Letter to Government Officials regarding Health Care

The letter below was sent to the following government officials:

• President Trump
• Senators Grassley, Casey, and Toomey
• Representative Thompson
• Governor Wolf
• State Representatives Struzzi and White

Our healthcare system is corrupted and needs to be fixed. Please make this a priority on the legislative agenda.

In August of 2018, I went to my doctor and she ordered routine blood work for me to have done. A few days later I went to the Indiana Regional Medical Center (IRMC) to have the lab work done. At the time, IRMC said insurance would not pay for it because it wasn't coded correctly. IRMC told me they would contact my doctor and have them recode the order and it should be fine.

Approximately six weeks later I get a bill from IRMC in the amount of $161.62. I contacted IRMC and they said insurance did not pay for the entire amount and I needed to pay the rest. I contacted the insurance company and they said that part of the blood work was not covered because I am healthy. I contacted the doctor's office and they said it is all routine blood work that gets done and should be covered.

IRMC blamed the insurance. The insurance blamed the doctor's office. The doctor's office said there was nothing they could do because they are part of a different hospital group. Finally, at the end of November I gave up and just paid the bill. I made it clear to IRMC, my doctor's office, and the insurance company that I will no longer be participating in wellness type visits. All of my care will now go through Urgentcare or Emergency room care visits, which will ultimately cost the insurance company more than if they would just cover routine care.

But here is where the true corruption lies:
IRMC billed the insurance for $340.
Insurance paid $46.08.
I paid $161.62.
The discounted insurance rate was apparently equal to $132.30.

However, the ultimate corruption is in the fact that I could have just walked in off the street with no doctor's order and requested the lab work for $40 at IRMC.

So, how much does this routine blood work really cost? $340 as billed by IRMC? $207.70 as paid for by myself and the insurance? Or $40 if I just walk in to the lab and request the blood work? Even better, I found out that my employer is now providing a free wellness blood work program sponsored by non other than IRMC! Truly amazing and corrupted. I would be interested to hear Stephen Wolfe, the President and CEO of IRMC who makes over $500,000 a year, try to explain this to me or other people trying to make sense of the healthcare system.

Once again, our healthcare system is corrupted and needs fixed. Please make this a priority on the legislative agenda in the coming year.

Sincerely,

Tech Rec

I am frequently asked what computers or other technology I recommend, so I have decided to publish my list of recommended tech that I use.

Desktop Computer: Dell XPS line
Laptop Computer:Dell XPS line
Chromebook: ACER or Samsung
SmartPhone: Samsung
Tablet: Samsung
Streaming Device: ROKU

Egg Nog

As the 2018 holiday season winds down, so does the opportunity to purchase egg nog. Once again this year after sampling several varieties, the reigning champion of egg nog is:

Southern Comfort Traditional Egg Nog

Book Review

Make Peace With Money by Lorna McLeod

This book takes the reader on a journey to, as the title suggests, make peace with money. It contains 14 focused chapters to help you do so. Each chapter starts with an inspiring quote and ends with activities for the reader to complete and additional resources for further learning.

A few of the key components to have peace with money are:

• having a clear goal for money
• being able to pay your bills calmly
• turn negative thoughts into positive thoughts and actions
• live within your means
• be able to donate to causes you find important

I believe this book can be very helpful for those that are serious about changing their relationship with money. I did not download the workbook or complete the activities at the end of each chapter. I believe the activities are worthwhile and I have already done much of what was recommended.

Providing additional resources at the end of each chapter is a great idea for those that want to learn more about the topic discussed or for those that didn't fully grasp the message of the chapter.

I recommend this book to anyone struggling with and wanting to change their relationship toward money.

Managing Your Photos

Everyone takes a lot of photos these days and usually with multiple devices (phones, tablets, cameras etc). It can be challenging to manage without a good plan to follow consistently. Below is the process I have used for many years and it works well for me. I make it a priority to work on photos from the previous month at the beginning of each new month. So on January 1st, I stored December's photos.

The first step is to get all of your photos onto your computer for long term storage and remove them from your device.

If your devices have a removable storage card then you can easily copy the photos from the storage card to your computer using a usb sd card adapter. The photos are usually located in the DCIM folder on android devices.

If your devices do not have a removable storage card then you will need to upload your photos to a cloud storage service such as google drive or dropbox. You will want to make sure you do this over a wi-fi connection so you are not using your wireless data plan allotment.

The easiest and best location to store your photos is in the pictures folder (Windows 10). Inside that folder I recommend making a folder for each year and within each year make a folder for each month.

Copy all of the photos you took in the previous month to the correct folder. So if you are storing December 2018 photos then it would be stored in the path of \Pictures\2018\December.

Once you have all of your photos for the month stored onto your computer, I recommend making a backup copy to a USB flash drive. These can be purchased for under $25. Then at the end of the year, I recommend taking the entire year of photos and burning them onto CD or DVD for longer term storage.

I have found this process takes less than 30 minutes per month and helps keep your photos organized and safe. I hope this helps someone, let me know in the comments below if you have other tips or tricks.

Always Thinking Here at Doe Valley

Book Review

Hope For Today by David Jeremiah

This is a daily devotional book for the entire year. The book has a nice faux leather cover and built in ribbon bookmark. Each daily reading contains a brief scripture and a two minute devotion to read.

Overall, this was an okay devotion. The scripture didn't always match up nicely to the daily devotion and the reading certainly didn't delve into the deeper scriptural meaning. There also didn't appear to be a theme from day to day. It just seemed like simply random daily devotions.

The devotions were meant to be inspiring so they certainly go well with the theme of the book giving you "Hope for Today."

If you are looking for a devotional book that delves into scripture each day, then this book is not for you. If, on the other hand, you are looking for a feel good daily devotional then I think this book will serve you well for the year.