Friday...How insurance companies work for themselves..!

It's another Friday edition of California Dreaming rants from a Midwest guy. The week review, as was last week's, is boring. The most exciting thing that happened to me that I can share was that one of my former patient insurance suits finally got paid after a year of non-payment and 'investigation' by the insurance company.

The short story on it was the patient was rear-ended by a drunk driver at the very end of a freeway exit while waiting to get through the stop sign. She just so happen to be an affluent Caucasian women that really had significant injuries, but insurance companies are really not in the business of helping you out when you need them. They're in the business of making you pay, and hoping that you're 'stoic' and will just push through it. They give you some time to heal, but only a certain amount that is based on the average time someone else in a similar situation with the same or very close to the same injuries will heal. They hope that you take less time, cost less, and don't think about future care if something is missed while they ask you to sign the bottom line of 'settlement'.

Well, it works 85% of the time for them because some people need the money ASAP because they're hoping to get $4-5000 out of it for everything...medical bills, repairs to your care, lost wages, etc. It doesn't work so well when you can't work, you're car is high end, and the bills passed the $10,000 dollar mark with multiple providers, and you're still in pain. This when the insurance company determines that you are faking and essentially tell you you're a liar! LOL. Then you get an attorney, make sure your doctor(s) are on-board, and we all wait. Then you're attorney files to sue the insurance company that you've been paying religiously and continued to pay while you've been injured, so that they realize you're not gonna take peanuts, you're not lying about your pain experience, and now it's time for them to do their part. Then it's a credentialing show-down. In this case, our office just happen to be one of the top chiropractic offices in the area, and this patient's attorney was highly reputable. In the game of chicken, with the cards stacked in our patients favor, and because she had legitimate injuries, the insurance company folded their cards and paid! Thank you baby Jesus cause it doesn't always go that way, and we the providers get nothing.

The weekend looks promising with 100 degree plus weather in store! I'm gonna do some much needed brake work on my Jeep, and maybe cut out the rust on the rocker board panels. With a little bit of my "Mexican," I'm gonna weld some sheet metal into the panels and paint them with a rust resistant truck-bed coating, but we'll see. It's gonna be nice out too, and I might have to get to the beach this week and watch the sunset like I used to do not so long ago, grab a burger, and see if I make it out to karaoke on Sunday. Yeah. I like doing that on Sundays.

The picture above was taken yesterday on my way to a client's office. I was dead stopped in traffic and thought to capture the moment; it's definitely the best part of drive on those days (less the traffic). I guess if you have to be stuck in your car for longer than 120 minutes at a time you should at least get some good scenery versus a bunch of tail lights and near-misses that happen on the 405! LOL. But, you never know! Sometimes driving on the PCH is a mistake because all it takes is one car accident to stop the entire system making a 15 minute drive an hour. And once you're on it, you can't get off of it! So, I got lucky both days I drove it, and the way home both nights was even smoother.

I think that's the weekend's skinny. I'll keep you posted on what actually happens come Monday. Till then, Get Adjusted To The Good Life.