gsteinb

Mazel Tov

Fat Boy

If you've got a minute, read this. https://velonews.competitor.com/2013/...ps-name_310755

Then go here https://www.facebook.com/specializedbicycles and let Specialized know how you feel about their business practices.

Fat Boy

Todah!

Homebrew01

Nice
At least you have a good excuse for being fat & out of shape

big john

Why don't they sue France for using the name? It would make as much sense.

Good job, Flatballer. Now get back on the bike.

grolby

This possibility exists. I am hoping it is not the case. It seems like a poor way to structure a policy to me, given that people really shouldn't be contemplating a thousand dollar bill if they they should (or must) be transported to the hospital. But of course, stupidity never stopped anything. I suppose I'll find out on Monday.

rbart4506

Congrats fb...

echappist

Funny thing is, Specialized U.S.A. could not have done such a thing. Anyone want to hazard a guess as to why?

caloso

I'm in the market for a new phone and looking at the HTC One. Anyone have one?

Fat Boy

Do they license it from Fuji or is it just a legal thing?

echappist

not sure, but Absolute Sport (parent company of Fuji) owns the trademark in the U.S., dating back to 1992. The Specialized trademark in Canada is issued in 2007, and Fuji apparently doesn't have a presence in Canada.

gsteinb

The unfortunate thing was I was less than a mile from the hospital, and really didn't want to go in the ambulance. I argued for a reduction based on that but lost. Of course to their credit I didn't die on the way.

waterrockets 

flatballer:

In other news, the girls had their Lego robotics tournament yesterday. I was planning on them just showing up and having some success with the few missions they planned. They ended up 3rd in the robot challenge, and won the robot design competition! They had probably the simplest robot out there, but the design completed several missions with only one (planned) pit stop. The judging rubric turned out to heavily favor fully autonomous robots, not just completion of tasks. Hitting it out of the park would be starting the robot, and never touching it again. Next year.

In other news, they got advanced to the regional championships in March. Super surprised! Very proud of them. Unfortunately, it's on the first day of spring brake, and us two coaches are both heading out of town that day. I think any girls still in town could run the robot themselves and probably still get full points. They're also independent enough on it that they don't need me at all for the competition. All the judging was done without me in the room, and I could only watch the robot challenge. So... still a chance

revchuck 

WR - Congrats to you and the other coach, and the young ladies!

shovelhd

Congrats, FB. What flavor of PE?

carpediemracing 

You have to remember that insurance isn't there to help people. It's there to make money for the company. It's like a bike shop - it's there to make money, just the "vehicle" is different. Walmart, your local LBS, insurance agents, car dealerships, they're all there to make money.

I was on the hook for one of my two ambulance rides in my life. The other was covered.

Low budget insurance will skip the ambulance ride. It's like having liability on your car but not collision (or comprehensive but not glass). It's a less expensive policy but it doesn't make it better.

Currently I'm in a low budget insurance mode. Therefore I'm out of pocket, for 2013, about $3000 in medical. It appears we got double billed for at least one item so it should drop down a bit, but still, it works out to over $200/month for me. However, if we'd paid $200/month more, it's not clear that the overall costs would have been less.

shovelhd

Being on the other side of the healthcare "hate", the insurance company does not determine what is covered or not, it's whoever designed the plan that you are under, which in most cases is either your employer, association, or state. If the plan says ambulance rides aren't covered, or have a high deductible, then that's what you have to pay. That said, I can't tell you how many times a provider will input the wrong code into the system and the claim is improperly adjudicated. At work, we have 50 people on the phone all day long dealing with these kinds of things. So do your research. Verify your plan benefits with whoever provided the plan, not the insurer.

jsutkeepspining

My girlfriend got me a box of peppermint bark, and it is slowly being consumed. I'm currently writing some college essays, so i'm doing the whole eating without thinking thing. #fatforlife

grolby

Thanks for the input, guys. Got proactive and looked up my plan benefits. First line, boom - Ambulance Services. Benefit Limit - None. Member Cost - No Cost. Looks like I'm in the clear once I can get it cleared up. It might be a database issue - they sent the summary of claims for that charge to my father, and I was under his plan back in the day. So that's a thread to follow.

And sorry for missing this before, congrats FB!

gsteinb

eat faster

jsutkeepspining

It's all gone now. Peppermint bark is one of my favorite sweets. If only i could get it year round...

Ygduf

Stanford has huge leverage and so ambulance coverage was in my plan. It just means that my two trips were gouged out of the University's pocket and not mine (directly).

The reason plans would not include ambulance coverage is that it's expensive as the ambulance company and hospital can charge whatever they like after the service is rendered.

the reason so-and-so is stuck is because their plan doesn't include it, but their plan doesn't include it due to systematic problems up the chain.

But it's cool because we have socialized medicine already so they will take care of you, then you can go bankrupt living as an indentured servant giving your money to Health Care Inc, but that's cool too because if you get too stressed out, hey, any hospital will see you.

Funny though: I once called Kaiser to ask if helicopter ambulance was covered. Lady says "yes, all ambulance services, including airlift are covered. May I ask why? "

haha "Nope!"

kensuf

There is no bring it on this year.

kensuf

Carmichael also likes injecting "b" vitamins.

waterrockets 

Yeah, I've directly heard a major health insurance provider CEO say that they are in the business of collecting premiums, not paying claims, though I wouldn't expect otherwise.