Misled

A friend had his knees injected with stem cells and it worked for him. Flexible and pain free. The copay on his insurance was something like $150. Sign me up! When I was with Aetna Medicare they told me they wouldn't cover this treatment. Even though it's less invasive and less expensive than a knee replacement, that's the way they wanted to go. Needless to say, I don't want to do that. I've yet to meet anyone who's tickled to death with their knee replacement. In fact I know several people who have flat out refused to do the second knee once the first one was done.

I got the phone number, called and mentioned that I was interested in the stem-cell injections and asked if they took Medicare. They assured me that they did and scheduled me for a consultation.

I went in and I chatted with the chiropractor/nurse practitioner about how it worked. I found out it is nothing like the useless hyaluronic acid injections I had several years ago. The injection is a one time event and starts to work almost immediately. At this point I asked about what my co-pay would be. I was told that since I'm on regular Medicare with a supplemental policy, that my deductible is $180. Well, isn't life grand, I've probably met all but $40 of that. It was sounding good to me. Now we needed to X-Ray my knees to make sure that I was a good candidate. (Apparently, if you are bone on bone, you are NOT a good candidate.)  This was on Friday so I was to return on Monday to review the X-Rays.

I went back on Monday at the scheduled time and the doctor wasn't there, unexpected absence but the other doctor could go over the X-Rays with me. Okay. Fine. He's telling me how it works, which I've heard before. Then he told me there are three different types of stem cells all with different price tags attached. That's easy. I probably want the one that Medicare pays for but I would like to know what the "top of the line" will cost if I pay the difference on what Medicare doesn't cover.

Apparently the fill-in doctor hadn't been trained on that and was unable to tell me anything about what Medicare covers. As a consequence, yet another appointment had to be scheduled.

When I went back on Wednesday, I was told that Medicare did not cover any injection. "Wait, that's not what you said before." It seems I "misunderstood". Medicare covers the X-Rays and the consultation, but not the injections which range from $2,000 up to $6000 per knee.

Mark was with me, which prevented me from getting into an argument with the guy but seriously, I typically do not "misunderstand". I spent the last 20 years of my working life taking complex information and making it understandable to newbies, non-techies, and novices. You can't be successful at that if you constantly "misunderstand". He deliberately misled me so he could charge Medicare for three office visits and a set of X-Rays, and he might even get lucky and get $12K out of me.

Will I get the injections? Most likely I will. Will I get them from this guy? Most certainly not. I don't feel I can trust him.

Repair or Replace?

We were heating up lunch in the microwave yesterday when we heard a loud "pop". Then the microwave started to make a buzzing sound. I looked at Mark and he looked at me and we both stared at the microwave for a minute.

"That doesn't sound good." That being said, I went about emptying the dishwasher while Mark disappeared to do whatever it was he was doing and the microwave kept buzzing.

You know that really distinct odor that signals that something electrical is "burning"? I could smell that. No smoke, no flames, just smell. I shut off the microwave and we heated the soup on the cooktop.

It didn't give us much in the way of warning, but that microwave had been installed in 2005, which made it 13 years old. Ancient in microwave years.

I automatically thought we needed to go get a new one. On the other hand, Mark thought we needed to see about getting that one repaired.

Repair. What a novel concept! I remember when people used to get things repaired. When I was a kid we were all on a first name basis with the TV repairman. Bill Klinect was probably at our house at least every other week repairing the TV.

 I googled "microwave repair" and clicked the phone number on the first ad that came up. Three times I clicked it and nothing happened. They should probably get that fixed. No point paying to be first if your "call" link doesn't do anything.

I clicked the number on the next ad. "Please enter your zip code." Fair enough. "Please press one to be connected to a microwave repair company in your area." I pressed one and waited. It was Sears. (Remember Sears? They were the people who came in with the $27K bid on the replacement windows.)

I was informed that they charged a flat rate of $240 to repair a microwave, plus the parts. A brand new one was only going to cost about $260. Repair did not make economic sense. I thanked the young lady for her time and said I'd just buy another one.

Then she told me that I could pay $49.99 (aka $50) for a warranty and then an $80 copay to have the microwave repaired. Okay. We could talk about that. I learned that the $50 covered all your appliances and that if an appliance was beyond repair, you were given a $500 voucher toward the purchase of a new appliance.

That was fairly impressive. Most kitchen appliances cost well more than $500, particularly if you want something better than builder grade. (And I do.) But for a cost of $130 it seemed like a deal. Then Mark had me ask if the $50 was an annual fee.

And that's where it lost all appeal. The $50 was paid monthly not annually. Monthly!?! So they wanted me to pay $600 per year, plus $80 every time I needed a repair and I would get up to $500 on a replacement appliance if mine couldn't be fixed. I can buy several microwaves for that amount of money and if I did have an appliance die, I wouldn't even get back as much as I'd paid in. It would take at least two dead appliances in the same year to come out ahead on that one and imagine if you had no ailing appliances the entire year! $600 paid out for nothing.

No thank you. I can do basic math. There is no need for further discussion. I need to go buy a microwave.

Remembering Mom

Seems I've been thinking about my mom quite a bit lately. Probably because last week was her birthday (she would have been 85) and then yesterday was Mother's Day and that's just where your thoughts go.

And I wonder, how am I like her? How am I different?

I read an article (or maybe it was a book) about women and their relationships with their mothers. There seemed to be a consensus that telling a woman "you're just like your mother" constituted "fighting words". It's been a while since I read that book or article, but at the time I agreed. I was absolutely NOTHING like my mother. So I put the question to my mother. I expected her to say she was nothing like her mother. The answer I got was not the answer I expected.

I can't remember her exact words, but I know the gist of them. She wished she were more like her mother. Because her mother was so "good" and she didn't think she could ever measure up.

That was the wrong answer. You weren't like your mother and didn't want to be like your mother because your mother was never assertive and practically invited people to take advantage of her. What do you mean by "good"??  Pffft!

Fast forward 30 years. I'd be happy to be more like my mother, but I probably won't ever measure up.

Chatty Cathy and HIPAA

It turns out that the HIPAA law, which provides for privacy of patient medical records was enacted in 1996, over 20 years ago. So I was really surprised when Mark was admitted to the hospital and placed into a semi-private room. Unless the person in the room with you is unconscious, it's hard to have an expectation of privacy when all that separates you from your roommate is a curtain.

I should have known we were headed for trouble when Mark and I were discussing the valet parking and his roommate interrupted our conversation from his side of the curtain to give me the scoop on the hospital's valet parking. (By the way, that information subsequently proved to be erroneous, but nonetheless, I thought he was trying to be helpful.) 

It should be noted that the nurses went out of their way to go into the hallway to update each other for a shift change - to protect patient privacy. But let's face it, when they came in with a new medication for Mark, they didn't drag him into the hallway to tell him about it. They told him about it right there in the room, within ear shot of his roommate, whom we will call Chatty Cathy.

The minute the nurse or the doctor left, Chatty Cathy would offer up his opinion of the situation. Apparently he is in a good position to know, because he has been hospitalized with a similar condition on multiple occasions and so has a wealth of medical experience and expertise.

When a doctor discussed different treatment options with us, Chatty Cathy offered a second opinion. In fact, I think he weighed in on every conversation we had, medical or otherwise, unless he had visitors. If he had visitors he waited until they were gone to offer us his opinions. (Was he taking notes??)

It didn't really matter that he kept his TV on at full volume until 2 am. Nor did it matter that he took six calls on his cell phone (full ring tone, not vibrate) between 2 am and 6 am. That wasn't going to get Mark moved to a private room. What was going to work? The magic words "We are concerned that our HIPAA rights are being violated because...."

Boom. Moved. Just like that. And at this point, we are grateful for HIPAA because it does preserve your privacy, as well as your dignity - something they don't really practice in most other parts of the world.