iD Tech Camp is done...

Matt finished iD Tech Camp today.  He had a terrific week learning to use Multimedia Fusion 2.  He had a terrific time, met some new friends, and learned a thing or two about thinking programmatically.  Fusion is a fairly robust IDE so he didn't learn any "old school" programming.  However, I'm not sure how much code modern programmers are writing.  At first I thought "what a rip!  I should have just bought the software and saved $500 from the price of the camp.  But overall the experience was terrific for him.  I highly recommend it for kids with a technical bent.  It wasn't much more than a sports camp would have been and Matt enjoyed it much more than he would have enjoyed playing soccer or basketball all week.

Technorati Tags: Camp, Technology, Programming

Breaking News: All Online Data Lost After Internet Crash | The Onion - America's Finest News Source

  

Link to Breaking News: All Online Data Lost After Internet Crash | The Onion - America's Finest News Source

July 4th at Campus View

Technorati Tags: Photos, July 4th, Parade, Community, Pepperdine

Profit and Healthcare

Technorati Tags: News, Healthcare, Profit, Ethics

Michael Moore's newest movie, Sicko, opened recently to good reviews.  I've not seen it (yet), but am interested in his take on the state of healthcare in the US.  The realities of the insurance/healthcare industry came home to me last week in a personal way. 

I had a minor 1-day surgery at a local hospital here in LA.  It wasn't technically "out-patient", but I was out of the hospital within 12-hours from the time I first reported in.  (The surgery went very well BTW).

A few weeks later I received a statement from the hospital with a bill for $39,000.  That bill was separate from those provided by the surgeon and anesthesiologist (each over $5,000).  I was amazed that 12-hours of care at a hospital could possibly cost that much.

The next week I received my "Explanation of Benefit" and the insurance company apparently has a contractual rate of app. $4,000 for the 12-hour stay in the hospital.  That is 1/10 of the cost they billed me.  Since the insurance company pays for a theoretical 90% of the cost, my co-pay was $400.  That is 1% of the bill the hospital originally sent me (and what I assume would have been the total due if I did not have private insurance).  Amazing.

Given this recent experience my curiosity was piqued by a story in Sunday's LA Times.  This story reports a local physician who bought a hospital and discovered that the contractual rates allowed by the insurers were insufficient to cover his costs.  So he canceled all standing insurance contracts and modified his business model to take a larger portion of the healthcare expense (rather than it all going to the insurance companies). 

At first the article gives the impression that "this greedy physician is charging more than other local hospitals!".  It even describes the value of his two local homes, and the expensive decor within them.  However, by the end of the article, I came to the conclusion that the physician was merely turning the tables on the insurance companies.  I suspect that the CEO of Blue Cross or WellPoint is worth much more than this physician.  And somehow I think most of us are OK with that. 

So a simple question...is it any more or less ethical for a practicing physician (who also happens to be the owner and CEO of seven local hospitals) to build a personal net-worth of over $300 million (as stated in the article) than it is for the CEO of a large insurance company? 

Hospital group rejects system and cashes in - Los Angeles Times

Why Toyota is the world's best car maker

Recently our 2001 Toyota "Certified Used" Sienna started smoking at start up. I didn't think much of it at first, but it was very persistent. After a couple of weeks I decided to take it in to have it checked out. At first they said it simply had a leak and the valve seals needed to be replaced.


A day or two later they called back and said we had oil sludge buildup inside the engine which is indicative of insufficient maintenance. They initially said it would cost $1200 to look into it, and possibly as much as $5000-$8000 to repair or replace the engine. Needless to say, we paniced. We still owe a ton on the van, so we couldn't believe we had a $5000 repair bill staring at us!

As we were worrying ourselves sick about what to do (fix it, trade-it-in, do nothing and hope for the best...) my beatiful bride did a little research and discovered a class-action lawsuit against Toyota for an engine design issue that infuriated many customers.

While there is some debate about the cause of the problem (and Toyota has not admitted to a bad design), Toyota has agreed to repair or replace thousands of engines that have oil sludge.

Now, we did have to deal with a bit of a run-around from Thousand Oaks Toyota but in the end, they agreed to repair/replace the engine to remedy the oil sludge problem.

We still may sell the van within a few weeks of the repair, but at least we won't have a big bill to get the engine ready to sell.

This is a classic example of how good customer service can lead to life-long customers...or furiously irritated consumers who tell everyone they know not to buy your product. For example, one of our neighbors recently had the same problem with their 1999 Camry. While the dealership ultimately fixed the engine the family had to argue for days with them. In talking with them today they said basically, "we sold the Camry within a few months of the repair (and bought a Honda Pilot) and will sell our Sienna in a few months (and will buy an Odyssey) and will never buy a Toyota again.

On the other hand, with the customer service and support I've received I am likely to be a Toyota customer for life. My next car...a hybrid Camry.

Attention all Amazon Shoppers

I found this wonderful resource in a mediocre book I read last week.  The book was not great, but this website www.refundplease.com is great.  It scours the Amazon database and when a price changes on an item you've bought it send you and email alerting you.  You can then apply to Amazon for a refund and they will refund you the difference.  Not bad!

 

Link to Refund Please - Helping you get a Price Drop Refund

Temptation: Conception, Gestation and Birth

In Bible class yesterday we had a wonderful discussion about temptation (thank you Jen!).  It was one of those classes where the leader introduced a few ideas, then asked us to discuss in small groups a variety of scriptures.  These types of classes can go either way...but this one was excellent.  The key text was from James 1:...

13When tempted, no one should say, "God is tempting me." For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone; 14but each one is tempted when, by his own evil desire, he is dragged away and enticed. 15Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death.

We discussed this verse and many others that deal with the source, outcome, and process of temptation. It was especially rich to me because I've thought about this a bit lately. A friend and I recently faced down a temptation and it has been on my mind since the event. This process of "my own desire" leading to being "dragged away and enticed", then giving "birth to sin" and ultimate death was easily apparent in my memory of the event.  Often it is my own natural and acceptable "desires" that are the seedbed of temptation.  In fact, one of the passages we discussed seems to say this same thing...

7 Woe to the world because of the things that cause people to sin! Such things must come, but woe to the man through whom they come! Matthew 18

In essence, the seedbed for sin is within our natural desires.  Whether it is a desire for affirmation that leads to pride, for hunger that leads to gluttony, for justice that leads to anger, or for love that leads to lust or... you fill in the desire here.  I know this isn't a new or insightful idea.  We've all thought about it a dozen times in our lives.  But I was touched by the simple revelation that desire preceeds conception.  Then, once conception has occured, it is a long process from there to birth.  May God give each of us grace to this week to deal with our desires at the pre-conception stage rather than allowing them to conceive and go through a long gestation period leading to sin.