samdrpac

Comments

• Really? These are financially good ideas? How about asking the people that renovated their kitchen, went on a vacation, paid college tuition, and bought a new boat using their HELOC and are having trouble making the payments? How about contributing monthly to an emergency fund kept in savings or money market instead? Per bankrate.com, HELOCs have variable interest rates, so your repayments will increase if rates rise, and you can only borrow funds for a set period. Another risk: A HELOC uses your home as collateral, so if you don’t repay what you borrow, the lender could foreclose on it. Whole life insurance policy? Let me guess, you sell these types of bad products? Do not waste your money on either of these ideas and put your hard earned cash in a no fee savings account for your rainy day emergencies. Here is a different opinion regarding HELOCs: https://www.ramseysolutions.com/real-estate/home-equity-line-of-credit As well as whole life insurance: https://www.ramseysolutions.com/insurance/term-life-vs-whole-life-insurance Just type in "Heloc Risks" in YouTube and listen..

  Post: Advice I give to anyone who’ll listen!

  Link to comment from January 25, 2026

• Interesting perspective. How about this comparison. I have a patient with ongoing shoulder pain and an MRI of the shoulder is needed. If I order it through one of the local hospitals it is going to cost maybe $2,500 or more. If I order it through an independent imaging center it is going to cost $700 and is reviewed by the same radiologists as the hospital. Quite a savings of $1,800 to either the patient or their health insurance provider. However, if there aren't any independent primary care physician offices and only hospital owned offices, a patient will not be able to use the local independent imaging center. The hospital system will require us to only order the MRI through their more expensive radiology department. This is already happening with hospital owned medical practices and has for years. Seems to me that these facts can very much affect personal finance.

  Post: Overpaid?

  Link to comment from January 22, 2026

• Quite the contrary Marion. Jonathan asked me to write an article about which Medicare option I chose in 2023. Here is the link: https://humbledollar.com/2023/05/time-to-decide/. FYI..Jonathan liked my perspective and encouraged the articles/posts that I have done in the past. As Dan suggested, just bypass any of my future posts if they are so bothersome to you.

  Post: Overpaid?

  Link to comment from January 22, 2026

• Congratulations Mark! We haven't had a house payment since 2014 and been debt free since 2012. You can't put a dollar value on the peace of mind knowing that you and your wife own your home and not the bank. As Dave Ramsey says, Live Like No One Else, So That Later You Can Live and Give Like No One Else.

  Post: The $8,000 Cost of Peace of Mind

  Link to comment from January 20, 2026

• As I detailed in the sixth paragraph of my post above, Cigna had not paid our practice over $60,000 in seven months. I am not aware of any other health insurance company withholding the payment of claims for that length of time. In addition, when I dug deeper into the topic, I learned that Cigna was doing the same thing to healthcare providers all over the country. Please review the following link that I referred to in my post: https://www.dmagazine.com/healthcare-business/2024/04/local-physicians-say-cigna-owes-them-thousands-and-will-not-stand-by-with-the-lack-of-action/

  Post: Overpaid?

  Link to comment from January 19, 2026

• Sorry for the headache. Maybe try an ibuprofen every 4 to 6 hours. No cost for that advice :) We can agree to disagree. I am not reopening anything nor am I demanding anyone stop the "overpaid" accusation. The "overpaid" accusation is something that needs to be debated with "sympathetic listening" as does our whole healthcare and insurance system. All I am trying to do is give a different perspective by sharing every day life reality in primary care. I would think most reasonable people would like to hear the other side of the story, especially since I have not seen many posts from healthcare providers on HumbleDollar regarding this topic. I would never dream of telling anyone to stop defending yourself when falsely accused.

  Post: Overpaid?

  Link to comment from January 19, 2026

• Folks, I don't know why Dick received so many down votes with this comment. His question is perfectly legitimate in my opinion.

  Post: Overpaid?

  Link to comment from January 19, 2026

• I know this sounds like an obvious solution. In fact, many healthcare providers, labs, and imaging centers in our area have quit accepting the Cigna Medicare Advantage plan known as Cigna HealthSpring. It is not the fault of the patient that Cigna is so hard to work with. They don't know until they try to use it. I am willing to bet the brokers pitching Medicare Advantage plans every fall do not always explain these problems to their future clients. Another factor is that many of our patients work for local government, hospitals, or school systems and Cigna is their default insurance carrier (this is regular health insurance and not Medicare Advantage). In many cases, we have been seeing these patients and their families for decades. As Dan stated, we have a lot of loyalty to our patients and by our patients. Unfortunately, I think the writing is on the wall. The independent healthcare providers are going to continue to disappear and all primary care offices will eventually be owned by large hospital systems, private equity firms, or health insurance companies. Then they can argue with each other about reimbursement.

  Post: Overpaid?

  Link to comment from January 19, 2026

• Thank you Jonathan for giving me the opportunity to share my stories. I appreciated your kindness and sense of humor. My thoughts are with your family. You are missed.

  Post: Thank you, Jonathan

  Link to comment from September 29, 2025

• Interesting post! As a PA who has worked in family medicine for 20 years as well as emergency medicine for seven years, I can appreciate many of the comments. To answer your questions in the title of your post, no not all surgeries are necessary in my opinion. I also don’t agree that we have become “the college tuition bank for the Doc’s children.” One thing that strikes me in these types of discussions is that many people think that medicine is an absolute. There is a reason why it is called “the practice of medicine.” Medical providers try and use the information that we have learned over many years of education and working with patients to help our patients. Unfortunately, there is no such thing yet of “absolute medicine” and 100% positive outcomes. In all fairness, the main goal of everyone I know and have known in medicine the past 20+ years is to try and help people to the best of our ability. We all have sacrificed in one way or another to get trained in a profession to help people. I never took a class or clinical rotation in my training that taught me how to cut corners, harm people, or rip people off. People that choose to practice in medicine invest many years and dollars for this training. In the case of physicians, they are required to complete four years of medical school. This is followed by many years of advanced training in whatever specialty they decide to work in. In the case of family medicine and internal medicine, this is usually three years of residency. General surgery or orthopedic surgery requires at least five years of residency. Neurosurgery usually requires 6 to 8 years after medical school.  Based on my experience with a variety of specialists over the years, they all deserve the income they receive based on their level of expertise and the sacrifices they have made to obtain that specialized training. Someone mentioned in a post that they hated their nephrologist. I would recommend trying a different nephrologist perhaps in consultation with your primary care provider. While nephrologists may not have the best bedside manner, they are some of the smartest people that I have met in medicine.   While non-medical people usually graduate from an undergraduate program and start a career, medical professionals delay their career goals and incomes for many years in some cases. What is the main goal of the majority of these future healthcare providers? Help other people. I have learned over the years working with patients that not all neck or back pain requires surgery. In addition, not all neck and back surgery cures neck or back pain. This is not due to most specialists doing unnecessary surgery in their professional opinions. The spine is a very complicated part of our anatomy. It is mentioned in the original post and several other comments that “no weight loss or exercise regimes were progressed prior to surgery.” Do you know for a fact that this was not recommended by the surgeon and his team? Did these people follow all of the recommendations of their physical therapist after surgery?  Do you know how many times I recommend weight loss and exercise on a weekly basis? All I get in response is a glassy eyed stare from most patients. There needs to be a bit of self ownership by the patients and not just blame this on the surgeon or other healthcare providers. Most patients that I see rave about the results of their knee or hip replacement. Unfortunately, in some cases when they have the second knee or hip replaced by the same surgeon, the recovery is not as smooth and takes longer. No one really knows why this occurs. Are there mistakes made by medical providers? Yes. Are they intentional or just for the goal of making money in the majority of cases? No. Do you know that the average cost of ob/gyn medical malpractice insurance can be $46,000 per year (https://griffitheharris.com/cost-of-medical-malpractice-insurance-by-state-and-specialty/)? In addition, neurosurgeons also pay steep annual premiums and nearly 19.1% face lawsuits annually. What happens when these specialists get tired of this and leave the profession? Imagine sitting in an exam room one-on-one with an obese patient who is in tears about their knee pain. Imaging has revealed bone-on-bone arthritis. They have tried several knee injections with the goal of delaying surgery without any significant relief. They are requesting knee replacement because they are tired of the daily pain. What would you do? My two cents…

  Post: Screw politics, let’s talk health. Are all surgeries necessary or have we become the college tuition bank for the doctor’s children?

  Link to comment from April 20, 2025