Author Archives: jpeacott

It is quite difficult to get people who are used to modern city or suburban life to move into the villages and small towns of bush alaska.  While these places have acquired many of the technological features of the rest of the united states, such as television, phones, indoor heating, and so on, they remain difficult to get into or out of, especially in the winter, and lack many modern conveniences.  It has been especially difficult to attract dentists. Continue reading →

Governments in the united states have forced people to have their children vaccinated against various diseases for decades now.  The primary way they accomplish this is by requiring kids to have a range of immunizations before they are granted the “privilege” of entering government schools.  Continue reading →

A couple of months ago, I was sitting in a webinar about coding for outpatient medical and nursing procedures billed to Medicare.  As I was led through the maze of arcane formulas and requirements, I got to thinking about how much Medicare has inflated the costs of health care.  Here I was, being paid $40 an hour, as were seven or eight of my nurse colleagues, to listen to consultants (who were surely getting paid way more than I), quote from other consultants (more $$$) about how to fill out papers to maximize the amount of reimbursement the hospital I work for can receive from Medicare.  And this is all because the people who work for Medicare ($$$) issue coding guidelines that are vague and open to interpretation, so that bills are constantly bounced back to providers for more processing ($$$) to justify or explain the charges so they can be rebilled.  What a ridiculously expensive and inefficient process. Continue reading →