LTE - Punish Predators

Now this one the Chron editors whittled down pretty good.  At least they kept the punch line:

Punish predators

The story of hospitals, doctors and other health care providers sneaking outrageous overcharges into bills for medical procedures and services is certainly not a new one.

The natural outcome of this practice would be the blatant disregard for simple humanity demonstrated by the "assistant surgeon" told of in the story, a predator who literally snuck in the back door - unbidden, unwanted and unneeded - to add $117,000 to the patient's bill. To say that this practice is fraudulent is an understatement, which raises the question: Why are the people who do things like this not in jail?

Pete Smith, Houston

http://www.chron.com/opinion/letters/article/Wednesday-letters-Assessing-drive-by-doctors-5775993.php

Original letter:

Regarding "‘Drive-by’ doctors add shock to bills" (Sunday Nation/World), the story of hospitals, doctors and other health care providers sneaking outrageous overcharges into bills for medical procedures and services is certainly not a new one.  It started in the 70s when the federal government decided to quantify everything from an aspirin to an X-Ray, and started regulating who would get it, when it would be made available, and for how much.

 

The natural outcome of this practice would be the blatant disregard for simple humanity demonstrated by the “assistant surgeon" told of in the story, a predator who literally snuck in the back door - unbidden, unwanted and unneeded - to add $117,000 to the patient's bill.  To say that this practice is fraudulent is an understatement, which begs the question: why are the people who do things this not in jail? 

 

I recall after Hurricane Katrina, the Chronicle ran some stories about "entrepreneurs" transporting generators, chainsaws and similar equipment from Texas to Louisiana, then selling it for double or triple the retail price.  However mild that offense might have been, the response of law enforcement was not: the perpetrators were arrested, incarcerated, and convicted.  We should do no less in fighting against the professional predators who stalk our hospitals, exploiting loopholes that allow them to take advantage of those debilitated by illness and injury.

 

Pete Smith

Houston, TX

Double Standard

Regarding "Why didn’t Peterson put son in time-out, as Vikings have with him?" (Thursday Star), columnist Ken Hoffman joins the growing cast of Talking Heads who feel compelled to moralize about Adrian Peterson's use of a switch to spank his son.  Nobody would disagree that Peterson went too far; what is less clear is whether he is the cruel person and bad parent that Hoffman makes him out to be, or somebody who simply made a mistake they regret.  Hoffman leaves no room for doubt. 

 

His moral certitude aside, I'm curious as to why Ken Hoffman has never expressed similar public outrage about allegations of domestic abuse by members of his own profession, or anybody employed by the Houston Chronicle?  There's only three reasons: 1) It has never happened in his entire career; 2) The matter was kept private by the employer; or 3) Hoffman did know but chose not to write about it. 

 

Regardless, the dichotomy between how NFL players are treated and how the rest of us are treated is astonishing: They have no rights to privacy; Evidence is leaked  piecemeal to a ravenous media; False accusations are immediately treated as true; The defendant is judged before the trial, and punishment is meted out before the case is heard.

 

Why are so many public commentators - Hoffman included - comfortable with this double standard? 

 

Pete Smith

Houston, TX 

Man Up

So, this is the picture hanging off the edge of my cubicle as of yesterday.  What does it represent, you may ask?

It is my company's official recognition that I am a participant in the NFL Challenge Pool, a competition strictly amongst the men of the office to pit their football prognosticating abilities against that of their fellow male workers.

No women allowed.

Anyway, the Challenge works like this: every Player picks a team.  The objective is not necessarily to win, but to not lose.  No money changes hands.  No points accumulate.  Rather, at the end of each week's play, one NFL football team in the Pool will have lost by more points than any other team in the pool.  The player in the office that picked that team would then be required to wear the Team's colors as his nail polish for the entire week.

That's right, prancing around the office in the gaudy color schemes of the NFL for the entirety of the business week.  Come the new football week, there would be a brand new under-achieving NFL football team, and yet another conservatively dressed businessman looking like an extra in a Lady Gaga music video.

Suffice to say, considering what was on the line, I gave some thought to what team I would pick to minimize my prospects of having this fate befall me.  And so I picked the Seattle Seahawks.

Fast forward to last night, and the official first game of the NFL season: Seattle vs. the Green Bay Packers.  Well, y'all know the outcome on that one, and there is precious little chance that any other matchup this weekend will result in the epic ass whooping that Seattle put on Green Bay, 36 to 16. 

 

That means that I picked wisely.  That also means that my co-worker that picked the Green Bay Packers is - as we speak - coming to terms with the fact that he will be representing his favorite team in a heretofore unanticipated fashion. 

 

"Cheer up!",  I told my mates in our bullpen, "Jack could have picked lipstick and eyeliner!"

 

"Shhhh!", said one of them; "don't give him any ideas...." 

The Truth Shall Set You Free

Regarding "A divided Congress returns to border crisis" (Monday Front Page), the remarks of a prominent Texas Republican and a prominent Texas Democrat offer a stark contrast in rhetoric.  In describing the likelihood that President Obama will initiate unilateral immigration reform measures through executive action, U.S. Rep. Joe Barton of Ennis is quoted as saying: “He’s making a policy mistake if he does it, and politically, he’s going to make a big mistake.”

 

In contrast, Houston Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee is quoted as saying of her Republican colleagues: "They’re not concerned with immigration reform, they’re concerned about new voters who will possibly not vote for them.”

 

So there you have it.  While it is fair to say that both sides are casting this issue in political terms, it is also fair to publicly acknowledge an obvious, if unspoken public truth: Democrats promote illegal immigration to attract new voters. 

 

I applaud Ms. Jackson Lee for her candor.

Pete Smith
Houston, TX