Well, I sold both pairs of Van Halen tickets, for about 300 bucks, after all the eBay fees, and Paypal fees. So I lost about 75 bucks. Not the worst thing in the world. I am still going to the show, and it is still costing me around $425.00 (including parking). Will it be worth it? I don't know. This makes me wonder about something.
How do you determine what something is worth? What is your car worth? What about your house? These types of material possessions are relatively easy to place a market value on. But what about the intangible things that cannot exactly be measured, such as enjoyment. If I go to Van Halen, and I spend $425.00 and I really have a lot of good fun, is it then worth $425.00? If I go and have a shitty time, and the show sucks, then it seems evident that it was not worth the money. What if I have only a mediocre time? I suppose that this is something that can only be determined by the actor, and no one else. If I go to Van Halen and I really enjoy it, and it is worth every single cent, then ultimately no one can tell me that it was not worth it, because they would not know.
I suppose time is another concept that is hard to place a value on. I can relate to this in terms of my industry. If your server is down, and I fix it for you, and I charge you 500$, is it worth it? Your business is back up and running and generating profit again. So, I assume that the fixee would say that yes, it is worth it. Now, what if in that exact same scenario, the fix took me all of 3 minutes to implement. Is the fix suddenly not worth $500? The end user gets the same result, so it would seem that yes, it is still worth it, although, this would also indicate that my time could worth $10,000.00 on hour. What if it is not work related time? What if it is time spent sitting at home with your favorite woman watching prime time TV for two hours. Can that value be measured? To me, personal time is worth more than work time. Not in terms of cost sitting there, but in terms of how much it would cost someone to get me to not sit there. As an interesting side note, I used to go around claiming at work that my personal time was worth approximately 4x the amount of value as work time. So, if I was required to spend 2 hours of my own personal time working, I would then be owed 8 hours of work time. So effectively, for every 2 hours I had to spend working off hours, I would get a free day off. Fortunately I had a really excellent manager at the time that agreed with me. I have a different but still excellent manager now, but I usually don't use that same ratio, and I have no idea why. I think I could still get away with it.
Next on the list would be the value of living things. Not just necessarily people, but pets, livestock, and the like. If you had a pet dog, and it was 6 years old, and to you, the pet was your best friend in the entire world, what would it be worth? If someone killed it, on purpose, how much money do you think that would be worth? What if it was an accident? What if it was self defense? What if it was not your best friend, the dog? What if instead, it was a cow you were raising for beef? Would it be worth the same or less than the dog? What if it was not an animal at all, what if it was your sister? Ultimately, the dog, the cow, and your sister are all living things. Each of them has 5 senses, each of them has feelings, each of them can learn, and each of them can communicate. So, in the grand scheme of things, why typically in society, is the value of your sister greater than the value of your cow?
This post has a lot of question marks, and I do not have the answers to them any of them, so we can conclude that this should lead to some serious introspection. I want each of you to seriously spend a few minutes thinking about these things, particularly about the cow.
Wednesday, January 30, 2008
Saturday, January 26, 2008
I ordered a few books from Amazon. Nothing too outrageous, the latest Steven King "Duma Key", "Naked" by David Sedaris, and a book on Ayurveda. I open the box and there are the three books, something else which will remain unnamed at this point for security purposes, and the packaging material. I did not notice anything odd about the packaging material until after I had removed said unnamed product, and one of the three books. There were three "air bag" type units, which are filled with air, and used to keep the items safe in the box, in lieu of packaging peanuts and the like. Additionally, crammed down on one end, was a crunched unopened mini 1 ounce box of Cinnamon Toast Crunch brand cereal!
This miniature cereal box apparently had been added to my order as additional packaging. The cereal, I noticed, had an expiration date of January 28, 2008, which just so happens to be in two days. I was baffled. I thought that perhaps they included it as a free sample, but I deduced that there would be some sort of documentation for it as such, telling me about the product in terms of product information, and where I could pick some up. Also, cereal typically can last 4-6 months, and the fact that this cereal expired in two days, was proof that the cereal was old. I suppose also, that it is altogether possible that whoever packed the box, was simply lazy, and didn't want to walk to a trash can, or perhaps was even playing some sort of weird prank, where they have a good laugh with their friends and make up wild stories about what whoever opened the package would think. Then I suppose there is the chance that they simply ran out of normal packaging material, and, in a pinch, decided to lean towards the MacGyver-esque decision to improvise packaging material with their breakfast. What a sacrifice! Richard Dean Anderson would be so proud.
Ok readers, you get a 2fer this time.... On a completely different subject.
As I have gotten a little bit older, I have this strange desire to become slightly philanthropic. I use the term 'slightly', because any philanthropy I get involved in will have to remain proportional to my means. I will not be donating a million dollars a year to a library, and I will not be giving five hundred thousand dollars to the local Kiwanis club. No, my philanthropy will be shared with a couple of friends, to create a scenario where we can give more by giving less individually. Right now, the only thing on the table is the idea of creating a scholarship for a lucky student at our old high school to receive. If there are three of us, and we all pitch in just $100, then someone can get a $300 scholarship.
I understand that with today's ever increasing higher education costs, that this is not all that much. But in the lager picture, doesn't every little bit help? I am from a pretty small town, and a lot of the local kids go on to junior colleges either prior to, or instead of, going to a lager 4 year university. Our $300 dollars could provide a student with enough money to purchase a few books, or other such supplies.
The silver lining here is that my friends and I can go to the school, and present the student with one of those huge fake three foot by five foot checks a la Publisher's Clearing House. While this is happening, someone will be taking a photograph for the local news outlets, which will land us in news papers, and possibly even a quick "feel good" spot on the local ten o'clock news. "Private Local Almuni/Philanthropists Donate Money to Student Lucky Student." Its perfect, and you know it.
The other thing that struck me today is the old Adopt-A-Highway program. I know you might think this is a takeoff of the Seinfeld episode where Kramer did this same thing, but I can assure you that this idea has been in my head since the day I started seeing the Adopt-A-Highway signs, and I am not alone, so NO, Seinfeld didn't invent the idea, and I am certainly not copying if from that. If anything, the show copied the concept from the thousands of people who always wanted to adopt a highway long before that show ever aired.
Anyway, We have been toying with the idea of the scholarship for quite sometime, and have done a little virtual footwork towards making it a reality. I think it may be time to get the fire going again, and finally become a slight philanthropist.
This miniature cereal box apparently had been added to my order as additional packaging. The cereal, I noticed, had an expiration date of January 28, 2008, which just so happens to be in two days. I was baffled. I thought that perhaps they included it as a free sample, but I deduced that there would be some sort of documentation for it as such, telling me about the product in terms of product information, and where I could pick some up. Also, cereal typically can last 4-6 months, and the fact that this cereal expired in two days, was proof that the cereal was old. I suppose also, that it is altogether possible that whoever packed the box, was simply lazy, and didn't want to walk to a trash can, or perhaps was even playing some sort of weird prank, where they have a good laugh with their friends and make up wild stories about what whoever opened the package would think. Then I suppose there is the chance that they simply ran out of normal packaging material, and, in a pinch, decided to lean towards the MacGyver-esque decision to improvise packaging material with their breakfast. What a sacrifice! Richard Dean Anderson would be so proud.
Ok readers, you get a 2fer this time.... On a completely different subject.
As I have gotten a little bit older, I have this strange desire to become slightly philanthropic. I use the term 'slightly', because any philanthropy I get involved in will have to remain proportional to my means. I will not be donating a million dollars a year to a library, and I will not be giving five hundred thousand dollars to the local Kiwanis club. No, my philanthropy will be shared with a couple of friends, to create a scenario where we can give more by giving less individually. Right now, the only thing on the table is the idea of creating a scholarship for a lucky student at our old high school to receive. If there are three of us, and we all pitch in just $100, then someone can get a $300 scholarship.
I understand that with today's ever increasing higher education costs, that this is not all that much. But in the lager picture, doesn't every little bit help? I am from a pretty small town, and a lot of the local kids go on to junior colleges either prior to, or instead of, going to a lager 4 year university. Our $300 dollars could provide a student with enough money to purchase a few books, or other such supplies.
The silver lining here is that my friends and I can go to the school, and present the student with one of those huge fake three foot by five foot checks a la Publisher's Clearing House. While this is happening, someone will be taking a photograph for the local news outlets, which will land us in news papers, and possibly even a quick "feel good" spot on the local ten o'clock news. "Private Local Almuni/Philanthropists Donate Money to Student Lucky Student." Its perfect, and you know it.
The other thing that struck me today is the old Adopt-A-Highway program. I know you might think this is a takeoff of the Seinfeld episode where Kramer did this same thing, but I can assure you that this idea has been in my head since the day I started seeing the Adopt-A-Highway signs, and I am not alone, so NO, Seinfeld didn't invent the idea, and I am certainly not copying if from that. If anything, the show copied the concept from the thousands of people who always wanted to adopt a highway long before that show ever aired.
Anyway, We have been toying with the idea of the scholarship for quite sometime, and have done a little virtual footwork towards making it a reality. I think it may be time to get the fire going again, and finally become a slight philanthropist.
Monday, January 21, 2008
I cannot recall if I have ever blogged about this or not, but every once in a while, my brain seems to be more in tune with the world. I will have periods of time, where I would swear,that I can predict the future to some extents. A very strange series of coincidences will occur that used to freak me out really bad. These days, when I am in this phase, I try to maximize its potential, and benefit from it somehow. These odd windows usually only happen once, or sometimes twice in a year, and they usually only last for a week or two at the most.
So, I had a really bad sinus infection, and I was looking for some way to clear it without having to visit a doctor. Anyone who reads this blog already knows my opinions on that subject. Anyway, so I discovered the Neti pot, which is an ayurvedic nasal flushing system, that uses a warm water and saline solution to clear out your sinus passages thus getting rid of infection. So I go to Walmart and buy one. A few minutes later, I email my friend that I had just purchased a Neti pot. Turns out that at that exact moment that I was buying the pot, he, who was several states away at the time, just so happened to be telling someone he works with to buy a Neti pot. Of all the crazy shit on this planet.... a fucking Neti pot. Weird.
So the next day, or maybe two days later, I am with that same friend at the Michael Showalter / Michael Ian Black comedy show in Dallas at the House of Blues. As I was watching the show, I felt something odd going on in my nose. I thought, that for the very first time in my life, that my nose was bleeding. Turns out it wasn't. Thank God. Good times. Well, two days later, after my hockey game, as I was about to go to bed, my best gal came out of the bathroom saying that her nose was bleeding!! She had never had a nose bleed in her entire life! What? Wow. Ok, Weird.
Just prior to going to bed that night, we had done something that we have never done before in our 13 years as a unit. No you perv..., we stayed up really late at night, flipping through various infomercials. There are at least 25 different ones on late Saturday nights. We would flip through the DirecTV guide until we saw one, then we would guess what type of infomercial it was. Would it be an exercise machine, some sort of food machine, a make money at home scheme, etc.. Anyway, so we flipped to one and I instantly recognized a face. Carnie Wilson! I don't think my gal recognized her as instantly as I had, so I broke into the hit Wilson Phillips song "Hold On". Anyway, the very next morning, right after we got up, we were watching a movie or something, and that song was played. I had not heard that song in years, nor did I want to, now I had seen Carnie Wilson on an infomercial I normally would never watch, at a time I would normally never be awake. Weird.
A few weeks ago, I briefly skimmed through an article about a new show on AMC called "Breaking Bad", starring Bryan Cranston. It sounded interesting, so I decided to check it out. I watched the show last night. Turns out, the main character shares the same name as my deceased maternal grandfather. In the show, the character was a teacher, as was my grandfather. In the show, the character learns he is dying of lung cancer, my grandfather died from lung related illness. Weird.
Anyway, there have been a few more little things like that going on which let me know I am in phase with time and space and destiny for a week or two, so I look forward to cashing in somehow.
I will update when and if anything really awesome happens from this.
So, I had a really bad sinus infection, and I was looking for some way to clear it without having to visit a doctor. Anyone who reads this blog already knows my opinions on that subject. Anyway, so I discovered the Neti pot, which is an ayurvedic nasal flushing system, that uses a warm water and saline solution to clear out your sinus passages thus getting rid of infection. So I go to Walmart and buy one. A few minutes later, I email my friend that I had just purchased a Neti pot. Turns out that at that exact moment that I was buying the pot, he, who was several states away at the time, just so happened to be telling someone he works with to buy a Neti pot. Of all the crazy shit on this planet.... a fucking Neti pot. Weird.
So the next day, or maybe two days later, I am with that same friend at the Michael Showalter / Michael Ian Black comedy show in Dallas at the House of Blues. As I was watching the show, I felt something odd going on in my nose. I thought, that for the very first time in my life, that my nose was bleeding. Turns out it wasn't. Thank God. Good times. Well, two days later, after my hockey game, as I was about to go to bed, my best gal came out of the bathroom saying that her nose was bleeding!! She had never had a nose bleed in her entire life! What? Wow. Ok, Weird.
Just prior to going to bed that night, we had done something that we have never done before in our 13 years as a unit. No you perv..., we stayed up really late at night, flipping through various infomercials. There are at least 25 different ones on late Saturday nights. We would flip through the DirecTV guide until we saw one, then we would guess what type of infomercial it was. Would it be an exercise machine, some sort of food machine, a make money at home scheme, etc.. Anyway, so we flipped to one and I instantly recognized a face. Carnie Wilson! I don't think my gal recognized her as instantly as I had, so I broke into the hit Wilson Phillips song "Hold On". Anyway, the very next morning, right after we got up, we were watching a movie or something, and that song was played. I had not heard that song in years, nor did I want to, now I had seen Carnie Wilson on an infomercial I normally would never watch, at a time I would normally never be awake. Weird.
A few weeks ago, I briefly skimmed through an article about a new show on AMC called "Breaking Bad", starring Bryan Cranston. It sounded interesting, so I decided to check it out. I watched the show last night. Turns out, the main character shares the same name as my deceased maternal grandfather. In the show, the character was a teacher, as was my grandfather. In the show, the character learns he is dying of lung cancer, my grandfather died from lung related illness. Weird.
Anyway, there have been a few more little things like that going on which let me know I am in phase with time and space and destiny for a week or two, so I look forward to cashing in somehow.
I will update when and if anything really awesome happens from this.
Monday, January 14, 2008
What the fuck is up with food?
So, hundreds and thousands of years ago, people walked around just picking up various things and eating them. I am sure some of those people died. Some didn't. Can you imagine being that one lucky guy who happened to pull on a little clump of green shit, and there was a strange phallic bright orange attachment to the green part. So then, naturally, you think hey, I think the best thing to do in this scenario right here might be to just go ahead and put this in my mouth, chew it up, and swallow it, just to see what happens. Can you imagine being the first carrot eater? Okay, so maybe he watched an animal do it first, but still, he had the gonards to try it himself... would you?
It would seem evident, that no one walks around doing this type of thing anymore. In our modern, overprotective, nerf covered, safety latch, child proof, don't touch this, don't touch that, bullshit microwave oven world, we are trained from birth to not pick things up and put them in our mouths. We have to be instructed not to do this! What is the absolute first thing a small child does when it grabs something.... BOOM! straight into the mouth. Perhaps this is by design. I suppose in the distant past, no one told people this as children, so they duplicated this behavior as adults. If they hadn't grown up doing this, there is simply no telling what would have happened to mankind.
So that brings us to now. I want you to think good and hard on this one. When is the last time you saw anything new in terms of food? I would be willing to bet that you can't think of ANY new food discovery in your lifetime, and potentially not any in even your parents lifetime. I am not talking about some guy putting barbecue on a pancake and giving it some bullshit name, or some lady deciding to mushed up squid parts in a taco, or even about a scientist inventing a synthetic chocolate like flavor for gum. I am talking about something truly new, and not another iteration of something we already had.
What am I trying to say here? I don't know. Maybe we should start eating things. Think about it.
So, hundreds and thousands of years ago, people walked around just picking up various things and eating them. I am sure some of those people died. Some didn't. Can you imagine being that one lucky guy who happened to pull on a little clump of green shit, and there was a strange phallic bright orange attachment to the green part. So then, naturally, you think hey, I think the best thing to do in this scenario right here might be to just go ahead and put this in my mouth, chew it up, and swallow it, just to see what happens. Can you imagine being the first carrot eater? Okay, so maybe he watched an animal do it first, but still, he had the gonards to try it himself... would you?
It would seem evident, that no one walks around doing this type of thing anymore. In our modern, overprotective, nerf covered, safety latch, child proof, don't touch this, don't touch that, bullshit microwave oven world, we are trained from birth to not pick things up and put them in our mouths. We have to be instructed not to do this! What is the absolute first thing a small child does when it grabs something.... BOOM! straight into the mouth. Perhaps this is by design. I suppose in the distant past, no one told people this as children, so they duplicated this behavior as adults. If they hadn't grown up doing this, there is simply no telling what would have happened to mankind.
So that brings us to now. I want you to think good and hard on this one. When is the last time you saw anything new in terms of food? I would be willing to bet that you can't think of ANY new food discovery in your lifetime, and potentially not any in even your parents lifetime. I am not talking about some guy putting barbecue on a pancake and giving it some bullshit name, or some lady deciding to mushed up squid parts in a taco, or even about a scientist inventing a synthetic chocolate like flavor for gum. I am talking about something truly new, and not another iteration of something we already had.
What am I trying to say here? I don't know. Maybe we should start eating things. Think about it.
Tuesday, January 8, 2008
Saturday, January 5, 2008
Quick follow up on the whole doctors bill/insurance rant. I found two key pieces of information in my insurance benefits book.
1. If you go to an in network hospital ER, ANY work done there by ANYONE, will be paid at the same rate as an in network provider, regardless of whether they are in your network or not.
2. In an emergency situation, you can go to ANY hospital ANYWHERE in the world, and it will be counted as in network.
So I called the insurance company, and they made the correction, and they are sending me the rest of the money they owe me. Had I not called, they would have just ripped me off. Fuck them. Anyway, at least now I don't have to go through the trouble of finding and buying alternate insurance to get the coverage I need. I just need to make sure the bills and benefits are all correct.
______________________________________
Today is my first hockey game for about 50 days. Vacation, holidays, game cancellations have kept me away, for what has become my longest stretch without hockey since I started playing the sport back in 1997.
Since I have been exercising and eating right, I should be way better off. As of today, I am 29.6 pounds (which I will happily round up to 30 for conversational advantage) lighter than the last time I played, and I can now run a little over 5 miles in 30 minutes without even breaking a sweat.
The team has struggled since I last played. I my own mind, it is because I wasn't there. Realistically, I think there is just stiffer competition this season. Anyway, tonight's game I believe is against a lesser opponent, so it should be a good game to ease back in with. Anything less than a dominating victory is unacceptable.
1. If you go to an in network hospital ER, ANY work done there by ANYONE, will be paid at the same rate as an in network provider, regardless of whether they are in your network or not.
2. In an emergency situation, you can go to ANY hospital ANYWHERE in the world, and it will be counted as in network.
So I called the insurance company, and they made the correction, and they are sending me the rest of the money they owe me. Had I not called, they would have just ripped me off. Fuck them. Anyway, at least now I don't have to go through the trouble of finding and buying alternate insurance to get the coverage I need. I just need to make sure the bills and benefits are all correct.
______________________________________
Today is my first hockey game for about 50 days. Vacation, holidays, game cancellations have kept me away, for what has become my longest stretch without hockey since I started playing the sport back in 1997.
Since I have been exercising and eating right, I should be way better off. As of today, I am 29.6 pounds (which I will happily round up to 30 for conversational advantage) lighter than the last time I played, and I can now run a little over 5 miles in 30 minutes without even breaking a sweat.
The team has struggled since I last played. I my own mind, it is because I wasn't there. Realistically, I think there is just stiffer competition this season. Anyway, tonight's game I believe is against a lesser opponent, so it should be a good game to ease back in with. Anything less than a dominating victory is unacceptable.
Wednesday, January 2, 2008
OK, What the FUCK? This should be an interesting rant.
I get a bill today for my ER visit to have my chin sewed up from back in June. The bill is for 633 dollars, and I have exactly 9 days to pay it. So 1, what the fuck are they thinking sending me a bill that close to the due date. 2. Why the fuck do I have to pay 633 bucks?
OK, let me backtrack a bit here. I knocked a hole in my chin in June playing hockey. I go to the ER and get it sewn shut. I pay nothing at the time. I give them my insurance card, they charge me nothing, and I leave. Great. Couple of months later I get some kind of bill/not bill thing from the hospital for $330.00. It looks exactly like a bill but says "this is not a bill". Well, sorry hospital, BUT WHY IN THE HOLY FUCK WOULD YOU SEND ME SOMETHING ON YOUR STOCK BILL FORMAT THAT SAYS THIS IS NOT A BILL. I also notice a note that says "insurance pending". Great. No bill.
Next I get a statement from the insurance company showing that they paid $113.67 of the bill. This is clearly well short of the 330$, so what the fuck? I also notice on here that it shows the 75$ co-pay for the visit, which I never paid, because they never gave me an option to, even though I asked while I was there, so what the fuck? Another interesting thing to note is that in the "co-ins" section is says 90%, which is what my insurance is supposed to be on ER visits.
Next, I get another bill from the hospital that says my payment is now due in the amount of $87.63. huh? Upon inspection, it shows the original $330, minus the $113.67, then on another line it says "discounts" in the amount of $128.70. huh? What the fuck? OK, well the two amounts that have been removed for whatever reason does leave $87.63, so I say fuck it, I'll pay that, and it'll be done. I assume this is the $75 bucks I should have paid while I was there, for the visit, and whatever is left of the 10% I am supposed to pay. No worries. I pay it. On line, awesome!
A few days later I get another bill, that is 100% identical to the one I just paid, what the fuck? Sorry hospital, BUT WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU SENDING ME TWO IDENTICAL BILLS DATED 3 DAYS PART FOR? Are you fucking retarded? I call them up just to say hi, and what the fuck? They tell me to ignore the last bill. Gee thanks, you must be a fucking Rhodes Scholar. I hope you are happy with your life.
OK great, so that was mid July. Couple of weeks later I get a check from the insurance company for $288. What the fuck? It has an explanation f why, doctor bills, etc. I assume at this point a bill is coming, so I stash the money in the bank... sorta. OK, so July ends, then August ends, then at the end of September, I get another bill looking thing, that looks just like the check I got. Same charges, and they all say duplicate. What the fuck? Alright fuck it, so I toss it in a drawer. September ends, October ends, then early November, I get a bill looking thing from the insurance company again, and again, all duplicate charges. What the fuck? I am sorry insurance company, BUT WHY IN THE JUMPING HOLY FUCK ARE YOU SENDING ME A CHECK THEN TWO VERY SIMILAR LOOKING PSEUDO NON BILL DUPLICATE NOTICE THINGIES? I toss this in the drawer with my now huge pile of useless insurance/hospital/doctor related crap.
So that brings me to today. Today I get a bill from the doctor for $633.00 due in 9 days. I pull out my huge pile of related shit, and inspect it. I notice that the doctor billing only got half paid by the insurance company, and I notice it say "50%" on the "co-ins", so I guess they are only paying half the cost because my doctor was "out of network" of my PPO. I confirm this theory by looking on the intertubes at the insurance company's website. What the fuck?
Excuse me everyone on the planet, but WHAT IN THE HOLY FUCK IS GOING ON HERE? I intentionally go to a known in network hospital bleeding out of the face, and the doctor THEY assigned to me just HAPPENS to not be in the network, so now I get stuck paying half the cost, instead of only 10%?
W H A T T H E F U C K ?????????
This is not right. This is a fucking scam! What are people supposed to do... right before a doctor injects your fucking face with anesthetic, you are supposed to stop him, and run bleeding from the ER to go to somewhere else so your insurance company does rape you in your fucking asshole? This is bullshit. I will do everything in my power to fight the man here. I will call up the insurance company and give them a huge log of shit over this one. I may go so far as to seek alternative health care, rather than the work sponsored PPO bullshit that I have now. I want the comfort in knowing that I can go to ANY hospital on this planet, and get proper medical care without worrying about whether or not the fucking insurance company is going to assfuck me or not. I know this will cost more, but it sounds like something that might be worth while. I know calling up the assfuckers will do me absolutely no good. They will simply say I got service from an out of network doctor, so they can only pay 50%, with absolutely no regard for the fact that I had a huge gaping hole in my head at the time, so I did what I assumed was the right thing, I went to a hospital that I knew 100% was in network.
I am not a moron. I understand how shit works. It does seem to me however, that a network hospital might benefit from having doctors that are in the same network of providers, so they are partly to blame. At the very least, either the hospital, the nurses, the doctor, SOMEONE, should be required to make sure that its patients best interest are in mind, which would include helping the patients, understand their insurance options before the work begins. I have been exposed to the completely corrupt world of insurance before. This is part of the reason I ONLY go to the ER, and never a doctor for general care. This is also the reason I go home injured and reflect on things for a few hours, before going to the hospital, to decide if it will really be worth all the hassle, like I am going through now.
Additionally, your average joe blow white bread blue collar working man, that lives paycheck to paycheck, would never be able to handle this. In America, according to given stats, this is the norm, and I do not see how anyone could make it in the world under these conditions. Fortunately, I do have the means to simply pay the bill, and then take it up with the insurance company about the whole 50% vs 90% fiasco. At least they already paid 50% and gave me the check for $288.00. But Jesus H Tap Dancing Christ, that was 6 months ago, normal people would have HAD to use that money for other stuff I am sure. Seems like it might be better for customers, if they would retain the check until you get a bill, or just send the mother fucking check straight to the doctor. Or at the even least-er, put a fucking note on the check that clearly says, "Hey asshole, this is your check for when you get a bill from the doctor, so don't fucking spend it, and put it in a high interest bearing money market account for six months, until you get your doctor's bill". But no, their only function for existence seems to be to bend you over, far enough so that you can grab your ankles, then fuck you as hard as they can right straight into your balloon knot.
Again, I know damn good and well they won't give me the other 40% that I feel I deserve, but what they don't know that I secretly only want the good old human satisfaction of using their customer service representative as a punching bag while I dump a huge mega load of shit right in their face. My goal this time around is to at least make the rep cry, if not commit suicide later in the evening.
I cannot believe that this is how our country functions. It amazes me that we can ever EVER get anything done, since this is how large companies behave. I would be fucking ashamed of myself if I was in the medical insurance business. Whoever these sphincters are, that sit behind a desk, and say you get 50% instead of 90%, should be eliminated.
Perhaps next time, I will wait until Monday morning with my injury, so that the fucking insurance company is open, and ask them who I should go to to get my injuries resolved. By that time, I will be all fucked up, much worse than at accident time, and it will cost the insurance company a hell of a lot more, because I took the time make sure I go to an in network provider. To me, that seems like the true irony here. The insurance company actually gets fucked when you take the time to go to who they want you to go to. What kind of fucking sense does that make?
On a lighter note, I guess I will be blogging longer than one year, since it is 2008. I wonder if it is better to have more shorter blogs on whatever is on my mind at the time, or fewer longer blogs. Guess I will play it by ear.
I get a bill today for my ER visit to have my chin sewed up from back in June. The bill is for 633 dollars, and I have exactly 9 days to pay it. So 1, what the fuck are they thinking sending me a bill that close to the due date. 2. Why the fuck do I have to pay 633 bucks?
OK, let me backtrack a bit here. I knocked a hole in my chin in June playing hockey. I go to the ER and get it sewn shut. I pay nothing at the time. I give them my insurance card, they charge me nothing, and I leave. Great. Couple of months later I get some kind of bill/not bill thing from the hospital for $330.00. It looks exactly like a bill but says "this is not a bill". Well, sorry hospital, BUT WHY IN THE HOLY FUCK WOULD YOU SEND ME SOMETHING ON YOUR STOCK BILL FORMAT THAT SAYS THIS IS NOT A BILL. I also notice a note that says "insurance pending". Great. No bill.
Next I get a statement from the insurance company showing that they paid $113.67 of the bill. This is clearly well short of the 330$, so what the fuck? I also notice on here that it shows the 75$ co-pay for the visit, which I never paid, because they never gave me an option to, even though I asked while I was there, so what the fuck? Another interesting thing to note is that in the "co-ins" section is says 90%, which is what my insurance is supposed to be on ER visits.
Next, I get another bill from the hospital that says my payment is now due in the amount of $87.63. huh? Upon inspection, it shows the original $330, minus the $113.67, then on another line it says "discounts" in the amount of $128.70. huh? What the fuck? OK, well the two amounts that have been removed for whatever reason does leave $87.63, so I say fuck it, I'll pay that, and it'll be done. I assume this is the $75 bucks I should have paid while I was there, for the visit, and whatever is left of the 10% I am supposed to pay. No worries. I pay it. On line, awesome!
A few days later I get another bill, that is 100% identical to the one I just paid, what the fuck? Sorry hospital, BUT WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU SENDING ME TWO IDENTICAL BILLS DATED 3 DAYS PART FOR? Are you fucking retarded? I call them up just to say hi, and what the fuck? They tell me to ignore the last bill. Gee thanks, you must be a fucking Rhodes Scholar. I hope you are happy with your life.
OK great, so that was mid July. Couple of weeks later I get a check from the insurance company for $288. What the fuck? It has an explanation f why, doctor bills, etc. I assume at this point a bill is coming, so I stash the money in the bank... sorta. OK, so July ends, then August ends, then at the end of September, I get another bill looking thing, that looks just like the check I got. Same charges, and they all say duplicate. What the fuck? Alright fuck it, so I toss it in a drawer. September ends, October ends, then early November, I get a bill looking thing from the insurance company again, and again, all duplicate charges. What the fuck? I am sorry insurance company, BUT WHY IN THE JUMPING HOLY FUCK ARE YOU SENDING ME A CHECK THEN TWO VERY SIMILAR LOOKING PSEUDO NON BILL DUPLICATE NOTICE THINGIES? I toss this in the drawer with my now huge pile of useless insurance/hospital/doctor related crap.
So that brings me to today. Today I get a bill from the doctor for $633.00 due in 9 days. I pull out my huge pile of related shit, and inspect it. I notice that the doctor billing only got half paid by the insurance company, and I notice it say "50%" on the "co-ins", so I guess they are only paying half the cost because my doctor was "out of network" of my PPO. I confirm this theory by looking on the intertubes at the insurance company's website. What the fuck?
Excuse me everyone on the planet, but WHAT IN THE HOLY FUCK IS GOING ON HERE? I intentionally go to a known in network hospital bleeding out of the face, and the doctor THEY assigned to me just HAPPENS to not be in the network, so now I get stuck paying half the cost, instead of only 10%?
W H A T T H E F U C K ?????????
This is not right. This is a fucking scam! What are people supposed to do... right before a doctor injects your fucking face with anesthetic, you are supposed to stop him, and run bleeding from the ER to go to somewhere else so your insurance company does rape you in your fucking asshole? This is bullshit. I will do everything in my power to fight the man here. I will call up the insurance company and give them a huge log of shit over this one. I may go so far as to seek alternative health care, rather than the work sponsored PPO bullshit that I have now. I want the comfort in knowing that I can go to ANY hospital on this planet, and get proper medical care without worrying about whether or not the fucking insurance company is going to assfuck me or not. I know this will cost more, but it sounds like something that might be worth while. I know calling up the assfuckers will do me absolutely no good. They will simply say I got service from an out of network doctor, so they can only pay 50%, with absolutely no regard for the fact that I had a huge gaping hole in my head at the time, so I did what I assumed was the right thing, I went to a hospital that I knew 100% was in network.
I am not a moron. I understand how shit works. It does seem to me however, that a network hospital might benefit from having doctors that are in the same network of providers, so they are partly to blame. At the very least, either the hospital, the nurses, the doctor, SOMEONE, should be required to make sure that its patients best interest are in mind, which would include helping the patients, understand their insurance options before the work begins. I have been exposed to the completely corrupt world of insurance before. This is part of the reason I ONLY go to the ER, and never a doctor for general care. This is also the reason I go home injured and reflect on things for a few hours, before going to the hospital, to decide if it will really be worth all the hassle, like I am going through now.
Additionally, your average joe blow white bread blue collar working man, that lives paycheck to paycheck, would never be able to handle this. In America, according to given stats, this is the norm, and I do not see how anyone could make it in the world under these conditions. Fortunately, I do have the means to simply pay the bill, and then take it up with the insurance company about the whole 50% vs 90% fiasco. At least they already paid 50% and gave me the check for $288.00. But Jesus H Tap Dancing Christ, that was 6 months ago, normal people would have HAD to use that money for other stuff I am sure. Seems like it might be better for customers, if they would retain the check until you get a bill, or just send the mother fucking check straight to the doctor. Or at the even least-er, put a fucking note on the check that clearly says, "Hey asshole, this is your check for when you get a bill from the doctor, so don't fucking spend it, and put it in a high interest bearing money market account for six months, until you get your doctor's bill". But no, their only function for existence seems to be to bend you over, far enough so that you can grab your ankles, then fuck you as hard as they can right straight into your balloon knot.
Again, I know damn good and well they won't give me the other 40% that I feel I deserve, but what they don't know that I secretly only want the good old human satisfaction of using their customer service representative as a punching bag while I dump a huge mega load of shit right in their face. My goal this time around is to at least make the rep cry, if not commit suicide later in the evening.
I cannot believe that this is how our country functions. It amazes me that we can ever EVER get anything done, since this is how large companies behave. I would be fucking ashamed of myself if I was in the medical insurance business. Whoever these sphincters are, that sit behind a desk, and say you get 50% instead of 90%, should be eliminated.
Perhaps next time, I will wait until Monday morning with my injury, so that the fucking insurance company is open, and ask them who I should go to to get my injuries resolved. By that time, I will be all fucked up, much worse than at accident time, and it will cost the insurance company a hell of a lot more, because I took the time make sure I go to an in network provider. To me, that seems like the true irony here. The insurance company actually gets fucked when you take the time to go to who they want you to go to. What kind of fucking sense does that make?
On a lighter note, I guess I will be blogging longer than one year, since it is 2008. I wonder if it is better to have more shorter blogs on whatever is on my mind at the time, or fewer longer blogs. Guess I will play it by ear.
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