Michael's Musings

November 2, 2011

"The trouble with quotes on the Internet is that you never know if they are genuine."  --  Abraham Lincoln

You have a creative day.

Michael

Comments (0)     

November 1, 2011

Today, I am going to rant about my hospital's billing policies.

I had a minor procedure done there in early July of this year.  Everything, thank God, turned out fine, but the hospital did not bill my insurance company until September 26th.

The claim was paid on October 7th.

Yesterday, October 31st, I got a dunning phone call from the hospital's collection department.  They claimed they had not received payment and wanted me to call my insurance company.  I did that and was given the information I related in the previous paragraph.

I called back the hospital and they still claimed they had not received payment.  Then, they told me that, not only does it take 30-45 days from receipt for a payment to be credited to a patient's account, but they start dunning patients for payment 30 days after the initial bill has been presented.

How stupid is that?

My insurance company pays within approximately 10 days, but it is going to take the hospital between 30-45 days FROM RECEIPT before they know that they even have the payment.  In the meantime, they are harassing the patient.

This is the 4th or 5th time since we've been in Austin that this has happened... and it has always involved this hospital.

I spoke to the Administration office and told them that, the next time this happens, I'm going to tell the caller that they should call my insurance company and if they don't want to do that, they can sue me.  Then, I will hang up.

End of rant.  Have a creative day.

Michael

Comments (0)     

October 31, 2011

Tonight, as everybody knows, is Halloween and all the little ghosts and goblins are going to be knocking on our door for treats.

Hopefully, they won't clean us out because wife Sandy got miniature Hershey bars to give to the kids and I really love those things.  If all goes well, we'll have a bunch of them left over for me.

I still don't know if we're going to do that excerpt from my play, JOLSON, for the Jewish War Veterans benefit.  Not only do we need to find an actor who can do it, but they also have to be able to put in the rehearsal time to pull it off.  And, time is running out.

Meanwhile, I've started work on a new novel.

It's a multiple character piece, ala BEST IN SHOW and NASHVILLE.  I'm not going to discuss the premise, but I am approaching this project differently than my earlier works in that I'm going to write the chapters that define my key characters before I lock in the specifics of the plot.

This will not be a fast write.

Have a safe and creative Halloween.

Michael

Comments (0)