• (cs) in reply to Michael
    Michael:
    snoofle:
    I slipped and fell forward the other day, and smashed my left kneecap into little kneecap-bits. The doctor tells me it needs to be x-ray'd, and then tells me to walk over to the hospital (about 1/2 mile on the other side of the medical campus). After I limp/hop over there. They tell me to strip naked for the x-ray (I was wearing shorts). Then the insurance folks tell me that it's not covered because I just left my job. I said I have "COBRA coverage". They said "not yet", perhaps you should wait until the forms are processed before having this treated. --- soooo, I'm supposed to hop around on a broken knee for 2-3 weeks while waiting for paperwork to be entered into a computer before getting treatment?

    I'm a US citizen, but I understand Canada has a health care system that actually works!

    Go to the ER, they can't refuse to treat you. If you really do have COBRA, even if the forms haven't been processed yet, they will still cover it. You may have to submit the claim yourself when the Hospital sends you the bill, but it's still coverage. Doesn't your hospital have a patient advocate?
    Oh they didn't refuse to treat me - they basically just informed me that I'd have to pay the bill out of pocket until the insurance paperwork caught up. It was just a couple of hundred bucks and the hospital always takes a couple of weeks to send the bill, by which time the COBRA insurance will have kicked in. It's just annoying that it's not better coordinated. Now the REAL WTF is me trying to navigate stairs on crutches ;)
  • TomatoQueen (unregistered)

    "American health care is the greatest most technologically advanced in the world"--for those who can afford it, and that's as big a WTF as any seen on this site....

    Not even the greatest most technologically advanced any more, according to a study being reported today on the NY Tumes website.

    captcha: tacos...I wouldn't eat them.

  • (cs) in reply to ac
    ac:
    I don't know why you bothered to blur out the application name in the second one. It only made me want to try to figure it out using the most of advanced of image enhancement techniques: squinting.

    It's clearly Lightning Magnifier, a worthless product if I've ever seen one.

    By Gods, fake rendered product boxes really really piss me off no end.

  • (cs) in reply to Anonymous Coward 5000

    Yes, "Oryctolagus cuniculus" bites can be nasty.

  • TexDex (unregistered)

    What never? No, never! What never? Well, hardly ever!

    /obscure

  • Worf (unregistered) in reply to ac
    ac:
    I don't know why you bothered to blur out the application name in the second one. It only made me want to try to figure it out using the most of advanced of image enhancement techniques: squinting.

    It's clearly Lightning Magnifier, a worthless product if I've ever seen one.

    Uh, while it may contain said application, the dialog box came from Windows' default AutoPlay (if you insert a drive/CD/etc without autoplay, Windows scans the disk and asks what you want to do). So at best, it's just a disk with the name "Lightning Magnifier" was inserted (without an autorun.inf file), but the dialog was Windows. The middle part is missing, that's all...

  • Corey (unregistered) in reply to snoofle
    snoofle:
    - snip insurance WTF - I'm a US citizen, but I understand Canada has a health care system that actually works!

    I have a US health insurance WTF of my own. My daughter was born last year, 6 weeks early. She had "apnea of prematurity". She had to stay in the NICU until she went 5 solid days without forgetting to breathe once, which took 5 weeks 2 days. (Nobody knows how long this problem will take to go away, until it's gone.)

    The hospital's initial bill (this of course doesn't count neonatologists, etc.) for this was $62000. They billed the insurer $6000 and wrote off the rest.

    2 WTF's here:

    1. Were I uninsured, I'd have been on the hook for $56000 more than BCBS/NC was.
    2. The hospital had to pay 1/4 of a nurse, 24/7, for 5 weeks 2 days for this stay. Plus there's a metric buttload of pricey equipment in use in the NICU. I have trouble seeing how they could have broken even.
  • Janet Reno (unregistered)

    I can't speak for the Error'd software...

    As for the rabbit infestation, a suppressed Ruger 10/22 loaded with 40 grain, sub-sonic, hollow-point, .22 LR cartridges would make for a fun part-time job. Or a very creepy hobby.

    Are the authorities aware that rodent infestations can spread diseases? You know, like, rabies, or the plague?

    Captcha: atari Now that you mentioned it, that would make a great atari game too! Silence the Bunnies!

  • (cs) in reply to Janet Reno
    Janet Reno:
    Are the authorities aware that rodent infestations can spread diseases? You know, like, rabies, or the plague?
    Rabbits are not rodents. They're not in the order Rodentia. They probably don't spread diseases nearly as readily as rats do.
  • tibit (unregistered) in reply to TomatoQueen
    TomatoQueen:
    "American health care is the greatest most technologically advanced in the world"--for those who can afford it, and that's as big a WTF as any seen on this site....

    Not even the greatest most technologically advanced any more, according to a study being reported today on the NY Tumes website.

    Technologically advanced -- yes. Greatest? W-T-F?! The people who run it are totally ass backwards, starting with top med school professors all the way to the BOFH in the insurance company (couldn't resist, as my student insurance carrier's IT processes are snafu'd beyond recognition, both in design and in implementation).

    I've had two inguinal hernias, which were causing some problems and weren't diagnosed for 10 years (give or take), 5 of which were spent in the U.S., and 1 of which were spent with me trying to find where those "some problems" originated. At this point it's worth pointing out that fixing the hernias led to the "other problems" fixing themselves.

    So, a student health service doctor diagnosed them, IMHO, purely by chance, as a R.N. two weeks prior didn't, neither did a yet another doctor one month prior, and yet another doctor a couple months prior. All looking hard around the area where the hernias obviously were. Myself, I had just ignored them, assuming they were a genetic glitch (symmetric, didn't hurt, gave impression of being unproblematic, in relation to the latter assumption I'd wish the doctors were more clued-in than I was -- alas, IANAD).

    While reporting "some problems", nobody even bothered to do an ultrasound of the abdomen. Went abroad (EU), paid $25 for a 20-minute, exhaustive (cover all the bases) abdominal ultrasound done by a good med school professor in a private practice. After everything was fixed, but wanted to make sure there were no lurkers.

    Same thing for my wife: during her pregnancy, she had maybe four ultrasounds made in the U.S. And only during the pregnancy. I.e. no preventive ultrasound -- they'd rather treat the cancer than screen for it. Back in the EU, a med school prof would charge $50 for a private visit, which included a Pap smear (incl Bethesda system), and an ultrasound. The doctors in the U.S. (again, med school profs in private practice) must think that obviously doing an ultrasound is somehow more inconvenient than having undetected cancer around the girly parts.

    Makes my blood boil, to say the least.

  • ELIZA (unregistered) in reply to tibit
    tibit:
    TomatoQueen:
    "American health care is the greatest most technologically advanced in the world"--for those who can afford it, and that's as big a WTF as any seen on this site....

    Not even the greatest most technologically advanced any more, according to a study being reported today on the NY Tumes website.

    Technologically advanced -- yes. Greatest? W-T-F?! The people who run it are totally ass backwards, starting with top med school professors all the way to the BOFH in the insurance company (couldn't resist, as my student insurance carrier's IT processes are snafu'd beyond recognition, both in design and in implementation).

    I've had two inguinal hernias, which were causing some problems and weren't diagnosed for 10 years (give or take), 5 of which were spent in the U.S., and 1 of which were spent with me trying to find where those "some problems" originated. At this point it's worth pointing out that fixing the hernias led to the "other problems" fixing themselves.

    So, a student health service doctor diagnosed them, IMHO, purely by chance, as a R.N. two weeks prior didn't, neither did a yet another doctor one month prior, and yet another doctor a couple months prior. All looking hard around the area where the hernias obviously were. Myself, I had just ignored them, assuming they were a genetic glitch (symmetric, didn't hurt, gave impression of being unproblematic, in relation to the latter assumption I'd wish the doctors were more clued-in than I was -- alas, IANAD).

    While reporting "some problems", nobody even bothered to do an ultrasound of the abdomen. Went abroad (EU), paid $25 for a 20-minute, exhaustive (cover all the bases) abdominal ultrasound done by a good med school professor in a private practice. After everything was fixed, but wanted to make sure there were no lurkers.

    Same thing for my wife: during her pregnancy, she had maybe four ultrasounds made in the U.S. And only during the pregnancy. I.e. no preventive ultrasound -- they'd rather treat the cancer than screen for it. Back in the EU, a med school prof would charge $50 for a private visit, which included a Pap smear (incl Bethesda system), and an ultrasound. The doctors in the U.S. (again, med school profs in private practice) must think that obviously doing an ultrasound is somehow more inconvenient than having undetected cancer around the girly parts.

    Makes my blood boil, to say the least.

    I do not know what is worse: Firstly, insurance providers not trying to cover as much as possible for as little as possible but trying to cover as little as possible. Secondly, doctors and insurers who will provide or cover tens of thousands of thalers worth of dragonslaying procedures such as amputations and desperate transplant surgeries but will balk at preventative treatments that will allow the problems to be detected and resolved for mere hundreds of thalers. In short, the USoA has one of the best emergency care systems in the world and a preventative care system second to... Europe's, Australia's, Japan's, Canada's, Mexico's, even parts of the Third World. I really wonder if the US medical and insurance establishments misread the Oath as starting with "First, do more harm".

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