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Pastimes : Don't Ask Rambi -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: epicure who wrote (41336)	11/8/1999 6:58:00 PM
From: Gauguin	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 71178

I also really wonder about this. It kind of goes with the horror of pain realization. All the people who can't HASSLE BIGTIME with the corps(e). (Same as with the IRS.) MJ and I have discussed this very thing. It freaks us. This is the amazing thing: HMO Oregon, has disbursed somewhere between 100,000 and 200,000.00 for my care in the last, oh, seven years. (Before that, I was paying out of cash.) THEY HAVE NEVER MADE A MISTAKE. In 200 transactions? THEY HAVE NEVER SCREWED US. THEY HAVE MODERATED OUTRAGEOUS FEES. CONTROLLED PHARMACY COSTS. THEY HAVE NEVER DENIED ANYTHING OF PRETTY MUCH THE SLIGHTEST IMPORTANCE HAVE MADE US SO GRATEFUL WE TRY TO SAVE THEM MONEY. ARE PROUD TO. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ We are ashamed and disturbed that HMO's and the med system don't work this way for everyone. Why? WHY?? WHAT THE HELL ARE THESE GUYS DOING, OTHER PEOPLE CAN'T? I mean, if we're inclined to think this type of organizational structure CANNOT BE RUN, JUST CAN'T BE ~ ~ ~ ~ THINK AGAIN, BATMAN. It IS being done. Sorry for all the caps. I get freaked out by this stuff. And the waste. What is the organizational cost of all those phone calls and people-hours you needed to consume? Multiply it. Disaster.

To: epicure who wrote (41336)	11/8/1999 8:11:00 PM
From: jpmac	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 71178

For me, I've been amazed by my HMO. They're an example of how it can work. So why don't the other companies? And your thoughts about people of average or below intelligence are dead on. But not just them. I'm smart enough in most areas but I do not deal with red tape. I don't deal with that kind of stuff at all. If they hassled me, I'd turn tail and pay and then not go to the doctor again. I've had major worries that this going to the doctor for my nerve/neck thing would turn into stuff and I wouldn't be able to deal with it and that'd be that. I'm incredibly grateful and surprised that it has not so far. Even the calls for pre-approval of tests that either the patient or the doctor has to make, the doctor's office has made. I've been gushingly grateful. And I know that, unlike many, I have the brains and upbringing to know how to do it. I just don't have the where-with-all. I'm lost in a system like that, or lost from it. A waif. I feel like carrying little angel pins to stick on all these people. The companies that screw people have no excuse. It can be done well.

To: epicure who wrote (41336)	11/8/1999 8:17:00 PM
From: jpmac	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 71178

Then there's my sister's tale with Alabama disability and Social Security. But that's a long, ugly story. I don't like either of them nor think they (as an organization) care much about who they are serving. If she didn't have the brains and guts, and a family and the money to back her up, she'd be sunk. Just another blind person barely getting by on a pittance and begging for scraps. Instead she has graduated from Grad school with a 4.0, aced her comps, and has people lined up to hire her after she completes her internship. Amazingly, this is not what Disability or SS wanted. The fight has been unbelievable to me. I can get worn out with my sister sometimes, but she had plenty to be crazy about dealing with them. And a heck of a lot of gumption to do it.