Friday's Odds and Ends

Here we are at day 3 of the Arctic Blast that is affecting much of the United States. The way the media is going crazy with reports you would think we never had winter before. Granted, winter does not usually come this early. I can't remember freezing temperatures before December here in Texas, but then my memory is not what it used to be.

I was worried about that - my memory not the snow - until my sister sent the following to me:

Brains of older people are slow because they know so much.  People do not decline mentally with age, it just takes them longer to recall facts because they have more information stored in their brains, scientists believe. 

Researchers say this slowing down is not the same as cognitive decline.  The human brain works slower in old age, said Dr.Michael Ramscar, but only because we have stored more information over time.The brains of older people do not get weak. On the contrary, they simply know more, but just may not be able to access the information.

Also, older people often go to another room to get something and when they get there, they stand there wondering what they came for.  It is NOT a memory problem, it is nature's way of making older people do more exercise.  SO THERE!!

Whew! I feel so much better now.

Did you know that Medicare fraud adds as much as 10% to health care costs? Peggy Sposato is a data analyst for the Justice Department, and she pioneered a program that uses Medicare billing data to target suspected fraud. It is estimated that she has saved the taxpayers billions of dollars since the mid 1990s when she assumed her current position. As much as $20 billion a year is lost to Medicare fraud, and AARP has some helpful links that you can use to help spot and report fraud.  

An interesting commentary by Ruben Navarrette carried this headline: Life isn't far and never will be, so get over it.

Ruben went on to say that Americans need to stop listening to populist rhetoric and accept the many injustices of our system. He then quotes JFK, "There is always inequity in life...It's very hard...to assure complete equality. Life is unfair."

One point that Ruben made in his commentary is that sometimes dealing with the unfairness in life is what makes us stronger

He also seemed to be saying that instead of jumping on every claim of "unfairness" we should work on just accepting the reality and figuring out how to live within that reality.

One of the most absurd news items I read this past week was about Arnold Abbot, a 90-year-old man who was arrested in Fort Lauderdale for violating an ordinance that restricts public feeding of the homeless. 

Really? The police couldn't just tell him to pack up the food and go away?

Now I'll leave you with a bit of humor from One Big Happy by Rick Detorie. Ruthie is sitting at the table with her father, Frank, who is helping her with her math homework. He says, "You have 22 carrot sticks on you plate. If your friend Sam takes six sticks and your Friend Tessa takes four sticks... But Tessa returns two sticks... How many carrot sticks are on your plate?"

Ruthie thinks for a few moments and her father asks, "Shouldn't you be writing down some numbers, Ruthie?"

"First of all... I don't know who these people are. Secondly, if I did know them, I would never eat with them. Thirdly, it's a stupid question. Who wants to steal carrots?

"Now, if they were French fries? Maybe."

Brother Joe pipes up with, "She makes a good point, Dad."

I knew there was a reason I relate so much to Ruthie. I hated those word problems in school, too. What about you?

Have a great weekend everyone.
 

Friday's Odds and Ends

A recent story in the Dallas Morning News reported that the reservoirs serving the Dallas-area are 10% lower than a year ago and the continuing drought does not indicate that it's going to get any better. The area is more than 30 inches shy of normal rainfall over the last six years, yet nobody has taken really serious action toward a long-term solution to the water problem, other than looking at ways to bring in more water - pulling from East Texas reservoirs for one.

People still pour gallons and gallons of water on landscaping and lawns every year, in many cases trying to maintain greenery that was not meant to grow in this hot climate. Perhaps people should think more about whether their grandchildren or great-grandchildren might have a glass of water in their future instead of wanting the most luxurious green lawn today.

Jonathan Rauch, contributing editor to The Atlantic, wrote an interesting article about health care for the very elderly who too often end up in intensive care units at hospitals for the last weeks or days of their lives. He believes that is an unnecessary and extraordinary use of healthcare facilities and money. He wrote, "Hospitals are fine for people needing acute treatments, like heart surgery, but they are very often terrible place for the frail elderly."

The article was promoting the idea of home-based primary care, and to highlight the benefits of that approach, Rauch mentioned a program called Advanced Illness Management at Sutter Health, a giant network of hospitals and doctors in Northern California. Brad Stuart has worked there for the past 15 years, developing home-based care for frail, elderly patients, and he estimates that using that type of program and keeping patients out of the hospital saves Medicare upwards of $2000 a month on each patient, maybe more. "For years, many people in medicine have understood that late-life care for the chronically sick is not only expensive, but also, much too often, ineffective and inhumane."

Because Medicare is not set up to work with this type of program, that is one of the reasons that home-based medical care is not widely used across the country. The layers and layers of rules and requirements and policies for using Medicare seem to be cast in stone and don't leave room for a doctor or a patient or a hospital to figure out a more cost-effective way to handle a medical issue. For example,   there were people in the extended care unit of a hospital at which I worked who were receiving 6 to 8 weeks of IV antibiotics. I don't recall the exact cost of daily hospital stay, but it certainly was a lot more than had these people been allowed to go home with a visiting nurse coming in every day to administer the antibiotic, check the IV port to make sure it was working properly, and tend to any other medical needs the patient might have.

One time, two gentlemen who were stuck in this extended care unit decided that they would use that time to appeal to the government to rethink policy. They gathered statistics from the medical social worker on cost comparisons and then wrote letters to political leaders, starting at the state level and going all the way to Washington. The letters, with all the statistics and a recommendation to change the policy, were also sent to the people who manage and administrate Medicare. The responses that they receive back were often just a form letter that simply stated "We are sorry that our program does not allow for this type of in-home healthcare that you are requesting."

Nobody seemed to be able to look at this idea and say, "Hmmm, maybe we should figure out a way to implement this cost-saving measure and save the taxpayers a whole lot of money."

I know, I know. Government bureaucrats don't seem to understand simple and efficient. And from all outward appearances, they don't seem eager to figure it out.

Isn't this a better setting than a hospital? Photo courtesy of My Elder Advocate

It's been a while since I've done Literary Lessons, and this is a good one from Tennessee Williams' classic play "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof." The line belongs to Big Daddy, "Ignorance of mortality is a comfort. Men don't have that comfort, he's the only living thing that conceives of death, that knows what it is, the others go without knowing. A pig squeals, but a man, sometimes you can keep a tight mouth about it."

That's kind of depressing, so let's end on a joke.

"How is it that we put man on the moon before we figured out it would be a good idea to put wheels on luggage?"

Friday's Odds and Ends

It's a cold, rainy day here in East Texas, so I thought I would start the day with a cup of tea and a biscuit. Care to join me? I can share.

 It used to be that we had political mudslinging and candidates acting like two-year-olds for about six months before a major election. Then we might have some political peace for a year or so. Now we just go from one verbal mess to another. The latest being insults lobbed at Texas state senator, Wendy Davis by a Greg Abbott supporter. Both Davis and Abbott are running for governor of Texas, and some time ago, Jeff Rutledge posted a Tweet calling Davis "retard Barbie." Instead of calling Rutledge on using such bad taste, Abbott simply thanked the man for his support.

Such nice guys.

A Texas resident recently noted a Medicare overpayment that was double what the actual bill was. When she called to report the error, a Medicare representative told her that it is now standard payment for some services, and the system automatically pays that amount, no matter what the billing amount is. The woman then asked why each bill is not paid according to the billing amount, and she was told that this the system that is in place and it all balances out in the long run. The reasoning is that some submitted bills are higher than the standard payment amount, so that cancels the overpayments.  

Oh, really?

I read a news report about a charter school in Houston that had a serious financial problem. It seems that administrators misused $5.3 million in federal funds for trips to Las Vegas and New York, as well as some cruises. The two top administrators also received salaries of $440,000 while enjoying all those trips and the perks that came with the trips.

It's been a while since I've done Literary Lessons, so here's one from Family Circus, a quote from Grandma:    "Making mistakes is okay if they're new ones each time."

These next two are from Harlan Coben's novel,  StayClose.

"Ken considered himself a disciplined man, but the truth was, human beings were not built for self- denial. It was why diets rarely worked in the long run."

"The measure of a man isn't how many times he gets knocked down. It is how many times he gets back up again." 

Now, for no reason other than I think the goat is cute, here is my Lucy, enjoying some treats I threw over the fence. The green stuff growing behind her is called goat weed, and she doesn't eat that. I've never known if it is called goat weed because goats don't eat it, or if Lucy is just too picky and all the other goats do eat it. 

Monday Morning Musings

Since it is almost noon here in Texas, maybe I should title this, Monday Afternoon Musings. Sorry I'm late. Life keeps interfering.

One nice thing to interfere has been ongoing enthusiasm for the Winnsboro history book that I wrote with our local historian. Here I am with Bill Jones at a recent signing event. I was so thrilled to get this book done for Bill. Everybody in town kept saying we needed to get a book published with all the historical facts that he has stored in his memory banks, and then Arcadia Publishing contacted me wanting an Images of America - Winnsboro book. Talk about something that was meant to be.

Today I am a guest on Yolanda Renee's blog, Defending the Pen. If you have a moment to hop over, you can find out which of my kids I love the most. :-) This is a terrific blog and Yolanda is generous in supporting her fellow authors.

On another note, deliberations for sentencing Nidal Hasan began today, and yesterday a Dallas morning news columnist posed an interesting question on the issue, "What's worse than death?" The columnist suggests that maybe life in solitary confinement  in prison would be a worse punishment for a man who welcomes death because he would be a martyr and a hero to fellow jihadists overseas. Not to mention depriving him of the 70 virgins that are supposed to be part of his eternal reward.  

Proponents of the death penalty say Hasan deserves to die for his crimes, but I agree with the columnist.  Hasan, who was wounded in the shoot-out at Fort Hood, is paralyzed from the chest down, and a greater punishment would be for him to spend many more long years suffering.

In an article in The Dallas Morning News, Dave Lieberman reported about a Texas resident who recently noted a Medicare over-payment that was double what the actual bill was. When she reported that she was told by a medicate representative that it is now standard payment for some services, and the system automatically pays that amount, no matter what the billing amount is. When the woman asked why each bill is not paid according to the billing amount, she was told that this is the system that is in place and it all balances out in the long run. Some submitted bills are higher than the standard payment amount, so that cancels the over-payments.

Oh, really? And we wonder why Medicare is in trouble.A charter school in Houston is a little more than red-faced after it was revealed that administrators misused $5.3 million in federal funds for trips to Las Vegas and New York and cruises. The two top administrators also received salaries of $440,000 while enjoying all those trips and the perks that came with the trips.

This type of misappropriation is too common in school districts across our country, and the trickle-down effect is always a direct negative impact on students and teachers. We can't pay teachers a decent wage for the work they do. Parents are having to purchase more and more supplies for their children, as schools can no longer provide them. Just the other day I was asked at the grocery store if I would like to buy a box of tissues to be donated to the local school.

Now to end on a lighter note, here are a couple of jokes I found on Jokes and Humor for Kids. I thought they would tickle the childish funny bone in all of us.

Question: Why are ghosts bad liars?
Answer: Because you can see right through them

Question: What dog can jump higher than a building?

Answer: Any dog, buildings can't jump!