European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - August 21, 1987, Darmstadt, Hesse                                The stars and stripes Friday August 21,1987 columns today s crossword prying data from insurance firms by Andy Rooney one of he most frustrating jobs known to Man is trying o get information out of an insurance company. Insurance companies arc faced with so Many people trying to cheat them thai you have to be a Little sympathetic to their efforts to protect themselves. But boy do they protect themselves and let s face it insurance companies have us where they wan us. Six weeks ago before undergoing surgery to Correct a hernia. I went to an internist for a thorough examination. You Don t shop around trying 10 find the cheapest doctors when you re having work done on a body you can t Lurn in Lor a new one. Both the internist and the surgeon Are the very Best kind of representatives of the medical profession. They Are not Only medically expert but socially aware. It gives me a lot of Confidence in both of them that they Are each other s doctor. The charge for the medical examination including All the tests that went with it was $3 4. 1 paid the doctor by Check and sent in the Prudential co. Forms for reimbursement. In two weeks Prudential sent me my Check for j11.20 your family deductible the form said is now satisfied Well. Of but obviously Prudential was More satisfied than i was. The surgeon s charge for the operation was $1,550. It did not seem out of line to me. I paid the surgeon and this Lime the Prudential Check for ss40, Cam with a Semi form letter which said your group plan provides Only for reimbursement of usual and prevailing fees. In determining a usual and prevailing fee we refer to statist Cal profiles of physicians charges for the same or similar service in the  they pay so percent of the figure they assign to the operation $ 1,050. I decided to try to find out More about the Billing. 1 talked to three people at Prudential then to an administrator at the Hospital a Blue shield executive two people at the slate commission on hospitals and health care and four doctors not including mine. The doctors said ,550 was a Normal charge. The Prudential people were polite but evasive. In answer to my question How do you determine usual and prevailing " they hedged. I l depends we have different  we Divide the country into 252 areas and do it that  employer provides the insurance coverage so i spoke to the company expert and got the biggest sur prise of ail. Prudential he said does t realty insure me. My com q pays the medical Bills. All Prudential does is uie work. My employer pays Prudential about s58 month for each employee hut it s Only a bookkeeping figure. Actually he said my employer deposits that amount in a Bank account out of which medical costs Are paid. It must be a common practice Bull d never heard of it and was surprised to find my company does l mud when Prudential keeps the costs Down. C Tribune Wiecka a Vic his opinions Are like the weather by Joe Murray lufk1n, Texas i May have inflicted some of the readers of our local editorial Page with whiplash of the logic during the past week. What with me filling in for a vacationing associate editor and having to fill his space with daily editorials folks May have noted a different tone indeed a thriller pitch in Opin ions. If my editorials sound bitter on occasion it s for Good reason. I m bitter that he is having fun while i m having to do his work. Mainly the editorial Page exists simply to encourage the actual taking of Lime to Stop and think about important issues of the Day. As for me from one Day to the next my own person Al Renaissance of enlightenment tends to ebb and flow if not slosh about a bit. Indeed i eschew any consistency of editorial philosophy particularly where politics is concerned. I m not of a one track mind or for that matter one train of thought i m liable to jump the tracks at any juncture. More like the Texas weather than a bellwether if you Don t like my opinion just wait awhile. It s Likely to change. I offer no apology for such transcendental transgressions. Of 1 suppose i could gel one Story and Slick to it Liberal or conservative. Democratic progressive or Republican regressive. But i find nothing quite so Boring As a neatly made up mind not unlike a neatly made up bed. How much better it is to Romp about beneath the covers of the cranium Al find nothing is quite so invigorating As a Pillow fight with the pituitary gland i take my calling As Good journalists should from William Allen White famed editor of the Epona Kan Gazette a newspaper that never reached More than 7,000 in circulation yet whose opinions reached around the world. But of All he wrote what i like Best is what was written about him in a review of his Book forty years on main Street a compilation of his editorials. Of All the american liberals Bill while of Emporia is the most pc Mickey perverse pernicious and periodic. He is the most often mistaken inconstant inconsistent unwise Short sighted Percipient emotional banal self righteous self critical partisan and Independent generally maddening and altogether moveable conservative in the whole  i could never Hope for such tribute. This much i Promise and nothing More. Everything i Tell you will be the truth. Or at least the Way 1 remember it. Same difference. 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