Random Thoughts 17: Here we go again.

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ImJustKCClone

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If hospital's can bill seemingly made up amounts/ charges for my wife's delivery; surely they'll understand when I send them a bill for the doctor/nursing students who were standing in the room during her labor, right?
Can't remember where (probably Twitter or FB) but I read about a woman who requested an itemized bill for her hospital stay and started nitpicking a new thing with them each day...first she took a bandaid in to the hospital to replace the $40 bandaid they itemized, and demanded they reimburse the amount. She continued on with other items on a daily basis and the hospital eventually got tired of her pestering them & wrote off a significant portion of the bill per her "request".

Another guy had a scalpel itemized on his bill. So he told the hospital that he wanted the scalpel since he paid for it. After some discussion, they tried to give him a generic scalpel, and he said that no, he wanted the actual scalpel that he paid for that was used on him. Back & forth on it, the net result was it was taken off of his bill.

I wonder if it would be useful for more of us to argue our itemized bills? I remember paying 20 bucks for two aspirin on one bill years and years ago.
 

Ms3r4ISU

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It is not unusual for graduates with any type of writing major (e.g. journalism, creative writing) to take a job as a probation officer assistant. The job involves an extensive amount of editing. If this goes well, the next logical step on the employment ladder is to become a pretrial service investigative (PSI) officer. In this position you do an extensive amount of interviewing and writing. When I was working in the probation office, one of the PSI's gave a presentation describing her position. She had a writing degree from college.

"I love this job! This is literally my dream job. I was a literature major and I love dramatic stories and gossip. The stuff I write is so juicy. I couldn't make this stuff up if I tried!"
OH, be still my heart! Why haven't I heard about this before now? I could have been in work heaven with people awaiting my every edited word. Sigh.
 

Ms3r4ISU

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This post has nothing to do with anything recent in this thread, thus its placement here, but just wanted you to know that after nearly three years, Covid finally found me. Tested positive on Sunday and have been working from home this week. Monday was an ISU holiday and that helped. Energy and appetite are quite lacking, but taste and smell are still present! FYI, Paxlovid creates a weird, almost metallic taste in my mouth an hour or so after I take it. Hoping to be back in ordinary swing of things soon.
 

ImJustKCClone

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In this last storm we ended up getting about 1 inch of snow, followed by some sleet and then about another inch of snow.
Yesterday while cleaning my walks I started my truck to let it warm up. When I went to scrape the thick crust off the windshield a darn wiper blade broke off the attachment that holds it to the arm.
I stopped by the auto parts store and a single wiper blade cost $35 :oops: :mad: :oops: :mad: :oops: :mad: :oops: :mad: :mad: :mad:
We found a flaw in our Equinox after the women's game on Wednesday night. Lew usually lets the wipers do the work on the front window if it's snow (not ice) while we get the other windows. As we were pulling out of the lot, the wipers quit working altogether. And it was still snowing. Fun times on Lincoln Way! Finally got to a place that he could pull off out of traffic and was checking things. Turns out the wipers packed the snow down underneath the hood to a point where the passenger side wiper couldn't reach the bottom of its sweep. Any other vehicle we've had, the wiper just does its return sweep despite not hitting the bottom. Not this one. Does not bode well for driving when it's snowing heavily. :(
 

CycloneErik

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This post has nothing to do with anything recent in this thread, thus its placement here, but just wanted you to know that after nearly three years, Covid finally found me. Tested positive on Sunday and have been working from home this week. Monday was an ISU holiday and that helped. Energy and appetite and quite lacking, but taste and smell are still present! FYI, Paxlovid creates a weird, almost metallic taste in my mouth an hour or so after I take it. Hoping to be back in ordinary swing of things soon.

Sorry. I'm glad it seems manageable.
MIne hurt, but nothing deadly. I remember that the physician was getting out of that room as fast as humanly possible. I barely even got my questions out, and her answers were "that should work" regarding cold medicine to manage symptoms. She specified that there wasn't any treatment they would offer unless things were severe (and I'm not sure she even included the severe part---they really weren't going to bother talking to me about it).
 

BoxsterCy

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In this last storm we ended up getting about 1 inch of snow, followed by some sleet and then about another inch of snow.
Yesterday while cleaning my walks I started my truck to let it warm up. When I went to scrape the thick crust off the windshield a darn wiper blade broke off the attachment that holds it to the arm.
I stopped by the auto parts store and a single wiper blade cost $35 :oops: :mad: :oops: :mad: :oops: :mad: :oops: :mad: :mad: :mad:

Duct tape it.
 

ImJustKCClone

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This post has nothing to do with anything recent in this thread, thus its placement here, but just wanted you to know that after nearly three years, Covid finally found me. Tested positive on Sunday and have been working from home this week. Monday was an ISU holiday and that helped. Energy and appetite and quite lacking, but taste and smell are still present! FYI, Paxlovid creates a weird, almost metallic taste in my mouth an hour or so after I take it. Hoping to be back in ordinary swing of things soon.
Still covid-free, but I'm not working for a living any more. We've managed to avoid it on our travels and at games, though. IMO, every freaking shot was worth it. Hopefully your vaxx status has made for a lighter case for you. I'm sorry you got caught. :(
 
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BoxsterCy

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Adding a new winter goal. Do not fall and break any bones.

Damn, shoveled driveway and under the snow is a glaze of ice, well over an inch thick on most of the drive. Combo platter of melt off the roof and rain. Even with Yaktraxs on the snow boots it was crazy slippery.
 
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Ms3r4ISU

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Still covid-free, but I'm not working for a living any more. We've managed to avoid it on our travels and at games, though. IMO, every freaking shot was worth it. Hopefully your vaxx status has made for a lighter case for you. I'm sorry you got caught. :(
DH tested negative Sunday and has since gone to a show at Stephens and two ball games without me. :(
I really thought I had a cold at first - stuffy nose, bit of a cough, tired. Then thought I should check my temp even though I didn't feel hot. Yep, 100.4. Ugh. Have had to postpone two appointments and meeting with my new student employee this week. BUT, I'm sure 4x vac had a lot to do with the (lack of) severity. Paxlovid probably helped, too. No fever since Sunday, no headache or body aches. I'd say I'm faring well.

EDIT: also haven't sneezed in two days.
 

VeloClone

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Can't remember where (probably Twitter or FB) but I read about a woman who requested an itemized bill for her hospital stay and started nitpicking a new thing with them each day...first she took a bandaid in to the hospital to replace the $40 bandaid they itemized, and demanded they reimburse the amount. She continued on with other items on a daily basis and the hospital eventually got tired of her pestering them & wrote off a significant portion of the bill per her "request".

Another guy had a scalpel itemized on his bill. So he told the hospital that he wanted the scalpel since he paid for it. After some discussion, they tried to give him a generic scalpel, and he said that no, he wanted the actual scalpel that he paid for that was used on him. Back & forth on it, the net result was it was taken off of his bill.

I wonder if it would be useful for more of us to argue our itemized bills? I remember paying 20 bucks for two aspirin on one bill years and years ago.
I will not argue that everything is not overpriced, but the part of the problem is that everyone compares to what they could pay to buy the item at Target. But at Target you aren't paying for someone to prepare your dose from stock, someone to transport it to your room, somone to administer whatever it is, and for someone to take away whatever waste is left behind. Yes, that still doesn't account for the difference but when you start looking at all of the expensive labor and paying for a multi-million (or billion) dollar facility and millions of dollars of state of the art equipment you start to see that they are expensive but not as bad as is often portrayed.

The other part of it is they have to cover their losses. They can't refuse medical care to anyone so they jack up the prices for those that can pay so they can cover losses on those who can't pay.

That still doesn't stop the medical industry from making gaudy profits, but it does temper the arguments a touch.
 
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VeloClone

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Adding a new winter goal. Do not fall and break any bones.

Damn, shoveled driveway and under the snow is a glaze of ice, well over an inch thick on most of the drive. Combo platter of melt off the roof and rain. Even with Yaktraxs on the snow boots it was crazy slippery.
I marked this optimistic because I don't recall this much ice in any of my 25 winters in MN. There is always melt and refreeze problems but I don't ever remember a winter with this much precipitation that came down and became ice in short order. Staying upright the whole winter will be a miracle.
 

NWICY

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It is not unusual for graduates with any type of writing major (e.g. journalism, creative writing) to take a job as a probation officer assistant. The job involves an extensive amount of editing. If this goes well, the next logical step on the employment ladder is to become a pretrial service investigative (PSI) officer. In this position you do an extensive amount of interviewing and writing. When I was working in the probation office, one of the PSI's gave a presentation describing her position. She had a writing degree from college.

"I love this job! This is literally my dream job. I was a literature major and I love dramatic stories and gossip. The stuff I write is so juicy. I couldn't make this stuff up if I tried!"

I hope she got the promotion
 

ImJustKCClone

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I will not argue that everything is not overpriced, but the part of the problem is that everyone compares to what they could pay to buy the item at Target. But at Target you aren't paying for someone to prepare your dose from stock, someone to transport it to your room, somone to administer whatever it is, and for someone to take away whatever waste is left behind. Yes, that still doesn't account for the difference but when you start looking at all of the expensive labor and paying for a multi-million (or billion) dollar facility and millions of dollars of state of the art equipment you start to see that they are expensive but not as bad as is often portrayed.

The other part of it is they have to cover their losses. They can't refuse medical care to anyone so they jack up the prices for those that can pay so they can cover losses on those who can't pay.

That still doesn't stop the medical industry from making gaudy profits, but it does temper the arguments a touch.
All fair points.
 
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NWICY

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This post has nothing to do with anything recent in this thread, thus its placement here, but just wanted you to know that after nearly three years, Covid finally found me. Tested positive on Sunday and have been working from home this week. Monday was an ISU holiday and that helped. Energy and appetite and quite lacking, but taste and smell are still present! FYI, Paxlovid creates a weird, almost metallic taste in my mouth an hour or so after I take it. Hoping to be back in ordinary swing of things soon.

A friend of mine got knicked with it this wk. Heard it from his boss thought I'd ck with him next wk and see how he's doing.
 

BoxsterCy

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I marked this optimistic because I don't recall this much ice in any of my 25 winters in MN. There is always melt and refreeze problems but I don't ever remember a winter with this much precipitation that came down and became ice in short order. Staying upright the whole winter will be a miracle.

Glad I bought the Yaktrax. Always thought of getting some and grabbed a pair at Scheels a few weeks back. Being a septuagenarian now it seemed prudent.
 
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VeloClone

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I'm guessing it took a fair amount of fore thought to make that sentence work. It was impressive actually it was like reverse spellcheck
Actually I first wrote it with only "sweetmeats" spelled that way. Then I realized I was leaving a lot of meat on the bone on just the sentence I had initially written so I changed those words.

Oh, I guess I also changed "guy" to "one" or "won" to get one more shot in.

;)
 
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