"Money can't buy friends, but it can get you a better class of enemy. " Spike Milligan
I saw a woman using a payphone this morning. That in and of itself is unusual, but the kicker is that she was wearing a tee shirt that said, "Want fame and fortune? Ask me how."
Think about that.
Then, this from the files of more money than good sense.
The house across the street from us, you know it as the Great Wall of Our Street, is now owned by a doctor and his wife. They live Back East, as we say Out West.
The wife showed up at the house Wednesday evening and she left early this morning, less than 48 hours later. Her reason for flying across nearly the entire US of A was to be here to sign for a delivery. I'm not making this up.
Then there was this.
I went to my doctor back in mid-April. Before he would authorize refills on my meds, he insisted upon laying eyes on me.
A few weeks ago, I got a bill from his medical group for $5. I did what all good Americans ought to do, I tossed it out, figuring it was a mistake. According to my insurance carrier, all I'm responsible for is my co-pay, which I had already paid.
Fast forward another month and another bill arrives, demanding the $5 and letting me know that I am now 30 days past due.
This time I was able to figure out that even though I paid my $25 co-pay, they recorded it as a $20 payment. So, I called the billing office.
The woman I spoke to said that in fact, I had tried to skate on $5 of my co-pay and that if I knew what was good for me, I better mail it in soon. Or words to that effect.
I invite you to try a little test the next time you visit your doc. Trying paying something other than the requisite co-pay. Doctors employ earnest young women whose only job is to verify your info and collect the co-pay. They are copay pros and nothing gets by them.
The woman in the billing office said that if I would mail in my receipt, she would "investigate" it and get back to me.
It's only $5, but I just couldn't get up the energy to get my checkbook, write the damn check, find a stamp and take it to the mailbox, so I'm hoped that she would tell me to forget it. But, she didn't and I mailed the the fiver.
Things in this blog represented to be fact, may or may not actually be true. The writer is frequently wrong, sometimes just full of it, but always judgmental and cranky
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Not a bad blog for a chimp.
The Observations of a Retired Guy about the life I live.
Not a bad blog for a chimp.
5 comments:
It boggles my mind to think about how many co-pay collectors there are in this country today. I wonder if they send them to school to learn how to be vigilant and nagging because they all seem to excel at both.
You didn't say what was in the package delivered to The Great Wall or didn't Mrs. Dr. say?
Yeah, my mind boggles. What did they have to have delivered Out West instead of Back East? Was it something bigger than The Wall?
I've been to a few places where they won't take the co-pay, so I have to wait for a bill, write a check, stamp it, and mail it. Waste of time.
For the record, it was some kind of a kiln.
I got a bill from my doctor's office for a little less than $3. I was poised to write the check when I thought, "Hmm - I'm going there in July for a presurgery physical. I think I'll save my stamp & pay it then." We'll see if they send a followup bill :)
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