Years ago, when I would visit with my in-laws, after the initial pleasantries, my mother-in-law would bring out a shoebox full of paper and say, “Edward, do I owe anyone any money?” In the box were dozens of undecipherable pieces of paper, many of which were marked, “This is Not a Bill,” even though they looked like bills. Things have not gotten better.

            Medical billing is notorious for being very hard to understand and full of errors. The average person, faced with a gigantic bill, is likely to throw up their hands and pay it, but do not be in too much of a hurry to do so.

            The first step is to request an itemized bill, to which you are entitled. This will list all the things the doctor or hospital is charging you for. While the bill should list the items, sometimes you will just get a listing of CPT (Current Procedural Terminology) codes – 5-digit numbers that are medical shorthand for the things done. It is very easy to use Google to get the English translation of, say, 99285 into “Emergency Visit, high complexity.” Very often you will see things listed that were simply not done, and a call or letter should ask to have these removed.

            You should also use your common sense to evaluate how well the service for which you are billed matches the service you received. Using the same example, if you are being charged $800 for a 99285 and you went to the Emergency Department with a swollen ankle that was wrapped in an elastic bandage, you should insist the charge be reduced. A “high complexity” visit is meant to cover caring for a victim of a major auto accident or a patient in coma, not a 10-minute visit for a simple problem.

            If the billing department will not reduce the charge, demand a copy of your visit. If the notes reflect a simple visit, repeat your demand and threaten to take the issue to your insurance company or the state department of consumer affairs.

            Finally, it is always worth asking for a discount. Uninsured patients are usually charged the “list price” for a service while Medicare, Medicaid and every commercial insurance company gets a substantial discount off these prices. You will very often get a discount of 25% or more just by asking.

            It is your money. Don’t part with it without a fight.

            Dr. Ed Hoffer is the chairman of the Marion Board of Health, a graduate of MIT and Harvard Medical School. He is Associate Professor of Medicine, part-time, at Harvard and a Senior Scientist at the Massachusetts General Hospital.

What Does The Doctor Say?

By Dr. Ed Hoffer

Thanksgiving has always been my favorite holiday. Even as a little boy when you’d think it would be just like any other day, just me and my mother and father at the dinner table, it was special.

            Instead of the usual meatloaf or tuna casserole, or “potato bargain” … a concoction of sliced potatoes and ketchup (we were poor), Mom would cook up a big turkey with all the trimmings: stuffing, mashed potatoes and gravy, peas, brown bread and cranberry sauce. The whole caboodle. That was the only time of the year when they allowed me to sip a glass of Madeira wine. Since there were only the three of us, we would have turkey leftovers … turkey sandwiches, turkey soup or turkey salad for days afterward.

            After dinner, we would go to my grandmother’s house where there would be a nice warm fire in a giant pot-bellied stove. Kale soup might be cooking on the kitchen stove for supper.

            It always seemed to be cold, and snow would cover the ground in those days. In high school, when Old Rochester was brand new, everyone would bundle up and go to the football game, even my parents who could not have cared less about sports. It was all about starting new traditions. My wife’s brother, who is in his sixties now, still plays touch football with his friends from school every Thanksgiving morning. Now they play with their own kids and grandkids. There’s a tradition!

            One Thanksgiving, my uncle Marno was in the hospital in Boston. Dad and his brother Robbie drove up to visit him. Not being familiar with the city, they promptly got lost. To add insult to injury, the car broke down on Storrow Drive! Repairs made, they found their way to the hospital, saw uncle Marno and made it home by supper time. We were thankful for that. Uncle Marno recovered and even made history. He had his larynx removed due to cancer and learned to talk within a week. Doctors from as far away as California came to see him because they couldn’t believe it. Even more to be thankful for.

            After marriage and our kids came along, Thanksgiving dinner was always at my bride’s parents’ house. With her six siblings, and as the family grew with assorted spouses and children, it became pretty crowded. When preparing dinner for such a large brood got too much for my mother-in-law, we celebrated the holiday at my in-laws’ country club where my father-in-law was president. A step up for a poor barber’s son from little old Mattapoisett. On the drive to the club, we would sing the old Thanksgiving chestnut, Over the river and through the woods to grandmother’s … club!

            Everyone is older now and living far apart. The extended family doesn’t get together for dinner anymore. Some have passed away.

            Our kids are grown, living in different places, but they still come home for Thanksgiving. There are just the four of us, no grandkids, but we still have days’ worth of leftovers, though my son takes a drumstick home with him.

            Thanksgiving is still special and still my favorite holiday. This year marks my 10th year living with cancer. What more can one be thankful for?

            Happy Thanksgiving.

            Editor’s note: Mattapoisett resident Dick Morgado is an artist and retired newspaper columnist whose musings are, after some years, back in The Wanderer under the subtitle “Thoughts on ….” Morgado’s opinions have also appeared for many years in daily newspapers around Boston.

Thoughts on…

By Dick Morgado

James Parker likes to keep busy. After a very active life filled with military service and commercial business success, he turned to his love of painting and research of all things Americana.

            For many years now, Parker has been painting in the self-taught folk or primitive style. He has found that nearly every street, harbor, park, boatyard and more holds a rich history yet to be explored. It is as if these places have been waiting for someone like Parker. Some 30 or more of his paintings are now waiting for you to explore at the Mattapoisett Free Public Library, now through November 30.

            “When I paint a scene, everything in that scene is from the same era,” Parker said. Thus, when he painted antique cars, part of the Sandwich Heritage Museum collection, each vehicle was meticulously studied, and the people, their clothing and other objects were circa-specific. In some instances, he used antique postcards as reference material or visited museums to get the clothing as accurate as possible. The result is stunning.

            “I use the old English way of painting watercolors,” said Parker, explaining that this early method is achieved by layering the paint, applying color on top of color until the right intensity has been accomplished. The result is a painting with extremely complex hues and tones versus, say, what one might find in traditional watercolors.

            When listening to Parker, one gets a sense that the detective work he employs to best understand the subject of a painting is equally as interesting to him as the actual painting itself. “It’s like mixing history and art,” he said.

            The themes that interest this artist the most are those that give him a chance to learn and then, through the painting, tell and/or teach the viewer a bit of history.

            One example of his marrying art to history can be found at the Osterville Historical Museum. There, one of his pictures of a catboat accompanies a skeleton of one such marine vessel. He is quoted in the August 2021 issue of Cape Cod Life magazine as saying, “I’m creating something where kids can see the wreck but also an image of the way catboats were in their prime.”

            Long before finding his voice through painting, Parker was an entrepreneur owning a long list of successful businesses. And before that he served in the Navy during the second Suez (canal) war in the 1950s. One of his first forays into painting happened at this time. He was asked to paint the U.S. ship he was on to give as a gift, a tradition among ambassadors. That painting remains in royal custody somewhere in the Persian Gulf area.

            Parker remains curious with a very inquisitive mind. Age hasn’t slowed down this entrepreneur of all things historical and quintessentially New England. He proudly noted to us that he is 89 years of age. We can also say that listening to all his plans for future projects would exhaust someone decades younger.

            As he smiled at our photographer, the twinkle in his eyes shown like lasers – his mind is clearly supercharged with ideas waiting to appear for all to enjoy. To learn more, google watercoloristjamesparker.

Mattapoisett Library

By Marilou Newell