Vladimir

I worked as a Economist for a Federal agency that had accountants. I got teased a lot about my comment " plus or minus 20% is close enough for a decision". The accountants were ALL sure that their calculations were "accurate" to the penny. Yeah, right. They were tracking to the penny, but when I got the opportunity to "audit" their data sheets, well folks, we are talking real money here and yeah, it was WAY OVER the 20%!!! Here is a link to goodwill write off's....pretty funny reading. https://yourbusiness.azcentral.com/appropriate-reporting-treatment-writeoff-inventory-due-obsolescence-28000.html Accountants are NOT unethical. They rewrote the tax code to make it ETHICAL. It, however, is clearly immoral. On Medicare, the acid test...will the Dr. or Clinic take a Medicare patient. Some rural hospitals and doctors will NOT do that.

Wow, NASA was using a Bahtinov mask for focusing and alignment!!! Can't be, but it will be interesting to find out what they actually used. https://www.google.com/search?q=batinov+mask&ei=S9p5YoyGJMu10PEPzr6CmAM&ved=0ahUKEwjM16-Z_dP3AhXLGjQIHU6fADMQ4dUDCA4&uact=5&oq=batinov+mask&gs_lcp=Cgxnd3Mtd2l6LXNlcnAQAzIECAAQQzIECAAQQzIECAAQQzIECAAQCjIECAAQCjIECAAQCjIECAAQCjIECAAQCjIECAAQCjIECAAQCjoHCAAQRxCwA0oECEEYAEoECEYYAFCxCFixCGDFDGgBcAF4AIABT4gBT5IBATGYAQCgAQHIAQjAAQE&sclient=gws-wiz-serp Thanks for posting the picture. Guess I am going to have to search some astronomy sites for what they actually used.

What he said above.... The only thing I would add....there are LOTS of places on the highway that you just want to drive. There are lots of places on the highway that you want to linger. Pick your "linger" spots. I actually would split the trip into two.... BC and the Yukon, with slivers of Alaska. Alaska. You can't take enough time to do the trip. So expand the time and limit the travel. I found the BC and Yukon much more interesting than Alaska portion. Not that I would skip Alaska, but priorities. Oh, basically the Alcan is I-5 without interchanges and two lanes. So travel is not an issue. The only other thing I would add is that I expected to do lots of boondocking. The best spots are Provincial Parks. So you end up in many cases staying there. I was surprised at how little boondocking we did, but the choice was between a boondock gravel pit and a lakefront campground. Do the trip...it is great.

It might be an interesting and very crowded summer. Went to my spring fishing lake. Usually we have the lake to ourselves during the middle of the week. Even last year, with COVID we only had company for a couple of days. Not this year. Packed both during the weekend and weekdays. Weather was awful with cold rain on most days and even that did not deter the crowds. If you drive over from western Washington you pretty much accept cold, rainy days as normal. Talked to several folks and a lot of them just retired and are spending a month in one location just fishing. They were planning on heading to the Rockies this summer. You know how that "newly" retired folks act once free!! I thought with airplanes flying again, and hotels opening up that there might be fewer people out of the public lands. Doesn't seem like it's going to work that way.

Thanks....I will post updates. There is a chance that I am WRONG. In my 72 years, it has happened maybe once or twice?? BUT so far, NOBODY (GEHA, etc.) have explained to me WHY I am wrong. The comment is if you don't like it...file a formal APPEAL WITH US and we will decide. Right...that seems really productive use of my time. I would rather call a cop first. It is the equivalent of somebody stealing stuff out of my house, calling the cops and having them say.....well, talk to the thieves and see if they will give YOUR STUFF back to YOU!!! I do KNOW that I will have a new insurance carrier this fall and it will NOT be GEHA.

Thanks everybody for the questions. I am still looking for others that have faced the same issue. It did help to clarify and organize my thoughts.

BUT, GEHA REFUSED to change the billing address when I pointed out that it was incorrect. Remember GEHA told ME that the address was incorrect. Also GEHA has pulled the same scam in California and western Washington. I suspect this involves BOTH the provider and GEHA.

The provider was IN NETWORK. The bill came from the provider. The Clinic has lots of facilities in a five county area. The MAIN hospital and the MAIN Clinic are both in Wenatchee. Looking at the GEHA site, my Dr. is in NETWORK, but they use the HOSPITAL address for her, instead of her office address at the clinic in Wenatchee. When I contacted GEHA they said that I didn't go to a preferred provider. The address shown, on my billing for the physical exam was OUTSIDE the preferred provider network. That is what got my attention. However, for almost 20 years prior EVERY claim I have filed for the Clinic address was paid by GEHA. Except this last one when they said the address listed is NOT a preferred provider. NOTE....the address is not a preferred provider, not the Clinic providing the service. That is why it feels like a scam. Same medical provider...one address is a preferred provider the other is NOT.

Correct. And if I appealed the decision with GEHA that is what they would probably do. Drop it, as quickly as possible. AND continue doing to the thousands of other Federal employees and their spouses that are retired. NOT giving me an explanation and saying that I should appeal is probably another RED FLAG. Really, if you can't explain to me and want me to file paper work with you leads me to suspect your really hoping I don't do it. What I really don't understand is it for the "few" extra bucks they get to collect from Federal employees?? And then there is the issue of WHO BENEFITS from this policy?? The old follow the money argument. I suspect there are several parties involved in this mess. You know the old joke....you steal 51 million dollars from one person and your going to jail for a long, long time. You steal $51 from a million people and nobody cares.

When somebody makes a mistake it is usually limited to ONE person and ONE item. Mistakes are fine, everybody makes them. However when........ The Doctor know there is going to be a problem with your medical claim. Red flag one. When your billing is miscoded? Red flag two. When your preferred provider network address is wrong and GEHA refuses to fix it....Red flag three. When your friends experience the EXACT same issue with GEHA in California and western Washington....Red flag four. That GEHA had NO EXPLANATION other than go file an appeal with us and then laughed............Red flag five. Where are you volunteering with USFS??

The amount billed was $404.00.....the amount allowed was 353.00....GEHA plan payments were 353. Remember, GEHA was suppose to pay IN FULL for a anuual physical exam with NO CO-PAY according to the contract.

No....the billing address is a clear case of fraud, in my opinion. The fact that a Claims Representative could NOT fix it, and a Supervisor did NOT want to!!! In fact, when I complained to the Supervisor that it looked like fraud, she just laughed and said YOU HAVE to file an APPEAL with GEHA and WE will decide. The EOB is sent to the client to the client, without ANY explanation, and most people just pay it. Like my friends.

GEHA coded it as WACO. It is not an ERROR. Remember I made a HUGE deal about having my STANDARD physical. The other issue, is when the Supervisor called me back I asked what WACO stood for. She said under HIPA rules she could NOT tell me what it meant. Basically, GEHA sends out a explanation of benefits that is total gibberish on purpose. THERE IS NO MENTION, about the bill not being paid in full because the address was not that of a PREFERRED PROVIDER. That would lose them a whole mess of clients during next open season.

Here are the RED FLAGS that came up on my long, strange trip through the medical billing system. First, when I insisted on my previous standard physical exam. I was told that my insurance would not pay for it. No problem, I said I have a copy of the contract. Page 38, line 14 GEHA will pay for ONE physical with NO COPAYS. So the clinic KNEW beforehand. When I got my bill I called GEHA and asked why they didn't pay the entire amount. The friendly, helpful lady looked it up and said "you were outside our preferred provider network". That got my attention. The Clinic is the ONLY medical provider for 150 miles. So if they are out network, I am out of GEHA. She looks up billing and asks which address did you get treatment?? I said it didn't matter the Clinic owns everything in the valley. Well, she said it shows the SAME CLINIC with two address, one in the preferred provider network and ONE OUTSIDE. I told her the address outside the network is where I just had a 4,000 dollar Colonoscopy and GEHA PAID EVERYTHING. She tried to FIX it, but couldn't since that required a SUPERVISOR. I asked her to have the Supervisor call me back when it was fixed. In two weeks, the Supervisor called back and said they were NOT going to change my billing. I called Medicare and talked to a representative there. They DENIED the entire claim, because they didn't know what the billing code was!!! Medicare isn't involved. It is a question of GEHA insurance. There is also the issue of age discrimination. Before I turned 65, with the SAME GEHA medical policy, same Dr., and same address and same physical GEHA paid in full without a copay. Once I turned 65 I was on the hook for $51 according to GEHA even though there is NO MENTION of it in the contract. That is a pretty clear case of age discrimination in my book. I talked to a couple of friends, one in California and the other in western Washington. Both ended with the SAME $51 charge for their physicals. It is a system wide problem. All you have to do is take the number of Federal retirees over 65 with GEHA and multiply by $51. THAT IS A LOT OF MONEY. There is the issue of how much is GEHA fraud and how much is the local Clinic. I can't sort it out, but am pretty sure the Attorney General's office can get to the bottom of it. Hope this helps other folks. BTW, I would be curious if other Federal insurance providers had similar problems with this physical exam. So far the answer appears the issue lies with GEHA.

GEHA. No copay. I have Medicare, Medicare part B, and the SAME Federal Employee Health Plan that I had when I working. I am well over insured on the medical front.

It is NOT about Medicare...it is about the FEHB program. I did talk to somebody in Medicare and they looked at my bill. Medicare DENIED the ENTIRE claim. They said it was not a physical exam on the coding. In fact, she didn't know what it was so they just denied the entire claim. I specifically, said I wanted a "physical exam", yet they coded it as something else. It goes to Medicare simply because it is the primary. The FEHB health insurance is the SAME HEATLTH insurance as I had when I was working. They payed for the physical then. Their contract has NO EXCEPTIONS for Medicare eligible folks. By the time I got done collecting information there were so many RED flags that I felt I was back in the Soviet Union!!!

This question is for Federal employees that kept their health insurance into retirement. I had a "Medicare" physical a couple of years ago.....NEVER AGAIN. Last fall, I went to see my doctor for my annual physical and said I want my regular annual physical NOT the Medicare physical. She said, that my insurance might not cover it. I said...Nope, they will cover it. Page 38, line 14 on coverage for physicals...One annual physical without copays. Guess what, they did not pay it. Well, they partially paid leaving me on the hook for $51. As I started asking questions about WHY they didn't pay the full amount the answers got weird and I got the distinct impression there was some high tech fraud going on. I did contact the Washington state Insurance Commissioner and was told yes I have a case, but because of the Constitution they were TOLD by the Federal government to butt out of Federal Health Insurance issues. He recommended that I contact the Washington state Attorney General's Office on Consumer Fraud since that is a separate isssue. The Attorney General's office is willing to take the case, based on initial information. But they asked me to find OTHER Federal employees that have had the same issue. I briefly talked to two friends that have had the same issue. They also have the same health insurance. Won't use your name, but I would be interested in a count of how many Federal employees have faced the same issue with regard to Medicare physical exams. Besides the fraud aspect, there is also a age discrimination complaint since ONLY folks over 65 have to pay for the medical exam in spite of the Federal contract with the insurance company. I also opened a complaint with the Inspector General's office about the fraud aspect. Thanks. PS...long thread, that is worth reading if your a retired Federal employee. I still would like to hear from those folks that ran into the same issue.

I don't see it mentioned. But when I was a forestry student in the early 70's I went to school and lived in California and worked in Idaho for the Forest Service. Never paid Idaho income tax because I made so little money. Below the minimum for filing taxes, so had NONE withheld. Not sure what the case is today. But if your a traveling RV person working in the state, you could just limit your stay to be below the minimum income required for filing taxes and be just fine. Basically, that is what happened to me. By the mid-seventies, I was working as a professional and ended up paying taxes in California, Colorado, and Idaho. My income was now high enough to trigger taxes in all those states. Thank god, Nevada didn't have a income tax or I would have been filing FIVE returns. Withholding is really the issue, I think. Your employer doesn't have to withhold for all those states, or do they?? In my case, I had three different employers that year. Really did not realize what happened, until all those states sent me their income tax forms!! Anyway, not sure if I am right or wrong on this...but worth exploring.

I thought we were talking about the Phoenix accident. I don't think most people consider Tesla's self-driving. If I were Musk I would get rid of the "autopilot" name.

Not sure disposable incomes are higher in urban areas. Lots of professionals in rural areas that make good money and have very low living costs. That is how I ended up retiring at 56 and owning three homes in retirement. Never made much money, but then again, it didn't cost much for living expenses. Yeah, being country before country was cool, helped a lot. I remember sitting in a Forest Economics class where all of us students were complaining about NOT having enough disposable income. The Professor, just laughed, and said "right now in your life, you have MORE disposable income than you will for years and years". He was right. But I am not if sure StarLink filled urban orders first. There is a huge waiting list for StarLink dishes. I have a friend, that ordered FOUR dishes for his properties in a very rural area. He had to place the orders under different names, since StarLink was limiting orders even in rural areas. As of a few months ago, he only has ONE dish. Dropping the StarLink service depends on your location. At my second home, I have NO grid electricity, NO cell phone service, except for voice with amplifier, NO TV service (neither cable, nor from antenna), and of course NO internet. I have a VERY BAD quality landline for voice only for 911 emergencies. I pay $50/month for that. So for me, I will keep StarLink it is a bargain. BTW at my urban house, ten miles away as the crow flies, I pay pretty close to 300 dollars a month for all those services. I really don't understand why Musk wants to buy Twitter. He needs to buy Verizon and offer cell service as well as StarLink. It makes total sense.

That availability video is worth watching. It explains a LOT. Basically the towns and cities are OUT. Which is what StarLink said........... it is for rural areas. Basically, the video says that order outside of town and it will probably work in town, if close. That is what happened with me in Wenatchee, but we have had fiber for over 20 years now thanks to the county government in Wenatchee. The dish stays 10 miles away at the second home. Only "blow" I saw was Missoula was light green, while the Bitterroot Valley was dark green.

Yep, it was to you. That is interesting....you used a address with an open cell, and set it up in a "closed" cell, but it worked. Is that correct??

At the campground or your homebase??

That is generally the case, BUT in some cases the "fastest route" might take you where you don't want to be!!! That is the problem. There is NO SUBSTITUTION for YOUR JUDGEMENT. The good news is that with "AI".....this problem will get worse, and worse over the years. AND maybe at some point, we will go back to the "good old days" where you were responsible for YOU> Really folks, it is YOUR LIFE, take responsibility for it. Do you really want to turn over YOUR LIFE to a computer nerd than has NEVER been off-pavement, let along in central Nevada??

You had lots of questions...so will try to answer them below. And an honest answer, not necessarily a PC one. It seems that nowadays, anyone who drives into a place that they should have known better than go, then blames it on their GPS. As I understand it......GPS was developed by the Defense Department to guide cruise missiles into their targets. The Defense Department "fuzzed" the data, particularly the elevation data so other countries could NOT use our GPS system to attack us. That's it. GPS will give you lat and long, and elevation. That is the information that BIG TECH is pulling from the US government satellites. The rest of it comes from primarily PUBLIC US government, state, and local databases. I understand some mapping companies do check and update mapping on their own....primarily in urban areas. It isn't just older people who do that either. I have looked at 2 different GPS, Apple maps and Google maps to route between Reno & Las Vegas and none of those routes get anywhere near the location that their RV was found. If we assume that their GPS did direct them to take that road, I would like to know a lot more about the GPS involved. The route is dependent on the parameter the user sets in the GPS. In this case, probably fastest route or shortest route. I suspect these folks selected shortest route. It does matter "WHEN" you select the route. It will change as you move closer to your destination. On my GPS I generally, just let it say recalibrating and then finally it sync's again with my paper map. It does NOT matter which GPS unit is involved. IT MATTERS which government maps they are using and the date of the mapping, plus the purpose. What make/model was it? Were the maps and firmware kept current? See above answer. The firmware and maps updates ONLY MATTER if the GPS company UPDATED THEIR MAPS. Was the GPS working properly? I have NEVER had a GPS unit malfunction. They either work or they don't. There are too many unanswered questions for any conclusion to be drawn. Since the driver is now deceased, do you really believe that his wife would tell us if she knew that it was him doing something very foolish? I don't think he did anything "foolish". He made some bad choices, actually several that compounded into the tragedy. Quite frankly, she only knows part of the bad choices they made. I think not and I would not expect her to do so. She just lost her husband and she sure doesn't want to remember him in any negative way. I highly doubt that anyone will do a serious investigation of this like is done with aircraft accidents, but it would be the only way to reliably know the details of how this came to happen. I wonder just as much as the next person, but really do not expect to ever know. I am NOT even sure WHO has jurisdiction to investigate "multiple GPS" incidents?? Apple, Google, Garmin and a host of others cover themselves with lawyer talk and the ability to fund a SERIOUS defense in court. What I would like to see. Full disclosure of the databases that the GPS uses and their dates and sources. To make it functional, I would like to point at a road and have it return the database information used.....for example. US Census Tiger file, data last checked 1980, updated 2000. If I a traveling on a Forest Service or BLM road, well that tells me a LOT about the reliability of the road information. It is an interesting question. Given the reliance on Apple, Google and other GPS systems should somebody be doing a review of the mapping?? It was a major issue in Australia a few years ago with Apple mapping. BIG TECH is pretty much unregulated in this country. Maybe it is time to change that and start making them responsible for their improving the quality of their product. Right now ALL THEY ARE DOING is taking government databases and writing software to display the Global Positioning Satellite data onto the government databases. PERIOD. I don't think, outside the urban areas, they do any quality control or review of the databases. I suspect, THEY DON'T even know what information and databases are in their products. Their profit, is in free data and information packaged with their computer displays running their software. It is very expensive to validate data, they don't do it, except in urban areas as noted.