''pps tomW - I'd be done posting too if she had any idea what TW' lets Claire do.''

yeah,

like your GrandKid wouldn't love a slide that makes a Poop Noise......

Hiya!  So much fun going on here (ok, kvetching about insurance isn't fun, but it's good to vent a little, and I appreciate the insightful comments, no need to apologize for soapboxes, etc).  We had a Big Push to get referrals out today, and we made the goal.  Pshew, it was focused and I'm tired, but in a good way.  Nothing a good run won't clear up.

My friends in western MA were taking their kids to some sort of body exhibit a few whiles ago--I think this was it: "Every town in Connecticut has a playscape. But only one has a playscape designed to look like a gastrointestinal tract, with children climbing in the mouth, down the throat slide, into the stomach, through the intestine tube, and spilling out onto a mushy brown pad at the end.

That playscape is the center of the Connecticut Science Center's new exhibit, "Grossology," a kid-focused study of all the disgusting things a human body has to do to keep going: peeing, pooping, farting, belching, sneezing, snot-running, stomach-gurgling, etc.

Visitors are welcomed to the exhibit hall by an animated character, Her Grossness, who is surrounded by books with titles such as "To Pee or Not to Pee," "The Ins and Outs of the Digestive System" and "The True Story of Mucus."

"Everybody's bodies make gross stuff. If you didn't do this, you'd be pushing up daisies," is her greeting."

We need some giggles of a juvenile nature today.

I heard one official being grilled by a reporter about prevention efforts in Belgium.  He answered the questions until finally, he plaintively asked: "And how do you stop someone intent on killing himself from strapping a bomb to his body and doing it?"  It made me think of Boston again, and how great the extra security is, but you could strap junk to yourself, get on a bus and then take out a swath of the athletes' village.  They check your drop bag, which you leave at the common, but we weren't patted down the last two years.  And everyone's wearing throw away sweats, garbage bags, etc.  Or someone could just walk into the village, or any staging area in any marathon or any number of sporting events.   Or someone can walk into a Mall, or a museum or any building that any of us may be in......and we know you can make those bombs from any number of "recipes" that seem to be all to easy to find.

I don't know why, that guy just got to me today.  I mean, I know life is ephemeral and we should all embrace every day, but it just hit me on another level.

So yeah, let's play with the kids and run when we have sun, and even when not, and celebrate little victories (so good, henrun) and keep on gearing up for the things we know are right (Jay) and o yeah, have more whiskey/whisky cake.  So play ball!

.......but we're beating the Havana team.  I don't know if that's such a good thing in terms of diplomacy and all.

Scram, Aamos.  ok, won't let the door hit me on the way out and all.  Just glad you're all here, gladaseeya.

I've been having insurance issues, too!  But thankfully, I got mine straightened out today. The Colorado health insurance exchange (implementing Obamacare) is very buggy, and their customer service folks are pretty clueless.  For some reason they mistakenly switched us from the Anthem PPO plan we'd signed up for to an Anthem HMO plan in February, and I thought I'd successfully gotten it switched back to the PPO.  But yesterday I went to an orthopaedic doc to get my knee checked, and he recommended an MRI.  But when the MRI place called it in to Anthem for pre-approval, they were told we didn't have a policy in effect!!!     It turns out when the Colo. exchange cancelled the incorrect HMO plan they never reinstated the PPO Plan.  The folks at Anthem fixed it for me - yay!  So now I have an MRI scheduled tomorrow. I'll keep you posted!

I took the dogs for a walk today, only 1.5 miles, up to the top of the road and back.  As usual, my knee felt okay till about the halfway point, then it started hurting.  It finally dawned on me that it's not the distance that makes it hurt - it's going downhill!  I found that if I don't straighten my knee all the way when I walk downhill, it feels better.  Looks dumb, though! 

Holly, I hope your DD is feeling better.   Hey, today is my DD's 23rd birthday!

 

Twocat - I hate to break it to you, but that beer bread you love so much .....um ......well.....it's from a box!!   It's Tastefully Simple beer bread and all I do is add my beer of choice and melt butter on the top!! So ya, I need someone to bake me that Chocolate Guiness Cake ok!! 

 

 

I will bake you teh Chocolate Guiness Cake if you join the Rosie Ruiz Team.

I will be there. La Tortuga will be there, Hally from Cool Running will be there. I am hoping that more will join.

Holly, you are amazing!!!

8 miles today with few miles at tempo. Wow...That was hard. Time to be more focused on my training.

3.  Let's agree that the system is not really even a system. Insurance is frustrating. Hospital corporations are frustrating. But. Let's talk about "provider".  If provider is hospital corporation, okay.  If healthcare providers are physicians and nurses?  I believe physcians practicing evidence based medicine should be permitted to order any tests the patient needs to help the physician diagnose the complaint. And the physician practicing evidence based medicine should be able to prescribe the treatment that best cures the diagnosis. I do not want insurance companies telling my physician what I need based on their algorithms.

Ok, in an ideal environment, I agree that would be great! But we don't have many providers subscribing to that here, and they're all based on the Fee For Service (FFS) system where they get reimbursed for as many services as they can fit into a visit. In many cases, it's awful how much extra they do in the name of avoiding malpractice for not doing enough. When many studies have proven that as much as 1/3 of health care delivered in this country is unnecessary and therefore waste, it's just ridiculous. And I'm speaking as a payor of a self-insured non-profit, where there's no "insurance company greed" or largess involved. We strictly pay the claims and an administrative fee per employee per month. Medical policies are administered based on medical review and best in class practices, but still doctors find ways around it to order x-rays, CT scans and MRIs on the same patient for the same issue and none of the subsequent imaging changes the original diagnosis. Oh, but here in Alaska, you just added $4k to $8k to the original $175 x-ray. How is that providing value or better care? It's disgusting, and I'm faced with defending a health care budget that keeps growing without any evidence that our employees are getting better.

Sorry to take over the daily with this stuff, but it's where I live on a daily basis. Facing severe budget restrictions, program closings and layoffs, it's hard to justify such overruns in health care spending when there's no better end result.

5.3 miles tonight for me in my "indoor" shoes meaning enough ice has melted off to make that possible. Yay! But I still have some heel soreness and now my right knee has started complaining. That's what I get for taking a rest day... the next day is always worse.

''

Ok, in an ideal environment, I agree that would be great! But we don't have many providers subscribing to that here, and they're all based on the Fee For Service (FFS) system where they get reimbursed for as many services as they can fit into a visit. In many cases, it's awful how much extra they do in the name of avoiding malpractice for not doing enough. When many studies have proven that as much as 1/3 of health care delivered in this country is unnecessary and therefore waste, it's just ridiculous. And I'm speaking as a payor of a self-insured non-profit, where there's no "insurance company greed" or largess involved. We strictly pay the claims and an administrative fee per employee per month. Medical policies are administered based on medical review and best in class practices, but still doctors find ways around it to order x-rays, CT scans and MRIs on the same patient for the same issue and none of the subsequent imaging changes the original diagnosis. Oh, but here in Alaska, you just added $4k to $8k to the original $175 x-ray. How is that providing value or better care? It's disgusting, and I'm faced with defending a health care budget that keeps growing without any evidence that our employees are getting better.''

........yeah,

back in the Medical Dark Ages, it was known as ''Padding the Bill''