Join me as I Submit my United Healthcare Out of Network Claim

May 26th, 2010. By AbiK

The much-anticipated Notice of Proposed Settlement for the United Healthcare (UHC) class action lawsuit about Out-of-Network (OON) charges being improperly reimbursed has finally landed in my mailbox—perhaps yours, too.

Chances are, if you’ve received the UHC OON settlement notice, you glazed over it and tossed it aside while simultaneously feeling some sort of nagging inside—that nagging you feel when you know you should do something but it’s just too much of a pain in the ass to do it. Windexing the windows falls into this category as well. The difference between the windows and the UHC settlement though is that at least you KNOW how to do the windows; just try to figure out how to submit a claim for this settlement.

So I’m going to go through the process with you—yes, I’m going to fill out the paperwork and post about it so I can feel your pain and hopefully help you make sense of it all along the way. And so our little journey begins…

My UHC Out of Network Settlement Experience: DAY 1

The UHC OON Proposed Settlement in hand, I rip it open to find a sea of text that immediately starts to confuse me. It’s not the lawsuit I’m confused about—we’ve followed the AMA v. UHC class action. It’s what the heck I need to do now. So I force myself to read the hideously dense serif text and here’s what I need to do:

1. Ask myself, was I a United Healthcare Subscriber…

at all between March 15, 1994 through November 18, 2009? Ok, yes, I was.

2. How long do I have to submit a Claim Form for this?

(i.e., how long can I procrastinate?) I have until October 5, 2010 to submit a UHC settlement Read the rest of this entry »

Oh Crap! My Lamborghini Murcielago’s been Recalled!

May 25th, 2010. By AbiK

It’s one thing when your Toyota’s recalled. But when your Lamborghini finds itself on a little recall notice, well, this is serious business. At least that’s what my vicariously-living alter-ego—the one that thinks it actually owns a 2007-2008 Lamborghini Murcielago—tells me. After all, it’s just not every day that you hear of a car in the six-figure limited-production class being recalled. (Note, this baby goes for $350,000)

But alas, yes, it is so. As Fox News reported, there seems to be a little bit of a problem with the welds that hold the fuel pumps in place. They could fail under stress. The definition of “stress” would include driving at speeds that violate all local traffic laws within the continental US. And yes, there seems to be a correlation between owners of cars that are capable of going speeds in excess of 200 miles per hour and those very owners feeling the need to push the miles per hour over the 3-digit mark on the speedometer.

Oh, in case the potential outcome of such weld failure hasn’t occured to you yet, that would be a possible fuel leak. Leaking fuel can travel…right to an ignition source. Fuel + Ignition can = Fire. Not a good equation.

There haven’t been any reports yet of accident or injury and according the the Fox report, Lamborghini discovered the problem only during some testing, however the company will be replacing the fuel tanks on all affected Murcielago’s as a precaution. For free–not that the Lamborghini-driving set needs to worry about such minor details.

So, I’m thinking I’ll have my alter-ego call my boss and let him know that I may not be at work for a couple of days—you know, my Murcielago’s in the shop…

Fake BP Gets More Followers Than the Real BP

May 25th, 2010. By AbiK

There’s something rather disturbing in this newsflash: the fake BP Twitter account has more followers than the real BP Twitter account. Yes, 18,149 more followers to be precise as of my writing this.

And with tweets like…

The ocean looks just a bit slimmer today. Dressing it in black really did the trick! #bpcares

and…

Oh man, this whole time we’ve been trying to stop SEAWATER from gushing into our OIL. Stupid Terry was holding the diagram upside down.

it’s pretty clear that the fake tweets are not the official BP tweets, though it’s also clear that folks are finding the fakes to be more engaging—and dare I say more humorous if you can find humor in such a disaster—than the reality. After all, the reality of the BP Oil Spill in the Gulf is a bit too much to take—it’s day #36, there hasn’t been much progress with the clean-up and the damage continues to grow.

I’m all for humor and sarcasm as a means to put more focus on an issue—or even just to let off some steam. But @BPGlobalPR went a bit too far at one point with this tweet:

@willarkatone – It’s not our oil, it’s America’s oil! In the meantime, if you’d like to donate to help us clean up go to www.bp.org

There are folks out there who genuinely want to help and who would make a donation to do so. Posting a bogus url is just irresponsible. But—NOT posting the fact that the proceeds from the t-shirts you’re peddling are going to healthygulf.org is just stupid. I’m just amazed that the authors of the BPGlobalPR Twitter stream see fit to hide behind a bogus bio (“This page exists to get BP’s message and mission statement out into the twitterverse!”) and then, when they have the opportunity to rally some support for the cause vs. merely just coughing up some sarcasm, they drop the ball—they hype the t-shirts but not the cause! Go figure. And, while I’m at it, partnering with Amazon or another established online etail op (cafepress, zazzle…) may have given their t-shirt transactions a bit more street cred than the streetgiant site they’ve got…just my two cents.

Brandi (Such a Fine Girl) and Taser the Tater Dude…It’s Tortelicious

May 25th, 2010. By LucyC

Welcome to Totally Tortelicious—a review of some of the more bizarre legal stories making news—and there’s certainly no shortage of them. 

Where did she hide the bottle? A woman from Nevada has been accused of stealing a bottle of wine from a store while she was topless and intoxicated. Ok, how does this stuff happen?

Brandi Smith, (interesting choice of name—and makes me recall Looking Glass’ 1972 classic, though I’m sure their “Brandy” was a bit more of an inspiration)—anyway, Brandi, who is 41-years old—we’ll come back to that—got herself arrested for this little act of shoplifting. That’s Brandi over there at right. Believing she was on a roll, she drove to a fast food restaurant nearby to get a little something to go with the plonk, only to be apprehended by an off duty sheriff. Poor guy. I wonder if they were at Wendy’s? (nope, actually the BK lounge—but read on for some excitement at Wendy’s)

You know, at the very least topless robbery takes guts—and not a little liquid inspiration—coz 41 ain’t 21 (no matter how confident you are). Turns out a preliminary test revealed a blood-alcohol level of 0.14 percent, nearly twice the legal limit—for driving—not stripping.

The bottle of wine cost $20 retail, plus $5000 for bail. Brandi’s been charged with felony drunken driving (not her first offense here), burglary, and indecent exposure. Thank you.

“I said hold the f*&^*&% fries!” A woman in Daytona Beach, Florida went postal—or would that be fried (?)—at a local Wendy’s recently. In any event, she lost the plot with a member of staff who was taking her order at the drive-thru. Hey, we all know how conducive to clarity those “place your order” machines are.

Anyway—back to the story—Miss Melanese Asia Reid apparently got into a heated discussion with the employee (btw, no word on just what exactly the problem was), got out of her car—with her Read the rest of this entry »

Psst…Remember that 2006 BP Spill in Alaska?

May 24th, 2010. By AbiK

While all eyes are on the BP disaster in the Gulf, it’s easy to forget about a bit of unresolved BP business up in Alaska: the 2006 Prudhoe Bay pipeline spills. Well, while the rest of us may have back-burner’d it, rest assured, the US Department of Justice and folks up in Alaska have not.

According to a report in the Anchorage Daily News, “lawyers for BP and federal regulators appear to be working hard to settle a civil lawsuit the government brought against the oil company in connection with the 2006 pipeline spills”. Spills to the tune of 212,252 gallons of oil in March, 2006, and a second spill that required a partial shutdown of Prudhoe Bay.

Lawsuit?

Yes. Lawsuit. No, you didn’t hear about it back in 2006—that’s because it was filed in March 2009 by the US Dept. of Justice on behalf of the EPA and federal pipeline regulators. The civil suit alleged water and air pollution violations and a failure to meet deadlines stemming from a corrective action order from the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration. The suit is seeking millions in fines.

And, there’s another civil suit against BP that was filed by the state of Alaska. That one seeks at least $1 billion in back taxes and “other collections”.

If you’re wondering why these are civil suits and not criminal suits, that’s because back in 2007 the Alaskan BP subsidiary had been sentenced to three years’ probation and ordered to pay $20 million after pleading guilty to a federal environmental misdemeanor. That plea basically ended any criminal prosecution of BP.

Now, if you’ll recall, we also recently posted about the would-be environmental award BP was to receive—until, of course, the Gulf disaster. The Prudhoe Bay spills though beg the question of how—how?!?—could BP be up for an award when it was less than five years ago that disaster struck in Alaska? And the award was sponsored by the federal Minerals Management Service—what, do they all have exceedingly short-term memory over there?

Needless to say, with regard to Alaska’s $1 billion lawsuit, BP’s lawyers have asked Superior Court Judge Peter Michalski to dismiss much of the charges. Hmm.