Very recently on Straight Talk, I wrote a piece designed to help you understand your health insurance. This explained what all the words –deductibles, networks, claims, etc. – really mean. I also broke down who pays for what when a medical bill shows up. You might remember the three payment zones – the deductible zone, the coinsurance zone and the max out-of-pocket zone.

As soon as we published that piece, I heard this question: “So Mike, how do copays fit into all this stuff?” Read more

Summer is usually a slow season in the health insurance policy world. But not summer 2022. A lot is happening, and I want to keep you updated on all of it. I appeared on WRKF Radio’s Talk Louisiana with Jim Engster on Monday, Aug. 15. We talked about what’s going on in the health care world. Read more

When I was young, my dad and I spent a lot of time, days even, in boats on the water. One time, when I was about 11, we were crawfishing. We had a large aluminum boat loaded with two smaller boats (pirogues) and a lot of other gear. Read more

I’m often struck by how ahead of the curve medical innovations have been in the United States of America. Years ago, I worked with a man who was brilliant, a programmer who had a Ph.D. in mathematics, who also had a disability. After several months of working with him and sharing a few meals together, we got to know each other. I learned his disability was due to catching polio as a child. That seemed really strange to me because he was younger than I am, and I got the polio vaccine as a child. Most American kids born since the mid-1950s have gotten the vaccine, and we’ve never met anyone with polio. Read more

You might describe our Chief Operating Officer, Bryan Camerlinck, as the man behind the curtain here at Blue Cross. He, along with our CEO, Dr. Steve Udvarhelyi, oversees, well, pretty much everything we do. Read more

As my lovely bride of 35+ years will tell you, I’m a bit of a new-gadget person (that’s like saying Tiger Woods might have hit a golf ball or two in his time). I’ve always been fascinated by new technology and new ways of getting things done. So, as you might imagine, I have quite a collection of toys and apps. Would it surprise you to know I started computer gaming on home computers in 1981? Or that I’m still at it? Yep, last night was “Halo Night!”  That’s the reality of me. Read more