We have a few of the pump soap dispensers at our house and all of them put out foam. Used to be you got a squirt of liquid soap, not soap foam. Did they change that as a way to put less product in the same size container, but charge the same amount?
I’m in “negotiations” with my dentist’s office. I wrote a couple of weeks ago that they’d messed up the billing, and as a result my bridge wasn’t covered by our insurance. This morning, after an appointment to get my permanent bridge installed, I called the office manager. In the course of our conversation she volunteered that it was indeed their error. That’s more than I got out of the treatment coordinator who originally called me into her office to break the news to me. This afternoon that office manager called to say that after review the total was down $480 from the figure I was given when I was in there this morning. She also wants to talk further with our insurance carrier to see if there’s more money that should come from them.
Mistakes happen. I don’t like it when they result in several hundreds of dollars in additional liability, but, as the treatment coordinator so helpfully pointed out, I signed a form saying I’d be ultimately responsible for paying any bills associated with my treatment. So I’ve got very limited leverage here. What troubles me is that after complaining they’ve found almost $500 in reductions, with the potential for yet more.
If I had not complained?
Maybe she’s attributing to sharp pencil work what is really just them eating some of the expense because it was their mistake. But if the reductions really are the result of careful review, why don’t they do this with all accounts? To say “Don’t worry, the insurance company pays the bills” doesn’t cut it because we’re paying the premiums. (Note: they haven’t said that here. I’m just theorizing.) Reduce costs and we reduce premiums.
Is this an example of the dynamic that helps drive up health care costs?
I fully intended to go for a bike ride today but the 25 mph winds dissuaded me. I also didn’t get to the driving range. But I did get some pruning and weeding done in back. Mostly I worked on the music for the next two weeks.
I also ordered a netbook for Pam. Her ancient laptop has been thoroughly infected by a virus of some sort that’s planted itself in her task bar. It throws up a window asking if she wants to activate security software, but the thing is full of bad grammar and misspellings.
Oh yeah, there’s also the part about the porn sites it offers to make available.
I tried to get it off her task bar by running msconfig from the start menu but the virus won’t let me open it. I also can’t get into anything on the control panel. I could take it into Best Buy and pay them to root out the virus but I’d pay almost as much as I did to get their internet special on a netbook. And she’s not doing any computing; just the internet. It will come while I’m up in Seattle next week for the estate sale but she’ll wait to use it until I’ve installed some software to prevent a recurrence. No big deal; her laptop, which was the one I had before the one I had before this one, was more than due for replacement.
The Arizona law re. illegal immigrants is still drawing fire, and the latest comes from six U.N. officials who say it may violate international agreements the U.S. has signed.
Note: a backlash is building here, and criticisms of the law from people far away and unaffected by the problems associated with illegal immigrants in Arizona is having the opposite effect of what they intend. I suspect there are some real problems associated with this piece of legislation, and if I’m correct time will bring them to light. When it does the law will be successfully challenged in court and overturned, in whole or in part. In the meantime statements from people like officials who say Arizona has violated a U.N. agreement only hardens the resolve of the 60% of citizens here who support the law. It may well build support for a similar law elsewhere, especially when polls show 50% of Americans already want to see something like this in their state.
I’m just sayin....
1 comment:
1. No luck on the external CD-ROM - I think we donated it.
2. I'll gladly take the porn laptop....for repairs?????
3. There was a recent Op Ed piece (Sunday or Monday) that was essentially an interview with the attorney that drafted the 1070 legislation. If his comments are true - it sounds like this law is nothing more than what was already ICE and local police policy with the exception that when ICE doesn't show up to collect the illegals, the local police can arrest them.
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