Never Pay The First Bill

From award-winning ProPublica reporter Marshall Allen, a primer for anyone who wants to fight the predatory health care system--and win. Every year, millions of Americans are overcharged and underserved while the health care industry makes record profits. We know something is wrong, but the layers of bureaucracy designed to discourage complaints make pushing back seem impossible. At least, this is what the health care power players want you to think. Never Pay the First Bill is the guerilla guide to health care the American people and employers need. Drawing on 15 years of investigating the health care industry, reporter Marshall Allen shows how companies and individuals have managed to force medical providers to play fair, and shows how you can, too. He reveals the industry's pressure points and how companies and individuals have fought overbilling, price gouging, insurance denials, and more to get the care they deserve. Laying out a practical plan for protecting yourself against the system's predatory practices, Allen offers the inspiration you need and tried-and-true strategies such as: Analyze and contest your medical bills, so you don't pay more than you should Obtain the billing codes for a procedure in advance Write in an appropriate treatment clause before signing financial documents Get your way by suing in small claims court Few politicians and CEOs have been willing to stand up to the medical industry. It is up to the American people to equip ourselves to fight back for the sake of our families--and everyone else.

From award-winning ProPublica reporter Marshall Allen, a primer for anyone who wants to fight the predatory health care system--and win. Every year, millions of Americans are overcharged and underserved while the health care industry makes record profits. We know something is wrong, but the layers of bureaucracy designed to discourage complaints make pushing back seem impossible. At least, this is what the health care power players want you to think. Never Pay the First Bill is the guerilla guide to health care the American people and employers need. Drawing on 15 years of investigating the health care industry, reporter Marshall Allen shows how companies and individuals have managed to force medical providers to play fair, and shows how you can, too. He reveals the industry's pressure points and how companies and individuals have fought overbilling, price gouging, insurance denials, and more to get the care they deserve. Laying out a practical plan for protecting yourself against the system's predatory practices, Allen offers the inspiration you need and tried-and-true strategies such as: Analyze and contest your medical bills, so you don't pay more than you should Obtain the billing codes for a procedure in advance Write in an appropriate treatment clause before signing financial documents Get your way by suing in small claims court Few politicians and CEOs have been willing to stand up to the medical industry. It is up to the American people to equip ourselves to fight back for the sake of our families--and everyone else.

Otto and Crackers continue to search for Georgie. A lead takes them on a road trip of small town USA.

INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER “One of the most important books I’ve ever read—an indispensable guide to thinking clearly about the world.” – Bill Gates “Hans Rosling tells the story of ‘the secret silent miracle of human progress’ as only he can. But Factfulness does much more than that. It also explains why progress is so often secret and silent and teaches readers how to see it clearly.” —Melinda Gates "Factfulness by Hans Rosling, an outstanding international public health expert, is a hopeful book about the potential for human progress when we work off facts rather than our inherent biases." - Former U.S. President Barack Obama Factfulness: The stress-reducing habit of only carrying opinions for which you have strong supporting facts. When asked simple questions about global trends—what percentage of the world’s population live in poverty; why the world’s population is increasing; how many girls finish school—we systematically get the answers wrong. So wrong that a chimpanzee choosing answers at random will consistently outguess teachers, journalists, Nobel laureates, and investment bankers. In Factfulness, Professor of International Health and global TED phenomenon Hans Rosling, together with his two long-time collaborators, Anna and Ola, offers a radical new explanation of why this happens. They reveal the ten instincts that distort our perspective—from our tendency to divide the world into two camps (usually some version of us and them) to the way we consume media (where fear rules) to how we perceive progress (believing that most things are getting worse). Our problem is that we don’t know what we don’t know, and even our guesses are informed by unconscious and predictable biases. It turns out that the world, for all its imperfections, is in a much better state than we might think. That doesn’t mean there aren’t real concerns. But when we worry about everything all the time instead of embracing a worldview based on facts, we can lose our ability to focus on the things that threaten us most. Inspiring and revelatory, filled with lively anecdotes and moving stories, Factfulness is an urgent and essential book that will change the way you see the world and empower you to respond to the crises and opportunities of the future. --- “This book is my last battle in my life-long mission to fight devastating ignorance...Previously I armed myself with huge data sets, eye-opening software, an energetic learning style and a Swedish bayonet for sword-swallowing. It wasn’t enough. But I hope this book will be.” Hans Rosling, February 2017.

A Washington Post Best Book of Year Winner of the 2004 Latino Book Award This sweeping drama of intimately connected families-black, white, and Latino-boldly conjures up the ever-shifting cultural mosaic that is America. At its heart is Vidamia Farrell, half Puerto Rican, half Irish, who sets out in search of the father she has never known. Her journey takes her from her affluent suburban home to the Lower East Side of Manhattan, where her father Billy Farrell now lives with his second family. Once a gifted jazz pianist, Billy lost two fingers in the Vietnam War and has since shut himself off from jazz. While Billy's colorful new family draws Vidamia into their fold, so she determines to draw her father back into the world he left behind.

When Otto's long, lost friend Georgie is taken by the man with the wooden nose, Otto and his parrot friend Crackers set off for America to find his pal.

In this clear-eyed, candid, and ultimately reassuring

This New York Times bestseller offers “slam-dunk lessons in teamwork and character” from the NBA hall of famer and former US senator (People). Bill Bradley, whose varied career highlights include a gold-medal win in the Olympics, two world championship victories with the New York Knicks, and three terms as a US senator from New Jersey, writes here about the game that helped form his philosophies for success in basketball and in life. Each chapter is devoted to a value that is fundamental to Bradley’s vision of a purposeful life: passion, discipline, selflessness, respect, perspective, courage, leadership, responsibility, resilience, and imagination. In each, he illustrates these principles with personal anecdotes and observations, creating a concise philosophical treatise that readers can apply to their own lives. With an introduction by Bradley’s friend and teammate Phil Jackson, this “love letter to basketball . . . is every bit as prescient, thoughtful, and just plain valuable a work as you’d expect from a man who never approaches any task without a full commitment” (The Boston Globe). “Bradley hits nothing but net with Values of the Game. Call it The Book of Virtues meets hardwood.” —USA Today “This may be the single most important present a parent can give a sports-loving child.” —The Dallas Morning News