dollars for docs

DOLLARS FOR DOCS
when i was in practice the last several years i quit seeing
drug representatives
because i realized that even though we were taught they were
a good source of information about drugs
and
if you were careful seeing them
they would not influence what
medications you prescribed for you patients

well they and i were wrong


once i stopped seeing reps and stopped having them come in
and doing free meals for everyone
its sometimes the nurses they are really after
i began to notice my prescribing habits changed

i also noticed those docs who continued to see reps and to
accept all those free samples
seemed to order more expensive brand meds instead of
a good equal generic medication

eg
for high blood pressure i usually started with lisinopril
which costs less than $5 a month
those unduly influenced would order something like
avapro or diovan that would cost $150 a month

many times i would assume the care of a new patient
and rearrange their meds and save them sometimes
$1000-$2000 a year in drug costs

well worth it to my patients for me to not see reps

i also noted that many times employees and even doctors
themselves would avail themselves of the samples

also what happens is the patient is given a sample of
a branded medicine
if it worked ok
then the rx would be written for the same med

but an old generic was available
it worked well and was a lot cheaper

so below there is a website that you can click on
type in your doctors name to see if anyone has received
any moneys from drug companies up to 2012
starting sometime in the 2000s

since i was in practice during that time
i typed in my name
$0

my wife shes doctors name
$0

the specialists ive seen in the last 3 years
oops one got $250 for food
must have been a good meal

then i typed in names of doctors that many of you are seeing
one in particular got close to $1000 for food

interesting so below
click this link to find out if your doctor is receiving money from drug companies

then take a good luck at your medications to see if any of this
affected the cost of your medications you are own

the organicgreen doctor

i just push this button

I JUST PUSH THIS BUTTON
thats what i tell people when they ask how much ram i have
i just say
i just push this button



well what about your cpus
i just push this button
i do use a cpa for my taxes

well what about your motherboard
i just push this button
i do have a cutting board i use when cooking

well what about your graphics
i just push this button
i cant draw very well and i have terrible handwriting
my wife she says i have dysgraphism
is that the same thing

well what about your hard drive
i just push this button
it did take a lot of drive and ambition to get through med school
while married with kids and being totally broke

well what about your optical drive
i just push this button
i do have poor vision and am legally blind without glasses

well what about your networking
i just push this button
i do a lot of networking with this blog
using twitter facebook tumbleupon pinterest
giving alzheimers talks being on several walk to end alzheimers committees
having a walk to end alzheimers team in three walks to end alzheimers
being on a statewide health department alzheimers committee
being part of a large alzheimers research study
is that what you are talking about

well what about your usb
i just push this button
my wife she and i did go to school at ucr

then there ssd
no i never had one of those but i was never tested except
when i was in my research study they did do a hiv test
and a syphilis test and a hepatitis b c and a test

so no i just know to push that button on the top left side of
my laptop
the computer comes on
i log on
and
away i go

each morning i get emails from the computer goddess kim komando
her website is www.komando.com
i figure that her job is to keep up with whats going on
i follow her recommendations usually
i realized long time ago i didnt need to know what all those things were

i just push this button

you can go to this link
to read her entry today on what those 8 misunderstood computer terms
mean

as
i just push this button

the organicgreen doctor

solar helps

SOLAR HELPS

here at the country n we have solar panels

16 of them 

that can generate up to 15 kw of electricity each

if the stars align themselves just right

which

you know in real life they never do 

so if  we have a perfectly sunny day in the summer

maybe around the longest day 

we can reach that 15 kwh a day

throw in a little dust on the panels

or 

a few clouds passing over

or

a small summer shower

then that number will drop 

even on a cloudy day we can produce several kwh of electricity

this year we havent had a lot of rain and clouds 

so we have had a lot of sun

so we have produced more electricity than usual

so here is how it all works here at the country n

first the sun hits the panels which are situated on our barn

that obstruction there that planking ogd could block some 

of the solar production

from there it goes to an inverter inside the barn

which converts the dc current to ac current

from there it goes to my electric box and meter

from there it either goes into the house 

or

up the power line out into the lines along the road

and somewhere along the way it get sucked up 

by neighbors and businesses down the line

now someone off the grid

like our friend in utah

uses the electricity as its produced and any 

excess is stored in big old batteries for future use

since we live in texas 

at the country n and those of us in texas

do net metering where any excess goes into the grid

here is a copy of my last electric bill

they charged me $22.50 to be just hooked up to the system 

the amount of electricity that went through my meter was 702 kwh

the amount of electricity that went through the meter that was

produced by the country n was 152 kwh

leaving us a net amount of 550 kwh to pay for

of course what you dont see on the bill is the amount we used

that came directly from our solar panels during the day

since it was a sunny month that could be 0-300 kwh

it was probably closer to the 300 number

i am not as ocd as i use to be about doing this calculation

so when the suns shining during the day our meter is either not 

moving

or 

its spinning backwards

its hard to describe what it feels like to watch your

electric meter spin backwards

there are only a few things in this world that tops this

you can figure out what those are

if i want to know in our system how much we used of our electricity

that did not go through the meter

i have to do a  monthly reading 

on my inverter to calculate that number

ive had the system too long now so i never do that calculation

i am not as ocd about it as i use to be

 

so most of our electricity we buy occurs after the sun goes down

so our bill then was

$22.50 for just being hooked up

$57.86 for their electricity

$15.99 credit for my electricity that went up to the grid

with ?$ of electricity used directly 

easily calculated if i wanted to do it again

the most electricity we could produce under maximum conditions

would be 450 kwh a month

so this last month we consumed 702 kwh

if it was a perfect month we would have only bought 252 kwh 

now my rainwater brothers system is a newer one 

his meters tell him how much he produced

how much he used of his electricity and of theirs 

how much the electric company bought or credited him

all i know is it feels good to watch my meter go backwards sometimes

and 

to know that a good portion of our electricity we consume

we produced our selves

that 

is what net metering means

the organicgreen doctor