I went to a dermatologist in Indio, CA on Friday. He won’t deal with Medicare because he says they’re patient unfriendly. They won’t pay for an injection for bronchitis that he finds works. They make his patients wait forever before allowing treatment.
He cut two skin things off my body. Charge $135 cash.
Several months ago, I went to New York dermatologist. He cut five skin things. He charged Medicare $4,475.
I saw his Medicare bill. When I queried the bill, he said it was a “mistake.” He outsourced his billing. They made the mistake. I shouldn’t worry since I didn’t have to pay. Medicare did. I never found out what he eventually charged Medicare or what he got paid by Medicare. Or even if he submitted an amended, reduced bill. I’m betting Medicare paid him a lot more than $135.
The bill, approved by the Senate in December and by the House on Sunday, will be hugely expensive — for insurance companies, doctors, hospitals and our government. We won’t know how many will be bankrupted, we won’t know for many years how many doctors will leave the system in disgust.
There are four lessons here for all of us:
1. We should all pray there will continue to be doctors who live outside the system, giving good, timely, loving, non-bureaucratic patient service and taking cash.
2. We should all pray that we have enough cash stashed away to pay for our own medical care, because relying on our government will give insanity a whole new meaning.
3. We need to take much greater control and greater in-depth understanding of our own health. As doctoring becomes a 9-5 government job, one has to expect the patient indifference you see in many countries overseas will creep into the U.S. (See below on what Americans hate unviersal health care.)
4. We need to give our family strict instructions as to what to do with us when we become seriously sick. Make sure they understand that letting you die is what you want. They should not feel guilty. A honorable death is what you want. As I read all the weekend’s health care verbiage, I was struck by three facts. First, 70% plus of health care costs come in the last few months of people’s lives. Second, keeping people alive can bankrupt a family. Third, there are families that keep Grandma alive on expensive, government-funded life support solely so they can continue to collect Grandma’s social security checks.
Why America hates universal health care; The Real Reason. Dr Earl Sunderhaus, an eye doctor in North Carolina, may lose his medical license because he poked a patient in the thigh and told she was too fat. He told the patient that thick eyeglasses would not cause her to go blind “but her thick thighs and diabetes would.”
A blogger makes the point,
“I’m perfectly willing to provide subsidized health care to people who are suffering due to no fault of their own. But in those cases — which, unfortunately, constitute perhaps a majority of all cases — where the unwellness is a consequence of the patient’s own misdeeds, bad habits, or stupid choices, I feel a deep-seated resentment that the rest of us should pick up the tab to fix medical problems that never should have happened in the first place.
I’m speaking specifically of medical problems caused by:
• Obesity
• Cigarette smoking
• Alcohol abuse
• Reckless behavior
• Criminal activity
• Unprotected promiscuous sex
• Use of illicit drugs
• Cultural traditions
• Bad diets
You can read the rest of the well-done blog. Click here.
Dr Sunderhaus also told his patient that in addition to being fat, she was irresponsible for being unemployed, on Medicaid, and relying on taxpayers to cover another pregnancy after giving birth less than a year earlier. You can read the local newspaper’s (The News & Observer), account here.
Google Health is useful. Lots of ways to organize your health information. I like it because it gives information on ailments and health issues. Click www.Health.Google.com
Update on BankDirect. I still can’t prove to my satisfaction that deposits with BankDirect (somehow affiliated with Texas Capital Bank) are FDIC-insured. Sadly, Jody Grant, the bank’s Chairman Emeritus, who seemed to understand what I needed, assigned the task of answering my inquiries to an underling and then promptly left town for the weekend. Hopefully, I’ll get to speak to him today. There is no mention of BankDirect on the FDIC’s site. This worries me.
How about a German iPad? This one is called the Neofonie WePad. It has many more features than Apple iPad.
I love competition. For more on the device’s abilities, click here.
At least one benefit of immigration. I came here as an immigrant, have become a U.S. citizen and have generated millions of dollars in taxes — one year enough to pay for 43 cruise missiles.
From Thomas Friedman of the New York Times:
In today’s wired world, the most important economic competition is no longer between countries or companies. The most important economic competition is actually between you and your own imagination. Because what your kids imagine, they can now act on farther, faster, cheaper than ever before — as individuals. Today, just about everything is becoming a commodity, except imagination, except the ability to spark new ideas.
If I just have the spark of an idea now, I can get a designer in Taiwan to design it. I can get a factory in China to produce a prototype. I can get a factory in Vietnam to mass manufacture it. I can use Amazon.com to handle fulfillment. I can use freelancer.com to find someone to do my logo and manage by backroom. And I can do all this at incredibly low prices. The one thing that is not a commodity and never will be is that spark of an idea.
His piece covered what he saw at a dinner to celebrate 40 finalists in the 2010 Intel Science Talent Search. He ends the piece:
Gotta say, it was the most inspiring evening I’ve had in D.C. in 20 years. It left me thinking, “If we can just get a few things right — immigration, education standards, bandwidth, fiscal policy — maybe we’ll be O.K.” It left me feeling that maybe Alice Wei Zhao of North High School in Sheboygan, Wis., chosen by her fellow finalists to be their spokeswoman, was right when she told the audience: “Don’t sweat about the problems our generation will have to deal with. Believe me, our future is in good hands.”
As long as we don’t shut our doors.
The piece was his plea for immigration reform, a subject dear to my heart. To read his full piece, click here.
Zimbabwe has a new law called the Indigenization and Empowerment Act, which mandates that all businesses operating in the country with more than $500,000 worth of assets be majority owned by black Zimbabweans within five years. I don’t make this stuff up.
Alleged one-liners from Muslim stand-up comic Goffaq Yussef.
Good evening gentlemen, and get out, ladies.
On my flight to New York there must have been an Israeli in the bathroom the entire time. There was a sign on the door that said, “Occupied.”
What do you say to a Muslim woman with two black eyes? Nothing! You told her twice already!
How many Palestinians does it take to change a light bulb? None! They sit in the dark forever and blame the Jews for it!
Did you hear about the Broadway play, “The Palestinian”? It bombed!
What do you call a first-time offender in Saudi Arabia? Lefty!
Did you hear about the Muslim strip club? It features full facial nudity!
Why do Palestinians find it convenient to live on the West Bank? Because it’s just a stone’s throw from Israel !
Why are Palestinian boys luckier than American boys? Because every Palestinian boy will get to join a rock group!
A Palestinian suspect was being grilled by Israeli police. “Honest, I’m not a suicide bomber,” he said. “I didn’t say I wanted to blow myself up so I could sleep with 72 virgins. All I said was, ‘I’m dying to get laid”!
What does the sign say above the nursery in a Palestinian maternity ward? “Live ammunition.”
Palestinian girl says to her mommy: “After Abdul blows himself up, can I have his room?”
Of course, there is no such comedian as Goffaq Yussef (read the name aloud). And no one knows who wrote these. But they’re still funny.
Harry Newton, who is obsessed with his family’s healthcare — because no one else will be. Not the government. Not the insurance companies. Not some of our busy doctors.
Harry, here is a wonderful Website to get the Five Wishes form with instructions. Five Wishes helps you express how you want to be treated if you are seriously ill and unable to speak for yourself. It deals with all of a person's needs: medical, personal, emotional and spiritual.
Please share it with everyone. http://www.agingwithdignity.org
Medicare fraud is wrong, agreed, and there should be watchdogs to oversee what doctors and hospitals charge. That being said, I miss more criticism of the health care insurers who drop patients for “pre-existing condtions” and gouge taxpayers with outrageous and insane increases in premiums. To ask for an investigation into health insurance companies' fees seems tantamount to wanting greater controls on banks and Wall Street–no one seems to have the temerity to question these arrogant financial behemoths. Disgusting.
Priceless comments. One additional thought regarding the Many of us who game the system and hence, bring much of the problems we are discussing upon ourselves. I use to think Bravery was defined by the example of someone running in front of a bus/car/train to snatch a child out of danger. Now I know that this is simply an act of instinct. Bravery is really defined by what we do in those little private moments such as the one where you followed up on the bogus medicare bill, or the person who made that initial overcharge decision. It is in those moments, when no one (except maybe your God) is watching, that you demonstrate true bravery vs. cowardice….
Jimbobtoo: I know of three people in the last year whom worked hard to inform Medicare of fraud. I read of several more cases. Apparently Medicare does not have a process in place for stopping fraud. It is too easy and too rampant. Based on these cases I believe Medicare could cut costs by 60%(a random number) if they just had a method/desire to block fraud.
Plenty of cash left over to pay doctors their worth.
Harry: I suppose now the Hell Care has passed we'll find out what is in it. Thanks Nancy.