Kathy's Thoughts

Corvallis Clinic - Dropping Patients

Kathy — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 11:17:05 -0700

As our health care system is rather broke, I had thought about the Samaritan Health Care system and the fact that they are sometimes tied to insurance. So what happens if you are a state employee and choose Samaritan Health HMO for you insurance but they end up sending you a "[we] find that we can no longer provide you with health care services" letter. Are you no longer able to get health care due to the fact that your insurance is tied to the services?

I suspect Samaritan Health doesn't do that for several reasons:

1. They have the emergency room and likely can't turn someone away in life and death situations
2. They have ethics
3. They can stand on their good reputation and a blogger won't faze them

The Corvallis Clinic has an Immediate Care and Ambulatory Surgical Center but those aren't really emergency rooms.

I also wonder if they can fire other family members, like my husband or my son. They are no longer treating my son as one of their pediatricians is pretty inept at diagnosing autism so that is not a problem. But I do wonder if they will stop treating my husband.

Time will tell.

Iggy's House - Free MLS - Is iggyshouse.com going down?

Kathy — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 07:19:12 -0700

I've used iggyshouse.com to list a house for sale and get it on the MLS for free. It worked pretty well, although truth be told, I think craigslist.com was really responsible for bringing in the buyers (3 of them).

In the past 2 weeks, I've been trying to list another house on Iggy's House but to no avail. The website is usually down. I did get it listed but now the site has been down for almost a week. This does not bode well. I will be considering owners.com - it might cost $385 and list the house in MLS for only 6 months but they seem to be up.

Medical Establishment - Registered Letter Terminating Me as a Client

Kathy — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 19:47:11 -0700

I had blogged about a medical establishment and thought I was getting a cease and desist letter. After thinking about it for a day, I decided to strip out their name and anything that might be taken as derogatory. The story still holds - and we still need to get rid of blood sucking, for-profit medical establishments that put their profits ahead of their patients. Good thing there is some competition so I could find another doctor.

Well the registered letter was just their official way of terminating me as a client. There needs to be respect between them and their clients and I was not respectful. I wonder if they were respectful to me when one of their doctors didn't know what autism looked like and questioned me as to why I thought my 2 year old had autism. Or the fact that they do not spend the 2 minutes needed to run screenings for some well baby visits. Or the fact that they are incompetent in drawing blood in children who barely move.

Well let me tell you that since I moved to the Mid-Valley Children's Clinic in Albany I've have no billing issues, no problems in drawing blood, and a doctor that not only listens but respects my concerns.

Doctor Office Can Drop Patients for Blogging

Kathy — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 12:39:18 -0700

I am unable to get medical care from my doctor for a post that I've since deleted. They have dropped me as a patient for the blog post and offered to refer me to other doctors in the area. I hung up on the nice lady knowing this *FREE* country is, well, maybe not so free.

I'll try my old doctor's office back. I had no problems with them except that the doctor actually moved out of state and they did not find a replacement for him.

Sakuracon - Japanese Anime Convention in Seattle

Kathy — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 13:31:50 -0700

In having a 12 year old boy, sometimes you have to endure what you really don't want to. In this case, I was dragged to Seattle to attend a three day convention of nerds, costumes, rock concerts, and fandom in the form of Sakura-con, an anime convention with over 14,000 people.

Calvin likes Link (from Zelda), and so naturally he dressed as the character. Remember, this is not an ordinary Link costume - it is TOON Link!

He made his own shield which was unfortunately lost:

At the convention, almost everyone dressed up as a character:

Even the stuffed animals:

Vonics VOIP Sucks - I Want my Sunrocket Back!

Kathy — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 16:51:26 -0700

For the past few days we are, again, not receiving phone calls that connect. I answer the phone and the person on the other end just gets disconnected. Plus over the past 2 days I have not been able to make calls without getting many busy signals - yet they are not really busy as it was several different numbers - all that had answering services.

I am looking for another phone system that is somewhat reliable. Vonics is quite bad. I'd rather pay more and get reliable service. Any suggestions?

Quit My Job

Kathy — Sun, 16 Mar 2008 11:47:12 -0700

I've worked for the Oregon University System for almost 12 years. I finally quit in January. We were able to sell the boyfriend's house and pay off my mortgage so we have no house payments. I live in a (used to be) rat infested house so it is not fancy - about 900 sq ft. But not having the payment freed me up to quit my job and finish my elementary teacher certification program at Western Governor's University. This is a distance ed school based in Salt Lake City.

The first month felt like I was skipping work. I actually felt like I was cheating my workplace by not going in. Looking down the streets, I would look for my old boss afraid I would get in trouble. These little moments of panic soon subsided. Trying to lose weight, I started walking my dog each morning for an hour - pure bliss. It's nice to enjoy your surroundings and have time to think.

I have a couple weeks left now of WGU. With one test left and 10 papers, I will complete the academic portion. In August/September I will start demonstration teaching (student teaching) somewhere in Corvallis. The school has not been set yet.

Iraq - the US version of Soviet Afgan War?

Kathy — Wed, 12 Mar 2008 06:12:23 -0700

I studied up a little on the Soviet Afgan war that took place from 1979 to 1988. Almost 10 years and they lost 14,000 soldiers with 10,000 seriously injured and 415,000 which got sick from bad conditions. These numbers seem close to ours. We have almost 4,000 dead but probably more so if you consider those that died from natural conditions, accident, and suicide. Also, they had far less seriously wounded, we have more. Remember, I am comparing 1/2 of the Soviet war to the US-Iraq war over the past 5 years. The conditions are better for our soldiers but they are estimating that tens of thousands will suffer from PTSD in the future.

It seems our troop rotation might be on a longer period as the Soviets had over 600,000 troops over the 9 year period. I don't remember the exact number but I think the US has sent about 400,000 troops over to the area over the past 5 years.

Lastly, the Soviets never had more than 105,000 troops occupying one country. We currently have 180,000 spread all over the place.

Medical Establishment Billing Me Before Insurance

Kathy — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 15:29:29 -0800

I have avoided a certain medical establishment until my doctor moved. Now I'm with them. The doctor is great. The behemoth corporation he works for is not. I've seen a doctor 3 times in like 12 years. One of them was after I gave birth. I've seen a nurse practitioner for the "annual" pap smear - which I guess is now every 3 years.

The newest thing? They sent out a bill directly to me - BEFORE billing insurance. I called their number, gave my name and account number. I am not in the greatest of moods. I ask the lady, it is my job to bill the insurance? It was pretty obvious the insurance was not billed as their balance was $0 and mine was the entire amount.

No, was the answer. We billed very quickly after the lab. Really? No duh. Just ignore the bill.

Well I'm glad I have time to call them and follow up. If only I were older and had a health problem that kept me from calling to follow up. Wow, they may have actually received a check in the mail from both the patient and the insurance company - once they got around to billing the insurance company, that is.

Kitchen Finished

Kathy — Sat, 17 Nov 2007 05:59:55 -0800

With the finishing and installation of the upper cabinets and bar area, the kitchen is finally done.

Here is the before:

Here is the after: