We like bugs. DIL and I took the kids to a customer appreciation thing at our insurance company. Parker found a bug, he was a little worried about picking it up with his bare hands, but a handy fork helped him out. We didn't have our helpful bug book along to figure out what it was.
One of our chrysalis hatched. We have an abundance of Monarchs this year.
We lost electricity one evening and hooked up the generator.
The younger two were surprised by how many things required electricity..I was a meanie and didn't allow my computer to be hooked up to the generator.
We got the bright idea to take photos every 15 min while a caterpillar was making a chrysalis .
Found out later it is mostly done under the skin and when he is finished he pops off the skin and out comes the unique Monarch chrysalis. We gave up after about two hours.
Went to the milk weed patch to collect some food for our caterpillars and
this guy hitchhiked in on my shoe string.
First day of school! two seniors , an 8th and 3rd grade students
I took a poll on Facebook asking what I should spend my day doing on their first day back to school. Most of the people told me that tea and a book sound like the best option. I did manage about 10 minutes with these two books. I'm trying to figure out why the book on the right disturbs me when she actually says a lot of the same stuff as this book
but something just doesn't sit right. Maybe a post on that later.
I spent most of my day working on this quilt and listening to myself think.
Friday was a short day at school and these two needed something constructive to do.
Friday I also got a call from the MRI imaging place telling me that we have to reschedule Hope's MRI of her knee because their machine is down. It was not the thing I planned to do with my 3 hours until school was over.
Our insurance this year is a bit on the quirky side, we have to use up our entire deductible before our insurance kicks in for things like x-rays, meds etc....so we have been seeing exactly what our insurance gets charged before they knock the price down with their "allowable" charges for things.
We got our first taste in January with my meds that keep my Ulcerative Colitis under control. Last year I paid $50 for three months worth, this time $1740! Sticker shock? Oh and since I paid my deductible, the refills were $15...couldn't we spread it out a bit?
Anyhow we had heard there is a vast difference in what different labs charge for blood work and other place charge for x-rays and MRIs so we shopped around.
And on Friday I needed to start shopping again, this time I kept a record of what I was told.
First off, if you need a price estimate, you need something called a CPT code, it stands for "Current Procedural Terminology" it is NOT on your prescription, that is your diagnostic code.
When you call your physician's office to get your CPT code, the people who work there may or may not know what a CPT code is . I think I spoke to the third person before I found one that knew...meanwhile I was using Google and had already found it..and it was the code she gave me.
Then of course the billing offices are not the publicized phone numbers.
After almost two hours I found out that an MRI in my area can cost anywhere from
$280 - $697.86 (if it is an estimate why didn't she round it?) - $884.81- $925
or if you were self-pay from the "Plain community" it would have been $600-cash
I guess I paid myself about $600 for my 2-1/2 hours on the phone as the closest facility to my Dr office would have been $884.81. I am going to drive 44 min south in order to save the $$ but I think it is worth it.
You hear that you should be a good, responsible consumer of medical care, then why is it so difficult to find out what something is going to cost!!!?
QOTD:The other night when Shekinah was climbing into bed, she asked "How are we getting to China, by plane or are we going to dig a hole? (She saw "Big Bird Goes to China") I laughed at her and told her that would be a cheaper way to get there but it would still take awhile.
She said she would be the leader and thinks we would make a stop in Europe to visit Grandma and Grandpa first.( They are on a trip there right now)
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