write better criteria and SOPs so these kinds of things don't happen.

Which I don't know if we'll ever see unless it happens at the State level.
 
Jared, you forgot the part where they come to see Heather in xray! And then...after i do plain films, they're likely to head to CT or MRI anyway, and then your bill REALLY skyrockets!!

Actually, i have heard some insurance companies are hassling overweight people and smokers...that is definitely a baby step in the right direction. And yes, if you're not dying and its not the middle of the night, GO TO URGENT CARE, not the ER!!
 
Jared77 said:
Jared, I can certainly see the necessity of the tests and precautions the ER staff has to take, but was it really necessary to give me a pregnancy test at 64 years old? :rolleyes:
Maybe they felt you were lying about your age? :P

Seriously though I can't see why they would do that other than a money grab. One more thing to bill for and collect on. Its one more thing to push a few dollars out of you or your insurance company. Honestly I think its disgusting and that's the kind of oversight that we need in the healthcare community. Someone to go through these things, write better criteria and SOPs so these kinds of things don't happen.

Which I don't know if we'll ever see unless it happens at the State level.
My sister in law has been doing the oversight billing audit thing for insurance companies for well over 20 years now as she travels all over Cal. to audit billings at various hospitals. Perk for my brother is that he can schedule as a substitute pharmacist for a week or two ( while the pharmacist is on vacation) and have his hotel stay and travel per diem paid for by his wife's insurance company as his wife is auditing hospital billing in the area. :bee
 
Oh gosh, I really feel for the poor drug companies like Pfizer who are just barely showing a profit. Of course they might do better if they paid their top executives a little less. According to USA Today Pfizer's CEO makes about $18,000,000 a year. Even assuming that he works a 40 hour week with no vacations that figures to over $700 per hour. He even got $3.4 million in "incentive pay" even though Pfizer's income was down last year.

The drug companies aren't the only reason for the high cost of health care. Even though Hollywood would have you believe that hospital administrators are MD's in fact most will only have an MBA in Healthcare Management. Average starting salary for someone with 2 years or less of experience is about $64,000 a year, but that goes up as they gain in experience. I made almost that much once with over 10 years experience as an Electrical Engineer.

Now let's discuss those paragons of health care, doctors. I was waiting to pick up a friend at a local hospital, and got to looking at doctors parking. New Mercedes, Cadillac, Lincoln, Porsche and Lexus predominated with the occasional Ferrari and Maserati thrown in. There was one old beat up Ford. I thought that was the doctor I wanted to meet until I noticed the placard in the window reading, "MINISTER ON CALL". When I visited a doctor a few years ago, who was the first person I had to talk to before the doctor? The accountant! Not a nurse, certainly not the doctor, but his accountant who wanted to know how they were going to be paid. Often wondered if I'd be permitted to see the doctor if I'd given the wrong answer.

I mention all of this because I remember my family doctor. His car was an Oldsmobile that he traded in every seven years. He pretty much had to since he made HOUSE CALLS not to mention came to the hospital at all hours when one of his patients was admitted. His office was in an old two story house. The bottom floor was converted for his purposes and he rented out the second floor. His office staff consisted on one RN. She was the receptionist, made appointments, handled the billing and served as his assistant.

He treated everything. He performed major and minor surgery. He delivered babies, myself and my brother included. He set bones and never referred you to a specialist. He never dunned you if you couldn't pay right away, and his main goal was to help people. Oh, and did I mention that he made house calls?
 
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