Free Republic

I first reported in April 2023 about a new California state law that would require utility companies to come up with a fixed-rate plan as a way to help stabilize rates and make billing more "equitable." Hence, the state’s soon-to-be-implemented "equitable" policy will base residential electricity bills on income rather than usage, even as public and political opposition to the idea builds in the Democratic coalition.I titled my 2023 article "Marxism, California Style? New State Law Will Lead Energy Companies to Bill Customers Based on Income" because of a phrase popularized by Karl Marx as part of a larger communist...

Jorge Perez and Ricardo Perez convicted of health care fraudTwo Miami men were sentenced to prison time on Friday after using urine drug-testing to scam insurance companies, according to the U.S. Department of Justice. In a release, DOJ officials said that the men — Jorge Perez, 63, and Ricardo Perez, 60 — would use hospitals to bill for testing that wasn’t reimbursable or medically necessary. Jorge Perez, an owner of hospitals and a billing company, teamed up with Ricardo Perez and others to target “financially distressed” rural hospitals in Missouri and Florida, sending them fraudulent bills, the release shows.

— Despite impending regulations, surprise billing still happensOne day in March 2020, during the height of the pandemic, Melinda Wenner Moyer's daughter, Jojo, fell off her bike in the driveway and cut her forehead on a rock. After a quick consult with their primary care doctor, who said the 5-year-old needed stitches, and a trip to a nearby urgent care, which didn't think they could do the procedure without scarring, the mother and daughter set out for the emergency department. It was a 40-minute drive away, in Westchester, New York. They went to the Maria Fareri Children's Hospital's emergency room....

Utility commission says repricing power markets too difficult, despite recommendation that overcharges during storm be reversed The Public Utility Commission of Texas on Friday signaled it didn’t intend to reverse $16 billion in electric overcharges that an independent market monitor had flagged as stemming from the state’s weeklong blackouts. Commission Chairman Arthur C. D’Andrea said it was too difficult to reprice the energy markets and involved too many uncertainties. “It is impossible to unscramble this sort of egg,” he said. Mr. D’Andrea said there were so many hedges and private transactions outside the view of the commission that taking a...

Millions of Americans are at risk of contracting a fairly nasty respiratory infection, COVID-19. At times like these it’s a shame consumers have so little control over the medical care they receive and have little chance to avoid surprise medical bills from out-of-network providers gaming our health care system. While most physicians on the frontlines of this pandemic consider COVID-19 their worst nightmare, many others in the medical industrial complex see opportunities. Opportunities to price gouge that is. From labs charging exorbitantly high prices for testing, to hospitals charging outlandish fees for emergency room visits to the surprise medical bills...

ACKSONVILLE, Fla. - The I-TEAM gets results for a Jacksonville driver who was puzzled after getting a bill in the mail from a toll road in Miami – as she doesn’t drive outside of Northeast Florida. What News4Jax learned highlights imperfections in the new, high-tech toll system coming to Jacksonville this year. When Jacksonville’s tolls came down in 1989, drivers paid at the familiar toll booths along expressways around Jacksonville and across the state. Now, with the latest advances with the SunPass system, drivers can pay tolls electronically without stopping. This system is coming to Jacksonville’s First Coast Expressway and...

Action 9 investigates serious internet billing complaints…

Excessive penalties and poor customer service at the E-ZPass electronic toll collection system have put some Marylanders on the path to “toll bankruptcy,” Sen. Roger Manno told the Senate Finance Committee last week.“Folks [are] exasperated because they’ve been caught in a system that is not working,” Manno said.Broad enforcement powers enacted in 2013 to address toll violations have led to wage attachments, financial hardship and non-renewal of vehicle registrations at MVA, witnesses testified. Sen. Roger Manno “The penalty structure that we set several years ago in the General Assembly was not intended to be punitive,” Manno said. “It was not...

KITCHENER — A Kitchener anesthetist specializing in pain management has been charged with two counts of fraud after he billed the Ontario government for services he didn't provide. The Ontario Provincial Police Anti-Rackets branch arrested and charged Dr. Kulbir Singh Billing, 63, on Monday night. He will appear in Ontario Court in January. He faces two counts of fraud over $5,000. OPP Sgt. Peter Leon said the charges stem from billings to the Ontario government from 2010 to 2013. Leon said billings were made to the Ontario Health Insurance Plan and the Workplace Safety and Insurance Board for services that...

Joe Raedle/Getty Images A man says Comcast contacted his employer and got him fired after he called to complain about the company's service. The Consumerist reports that a man known as Conal complained to Comcast after he was billed for services he didn't actually have. After Conal's complaint, the company promised him extra television channels as a make-good but instead sent him a variety of equipment he didn't need. Conal complained to Comcast again after he was billed $1,820 for the surplus hardware. This is where things get interesting. Conal, who says he works for a large American accountancy firm,...

I am in the process of filing an appeal on a Tricare claim that failed to pay the proper amount. I am in need of someone with medical billing background to tell me what CPT codes are used for a urine electrophor test and a serum electrophor test. I know that the CPT codes 84165 and 84166 are used but I also have read that there are several other sub procedures that are part of the billing for these test. Some that I have identified are; 86335, 86334, 86320 and 86325, but I am not sure if they are routinely...

I have need of a software program, but I don't even know the right terminology to describe it for searching. I spend a lot of time out of town running projects on customer's sites. I have to keep track of hours, expenses, samples, etc. I would like a very simple to use program where I enter all this information each evening and it tracks and compiles it automatically. I've looked at some of the PM programs out there and they're about 1000x what I need. I could built something like this myself in Excel, but I would certainly think somebody...

<p>The reason for Palafox's resignation was a mystery, and he wouldn't say whether he was asked to resign.</p> <p>Abercrombie's office said Palafox asked the Democratic governor to withdraw his nomination.</p> <p>"Gov. Abercrombie accepted Dr. Palafox's request and will make a new appointment for the Health Director as soon as possible," spokeswoman Donalyn Dela Cruz said in a statement.</p>

AUSTIN (KXAN) - KXAN Austin News has uncovered dozens of cases in which unpaid tolls have turned into bills as high as tens of thousands of dollars. Toll roads first came to Central Texas four years ago. There are now a total of five tollways, including Texas Toll 130 in East Travis and Williamson counties. The bottom line is the toll bills were not paid, and they ended up becoming criminal cases. Although drivers can pay with cash at most tolls, use their TxTag or Pay by Mail as the signs say, some drivers contend the last option poses a...

Has anyone ever gotten an EZ Pass bill with charges that belong to someone else? Did anyone ever return an EZ Pass unit--the transponder--and find that it turned up still in use by someone else, charging you for their travel?

In a controversial practice known as "balance billing," health-care providers are going after patients for money they don't owe As health-care costs continue to soar, millions of confused consumers are paying medical bills they don't actually owe. Typically this occurs when an insurance plan covers less than what a doctor, hospital, or lab service wants to be paid. The health-care provider demands the balance from the patient. Uncertain and fearing the calls of a debt collector, the patient pays up. Most consumers don't realize it, but this common practice, known as balance billing, often is illegal. When doctors or hospitals...

Sunday, March 17, 2002 Rep. Sanchez to Top GOP Ballot By Loie Fecteau Journal Politics Writer     SOCORRO — State Rep. John Sanchez, a freshman legislator, scored a decisive victory on Saturday over Lt. Gov. Walter Bradley and other Republican gubernatorial candidates to claim top ballot position in the June 4 GOP primary election.     "I think it was a huge upset," said Sanchez, an Albuquerque Republican, after the state Republican pre-primary nominating convention at New Mexico Tech. "Nobody expected us to do this. ... I think Republicans sent a clear signal today that they want to unite behind a...

NEW YORK (AFP) - A liberal radio start-up touted as a counterweight to right-wing talk radio has been yanked from the airwaves in two of its top markets amid an acrimonious billing dispute, according to network representatives. The broadcaster that rents air time to Air America in Los Angeles and Chicago pulled the plug on the network in those two cities Wednesday, just two weeks after its much-ballyhooed launch. Executives with Multicultural Radio Broadcasting Inc., which owns Air America affiliates WNTD-950 AM in Chicago and KBLA-1580 AM in Los Angeles, claims Air America bounced checks and fell behind on its...

<p>Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger says the new budget reserve plan he negotiated with the Legislature will prevent the state from ever again descending into the kind of deficit spending spiral in which California finds itself today.</p> <p>But a close look at the details of the proposal, which will go before voters on March 2, suggests that it falls well short of accomplishing the goals Schwarzenegger was trying to achieve.</p>

Every few years, economists identify another mutant variation of inflation to keep them awake at night. In the 1980's, it was stagflation. Three years ago, it was deflation. And now, meet the economic specter of the new millennium: stealth inflation. That's when phone companies and just about anybody else who sends you a bill manages to extract more money from you without actually raising their rates. Phase 1 of this program was the proliferation of miscellaneous fees -- for "regulatory assessment," "handling," "restocking," and so on. According to Business Week, newly concocted fees will generate $100 million for hotels this...