Great idea - agreed we need an agency to go to that has some teeth, as the insurance co's will never be afraid of individuals.
101 karma · joined October 1, 2013
1. Cigna will not tell you for any reason, why the claim is denied
2. Reps will not help at all other than "Oh I see the issue, will reprocess" which often just results in another denial
3. The issue that a helpful rep finally disclosed: Cigna's own claim form for providers has a box that is overloaded for procedure code and equipment code; apparently the CPT code for therapy is the same as the equipment code for injections.
So one claim processor decided that the claim was for injections and denied it. Then every subsequent claim has been denied under the same reason.
4. At this point the only option for me is for my provider to appeal every single claim (which takes months), as this is the only way to get someone to actually read the claim and make an intelligent decision.
An absolute nightmare :(
It does take a little getting used to vs Google, but I'd say 95% of my searches are on Kagi now. Occasionally if I can't find something, I'll use Google as backup, but for most things, Kagi is good enough.
I quit my old job and was working on what I wanted to, and yet felt this resistance that I couldn't explain. The nagging doubts that I was doing the right thing, that it wouldn't be good enough, and the fact that it would be all o n me if things didn't work out.
It's definitely one of those mental roadblocks that's hard to explain until you've been through it.
The tooling is good, and the lang has never gotten in the way of getting work done.
This mirrors my experience as well - also there is a dollar cost to each try, and no undo button, which puts more pressure on each attempt.
I still enjoy doing hobby woodworking, but it's not quite as zen in the beginning as I imagined.
https://www.theverge.com/2020/1/29/21113876/grubhub-seamless...
Also they then use SEO to get their own phone numbers and website higher than the actual restaurant's number/site, basically guaranteeing a cut of any phone/website order, even if the customer doesn't want to go through Grubhub.
The ability to work on side projects or pursue hobbies with the extra time is definitely worth it for me over the extra pay.
Not being able to go to coffee shops/coworking spaces for socialization, as well as not seeing friends in person has really started taking a toll in terms of depression. I am an introvert, however people often confuse that for not wanting any social interaction. I do prefer to have social interaction, just with close friends and usually in smaller groups (followed by rest after).
I do realize that I am lucky to still have a job and be healthy. Still, it has been a tough time.
Web dev tooling really has come a long way in the past few years!
Most likely people aren't going bother to run this on dependencies themselves (not to mention every version update), so having the info surfaced at the point of decision would be very useful and reach a ton more folks.
Thanks for sharing, and hope you find what you're looking for in your next venture (and keep sharing details!).
How much would it possibly cost for Google to just keep the Works with Nest Apis on maintenance mode? I personally will never buy another Nest (or I guess Google Nest) product since apparently this is how they are treating folks.
Definitely agree with the negatives, the procrastination and loneliness is very real when you're on your own. I tried to make my own app and started getting depressed when I associated its failure with my own (since who else do you have to blame).
Still don't regret it though, I think it actually helped my career by forcing me to learn parts of running a business and programming I never would have done otherwise. But it's not all roses for sure.
As voltagex_ mentioned, most location providers have a different API flow than Google Maps - rather than doing a total abstraction of providers (which would take too much effort), we went for a Google flow and non-Google flow basically.
For example, location autocomplete with Google requires a two step process (call for suggestions, then call for details of the suggestion) where a couple alternative apis provided the necessary data in the suggestion process. This requires a bit of a different flow on the server/client, so building support for both in was one of the hurdles we had to get over.
As for other takeaways, I guess mainly always have a backup plan for mission-critical service providers :)
With auto complete especially, we would have had a 10-20x increase in pricing (and this is with an 'enterprise' plan pricing). As the article says, we were basically given 2 months notice for an enormous price hike that would likely render the business untenable. Luckily we were able to put our backup plan into action, but changes like this really erode the confidence to use Google (at least for mapping) in the future unfortunately.
Also, building a desktop is an enjoyable process, and can last you a long time, especially with upgrades. I have my 2500K build from 6 years ago, and it still runs everything including games perfectly (updated video card from a 560ti to a 1080 gtx).
Especially with the price of mid-level components being reasonable these days, I'd highly recommend a desktop in addition to your Thinkpad.
I know setting hard boundaries for work/non work and taking chunks of time for yourself is a good start, but would love to hear if you had any more advice? Thanks!
- Good PaaS offerings and pretty easy to setup
- Bizspark ($150 free of services per month per account (and yo u can create up to 5 accounts) for 3 years)
- Decent speed (Azure SQL used to be a dog, but has gotten a bit better with the V12 updates)
Hardware: Dell XPS 15 (2014), custom build desktop.
Toolchain: C#/Xamarin/ASP MVC w/ VS2013, Git for SCM
1) Good communication (as many others have mentioned) - team members were always on chat (campfire->slack) while working. We also had semi-regular weekly video chats where we talked about what was going on. Video was nice because it helped to put faces to the people you were working with.
2) Don't focus on work 100% of the time - just like non-remote offices, people need time where they can chat about non-work related things, like games, home life, funny cat pictures, etc. Talking about these things helps create bonds beyond work, and improves the team imo.
3) Meet in person occasionally - the team all met once a year in person. Yes it can be a little awkward initially, but it also helps to further cement that there is a real person behind the chat.
I think the general consensus here is right. Avoid finding jobs on contractor bidding sites like Elance/Odesk (they're devaluing your work/skills). Put yourself in positions where you can tell people about your skills/services, and where people might be looking for said skills. I'd start with tech meetups, co-working spaces, other places where people you might want to work with are. Good luck!
Good article though, I definitely agree with your points on how freelance budgeting makes a big difference. Transitioning from a salaried job can be tough, but you really do need to change your strategies/mentality for managing finances.
Also using SQL Azure and Redis for data storage/caching - it's been mostly positive so far. The downside with Azure has been the portal/management experience. The current UI is somewhat sluggish and disorganized, and the new portal tile UI is extremely confusing to navigate.
Overall it's been a pretty pleasant experience (maybe minus dealing with web.config files).
Edit: received the confirmation email, just took a little longer