Healthcare – b.rox

Sitting thru my employer’s mandatory benefits workshop reconfirmed my belief that health insurance is institutionalized insanity. There must be a better way. I’ve never liked the concept of health insurance. It seems wrong to me at the very core. It feels like a perverse form of gambling. You’re putting down all this money against the […]

Over a year ago Xy hurt her knee while practicing with the Big Easy Roller Girls. It’s bothered her ever since, and so yesterday morning we rose early and dropped her off for a little surgery. Persephone and I went home and made a “Get Well Soon” poster for her mother. The surgeon called me […]

Humana P.O. Box 14546 Lexington KY 40512-4610 Sept. 2, 2009 Dear Humana, I recently took my daughter to a doctor in our neighborhood. I took special care to make sure this doctor was a “participating provider,” because I know how important that is to you. (I made the mistake of going to a “non participating […]

I really hate our whole healthcare/insurance system, which is why I get excited when I hear about reform and discouraged when it seems to go off-track. This is on my mind today because of the inane interaction I just had with my health insurance provider, Humana. Back in June, when we were traveling, our daughter […]

My world turned upside down Wednesday afternoon based on a single number. That number is driving me crazy. But that number is derived from a single test — a capillary test, basically a pinprick to the finger. Surely it would make sense to have another test. She is scheduled for a follow-up test in three […]

Got my first-ever flu shot yesterday. At least I think it was my first ever. I don’t remember getting them as a kid. When I was at the doctor’s office, I noticed he’s dropping my insurer. If I want to stay with him, I need to get health insurance through another provider. Of course, I […]

After Xy left for school this morning, I discovered Persephone had a fever. She also seemed to have a rattle in her chest, quite loud, every time she breathed. So I called our doctor. It was early, and her clinic wasn’t open yet. The voice message instructed me to hold the line, if the matter […]

Last month I was experiencing some weird gastric discomfort, like a dull ache in my stomach which kept coming and going for several weeks. It was bad enough to disrupt my routine, to keep me from doing things I’d normally do. At my mother-in-law’s suggestion, I visited the doctor. He gave me an EKG as […]

We got the receipt from Tulane University Hospital & Clinic’s Healthcare Payment System. For the record, we racked up $2,484.00 in room charges (two nights’ stay) and a whopping $16,499.28 in “ancillary” charges. But we have group insurance through our employers. We actually paid $250 and just got billed for $170 more. I can’t even […]

I wasn’t going to see a doctor about my ankle, but Xy suggested I should. So I gave my GP a call. I’m none too enamored of my GP, as I mentioned before. I’ve only seen her once and can’t even remember her name. But when I called, her staff referred me to an “orthopedic.” […]

Story on the front page of today’s paper confirms what I wrote in November.

On August 23rd of last year, one week before Katrina, I started a letter to the CEO of Aetna (my insurer through my employer). I’m preoccupied with other matters now, so I doubt I’ll ever complete this letter, much less send it. An open letter to Dr. John W. Rowe, Chief Executive Officer of Aetna […]

Tag: Healthcare

Institutionalized Insanity

Knee Surgery

Dear Humana

Hassling with Humana

One Little Number

Flu Shot

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Stress Test

The High Cost of Birthing

A Visit to the Jock Doc

Confirmation

An Unfinished Letter