A New Trend in Medicine

Hubby and I have been actively working over the last few months to keep up on our health by making doctors appointments, conducting routine physicals and getting our blood work done. I was tremendously surprised the other day when I made an appointment with my general physician and was informed that in order to be seen I would need to put down a $150 deposit. Say what?

You see, I was told that since I have a high deductible plan, I am expected to pay $150 in advance before ever stepping foot in my doctor's office. I finally was able to make someone in the office see reason and allow me to attend my physical sans the deposit since the appointment would eventually be 100% covered by my insurance. I was chastised that they would "waive it this one time but next time you will have to pay." I had questions, lots of questions. No one could answer them, so I took it up the chain of command until I talked to someone at the business office.

Apparently, the Medical Group we are with was recently purchased by Praxis Medical Group and this policy was implemented by them when the merger/takeover took place in July of this year. The policy states that if you have ANY deductible that hasn't been met, whether that be $500 or $5000, you are expected to pay a deposit of $150 up front. If you are a poor person off the street with no insurance, you pay a deposit of $150 up front to be seen by a doctor. What are the chances of getting that deposit back, you might ask? Zero to none. Most doctors visits cost $145-$500.

I went around in circles for awhile with the kind lady on the phone as she tried to explain the deposit was because "my insurance won't cover it until my deductible was met" and me saying "yes, I know, I understand that. Why can't I see my doctor and be billed after the appointment?" Finally I just politely but exasperatedly told her that I have an ethical dilemma with their policy. Not only am I not comfortable with paying for a service that I haven't yet received but this goes against everything the medical profession is supposed to stand for, in my opinion.

Does this feel as wrong to you as it does to me?

I have $150. I could pay it. But I won't. Because what about the people who can't? 

While private physicians aren't legally required to accept patients who they think or know can't pay, this is on ethically shaky ground for me. Requiring anyone to pay such a large sum in advance in order to seek medical treatment creates a barrier that will PREVENT people from seeing a doctor. The mere idea that a doctor would withhold treatment until a credit card or check is handed over is an abomination.

We will be finding a different doctor with a different Medical Group. I told the lovely lady on the phone that. Because their policy is ethically unjustifiable. Hubby and I are powerless to change their policy but what we can do is not give them our money. 

Teeny Tiny House: New Oven

Flashback to 2013 when we purchased our house. As with most homes, and especially in our case since the former owner was deceased, you don't truly know what is wrong with a house until some time after. One of the discoveries we made was a mice infestation. Luckily, hubby was able to solve that problem pretty quickly and we haven't had issues with mice since.

Fast forward to one month ago. Matt was late from work and I was putting a spaghetti dinner together with fresh garlic bread. I had the oven working overtime with three burners going simultaneously with the broiler for toasting. Suddenly the smoke alarm goes off, I check the bread in the oven, but it isn't finished nor burnt. The food on the stove top is also fine. Strange, right?

Hubby makes his way in the door and smiles at me because he can smell the burnt odor in the air. He obviously thinks that I must have burnt dinner again but I assure him that whatever is happening with the oven, it wasn't my cooking.

After dinner, the odor wasn't dissipating, if anything it was even more concerning since there was a slight "electrical" smell to it. Hubby pulled the oven out and started taking it apart. Finally asserting that the stench was coming from under the cook top, he pulled the entire oven out into the garage. He asked me to hold the top open so he could dig around in the insulation and find the problem. What we discovered was a desiccated body of a mouse. Apparently, 5 years ago when the mice had run of the house, this one had climbed into the stove in-between the cook top and oven and made its nest in the insulation and died. After all these years of being cooled and heated, the tiny mouse body had combusted and started a fire. I was horrified and disgusted and wished I could throw up 5 years worth of meals that had been cooked in this mouse-ridden oven. Needless to say this appliance stayed in the front yard until the recycler could come pick it up.

It took a couple of weeks of shopping and waiting for delivery, but our new oven arrived and boy, is it fancy! We ended up selecting a convection oven which cooks things to perfection. We didn't realize how poorly our old oven worked until we had this one. Everything is so hot! It even has a setting for dough proofing which I can't wait to use. We are hosting Thanksgiving this year and are very much looking forward to roasting a turkey.