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"Want to look at that other house today?" Jessica asked over breakfast. "Yeah, let's do it, then go out to the farm so I can practice driving. Anything you need to do?" "I need to get some things while we're in town. We can stop on the way back, or going, either way." "OK, I'll give Cheryl a call."
"Not bad," Alex said after the tour, "but so far I like the big one. And the location." "I like it too." They drove out to the farm and Alex practiced driving for a couple of hours. He made numerous trips around the buildings, testing his ability to maneuver in close spaces. Driving in town involved a lot of them, especially parking lots. "Once you're ready to start driving on the road, we can practice late at night, when there's less traffic." Jessica said. "That's what I was thinking." "You seem pretty comfortable with it already. It shouldn't take long." On the way home they stopped at a Wal-Mart and Alex went in with her. He had been in several restaurants, but not in a store of any kind, he realized. He put his cane in the cart and pushed it, finding it easier to keep his balance. "You want to go somewhere to eat?" Jessica asked when the shopping was done. "Or fix something at home?" "Yeah, sounds good. Something quick, I guess. It's getting late." "Or we could grab some tacos or something. Home's close enough they won'g get too cold." "Tacos sounds good. Did I like tacos in my former life?" "Actually you did. Not as much as pizza, but yeah, we had tacos often." After they finished the tacos they went out on the back deck to have a drink. It was becoming a regular ritual. Alex lit a cigarillo and smoked quietly, and Jessica wondered what he was thinking. So she asked. "Are people as rotten as Harry says." Alex said. "Did I, did we, think that way?" "I suppose we didn't do as much introspection as someone in his business." Jessica replied. "We were pretty busy with our work, and were mostly around our co-workers, and friends and family. Harry's work is, has been for most of his life, looking at bad people doing bad things." "Yeah, I guess that would affect your opinion. But something that affects people as medicine does, their health and lives. It's scary thinking about what they'll do. I had a bad doctor, but you have to wonder, if the business is full of crooks." "Where there's money," Jessica said, "there are people trying to get it without earning it. As Harry said, insurance and especially Medicare, makes it worse." "They sure made a lot of money on me." "I've been thinking about that." Jessica said. "How?" "We always knew, anyone my age or younger certainly, knew there was corruption in the medical industry. The fraud, insurance fraud. I don't like thinking this, but..." What? That... "You know the temptation is always there." Jessica continued. "You see it in the padded bills, double billing, unnecessary procedures. And how hard is it, when you have a patient who comes in with something minor, he's all right in a couple of days, but you keep them for another two or three. Every day is a lot of money. And they're never questioned. People trust the doctors." "Yeah. I figure they'd do that in any case. And with someone in there as long as I was, they did pretty well." "About four, maybe five years ago, you got the flu. As usual you waited, didn't go to the doctor. Came to work every day. Friday morning you said you thought you were about over it. "About three in the afternoon you came down to my office. Said you needed to see a doctor. I drove you to the doctor, they were crowded, it took a couple of hours for a doctor to see you. "It was another couple of hours before they decided to send you to the hospital. You passed out before they could get you to your room. "Later the doctor said another few hours and you wouldn't have made it. If you'd gone home you'd be dead. "But the next day you were back, good as new. You're like that. But they kept you in there for seven days. "Now another two, three, even four days I understand. But that seemed a little over the top." "Not surprising." Alex said. "You take advantage of the situation. If you're greedy." "Right. I was looking at the bills, there was one for the doctor visit every morning. He came in and asked you felt, checked your chart. Ten minutes tops. "On one of the bills, there was a line item for each day. $125 each. That's a hundred and twenty-five dollars for ten minutes work. So yeah, there's a temptation to add a day or two." |
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