All it takes is some cash and the right surgeon.

Doug-

Exclusively fun tix clout.

There are, and have been, some very harsh penalties in place for health care facilities providing "incentives" to health care providers for their patronage. Anything beyond the proverbial "free lunch" in the doctor's lounge can cause a world of grief for all involved.

BTDT on the back issue. Hope yours turns out better than mine did. I was 2 weeks before I could take 10 steps out my front door, a year before I got rid of my cane, 2 years before I could walk right. At least you have the luxury of scripting your own vicodin.

WRT the MRI - wow, that's cheap. My doc ordered one for me, his facility charged $6500. I googled to find the cheapest one in my area, $2500. My health insurance covered me for $450. Mine was head instead of back, tho, so probably more expensive in general.

Doing so would get me red-flagged faster than accepting a 'friends and family' discount from the hospital.

Couple of points. When the insurance is paying, try to arrange in advance that the provider will accept 'insurance payment only." Often hard to do, but worth a try- especially if they think you'll get the test done elsewhere.

Don't know how long ago you had your experience, but, like most technologies, the cost falls precipitously as the technology becomes widespread and commonplace. While it is true that providers of that service will try to maintain an inflated price, the incremental cost of the service plummets and the quality usually improves.

Would not imagine that there would be any significant cost difference in brain v spine MRI, but I'll check.

Was talking with a colleague. Around the time I was in school, I think you could buy a cruddy 1-axis accelerometer for like $10K. Would guess instruments of that time needed a temperature controlled environment. Your cell phone has a 3 axis accelerometer with 10-12 bits of accuracy that is temperature compensated and self-calibrating. You can buy a 3 axis 10 bit one for $0.67, and your cell phone uses one to align the screen. So more than 30,000x reduction in cost.

Wound up in a tough spot where I was getting carved up by two other players while holding a big draw. Think Ah 9h OOP on turn with Jh 9x Y - Th on board. LP is all-in and I have to call MP's 4b for a side pot.

River is 7h and I lead out and MP folds Kh Qx face up. Now with the all in player he's gonna get to see my hand and I thought it pretty obvious what I had but I'm gonna have to look for spots to take shots at this guy in the future, yeah?

@doc and everybody else who might hurt themselves trying to build something: Here's a pro tip from we Jews who don't know anything about building things: HIRE SOMEONE ELSE TO DO IT!

ETA: See, this is what I'm talking about! NEVER put up **** like this! NEVER! Bec, if you do, you will play a session and lose, that's what'll happen!

The law trump protests are getting out of hand. Now people are boycotting all the stores that cary the ivanka trump brand and most have decided to stop selling it.

So now I have to boycott all of the stores that gave into the boycott. It jsut so happens that these stores cover 95% of my wife's online shopping but that's just a happy coincidence.

Just when I needed a chuckle (have to do the hated supermarket run) JL delivers!

Sacrifice to the cause.

But then your boycott will be confused with the people who originally boycotted and never stopped.

At least he'll be able to sleep peacefully.

1. I hope you feel better.

2. I don't think the implied generalization of your experience works. Insurance is of course EV- (companies make money so they must pay out less than they take in). But insurance isn't about EV, it's about variance. You can afford to pay $464 straight up - an alarming number of Americans can't.

So a system where you ask everyone to pay individually isn't compatible with a promise to treat everyone. We can drop the latter - you show up at the ER without money, you die - but most people dislike that (and Reagan signed that bill into law and far be it from me to criticize Reagan).

Asking everyone to make cost benefit decisions and pay individually is only really possible if the level of medical and financial knowledge in the general public were higher (that is, you can't expect people to make a rational decision about whether an MRI is cost-justified when the general public is so scared of the word "nukular" that the NMRI machines had to be renamed MRI machines). Again, probably great for you (and me), but just not gonna work as a general policy.

I had to go get an MRI for sciatica but since my BCBS had 'pinched nerve' as a pre-existing condition - even though it was a different pinched nerve - they wouldn't pay so I called the MRI and asked how much, they said $1K, I said I had no insurance and they said ok $500. lol, someone ought to do something about it.

I actually know how to build some simple ****, but materials get heavier and I absurdly think that if I can **** four or times a week, I'm in good enuf shape to fashion a couple of garage shelves. Aside from the obvious +EV of paying someone a fraction of the amount money that I could be making doing something else like playing doctor, there's really no excuse that makes any sense. The only real downside to hiring or contracting for the job is that it will invariably cost 3x as much and take twice as long or will take 3x longer and cost twice as much.

Thank you. MRI showed an acute T12 compression fracture with considerable edema of the vertebral body.

You're spot on with all of your comments. And you're also correct that I have a decided edge wrt understanding the body's pathophysiology and the modalities employed to diagnose and treat the same. I suppose the rant part of my story has more to do with the notion that it is possible for someone to get a test or treatment (for an isolated occurrence) for condiderably less out of pocket money than they would pay for the same service using their insurance and incurring the copays and applicable deductibles.

This obviously wouldn't work for treat of chronic or expensive conditions.

(This post needs a Howard Beale shout out of, "We're sick and tired of this and we're not gonna take it anymore.!")

Meaningless anecdote. I told the MRI tech that lying down on the stretcher while the test was being performed shouldn't be much of a problem. I did warn him that getting off the stretcher could be a problem in that I hadn't tried to arise from a supine position for five days and my last attempt was a dismal and painful failure.

MRI is completed and it's time to arise. Only I couldn't get up and was 'stuck.' The pain and spasms are completely involuntary- and incapacitating. I felt like a little girl (actually more like a little boy whose pain tolerances are generally less than girls) when they took me to the ER, started an IV and gave me more steroids, Dilaudid and Ativan just to get my sorry ass off that stretcher. The ER unit secretary graciously drove me home and is picking me up in the morning since my truck is still in the parking lot and I have to work.

Old age is a chronic and expensive condition.

You must love your work.

I'm snap-calling in sick any day that I'm taking opoids.

Welp, at least doc has a healthy marriage!

Or an unhealthy colon. We'll never know what was hidden under those stars.

The most gratifying thing about my work is when my patients love my work.

I would never work taking opioids. Things is, I don't need them unless I'm getting out of bed and I'm not about to take a nap lying down for the foreseeable future.

Fyp

Even the free lunch. It is the hottest crime in town.

Just curious, if you don't mind, what does this mean in layperson's language and what is the treatment plan?

And you don't have any "samples" lying around?

I shouldn't joke around about vicodin. I found that I built up a tolerance to it very quickly, as in the effect went from lasting 3.5 hours to less than 2 hours in only 3 tablets. Basically a recipe for addiction.

Never even thought to try that. They would be pissed to find out later they were only getting paid 10% of what they thought. TBH I was shocked to find out my coverage was so crappy, but my employer is cheap and sub-standard coverage shouldn't surprise me.

It was 18 months ago. As I said, I googled the area to price shop. There were a dozen places at least.

The spine is made up of segments called vertebrae (plural of vertebra) that are numbered C1 to C5 (?) in the neck (don't know what C stands for), T1 to T12 in the thorax (chest) and L1 to L4 in the lumbar (abdomen). Doc cracked T12 and it hurts because the spinal cord, which runs down the middle of the spine, is getting jostled. Edema is just inflammation/swelling which is normal whenever your body is injured, but sometimes makes things worse. The MRI is a non-invasive scan which uses magnetic fields and radio waves to tell the density of water in different parts of your body (different tissues show up as different colors).

Dilaudid is a painkiller (opoids are a class of painkillers related to morphine and heroin). Steroids (not necessarily anabolic steroids which build muscle - steroid refers to the chemical structure) reduce inflammation (to address the edema). Doc also listed a benzodiazepine, which are neurological drugs which relax muscles / calm anxiety (I assume it was prescribed for the former effect since leo doc doesn't seem like the hysterical patient that would need it to STFU).

Not sure what the long term plan is, whether there's a surgical option or whether it's just pain management while the body heals itself.