Sockless In Seattle
Links are at the end, with no baggage.
Watching the carousel go round and round.
Yr. Editor was surprised to learn that his airline of choice now forwards checked luggage to the end destination when layovers are shorter than 18 hours, disqualifying his 16.5 hour layover and leaving him to enjoy the brisk Seattle weather without a coat. And in shorts. And in a t-shirt. And sans socks. The baggage agents were overrun with people in the same fix, including a family consisting of grandparents, parents and a some-months old baby who between them were left with one carry-on and a backpack for their overnight stay.
“During a routine head count about 7:15 p.m. Monday, authorities discovered that the inmates were not in their cell.”
Where were the inmates, you ask? Not at the Waffle House, that’s for damn sure.
The two who fled Monday from a jail annex in Newport News, by making a cavity in a wall with the aid of a toothbrush, were recaptured within hours at an IHOP, the sheriff’s office said, ending their brush with liberty.
IHOP back to jail.
“The proposed changes have unleashed an extensive and noisy opposition front, with lobbyists and insurance executives flooding Capitol Hill to engage in their fiercest fight in years.”
The changes in question are proposed by Medicare officials to rein in something we’ve talked about a lot around here, that being fraudulent overbilling by Medicare Advantage companies, the largest of which have all been accused of either ‘accidentally’ or fraudulently overbilling the program to the collective tune of billions of dollars.
Among the nuggets in the story is the insurance company practice of sharing Medicare Advantage premiums with some physician practices. Do you suppose that might involve some back-scratching love for the insurers from the practice managers?
The only incorporated physicians practice singled out in the story is the charmingly named VillageMD. This homey little outfit is a one-time startup which has since been acquired by pharmacy giant Walgreens. Among the investors in and cheerleaders of VillageMD is politicized doctor Ezekiel Emanuel, a strong opponent of single-payer health care and a champion of privatizing Medicare through accelerating the proliferation of Medicare Advantage plans.
Zeke is an asshole, as one would expect from a sibling of Rahm Emanuel.
It’s early days yet but somewhat surprisingly, lawmakers are not leaping to defend a giant insurer’s right to commit Medicare fraud. Smaller insurance companies are supporting the changes, presumably seeing an opportunity to increase their piece of the action.
“So, we suspect I am going to come out super-human”
Joseph Dituri, a University of South Florida professor, hopes to do more than set a world record by living underwater for 100 days. He hopes to become “superhuman.”
Well, okay. Yr. editor has been underwater half his life, though, and is not feeling superhuman in the least little way.
That, Comrades, is all there is
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Forgot about the music because there isn’t much
I like people who can do live what they do on a recording.
Hurray for the Riff Raff, “Life on Earth.”
Take care, be well.