Category: Prose

Please Scrutinize Your Healthcare Bills, People.

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I say this as a person who has been in the medical field for 23 years, and who was a medical biller for 10 of them.

AI Generated Image: A Black woman is sitting and reviewing a medical bill. She has a frustrated look as her long curly hair layers lovingly around her face. She is wearing a soft version of a purple top and the background is blurred out.

Earlier today, I had to place a call to my insurance carrier and have them call the billing department for my provider’s office because I have been billed twice for services rendered on the same date.

Disclaimer: I had one appointment on the date mentioned below, and it was for my annual exam only, which is a service covered at 100% by my insurance plan.

I went for my annual exam on 02/18/25 and my provider’s office coded the actual annual exam, it was processed and covered at 100% and paid accordingly, but they also billed me for a 99214 code which is the second to last CPT code for an established patient office visit. One of the highest billed charges for an established patient for in-office services.

Now, I know these people didn’t think they’d get someone who did medical billing for 10 years calling them today with a representative from their insurance carrier, but they got the WRONG one and the RIGHT one today.

My insurance representative informed the billing representative who took the call that they will need to send a corrected claim to reflect the annual exam only (which means, they’re going to end up having to refund the payment for that OV (office visit) code they billed incorrectly, too) and the bill I received from them for $30.00 is currently being held or contested until after the coding review.

I don’t play when it comes to my bills and you DARN sure ain’t gon’ get me because I scrutinize every EOB that is emailed to me. And I do so happily because I have seen way too many people pay bills without actually reviewing them and matching them up with their insurance policy’s coverage and benefits.

People, please review your healthcare bills with a fine-toothed comb. Ensure what you receive is correct and on par with what YOU KNOW is in line with the services rendered.

I was informed I should receive an updated bill and resolution in 7 to 10 business days.

My inner Ghetto Queen is saying, “BAYBAY, I will R O L L up to their corporate office at the hospital and ACT A WHOLE FOOL over $30.00. You not gon’ get me for preventative services that’s covered at 100% with my plan. Nah, nah. You remove that OV code, send a corrected claim, and give my insurance carrier back their refund when it’s all said and done. And don’t do it, and watch me email the CEO of that hospital organization.”

Be on the lookout, beautiful people. Take care of yourself and make sure no one is taking advantage of you and your medical benefits. It’s only going to get worse as time moves forward under this current administration. Mark my words. Stay vigilant, loves.

R A N T  O V E R!

Left-handed in a Dream: A Haibun

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Part II: Running away from fear

AI Generated Image: A Black woman running down a busy street in hip-hugger short shorts, a black halter top, and black heels. The background is a blurry, busy street – much like most well-known cities’ “Downtown”.

Memory shifts from a dream state to a thinking state, and she speaks out loud to herself. “What the hell just happened?” It’s one thing to feel like you’ve been dreaming for the entire night, but it is a whole other situation when everything feels like a dream even when it shouldn’t. Her hands were shaking – the left hand first, then the right. Her husband is still sound asleep . . . unbeknownst to the conjured up drama his wife is experiencing. Crabby night air fills the room, and Memory longs to fade to black and never return to this space and time. Running away from her fears is a welcome reprieve, but what shoes should she wear?

awake at twilight
fear rattling her shaken soul
runaways come back

Part I

Poetry As Your Guide To Intelligence

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A Book Review

We Are Poetry. Photo Credit: Tremaine L. Loadholt

Sometimes, a book takes you down so many “Memory Lanes” that you just have to sit with it longer than you would. Kym Gordon Moore’s We Are Poetry is one of those books. I can tell that the author loves poetry, and she also loves learning about poetry.

Here is my review, which is shared via Amazon & Goodreads:

“Informative And Creative

Kym Gordon Moore does a fantastic job sharing her thoughts and observations about poetry, its origin, the writers who are well-known for it, and how we can all grow from it, and learn to use poetry as a form of expressiveness and encouragement.

I love how she pinpoints society’s best known poets against lesser known phenomenal writers and how we should be aware of them as well.

She not only shares these facts, but she also gives readers a tutorial of sorts into the various forms of poetry and how to write them. If you’re a lover of this genre of writing, you are going to be in heaven as you thumb through the pages of this book.

She closes the book with her original poems that make up a good portion of the book’s ending. I have to admit, for me, this is the meat of “We Are Poetry”–the part that fills the reader up.

Every poem stirs up a different emotion, and they are all very well-written. Kym did an excellent job weaving in comedic verse and reflective poems, too.

If you’re interested in learning different forms of poetry, reminiscing along with an author, and experiencing several emotions, too, then I recommend “We Are Poetry” to you. Your heart and mind will thank you.”

Get your thinking caps on and grab your learning tools. It’s time to give poetry the respect it is due!

What Would You Say First In Your Autobiography?

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You’re writing your autobiography. What’s your opening sentence?

My original due date, relayed to my teenage mother, was April 1st, however, I was two weeks late–while still in the womb, I knew I wouldn’t be anyone’s fool, and I was right.

I tell people all the time about how I was two weeks late coming into this world, but I’ve been on time ever since. And I make it my life’s work to NOT be anyone’s fool.

If I could dodge an April Fools’ due date, I can avoid being a habitual fool for anyone.

Home To Nowhere

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Microfiction: Part I: Meet Kelsey

AI Generated Image of a Black Teenage girl with blue eyes, wearing a blue shirt, with curly, long brown hair. Created with Canva.

She bounces off the school bus, hair flying in the wind, legs shuffling up dirt behind her swirly body.

Kelsey is a 14-year-old athletic ball of energy who recently discovered she is adopted.

Her mother tried to tell her subtly for years, but Kelsey has always been enamored by fanfare and elaborate explanations. She searched for answers and found them.

As she skips down Tulane Dr., the sky smiles at her, the sun whistles, and cars honk their incessantly abusive horns.

She is heading home to nowhere, where no one is family.

Baby Hairs On Anyone But Babies . . . Why?!

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This trend needs to end right now!

AI-Generated image. Courtesy of WordPress

*Sighs*

Why are we here with this topic? Well because, I am sick and tired of seeing young women well past the baby stage with baby hairs casually laid across their forehead and edges in almost every hairstyle dreamt up by current and trending stylists who want to keep this God-forsaken look alive when it should be dead, eulogized, buried, and left ALONE!

I said to my best friend and cousin in a text message the other day: “I really, really hate those stinking fake baby hairs these young women have in their hairstyles. I cringe every time I see it. *Sighs*” My cousin, ever the optimistic, responded, “It’s a fad. This too, shall pass.” It’s a fad that doesn’t need to be a fad that makes absolutely no sense.

Back in the day when this style was IN, circa the 70s, 80s, and 90s, little girls and young women actually had baby hair or slick hair with which to lay their edges and forehead. These young women are creating curly Qs and baby hairs where they just aren’t supposed to be and doing so in such a way that requires calculation and geometrical tactics, and I just have to shake my head. Exhibit A: feast your eyes on this YouTube short of someone teaching her audience how to apply baby hair to a hairstyle:

Baby Hair Tutorial. YES, THIS IS A THING, Y’ALL!!!

I should have prefaced this by saying if this is your thing . . . do you, boo. Please, do you. There are a ton of other things I could be soapboxing about, but this here is the hill I chose today, so here is where I stand. I love people expressing themselves in every way they choose, but what I do not like are folks grabbing hold of something they think is new and running that thing into the ground without being keenly aware of why that thing existed in the first place.

The crush’s daughter loves this baby hair trend. I told the crush how I felt about it and she is in agreement. Her response was, “You know these kids gotta do what they see others do. Makes no sense to me, but that’s how it is now.” And yes, that is HOW it is now. There is no originality, no uniqueness, no want to build and create something that may not have happened before or to at least put such a spin on that thing that folks believe it has never occurred before.

I am going to segue briefly to the fact that I encountered a clerk at The UPS Store a few days ago while mailing a package who could not read cursive. I spelled my name, my mother’s name, the addresses, etc. And she still did not type the info correctly into the system. I finally had to pull out my driver’s license, hand it to her, and say, “Please just look at my license and get my information. I’ll repeat the recipient’s info momentarily.” I was so frustrated with this child that I had to take several deep breaths when exiting the store. This is what happens when cursive and penmanship are removed from schools.

The younger generation has a foreign language before them when one writes in cursive. It’s perplexing to me, and I will never understand it!

Back to the baby hair issue. My godsister had a style with baby hairs when I went home to Savannah, GA to visit this past April, and it took everything in me not to word-vomit all over our brunch every time I looked at her. She’s in her 30s. WHY, boo?! WHY? LOL. She asked me a few times, “You okay,” and mildly, each time, I’d say, “Yeah, I am good.” Because my food was too good to allow the likes of someone else’s hair to ruin it and the mood was far too great for me to actually dampen it with something over which I have no control. I wasn’t going to rain on everyone’s parade. I know when to reel it in and act accordingly. But boy was it hard!

It is becoming evident that my generation is old and bold and the younger generations behind us are young and shunned. We can survive with little to nothing, display ingenuity when it most requires it, have lived through getting home before the streetlights came on, know what VHS and cassette tapes are, and can probably quote 75% of the movie The Color Purple (1985) without hesitating or flinching.

If you are a habitual baby hair applier, I wish you peace. I hope you find the hairstyle that fits perfectly with your face and head, and that you do not continue to beat a dead horse that should have never been resurrected. And if you intend to carry this trend deep into 2025, at least, use gels and spritzes that won’t push your hairline back five years from now. Think of your forehead, children . . . think of your edges. What have they ever done to you to deserve this?

*No baby hair was harmed, maimed, or brutally criticized outside of this post. Don’t come for me, please.*

HAPPY NEW YEAR, beautiful people! If you can’t laugh, you can’t live. Peace and blessings. And may the new year be most kind to all of you.