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Paying Twice
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
She was at the hospital to stay by her sick son’s side, but Louise Beers was pretty sick herself.
She’d been battling a lingering viral bronchial infection for a week or so.
“I thought my chest would explode,” the 67-year-old Duluth woman told me. “I had to wear a mask to sit by my son’s bed.”
Beers primary doctor had been treating her with meds, but she was slow to improve. He suggested that Beers have a chest X-ray while at Piedmont Hospital to visit her son. The results were alarming.
She was admitted into Piedmont on Feb. 26 for an overnight stay. She received breathing treatments and insulin.
When Beers learned that she’d be staying, she had her daughter go home and get four other medications that she takes daily. But she wasn’t allowed to take her personal stash of pills. Instead, the nurses ordered the same medicines from the hospital pharmacy.
Beers didn’t have too much of a problem with that - till she got the bill.
“I have to pay $175.48 for what Medicare would have paid no more than $10 or $15 dollars for!” she wrote in an e-mail. “Were you aware that this is going on?”
Well, no, but Piedmont spokeswoman Diana Lewis explained why she couldn’t take the medicine brought from home. It’s a safety issue. Any reputable hospital, she said, would never let a patient ingest meds that came from home.
“It puts the patient at risk,” Lewis said. “There’s no way for the nurse to be sure about the dosages. She’s not a pharmacist.”
I explained Beers’ unhappiness with her prescription bill. She, in return, turned to Joseph Ware, who handles patient financial services for Piedmont. My phone rang 30 minutes later.
“Medicare has a list of drugs that they consider ‘self-administrable’ that they will not pay for if administered to an outpatient [covered by Medicare],” Lewis said. “[Beers] was an outpatient.”
Beers, who spent 30 years training insurance agents, has no issue with the hospital. Her son, who’d already had two heart operations, fought for his life in the cardiac ICU at Piedmont Hospital. He suffered from a torn aorta, the same condition that killed actor John Ritter.
“My son is alive because of Piedmont,” Beers told me. “A number of times we almost lost him. He’s doing much better. And I was very sick. Piedmont is a wonderful place.”
When the bill for the medicine arrived in the mail, she contacted Medicare. A customer service rep told her what Lewis had explained to me - that the provider doesn’t pay for certain drugs when administered to outpatients. Lewis of Piedmont told me to have Beers contact the hospital. Ware, of the patient finances department, can help her file an appeal.
Beers plans to.
“I am caught between the proverbial rock and a hard place,” she said. “I have no complaints about my treatment at Piedmont, but this just needles me. If I am having to pay this horrendous amount, everybody else must have to pay, too. I wonder how many people get caught up in this.”
Me too.
Rick Badie’s column appears on Sundays, Tuesdays and Thursdays. Contact him at 770-263-3875 or e-mail: rbadie@ajc.com.
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Where snits, tension abound
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
If you want to get a cross-section of the people in any community, stop by the local diner.
It’s where I landed Wednesday in Snellville, the town where “Everybody’s Somebody,” and where the City Council is competing with Lithonia officials and the Clayton County school board for a special title: “The most dysfunctional governing body in metro Atlanta.”
The Snellville Diner sits in a plaza, sharing anchor duties with Big Lots and Provino’s Restaurant. I was walking into the eatery when I spotted Theron Carman. He was picking up dry cleaning. An Atlanta native, he’s lived within the city limits of the ‘Ville 22 years. He’s seen the mayoral reigns of Emmett Clower [26 years] and Brett Harrell, who served one four-year term in early 2000.
Carman says he’s never seen anything like the current bunch. Mayor Jerry Oberholtzer and a five-member City Council can’t seem to do anything but fuss, belittle each other and call names. In Snellville, politics is personal. A bloodsport. Ugly and disgraceful, too.
“It’s hard to figure out unless you’re at all the meetings,” Carman said. “It’s a totally divided group. It seems like the city leaders got along better years ago, even under Clower.”
That would be Emmett Clower. Every person I talked to Wednesday mentioned him, if not by name, by his profession. He’s a photographer. The Badie Tour stopped by his studio to chat Wednesday, but no one was in.
Maybe next time.
Clower’s political demise and Harrell’s rise were supposed to usher in a new era and vision for Snellville. The town would move into the 21st century, establish an identity, urbanize. Transition hasn’t been easy. Locals I talked to Wednesday talked about a battle between camps - supporters of the old guard and newcomers who support a vision begun under Harrell and continued by Oberholtzer.
And because of that rift, we have Checkgate.
Councilwoman Kelly Kautz wants an investigation into a $31,000-plus check that was written without the board’s consent. The check went to the Gwinnett Municipal Association. Apparently no one authorized it. But here’s the rub: The check was issued on Oct. 11, 2007, with the stamped signatures of the city clerk and the mayor. It makes for great headlines, but why bring this up now?
Then there’s the defamation lawsuit: Councilman Robert Jenkins vs. his predecessor, Joe Anderson. Jenkins has asked the state appeals court to hear his complaint that Anderson falsely accused him of bribery and stalked him in an attempt to keep him out of office. The lawsuit was filed last year.
Finally, there’s the vacant city manager’s position. Jim Brooks had been hired as interim city manager, but the mayor didn’t want to extend Brooks’ contract. Oberholtzer has been filling in, so to speak, but he says he doesn’t actually tell city workers what to do. Mayor Pro Tem Warren Auld sought the opinion of state Attorney General Thurbert Baker. Baker ruled that the mayor cannot legally fill the vacant city manager’s spot. Big deal, Oberholtzer said in so many words.
So what do we have here in Snellville, where everybody’s somebody?
“The Mickey Mouse club,” said Jack Kujawa, who lives outside the city limits. I shared a diner booth with him and Jackie, his wife of 50 years. They compared town antics to Lithonia and the Clayton County school board.
Besides the old guard-new guard battles, Kujawa thinks another issue has caused a town rift: Sunday liquor sales. In November 2004, voters in a nonbinding referendum condoned the sale of liquor in restaurants on Sunday.
But in a 3-2 vote, the council adopted an amended law that cuts off alcohol sales at midnight and bans them on Sundays. Then-Mayor Pro Tem Chad Smith and then-council member Bruce Garraway, along with current board member Warren Auld, voted for the revised ordinance that disregarded the results of the referendum.
“That was a big thing,” said Kujawa, who doesn’t imbibe. Despite the craziness of this depraved circus, residents I talked to on and off the record hold hope that a change is going to come, that egos, pettiness and vindictiveness will subside.
For the sake of the town.
“It has to,” Carman said.
Rick Badie’s column appears on Sundays, Tuesdays and Thursdays. Contact him at 770-263-3875 or e-mail: rbadie@ajc.com.
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Warning: Ignorance of law is not an excuse
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
They probably think it’ll never happen to them. That they’ll never get a DUI or do time for consuming and possessing drugs and alcohol.
After all, they are teenagers - naive about the law, the judicial system, consequences perhaps.
Sunday night, about 60 students and parents attended a frank, graphic presentation on drug use, alcohol and sex at Tucker First United Methodist Church. Atlanta attorney Steven Ashby and Jim Anderson, municipal judge for the city of Sandy Springs, didn’t sugarcoat.
“Everyone of you could be tried as an adult for certain crimes,” said Ashby, the first speaker. “There are numerous teens sitting in jail as we speak. These children are your age.”
He touched on a number of scenarios and applicable laws.
“If you take one swallow [of booze], you have possessed alcohol,” he said. “You can be arrested, convicted and serve 12 months for alcohol consumption.”
Parents throwing parties for children is more common than you think, he said. “That parent is guilty of a felony. If you are at a party like this, leave the party. Don’t leave it by slipping away. Let somebody know. That way you have an alibi.”
The session mirrored a blueprint provided by J. Tom Morgan, a child advocate and former DeKalb County district attorney. He realized teenagers don’t know the law and wrote a self-published book, “Ignorance Is No Defense: A Teenager’s Guide to Georgia Law.” (It’s available at www.ignoranceisnodefense.com/).
What I liked about Ashby and Anderson’s presentation was the nod to its limitations. They acknowledged that they could talk till they were blue in the face about right and wrong, what to do and what to avoid.
Ultimately, though, they know there’s this thing we have - me, you, teens. It’s free will. The way we exercise control over our actions and decisions. We know it’s wrong to do any number of things. Sometimes, we still do it.
Anderson told the teens that some of them would try their luck, tempt fate.
“Which one of you wants to be the patient because of drinking and driving?” he asked. “Which one of you wants to be the next. Who will be the next? You think you’re special because you’re young, that you have great reflexes and good tires. That you’re better. So you think it’s not going to happen to me.”
At UGA, friends and I celebrated my 21st birthday with Coke and rum, 151-proof. I woke up at some point in the night because Jeff, my roommate, was tapping on my shoulder. I was vomiting in my sleep, choking. It’s a story I’ve shared with my son many times. Just so he knows.
Amanda Henley, Tucker First’s youth minister, put together Sunday’s “Teen and the Law” program. It was a timely event. Over the weekend, a teen church member was involved in a car accident that left one boy paralyzed and another comatose. It’s unclear what caused the accident. The church member wasn’t seriously injured.
“They think nothing is going to happen to them, when it very well can,” Henley said. “They are just as likely to die as an 85-year-old.”
Rick Badie’s column appears on Sundays, Tuesdays and Thursdays. Contact him at 770-263-3875 or e-mail: rbadie@ ajc.com.
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Lifetime later, he met dad
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
In the photo, a father and son shake hands. They look just alike.
“Like twins,” said Reginald Andre Dube of Suwanee. “It’s amazing.”
So is his story.
He was raised by his grandparents in Charlotte and never knew his father. Relatives told Reginald that his dad, Noyce Dube, had died in a car accident on his way to the airport for a flight to Zambia, his home. It was a concocted tale.
“They were afraid someone would show up one day (from Africa) and take me away,” said Reginald, 37. “So my aunt made it up.”
In the 1970s, Noyce Dube and Shirley “Jean” Hollins met at Johnson C. Smith University in Charlotte. They married, and she got pregnant. Noyce Dube had to return to South Africa, but he made arrangements for the child’s delivery. One day, he’d return to the United States, to his family. But the distance between the countries, coupled with the war front in Africa, prevented the reunion.
Reginald, meanwhile, had never bought into the tale about his father’s death. He started researching the matter when he turned 24. In April 2007, his wife, Sonya, came across an article in the Mail & Guardian Online, a newspaper in South Africa. It mentioned a man named Noyce Dube, headmaster of a school in Zimbabwe.
The newspaper article led to phone calls from Suwanee to Bulawayo, the second-largest city in Zimbabwe. Eventually the Dubes of Gwinnett hit pay dirt. Father and son exchanged letters and talked on the phone.
Until then, Noyce Dube had never known if he had a boy or a girl. Likewise, he didn’t know that his wife had died in a car accident when their son was an infant. He had no idea his late wife’s relatives deliberately kept him from his son. When he returned to Africa decades ago, he took out an ad in an American newspaper to locate his family. It proved fruitless.
“He’s still a little hurt,” Reginald told me.
The photo of this father and son was taken in mid-April in Zimbabwe. Reginald and Sonya had made their way through airport checkpoints when the door opened into a lobby. Reginald spotted a 68-year-old man, handsome, smiling and waving.
“It took us 21 hours to get over there, so my body was tired,” said Reginald, a finance manager at Gwinnett Place Honda. “As soon as I saw him and hugged him, all the energy came back. That’s when everything became real.”
Last year, Reginald also learned that he has two brothers and five sisters. He’d already traveled to London to meet three sisters prior to visiting his father. While in Africa, he met a brother and a slew of relatives.
“There are thousands of Dubes,” he told me. It’s a very big name, very prestigious. The family is known for academics. Me on the other hand, that’s another story.”
Speaking of stories, Reginald definitely has one he wants to share.
He’s writing a book about his search to find his father, one that has delivered a miracle.
Rick Badie’s column appears on Sundays, Tuesdays and Thursdays. Contact him at 770-263-3875 or e-mail: rbadie@ajc.com.
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More costly, but still truckin’
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
He was 16 the first time he drove a semi.
In his native Pittsburgh, Dean Masson worked for a neighbor who ran a warehouse and moving business. Masson helped to pack, load and unload. Some of the truckers would turn the wheel over to him in the parking lot or on a vacant stretch of road. It marked the start of a career for the 45-year-old Lilburn man.
Masson runs mostly in-state routes for Old Glory Trucking of Stone Mountain. “Drop and swaps,” he calls them. The Badie Tour rode shotgun with Masson on Wednesday morning to get a view of the traffic from the cab of a rig.
Sitting up high definitely gives you a better view of the road. The ride was comfortable, and you could definitely feel the difference between a loaded and empty trailer. The hardest part, really, was getting in and out of the cab, something Masson does dozens of times every day. It’s almost like climbing a short ladder.
Of course, you can’t talk to a trucker without talking about diesel fuel, which is used in the trucks that transport most food, industrial and commercial goods. It averaged $4.22 a gallon in metro Atlanta on Wednesday, according to AAA’s media site.
Independent truck operators, along with fleet outfits that employ truckers like Masson, feel the pinch at the pump. Rising fuel prices cut into profits, even with a bump in freight rates. Independent operators can easily find themselves out of business if their rig isn’t paid off. And there are always operators who try to undercut competitors, only to wind up losing their shirts.
Masson’s Mercedes-Benz-powered rig has a 200-gallon tank. Do the math.
“A lot of trucks hold 300 gallons,” said Masson, who doesn’t let the gauge drop lower than a quarter of a tank. Fortunately, he has an employe—issued credit card, thanks to Bill Giddings, owner of Old Glory Trucking.
Jerry Richter of Conyers isn’t so fortunate. The independent trucker made a delivery Wednesday to ABC Polymers Inc., a recycling business off East Ponce de Leon Avenue. He, like Masson, didn’t think the truckers’ protest held Monday in Washington would amount to much. Some truckers want Congress to stop subsidizing big oil companies, release oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve and end exports of oil from Alaska.
“The only thing that doesn’t go up are the wages,” said Richter, who routinely shells out about $900 at the pump.
Giddings started Old Glory in 1989. His nine-truck fleet mainly serves the Southeast, though he has one client in Green Bay, Wis. Giddings said he was at a loss to explain the rise in diesel fuel, much less how to fix it.
“No idea,” he told me. “I’m just like anybody else. I don’t understand it when I see the price of a barrel of oil and they say all the reserves are full, and that there’s no shortage. It’s just economics, I guess.”
Giddings runs his business like a miser. He tells Masson and the other drivers to save at the pump, even if it’s a penny per gallon.
“If it’s $4.20 on one side and $4.19 on the other, we go for the $4.19,” he said. “It doesn’t sound like much, but it adds up on every gallon.”
I rode shotgun on three runs with Masson. We went from Doraville to Stone Mountain to College Park, then back to Stone Mountain. Traffic was relatively mild and fluid.
“Whether you’re in Atlanta, South Florida or Houston - all drivers are basically the same,” he said. “No matter what speed you’re going, someone is going to pass you.”
Rick Badie’s column appears on Sundays, Tuesdays and Thursdays. Contact him at 770-263-3875 or e-mail: rbadie@ajc.com.
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$175.00 dollars is a horrendous amount? And worth an article? Another Badie article for the trash heap. Bruce, of course, has to tie in Big Oil and Health Care with no mention of lawyers. Yawn, channeling Abbie Hoffman again. Perhaps... read the full comment by LT5000 | Comment on Paying Twice Read Paying Twice
In response to a couple of comments made by Mr. Wilcox, my doctor did not prescribe the medications in question for the bronchial infection. I have numerous other health problems, and the meds, which I must take every day, were for those conditions. Secondly,... read the full comment by Louise Beers | Comment on Paying Twice Read Paying Twice
I was in the pawn shop biz for over 4 years. Yes, I’ve seen my share of addicts come and go. Yes, we all knew that they were stolen items when they arrived. Like the one who commented earlier, you do have to turn in the serial numbers and all that.... read the full comment by blake | Comment on Pawn shops thrive in hard times Read Pawn shops thrive in hard times
Many and it is a safety issue for the hosptial. Who knows what doctor is prescribing what drug’s for what condition? It could be Rush with a back pain. If her primary doctor is prescribing that many drugs for a bronchial infection I’d... read the full comment by Bruce Wilcox | Comment on Paying Twice Read Paying Twice