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Family Values posted:Just a PSA (for you or anyone else reading), but don't ever put yourself in this position. Just because you're out of work doesn't mean you're invulnerable to traffic accidents or any other random disaster. Pay for COBRA to stay on your old plan (up to 18 months, although some states like CA double that) until you find a new job. Always have continuous coverage. Agreed with this if you can afford COBRA. It's amazing how loving expensive some employer plans are once you remove the subsidization, and now you have no income.
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Mar 8, 2017 00:33
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quote:And when you think about it the percentage is meaningless overall if I'm reading this correctly. If I'm healthy (and dumb) I can skip health insurance for 10 or 20 years until something comes up. And that 30% for the first year is dwarfed by the savings in not paying premiums for decades. The dumb part would still be necessary because the risk calc of not having insurance ignores all the thousands of minor things that aren't organ transplants that can still wipe out all your savings and/or bankrupt you if you don't have insurance.  Even simple bloodwork will run you a grand at cash-payer price these days--mine was just $953 before insurance adjustments down to $3.72. 
Sundae fucked around with this message at 08:27 on Mar 8, 2017 |
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Mar 8, 2017 08:24
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call to action posted:It's sort of weird seeing people defend PPACA as a jobs program when they'd never do the same for the F-35 program. Are we going to use the F-35 to get poor people to the hospital faster? Is that how it's comparable to the PPACA and not a ridiculous comparison?
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Mar 10, 2017 22:34
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quote:Maybe I've misunderstood, and I'd be happy to be corrected, but my understanding is that the goal of the whole sell-insurance-across-state-lines thing would be to have the federal government forbid states from having these kinds of regulations. Probably true, but still hilarious in how it's effectively the government saying "in the name of states' rights, we forbid the states from exercising any rights that exceed that other state's decisions!"
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Mar 15, 2017 19:44
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Solkanar512 posted:What prevents the bold item (1a) from happening to begin with? Why can't say, the Chamber of Commerce, set up their own plan and allow member businesses to join up, forming a solid risk pool of tons of small and medium sized businesses? That sort of thing seems like it would be a huge boon to smaller businesses and their employees. What am I missing here? Agreed - isn't this already the existing state? How else do groups like SFWA, RWA, etc have their own insurance groups?
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Jun 28, 2017 20:37
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KingNastidon posted:Cafepharma is just an anon rumor and poo poo starting forum. Think how many people work in commercial / sales at a company the size of Pfizer or Amgen and then look at the post counts. It's not a representative sample of the industry. Moreover, CafePharma is literally the shittiest poo poo in the entire industry. Nothing worthwhile has ever been posted there, ever. The real gems were at BioFind, but that site's long gone. 
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Aug 28, 2018 15:22
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I received an unusual letter from my (now former) primary care provider this week. Effective 01JAN2019, they are not going to accept any insurance. Zippo. No Medicare, Medicaid, Cal-Med, UHC, BCBS, etc etc. All cash / credit, that's it. ' I'm guessing they got fed up of having any customers at all or something, because I can't figure out how that'd work at all when you don't offer urgent care or emergency services.
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Nov 11, 2018 00:58
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Willa Rogers posted:Is the practice turning into a concierge practice that charges a monthly or annual fee to see docs? Yeah. New base cost $2,000 per year for their mandatory wellness services plus appointment costs. Immediate "gently caress no" from me and a change to a new provider. quote:Cant you get your insurance to reimburse the transactions you make? I'm not going to bother finding out. I'm just changing providers. No shortage of doctors in the bay area.
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Nov 11, 2018 01:55
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So what's the solution here, to you people? Let everyone have CPAP parts willy-nilly when they don't use them? Around 50% of CPAP users are non-compliant and do not use the device enough to be therapeutic. Let's go to the magical single-payer land now--are you proposing that there be no cost controls on them? Someone, somewhere, presumably has the power to say "you aren't even using the damned thing, no we're not spending more $$ on you." So far we've had "not insurers" and "not Medicare" so who gets to refuse you access to an ongoing expensive treatment that you refuse to use correctly? Or is that "nobody" in your book, and we all have a dusty CPAP decorating our bedside table? I loving love mine, but if I wasn't using it, I'd totally get taxpayers not wanting to keep funding my wasted replacement parts or initial unit fee. Edit: ^^^ Okay, so there's one answer. Your doctor can refuse you treatment if he thinks you're not compliant.
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Nov 21, 2018 21:29
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Lightning Knight posted:Also I feel like we're just assuming that people using CPAP machines incorrectly is just this immutable fact of life and not something we could address with education and compassionate healthcare doctrine? There are several factors with it. There are multiple mask types, some of which work better than others for different people, and there are also multiple different types of things we all more or less lump under CPAP (APAP, CPAP, BIPAP, etc etc). Depending on why you need it and the intensity of your symptoms, also, your usage patterns / requirements may differ as well. The biggest drawback I've seen from people using them is (1) either ignoring treatment and only using them when they've had a bad night before, or (2 and more common) not making it through the initial month of adjustment period before you give up. It almost always feels "weird" at the beginning, and it may be uncomfortable dealing with the mask especially if the ideal airflow settings aren't known yet. Beyond that, some of the more complicated machines (APAP/BIPAP) have additional breathing control settings which may be perfect for you while you're asleep, but are uncomfortable as loving hell while you're awake. Now take that and add in the human elements. Not all patients are forthcoming about problems, not all patients know what to even ask, and a lot of doctors loving suck at patient interaction. The end result is a complicated mess of set-up, patients and doctors who don't like talking to each other, stuff with a lot of trial-and-error even when you put sleep studies into place, and an insurance industry doing everything in their power to minimize the amount they cover for it. Sure, you can get them using it correctly. It's just a big, stupid task filled with stupid people every step of the way.  Edit: There are also even dumber factors which shouldn't play into it but you know do, such as people grumbling about not being able to get the hose to reach from location X to their bed, plug locations, variable temperatures causing your starting humidification settings to become a torrential waterfall of condensate around 4AM, etc etc. About the only thing I've seen that is mostly not a factor is noise. Those things are QUIET when they're on your face. quote:I actually really wanted to take this moment to talk about CPAP experiences, even though it's outside the spirit of the thread somewhat, because I have one and it's done me no good at all. Sadly, I can see that that isn't going to happen given the current tenor of the thread. VVVVV My post is for you then! 
Sundae fucked around with this message at 21:52 on Nov 21, 2018 |
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Nov 21, 2018 21:49
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JustJeff88 posted:I actually really wanted to take this moment to talk about CPAP experiences, even though it's outside the spirit of the thread somewhat, because I have one and it's done me no good at all. Sadly, I can see that that isn't going to happen given the current tenor of the thread. I have one for central sleep apnea (where your brain just doesn't send the signals to breathe, basically). You clean the mask roughly weekly, the tubing monthly, change the filters roughly quarterly. You need space near your bed and an adequate number of plugs. You need the space to also be conducive to having a hose lying around, or size the hose correctly. I sleep on the floor, so there's no hose drag issue for me. I know a lot of people complain about that, though. Sleeping position is really only restricted either by hose length or if you're wearing one of the full-cup masks with yours, and even then it's not too bad. I use one of the nose-pillow styles and roll back and forth pretty constantly without issues. You do need to be good with the water tank and in particular using only distilled water in it. My largest problem has been temperature change. When I go to bed, my room is typically around 70*F and will drop to 45*F or so during the night. That difference is significant enough that the humidification controls that work great in the early night will result in condensation pooling once it gets colder, and sometimes that condensate decides I need a good old-fashioned drowning around 3-4AM once it's accumulated enough that the air pressure pushes it into my lungs. Doesn't happen often, but I'd say 4-5 times in the last six months it's done it. What kinds of problems are you having with yours? When you say "no good" what were you trying to solve? quote:Right, I understand this. My dad has a CPAP machine and it was a struggle to get him to use it consistently. I'm just saying, some of these factors could be addressed with doctor training and better doctor-patient relationships, we shouldn't just assume that it's an unchangeable reality I think. Agreed. Sundae fucked around with this message at 22:04 on Nov 21, 2018 |
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Nov 21, 2018 21:58
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quote:(Disclosure: I work in pharma marketing / market research) Just want to let you know, down here in the R&D basements we all hate you. 
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Nov 22, 2018 02:52
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Rhesus Pieces posted:Somethings really gotta give, and soon Yep. Your organs. They'll give first.
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May 3, 2019 18:44
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Gobbeldygook posted:Allowing hospitals and pharmacies to legally YOLO it with Krazy Kumar's Discount Drugs is not an acceptable solution. 1) API gets made at Dr. Reddy's, India, then gets shipped to Las Piedras, PR. 2) Dosage form gets tableted and put into primary package at Las Piedras, tossed onto pallets and sent to the USA mainland. 3) Bottle labels and secondary packaging are performed at a factory in Pennsylvania, J&J label slapped on box, marked "Made in Fort Washington, PA." 4) Drug ships to distributors and pharmacies, is totally not KKDD YOLO medications because we labeled it in Pennsylvania.
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Dec 18, 2019 19:46
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| # ¿ May 2, 2024 22:34 |
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Nah, the people who didn't are all dead now too.
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Aug 25, 2020 04:18
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