femmocrat
femmocrat's JournalJudge rules UPMC must provide in-network access to Highmark Medicare members:
More on the ongoing battles:
More than 180,000 seniors who rely on Highmark Inc. for Medicare Advantage will keep in-network access to UPMC at least until 2019, Commonwealth Court President Judge Dan Pellegrini ordered Friday.
His three-page decision commands the Downtown-based rivals into binding arbitration to resolve other disagreements they cannot settle on their own — a move that delighted Gov. Tom Wolf and Attorney General Kathleen Kane.
UPMC vowed to appeal to the state Supreme Court.
“The feud between these two companies must end — the people of Western Pennsylvania have had enough,” Wolf said in a statement.
Read more: http://triblive.com/news/adminpage/8465390-74/upmc-access-network#ixzz3bfMXi8Rf
Today's Google Doodle: Happy Birthday, Sally Ride
More at: https://www.google.com/doodles/sally-rides-64th-birthday
(There are 5 different scenes.)
Guide to summer TV returns and debuts:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/05/10/summer-tv-premiere-dates-2015_n_7236764.htmlWhat are you looking forward to?
I'm happy to see "The Leftovers" is coming back, although the date is TBA.
Have you ever heard of "Harvey Girls"?
This is cool... I never heard of them, but NM is honoring their contributions to settling the West:
No monuments or signs commemorate them. In fact, they often were relegated to history’s sidelines. But the women who for decades ventured to work in iconic Fred Harvey establishments along the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway line are gradually getting their due.
Mayors of Santa Fe and Albuquerque, along with Gov. Susana Martinez, have declared Saturday as Harvey Girls Day in honor of more than 100,000 women who helped transform the West.
Their adventures began in 1883, when the girls began answering Fred Harvey Co. ads in newspapers throughout the Midwest and along the East Coast. Wanted: Well-mannered young women ages 18 to 30 years old to work as waitresses in dining rooms attached to remote stops along the new railway.
More at link:
http://www.santafenewmexican.com/life/features/researchers-document-harvey-girls-who-helped-transform-the-west/article_defa81a8-e3d8-5911-84dd-2516640e81ac.html
There is even an old movie about them, starring Judy Garland! http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0038589/
Ancient Wolf DNA Could Solve Dog Origin Mystery
Humans and dogs were constant companions well before our ancestors settled in villages and started growing crops 10,000 years ago, a new study suggests.
Genetic evidence from an ancient wolf bone discovered lying on the tundra in Siberia's Taimyr Peninsula reveals that wolves and dogs split from their common ancestor at least 27,000 years ago. "Although separation isn't the same as domestication, this opens up the possibility that domestication occurred much earlier than we thought before," said lead study author Pontus Skoglund, who studies ancient DNA at Harvard Medical School and the Broad Institute in Massachusetts. Previously, scientists had pegged the wolf-dog split at no earlier than 16,000 years ago.
Although the prehistoric wolf went extinct, its genetic legacy lives on in Arctic sled dogs, the team discovered. "Siberian huskies have a portion of their genome that traces back exclusively to this ancient Siberian wolf," Skoglund told Live Science. "It's pretty amazing that there is a special genetic connection to a wolf that roamed the tundra 35,000 years ago."
More at link: http://news.yahoo.com/ancient-wolf-dna-could-solve-dog-origin-mystery-181112762.html
Remembering Perry Como:
http://www.famousbirthdays.com/people/perry-como.html
I still love him!
When insurance won't pay for generics---
What are we supposed to do?
I went to pick up a $5 generic drug yesterday. It now costs $150!!! I did not accept it, and the pharmacy told me to call the doctor.
Today, I called the doctor's office and asked for him to recommend an alternative .... The doctor himself called me back, rather annoyed, and told me to call the pharmacy back. (Did he think I was making it up?)
I called the pharmacy back. They told me to call the insurance company (for alternatives.)
The insurance company checked. Nope... not covered. Told me to call the doctor's office for an alternative. (I did that in the first place.... sigh.....)
So here we are..... huge runaround, no results, lots of frustration.
This is a lousy $5 item that if taken correctly can prevent all kinds of major and expensive complications. This country's medical-pharmaceutical complex is really f*cked up. That is what I told the insurance person.
Over 1000 calls for 18 rescued Yorkies:
On Monday, we reported that 18 Yorkies were taken to the Animal Rescue League of Western Pennsylvania after their owner passed away.
Executive Director Dan Rossi told us the 18 Yorkshire terriers seemed to be in good condition, and well socialized. But they were desperately in need of a bath and grooming.
Though he stressed that the dogs would not be available for adoption until next week, that didn’t keep the phones from ringing ever since the story aired.
“We’ve had over a thousand calls for 18 rescued Yorkies here, so just unbelievable,” Rossi said the following day. “The most demand or response we’ve ever had for any media story we’ve ever done.”
More at: http://pittsburgh.cbslocal.com/2015/05/05/yorkies-get-groomed-animal-rescue-league-prepares-them-for-adoption/
I hope the "unlucky" callers will decide to look at some of the other rescues that are available.
Video: http://pittsburgh.cbslocal.com/video/11458140-18-yorkies-need-homes-after-owner-dies/ (after the ad)
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