Say Yes to Reconciliation Today!

This is really terrible but when I heard Saturday about the Chile earthquake my first terrible thought was not for the poor victims of the quake but, HOW CAN WE AS A COUNTRY AFFORD TO SEND HELP? This stomach sickening thought was then followed by Obama taking another photo op to announce and promise Chile all the help needed from the United States. By this point I was really sick, by myself and wanted to throw up.

Now this is really going to shock my conservative friends and readers of this blog. I am for "reconciliation" that's right I am for "RECONCILIATION". And, it reconciliation be done right NOW as I'm writing!

That's right Mr. Obama I'm for RECONCILIATION right now, unfortunately I'm not sure you're qualified to do it. You say you have a law degree well we haven't seen it or even your birth certificate and so far your entire qualifications consist of being a community organize for a corrupt organization, an Illinois politician and we know they're pretty much all crooks, a very short term US Senator (and no good at that) and now a very poor leader of the free world as president! But, back to reconciliation - before you start giving out OUR money again, you need to take out paper, pencil and a big eraser and RECONCILE our US checkbook! I hate to tell someone as arrogant as you but, the country with your help in the last 14 months is BROKE. To help you out that means we have NO money to give to anyone! If you write another check it is going to bounce! You know what that means? If you write another "Big One" check you should go to jail for writing bad checks! E.D. Hill and I we're talking about this on Radio Sandy Springs and America's Web Radio yesterday, simply put the US government is broke, out of money, can't afford to do anything and we are basically owned by China.

I know it is too much to ask you Barrack (first names good enough for him, good enough for me), you Ms. Pelosi, you Mr. Reid to understand but this crazy spending here and around the world has to STOP! Both parties are guilty and the American Voter is pissed and we're going to put a stop to your inability to represent US. So listen and listen good the country is broke, and we don't like you, the crooks you surround yourself with or your policies and this goes for the administration and Congress. God, how many crooks have we elected and kept in Congress, hello Charlie!

We must stay involved, must NOT let ObamaCare pull one over on us and MUST attack in November with our vote and get rid of these NON-Americans (socialist/communist) that we put in power. We put them there to serve NOT destroy our economy and nation as a whole. Stay upset, sick and tired of these jerks in office and let's work together to get rid of them!

Say YES to Reconciliation Today-Let's make the idiots in power RECONCILE our US checkbook before they spend another dime of our (your) tax dollar!

Until
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It's Your Health!

6 Ways Your Health Insurance Company Makes It Hard For Your Doctor To Take Care Of You

By: Dr. Elaina George

There is a major misconception about the reasons for the rise in the cost of healthcare. Procedures and the practice of defensive medicine have been described as the main reasons for the exponential rise. However, the reality could not be farther from what is portrayed on TV series like Nip/Tuck. The medical insurance industry has fueled the campaign of misinformation to enhance their divide and conquer strategy. As long as people spend their energy on blaming doctors, they have less energy to pay attention to rising deductibles, premiums and co-insurance. In short, the insurance companies benefit by keeping doctors and patients at odds. In reality when a doctor charges for a procedure or performs a surgery what is paid is no where near the amount that was charged. In short, the increase in patient premiums, deductibles etc… have gone to pay administrative costs and CEO salaries.

These are 6 things you need to know so you can understand the barriers your doctor has to navigate to take good care of you:

1. Insurance companies change what they will pay for

Through the pre-certification process, insurance companies will change what services they will reimburse. This list can change yearly. It is driven by insurance company costs and not by medical necessity as determined by the doctor and the patient.

2. Insurance companies have gatekeepers that look for reasons to deny recommended services

Insurance companies have physicians and/or nurses on staff that can deny services. The person that reviews the procedure may not even be someone familiar with the medical procedure (for example, a psychiatrist reviewing the records of a surgeon).

3. Insurance gatekeepers get bonus compensation when they save the company money

This is pretty self explanatory – it pays to deny care.

4. Insurance companies discount payments for surgery and other procedures.

This is a process called bundling. If the procedure has a left and right side like knee surgery or has several steps. like sinus surgery, the surgeon will be paid a steeply discounted rate that can be as high as an 80% discount. For example, a surgeon will be paid the discounted insurance allowed amount for the 1^st side and 50% for the second side. If it is a multi-step procedure, the surgeon will be paid the allowed amount for the 1^st step, 50% for the second step and 25% for 3-5^th step then nothing for anything beyond the 5^th step.

5. Insurance companies make a bigger profit by delaying payment to doctors

A study showed that an insurance company can make as much as $84,000 in bank interest rates each day they pay

a claim late. By law an average clean claim (with no errors) should be paid from 14-30 days after it is submitted

by a doctor’s office. The average claim is paid anywhere from 30-45 days. Some claims, after multiple appeals,

can take up to a year to be paid after the service was given.

6. Insurance companies can ask the doctor for reimbursement of paid claims indefinitely.

A doctor has 120 days to submit a claim, after that time he/she may not submit a charge or charge the patient. However, an insurance company can ask for reimbursement with no time limit.

Get Sick Read Health Care Bill

We've all heard of a "crock" well here it is http://www.thefoxnation.com/health-care-bill/2009/08/13/shocked-read-what-heath-care-bill-actually-says
This is from FOX and it "is what it is" a CROCK and OUR congresspersons wrote this BS that first is so misleading, hard to read, and with so many hidden or "to be interpreted" sentences it makes it unbelievable. How can we keep any of OUR "so called" representatives? They sure don't seem to represent me and I doubt you.

WE the PEOPLE must get representatives that will live under the same laws, rules and policies that they want us to. There is NO one in any public office that would want this "CROCK" of health care plan and have to live with it OR maybe I should say DIE with it. You're not going to see my representative begging to go under this plan but he'll say it's good enough for you, me and our families. I say if a person running for public office, particularly federal, won't sign a pledge to eat off the same plate they want to serve us then WE should NOT support the hypocrite. Do you honestly think Pelosi or Reed would stoup so low as to go under this so called health care plan?

Please ONLY support the candidate that will pledge to live like you and me!

These are the views of Radio Sandy Springs and America's Web Radio we invite you to comment AFTER you've read the bill.

Health Care - More to Talk About

The health care debate has morphed into open season on doctors

By Dr. Elaina George, M.D.

When I read that the president had met with CEOs and other top representatives of the largest health insurance companies, hospitals and pharmaceutical companies before healthcare reform was crafted by Congress, I had my doubts about the direction of health care reform confirmed.

I already had reservations about whether we would get true reform when the very members of Congress who were tasked to lead the crafting of the bill had received hundreds of thousand of dollars from the very entities that were the major cause of the problem - the health insurance industry, big PhRMA, and for profit hospitals.

No wonder we have been seeing commercials sponsored by big PhRMA in support of the current health reform bill. It appears it is quid pro quo for the administration's deal to cap their concessions at 80 billion dollars over 10 years. NY Times Article

If I were a drug company executive or stockholder, I would be happy to support a bill that keeps the government from importing cheaper medication from Canada, and locks it into buying brand medication instead of cheaper generics. (The discounts that Big PhRMA is willing to extend only apply to brand name drugs - the most expensive choice.)

The health insurance companies who also support the healthcare reforms proposed by the President also stand to gain. Although they did not promise to make any concessions, they benefit by receiving more people to pay premiums since there is a mandate that everyone carry insurance (public or private) or face monetary sanctions. Market forces will draw people who are sicker and don't have the economic means to the public option leaving private insurance companies with members who are younger, healthier and have the ability to pay the premiums.

The argument that the public option will drive down costs is disingenuous - how can a program designed to cover about 10 million people (as per the Congressional Budget Office) really exert any pressure on the health insurance industry when a company like Blue Cross and Blue Shield has over 30 million members and United Healthcare is even larger? Even the President's health adviser Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel admits that although small insurance companies would likely go out of business, those private insurance companies left standing would support a reform plan that would bring "45 million new paying customers to the industry".

Hospitals have been given a pass. There has been no discussion on cutting the costs associated with hospital care. I have performed surgeries that where the hospital was paid 20-30 times what I have been paid. Is that fair? The hospital makes a profit on every item charged (e.g., per aspirin given, per IV placed or per box of tissue). It is this practice that has led to the astronomical costs and the prevalence of health care related bankruptcies. Initially there was talk of changing payments to a system where the payments could be bundled, but that has disappeared.

The physicians and other healthcare providers on the front line who actually deliver care have been demonized as the cause of health care costs run amuck. That is simply not true. The fact is no physician can just order test after test. Each time a test is ordered or a surgery is recommended, there has to be a medical indication for it. Furthermore, the test or surgery requested must be pre-certified by the insurance company after patient records are submitted. There are medical indications and standards of care put in place by a medical or surgical board for whether a test or surgery should be performed. This is in addition to the pre-certification process of the insurance company. The reality is insurance companies have routinely superseded this and have denied care that is medically indicated to save money and boost their profits.

My question still remains unanswered. How can a reform bill that clearly serves the interests of the health insurance companies, big PhRMA and for profit hospitals possibly be a good thing for patients or doctors?

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