The next debt crisis.
::raises hand::
I’m still paying off my Bachelor’s degree and will be for many years to come. I graduated in 2002. I benefited from a number of scholarships and grants that I don’t have to pay back, and yet I’m still looking at another decade or so of basically living paycheck to paycheck at a full-time job while I pay back my loans. I can’t afford grad school, which means I have almost no hope of advancing in my chosen field. I am not the only one in this position. If we continue to go on this way as a nation, or we will fall further and further behind in the global society.
“When I look up at the night sky, and I know that, yes, we are part of this Universe, we are in this Universe, but perhaps more important than both of those facts is that the Universe is in us. When I reflect on that fact, I look up — many people feel small, because they’re small and the Universe is big, but I feel big, because my atoms came from those stars.” - Neil DeGrasse Tyson [x]
Hospital patients waiting in an emergency room or convalescing after surgery are being confronted by an unexpected visitor: a debt collector at bedside.
This and other aggressive tactics by one of the nation’s largest collectors of medical debts, Accretive Health, were revealed on Tuesday by the Minnesota attorney general, raising concerns that such practices have become common at hospitals across the country.
The tactics, like embedding debt collectors as employees in emergency rooms and demanding that patients pay before receiving treatment, were outlined in hundreds of company documents released by the attorney general. And they cast a spotlight on the increasingly desperate strategies among hospitals to recoup payments as their unpaid debts mount.
To patients, the debt collectors may look indistinguishable from hospital employees, may demand they pay outstanding bills and may discourage them from seeking emergency care at all, even using scripts like those in collection boiler rooms, according to the documents and employees interviewed by The New York Times.
In some cases, the company’s workers had access to health information while persuading patients to pay overdue bills, possibly in violation of federal privacy laws, the documents indicate.
The attorney general, Lori Swanson, also said that Accretive employees may have broken the law by not clearly identifying themselves as debt collectors.
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The New York Times, “Debt Collector Is Faulted for Tough Tactics at Hospitals.”
I find this absolutely appalling. I’ve had five close family members spend days or weeks in the hospital for various ailments at different points over the past decade. The thought of someone implying that they might not receive vital care if they can’t pay for it right away is horrific. If this tactic had been used on my brother (who is also one of my best friends) a few years ago when he had a bizarre House-like series of diagnoses, he very well might not be alive today. And I would be in jail for busting the heads of the people who let it happen. |
HISTORY!!!
This is super groovy!
(It also would’ve been super helpful back in college when I was studying this stuff.)
Just to verify - this commercial is NOT real. It’s sad but sometimes on Tumblr I feel I need to clarify that.
perfect
By Adobé - love. I can’t believe this has been on the internet for three months and I haven’t seen it.
Wil Wheaton
1. Wil Wheaton guest starred on The Guild, which Felicia Day wrote and stars in.
2. Felicia was a potential slayer in season 7 of Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
Wil Wheaton has 2 degrees of Whedon.
Also, in college Wil lived with Chris Hardwick, who later lived next door to Joss during the early Buffy years. He’s got 2 degrees through 2 different people!
Doctor Who Intros 1963-2010
Aaaah, nostalgia. These (well, the ones from the original run, though I love the new stuff as much as the old) were a huge part of my childhood, which probably explains a lot about me.
This has been sitting open in my browser for a couple weeks, and I’m finally getting around to posting it here.
For centuries, women have been working in thankless positions in pretty much every field of study and industry while history texts only glorify the accomplishments of men. I’m not saying the guys haven’t done some cool stuff — clearly they have — but a lot of those breakthroughs wouldn’t have happened without the unsung toils of the women who worked alongside them.
In honor of International Women’s Day (March 8th — told you I was late to the party) and Women’s History Month, the Smithsonian Institution Archives posted a gallery of women who worked on important scientific projects during the late 19th and early 20th centuries without their due recognition. From staff on the Manhattan Project to astronomers to Antarctic explorers, it’s long past time for these ladies to get a shoutout.
Go take a look at the full gallery and read about the accomplishments of these unrecognized scientific minds.
