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Vladimir

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Everything posted by Vladimir

  1. Does it work well with boondocking locations on public lands??? Or is it geared more to commercial RV parks and main routes.
  2. Anybody using RV LIFE TRIP WiZARD.....a friend of mine just bought it and is tearing out his hair. Comments. Vladimir
  3. GEHA had TWO "utter loads of BS". The first was that explaining the billing code to the patient is prohibited under HIPAA. The second was the "incorrect" billing address which automatically kicked out a $51 dollar charge for my physical. The original call to customer service identified the "incorrect address" and that it would be fixed. When it wasn't fixed, I called again and talked to a supervisor that said they were NOT going to fix it and that I would have to APPEAL to fix it. Really, you admit you made a mistake and now you want me to jump through a unnecessary hoop to fix it?? At that point, I had already initiated "fraud" charges through the state of Washington Attorney Generals office. The Inspector General for the Federal government health FRAUD department told me to appeal and GEHA would refund my $51 dollars. I told them I didn't care about the $51, but the fraud and stealing the money from taxpayers and patients was systematic and that needed fixed. We do have the best government money can buy and GEHA still owes me $51 dollars. I waited for my next physical before doing anything since it was a month away. I decided to wait a month to include the SECOND physical in the fraud charges. In 2020, President Trump signed the No Surprises Act, which required medical providers to tell folks in ADVANCE that they were going to be charged for an "out of network" provider. The Biden Administration published the new regulations in 2022. To paraphrase President Biden..." son of bitch, they paid for my entire physical without a co-pay of $51 charge". Turns out, if they had to tell me before hand that some of visits to MY DOCTOR in HER OFFICE was out of network, and in network for other visits I would immediately drop GEHA. GEHA is secondary. I pay $4,000 dollars in premiums for secondary coverage, and in addition the TAXPAYERS pay a additional 15,000 a year. For this GEHA charged me $51 for a physical that they covered when I was working without CO-PAY. As soon as I was under Medicare, they charged me $51 for the physical. Does that make any sense?? GEHA and other insurance carriers are making a fortune off Federal retirees and the taxpayers. And it is still NOT enough for them.
  4. I am traveling now, but under EOB I assume you mean the billing statement with the medical codes. Yes, I got the EOB's and called GEHA for them to explain what the billing codes meant. I was told that telling me the billing codes was a violation of HIPAA and they could NOT provide me with the information!!! Told me to go look up on the internet. Which I did. It had NOTHING to do with a annual physical. How do you contest a improper billing when GEHA will NOT tell you what you were billed for in the first place!!! Again, ATENA was the contractor that handled GEHA claims. This year it is United HealthCare. Life will not got better.
  5. I hear you, BUT there is no recourse except government to bring about fair outcomes when your dealing with insurance companies that will not HONOR or ABIDE the contracts they signed with the Federal government. Except, these days in the immortal words of Bob Brinker "we have the best government money can buy".
  6. John Wesley Harding and Bonnie and Clyde had lots of fans. They were upstanding people when it came to the lower classes. Somehow, I suspect United HealthCare doesn't share the same values as Harding and Bonnie and Clyde. In my case, the taxpayers are picking up my Medicare and insurance costs. They are ripping off the taxpayers. I sent a copy of the 'insurance contract" between the Federal government and GEHA. Page 38....GEHA will pay for a yearly physical WITHOUT co-pays. They just went ahead and charged my visit as NOT a physical and for good measure coded my visit out of network!!! Trump's approval of the NO SURPRISES MEDICAL ACT took care of the "out of network" scam. They, however, refuse to list my annual physical as a physical. They even went as far to REFUSE to tell me what the codes were on my billing as to the medical services I received!! How can I correct a wrong billing...if GEHA will not tell me what I was BILLED for in terms of medical services.
  7. Thanks for posting the link. I have insurance through GEHA?? NOPE. Last year Aetna administered the GEHA program. This year it moves to United Health Care. GEHA is just skimming the policy premiums and government payments. The entire system is corrupt. Where is Teddy Roosevelt when you need him??
  8. There was a Wall Street Journal article on insurance fraud by the INSURANCE COMPANIES against their customers. Atena had ONE doctor overseeing and accepting or denying claims from their clients. I am not sure how many Dr. Atena has reviewing claims. That one Dr. DENIED 600,000 insurance claims in one year!! Excluding vacations and holidays, that ONE Dr. denied a claim every FIVE SECONDS for while he was on the clock. That does not include the insurance claims he approved!!! The Wall Street Journal article noted that ZERO POINT FIVE percent of Atena clients appealed their denial of coverage. That one Dr. made Atena millions and millions of dollars in insurance claims that they did NOT have to pay. So it is with Molina. If less than one percent complained, the number of clients and non-clients (like me) the Molina defrauded is a really high number. When I filed my complaint with the Inspector General for health care fraud, he told me to appeal with GEHA and they would refund my $51 dollars. This for what looked a well designed fraud system that was defrauding the taxpayers and Federal employees for probably millions of dollars. We really need a Congressional investigation into health care insurance fraud by the INSURANCE companies. The other angle I would like to see investigated is the targeting of people by the insurance companies that cannot speak English. My parents did not speak English. I translated for them as a kid and I was amazed at the number of frauds that they were invited to participate in!!! I did give me a early understanding of how many people out there can rob you with a fountain pen. These days, I have had several insurance companies and medical offices when I call them ASK if I am translating for the person making the complaint. There is always a sense of surprise at the other end when I tell them "no, that is me. I speak perfect English.
  9. Can you quote yourself and then answer!!! Anyway, more information on Molina HealthCare of Washington and their business practices. I don't understand the fine, WHY IS THIS COMPANY STILL IN BUSINESS??? https://www.yoursourceone.com/columbia_basin/wa-fines-molina-healthcare-100-000-for-enrollment-and-billing-errors/article_b855bb32-e16e-11ee-b01d-8bd95a5974d0.html
  10. I noticed the same thing. I do think that insurance was better and fairer in the past. The computerization of medical care has allowed companies to "steal" money a little money from everyone on a large scale. The TWO the fraud cases I have been involved in the past two years were just that. Stealing a little bit of money from a lot of people. Computers make it easy.
  11. Yes they do. See next reply.............. The Forest Service has invested millions of dollars into remote toilet technology. https://usbackroads.blogspot.com/2012/05/sst-sweet-smelling-toilet.html When I worked for the Forest Service the taxpayers payed good money to put in composting toilets and then payed good money again to remove them because they did not work. Incinerating toilets have more potential. But they take a lot of energy to work and need a fuel source. The Forest Service budget includes MILLIONS of dollars for pumping those SST toilets. The agency would like to get rid of that cost. So far, they are still pumping the SST toilets, but at least we are no longer working with pre-1985 technology!! Call San Dimas and see what they are up to in toilet technology. There is at least one engineer working on that issue!! The cutting edge technology in back country toilets is with the Forest Service. Follow them.
  12. I am surprised that no one has answered your post. So here goes. I bought and own both the Generation One and Generation Two dish. The Generation Two dish works real well for RV'ing. The box is well designed for travel. It is fairly small. I installed the Generation Two at my vacation home business. It was a residential install. A couple of weeks ago, I took it on the road and switched to the mobile account. The install at the vacation home has wiring, router, etc. totally set-up that when I need to have the dish with me I just remove the dish. I have an extra router than works well at the vacation home, but I take it on the road so I don't have to remove it. I did get another modem cable to take on the road. The extra router made a huge difference in coverage at the vacation home. I ordered the Generation One dish when there was a waiting list. The Generation Two dish was a warranty replacement for the Generation One dish. I don't know what current waiting times are today. I understand that residential use is still limited in certain cells. You can get a mobile account right away, but when I switched plans I was warned that I might not be able to reinstall the dish at my residential local except as a mobile device. The speed did go down now that I am in the southwest. I don't know why that is, but it might be the greater number of dishes in my southern location. The biggest issue I have had is the StarLink web sites. They are awful. No voice support. Everything goes through the internet. Once you find where you need to be it is simple to change services. I was in Bakersfield, when the campground wanted me to sign up for their internet service. I thought that it might be a good time to set up my StarLink dish. In less than five minutes, I had the dish setup and changed my account to mobile and StarLink told me that billed me $14 for the remainder of the month. It took a bit longer for the StarLink to come totally on line. I would start a StarLink notebook with passwords and other information. It does make up for the lack of personal support. Do change your phones to wifi calling. In my view, this is one of the best reasons to switch to StarLink. Phone service everywhere. My next step is too go to a very cheap data and phone plan. No point paying $65 per line now. That helps take the sting out of buying the dish. It is limited to three devices hooked up at one time per agreement. I have never tried to hook four up at one time. Hope this helps. Oh set up instruction are there pictures!!! Just hook everything up and DON'T DO ANYTHING else. It will connect on its own!! First time I tried to point it north, etc. Don't.
  13. Thanks for posting the link. I was just at my regular Dr. office and he had an eye chart on the wall. I almost asked him if I could steal it!! Thought I could probably buy one on Amazon. But this is much better, giving me access to an eye chart whenever I travel, etc. etc. Thanks for the book reference, our library has it and I will check it out. I am really picky about my vision. I get my contact lenses corrected to 20/15. But it is much worse than that!! I have astigmatism and my contacts are weighed to rotate into the correct location. The eye chart quickly tells me how off my contact is for astigmatism correction. Sometimes, I get a "bad" contact and usually it is just off to 20/20 or 20/30, so I "suffer" for a month until it is time to replace. For me, it is a question of a bad contact or just poor rotation of the lens. I have my favorite set of trees on the ridge line to check my vision, the eye chart is easier. But it gets better. I also have a specific set of contacts made for astronomy use. Night myopia is not a serious condition, but boy do you see more stars when you have contacts for night use as opposed to a prescription for day use. I need to spend more time getting the perfect night prescription, and the eye chart is perfect for that. Yes, I did sit in the dark for 15 minutes before getting my "night" prescription. Aren't you glad your not my optometrist?? Almost forgot, since I always wear contacts I only carry glasses for emergency use, like losing a contact. So I can now sort my "old" glasses and know which ones are the best for emergency use or whether I need to buy a new set. Aren't you glad you asked the question??
  14. Hey, thanks for the explanation about a free lunch. I will forward it to all my economist friends. Never did know the origin. In other news, T-Mobile and StarLink has gotten text messaging to work. Looks like the service will be operational fairly soon. https://www.pcmag.com/news/spacexs-cellular-starlink-successfully-beams-first-text-messages-to-phones
  15. Starlink, I assume. I got StarLink not for the internet access, but for the wi-fi calling. It works great. I have a vacation rental in an area with no cell service. By providing wifi calling to my guests on StarLink they have access to their phones and friends. Most of guests do not use the internet, but they do use their phones a lot for talking to friends and sending them pictures from the home to get their friends jealous!!! In my case, I spend a lot of time alone in the woods. Having StarLink texting for emergencies would be great and then when I got back to camp I would use the wifi calling and internet features.
  16. This was in the Wall Street Journal yesterday. Here is the press release....from last to first in one simple step??? This will get me to switch. https://www.t-mobile.com/news/un-carrier/t-mobile-takes-coverage-above-and-beyond-with-spacex this is important: Text messaging, including SMS, MMS and participating messaging apps, will empower customers to stay connected and share experiences nearly everywhere. Afterwards, the companies plan to pursue the addition of voice and data coverage.
  17. I clicked on your link and found this..... The measurements took into account how easily people can access care, administrative procedures and equity around this care, and the quality of healthcare outcomes. The US came in 11th. BUT the headline "what are the countries with the best healthcare".....has nothing to do with the measurement criteria. If I am a healthcare patient my criteria for the BEST HEALTHCARE......has NOTHING to do with " ........how easily people can access care, administrative procedures and equity around this care, and the quality of healthcare outcomes." In all the countries I have had medical care, the US is by far the best. The criteria used in the study, has little to do with the healthcare people experience when they see a doctor. The criteria used in the study, might be important from a national policy perspective on health care in the US concerning the relative access, administrative procedures, equity and healthcare outcomes. They are important issues, but not really related to the quality of healthcare individuals receive in their respective countries.
  18. Early in my career as a dirt forester I drank the water, unfiltered, in Idaho and California forests for almost a decade or more and never got sick. Just before I retired I did talk to lots of Forest Service Wilderness Rangers and other employees that worked in the woods full time. About half filtered there water and half drank straight out of streams. I was surprised that half did not filter, since everybody that got a water borne illness was quite adamant about not going through that again!! Just before I retired there were studies that suggested water borne illnesses were the result of poor human sanitation by the individual. It means YOU were making YOURSELF sick by poor sanitation practices. A water borne illness is a lottery that you do not want to win. Maybe. I use my RV in the spring, fall and winter months. It pretty much is never used in the summer. It doesn't take long before I end up with issues. Really in the summer, I cannot go more than a month before the water tank is contaminated. The other issue, is that I do use untreated stream and lake water to fill my tank on occasion. I think if your totally running chlorinated city water through your tank you might have better success keeping your tanks "clean". I have previously posted about a Forest Service engineer that tracked his water borne illness to his RV tanks. He concluded that it is virtually impossible to keep the tanks clean. That doesn't mean that everybody gets sick, it just means the tests show contaminated water. When I was working, I was surprised at how often our water systems failed a clean water test. At any given moment maybe 1% failed the initial test. The Forest Service testing showed that the prime source of contamination were the threads on the faucets. That is why there are NO THREADS on Forest Service faucets in campgrounds. Two bad tests in a row, meant a cleaning of the water system. It would be interesting at a Escapees Escapade to have water testing done on the water systems. Once you do get a water borne illness you are much, much more sensitive to bad water. I use my water tanks for showering and washing dishes. The drinking water comes from 1 gallon water containers some of which I do refill from a tap. I even give my dog, treated water just because it is easier. I will drink water from a forested watershed stream before drinking it from my water tanks. I don't think most people actually are aware how much animal "poop" there is out in the woods. I have a mountain cabin on a meadow ringed by a trail for about four miles. It is great hiking for humans and animals. The amount of animal "poop" is amazing. It is everywhere!!! I remember in school, where we did a statistical survey on the amount of deer poop in a measured area in the Sierra Nevada mountains. Amazing numbers. It is a good that animals do not use toilet paper, because the hills would look like winter all summer long!!! My dogs tend to find it first. If your a dog, there is nothing finer then elk "poop". They will sniff, but not eat cougar, coyote, wolf, or in most cases deer. Elk on the other hand has been a special treat for every dog I have owned!!! When I was working I did have a couple of complaints about horse poop on trails and water quality. Horse poop is barely digested so is pretty clean when it comes to pathogens. Must be the reason most my dogs just roll in it, rather than eat it. It would be interesting to have someone do water quality tests at an Escapade. Just because your not getting sick, doesn't mean that your tank is not contaminated. And for folks for health issues, you don't want to get a water borne sickness. The ONE worry that I do have is that I wear contact lenses. And I REALLY try to keep things clean when inserting them. I have used "baby wipes", but my daughter informed me that they do NOT have "cleansing" to them. It is difficult to keep things "clean" while backpacking or RV'ing with limited water supplies. Anybody have tips on coping for this issue?? I do tend to switch and use dailies on fires and camping most of the time.
  19. I have met several Labradoodles up close and personal. Fine dogs. Since both poodles and labs are hunting breeds I expected them to have "some" hunting instinct. Absolutely none. My wife's Bichon is a better hunter than a Labradoodle!! https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-PGzJPMYaiQc/Ts0eRmcm4PI/AAAAAAAABag/J5XqLsFQTR0/s1600/vladimiir_snowpatch_pheasan.jpg The Bichon is a great hunter and is easy to carry in the hunting vest. https://4.bp.blogspot.com/--cJVutgrthg/VCxaEdoBuLI/AAAAAAAAD6o/DSOT0azkb60/s1600/vladimir_snowpatch_vest.jpg If you don't hunt go with the Labradoodles. I had a 100 lb German Longhair Pointer that jumped in and out of a one-ton truck and it didn't do his joints any favors. I now have a 25 lb French Brittany. I lifted her in and out when she was a puppy. She can jump FIVE feet straight up for a standing position. Won't do it to get into the truck, I need to pick her up and place her gently on the seat. I call her my French girl. Are all French girls that wimpy?? Get one of these. https://www.gundogsupply.com/garmin-alpha-100-tt15x-combo.html?utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&campaign=DPA&utm_term=GARMIN-ALPHA-100-TT15X-COMBO&gad_source=1&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIgrPkzva1gwMVPyCtBh24xQjVEAQYBCABEgIRn_D_BwE At least when they run off you will know EXACTLY where they are!! At some point, you can take out the shock prongs and just use the tone controls to get your dog to return to you. For a couple of hundred, you can get a collar without GPS. Train your dog to return to your BEEP, BEEP command when you push it. Remember you might not know where the dog is, but they know exactly where they are and how to get back home quickly. It is really easy just to push a button and then wait for your dog to return. Your neighbors will appreciate you not screaming your dogs name at high volume to get them to return.
  20. I actually got FOUR opinions. Continuity of care might have been an issue. I did find a emergency room doctor that was really good. We will see how my new doctor turns out. He graduated from the University of Moscow. NOT the University of Idaho at Moscow, but the other one 12 times zones out. He was on vacation so I called his nurse, for a trigger that would mean me going to the ER. That worked, as I ended up in the ER that night. The first question his nurse had was "she talking to Vladimir" since he had so many Russian speakers and she thought I was the translator. I told her in my 20's even with a name like Vladimir everybody expected me to speak English. Now that I am in my 70's with a name like Vladimir everybody assumes I do NOT speak English.
  21. Thanks for the concern. Went to my final follow up appointment yesterday. My blood pressure is finally down, and the doctor also added a drug to lower my daytime heart rate. That was new and different. I have always had a high heart rate, except when sleeping. I did get "instructions" on how to deal with lowering blood pressure and pulse in the future. Mine is directly correlated to weight. 5 lbs loss/gain is equal to 5 mg of Lisinipril. The thing I did NOT get was an answer on what happened. Nobody seems concerned about that. Every doctor seems to think, we fixed it!! Yeah, lets move on. Is there a difference between a shade tree mechanic and a shade tree doctor?? I feel like somebody banged on the side of me and the blood pressure went down as a result and the doctors all said "we fixed it". I still think it is somewhat related to the Nsaid pain killer that I was given. Done with those. Not a good year 2023.
  22. I came to the same conclusion. The increase in power draw is significant for me due to the off-grid house. But when traveling I tend to run the generator for those times I am using the internet so it might not be that much of an impact. The gen2 antenna is perfect for traveling. Not sure the gen3 antenna is that handy.
  23. We don't have a Medicare advantage plan. GEHA is our regular medical plan that we had for 20 years and still carry in retirement.
  24. GEHA has been my insurance company for over 20 years. It is the SAME insurance that I had when I was working with the same premiums and benefits. It addition I also carry Medicare Parts A and B. I think I am well insured to the say the least. The troubles with GEHA started as soon as I qualified for Medicare. BTW, I am one of the few people that actually READ and looked at the health insurance contract all 120 pages of it!!! I really think the insurance companies are running scams with Medicare and dragging their Medicare eligible customers into paying EXTRA for already covered services. I did drop my fraud case with the Attorney General Fraud Division in Washington state once the No Surprises Act passed and suddenly GEHA paid for a regular physical just like promised on Page 38 of the health insurance contract. Here are my previous threads for those interested: https://www.rvnetwork.com/topic/144561-medicare-annual-exam-and-federal-employees-health-benefits-coverageplease-read/ https://www.rvnetwork.com/topic/146640-no-surprises-actevery-rver-needs-to-understand-this-new-law/ The insurance companies are denying claims automatically and then approving the claim once you appeal. They are betting that you will just pay the claim rather than appealing the ruling. According to the article ONLY 0.2% of people appealed the claims with the insurance company. It is a great money maker for the insurance companies. That is what the insurance company and the fraud division of the Federal Inspector General's Office told me. Appeal it!!! I told the Inspector General's Office I reporting suspected fraud and have pretty good evidence. I want to stop the fraud. The $51 dollars is chump change compared to what their stealing from the American people!!! They refused to take the case unless I appealed. Which led me to the Attorney General's office. They are working on repealing the No Surprises Act. Read this article for how it works: https://www.healthcaredive.com/news/cigna-lawsuit-algorithm-claims-denials-california/688857/ Other insurance companies than CIGNA are involved in the practice. As noted in the article: The report triggered an ongoing investigation by the House Energy and Commerce Committee, along with state and federal regulators. Here is the membership of the House Energy and Commerce Committee. If you have a Congressional representative on the list, it might be wise to send a note telling them to fix the "fraud" NOW. https://energycommerce.house.gov/representatives
  25. I didn't let it go. But I was/am more concerned than the doctors. I ended up with two consecutive visits to the emergency room and four doctor visits in the space of two weeks. I did have a CAT scan, it was negative. My blood pressure crossed 180/140 which is the threshold to go to the emergency room. Still do not know what caused the spike, but nobody seems concerned about that!!! Today, my blood pressure was 111/86 with a pulse of 68. I did get a new drug to lower my heart rate. The injury started as a pickleball injury, with real significant pain. The initial treatment include a high dose of NSAID drug for pain, which I think started the increase in blood pressure. Then I quit taking it and the doctors assured me that it would flush out my system in three days. After three days quitting the NSAID I went to the emergency room with the sky high blood pressure. I also picked up a splitting headache that was directly correlated with blood pressure. I actually had a good idea of my blood pressure simply by the type of headache I had. The emergency room doctor gave me a shot and tylenol for the headache and it went away almost immediately. If I had migraine headaches I would definitely look into the shot. I suspect it was the NSAID that spiked it, but the doctors disagree. I did get a hydro-condone drug for the pain, and a note from GEHA that they were giving me the drug ONLY because my doctor insisted on it!!! Like I said an adventure. I didn't realize my 70's were going to be this much fun!!! Thanks for your concern.
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