There are sometimes confusing situations if you went to a non-participating (with your particular insurance plan)dentist. A plan will pay up to a MAC/maximun allowable charge for a given procedure. Some times that plan will not pay the MAC to a non-participating dentist, occasionally (not usually) the plan will pay MORE to a non-paticipating dentist. If you went to a non-participating dentist, his charge may have been higher than what your insurer has set as its MAC fo a given procedure. In this situation, the dentist has the right to charge his own fee, your insurer pays a portion and you would pay the balance. Normally, the dentist would bill the insurer for his fee, not the MAC, and would be paid by the insurer only the amount for the MAC, or sometimes another amount, either higher or lower than the MAC, depending on the insurer's rules. If you went to a non-participating dentist, you are responsible for whatever portion remains after the insurer has paid. It would be unlikely that the dentist would bill the insurer only for that amount they know that would be paid; ie: the MAC, because your ledger (record of all charges, kept by the dentist) would not reflect what you owed. It is more usual for the dentist to bill out the normal fee to both the patient and the insurer, send in to the isurer for that amount, and ask for the balance from the patient at the time of service. This amount is usually an estimated amount, based on previous experience by the office with reimbursements from that insurer. There is also the possibility of an embezzelment situation by an employee of the dentist, where the employee asks for payment above what is actually due. The best advice is to ask for a copy of your ledger to see what charges were billed, what you paid, and what the insurer paid. You may be pleasantly surprised to see a credit in your account with the dentist for all that extra $ you paid out. When submitting for flex acct reimbursement, you need to have individual statements for each date of service printed out by the dental office to coordinate with the dates of your EOB's/Expl of Benefits. This way the Flex acct people don't have to decipher the whole ledger history (too much work). Make sure to choose a participating dentist to maximize your benefits. This, however opens up another kettle of fish, b/c many insurance plans have ridiculously low MAC's and quality dentists will not participate with those plans, b/c they pay so poorly. You would not like to go to work every day for only half of your normal paycheck. Make sure in the future you get a "Walkout" statement as well as your CC receipt from the front desk after every visit. Just another tidbit--the dentist will probably not want to give you anything if you owe money to him. It is illegal for dentists to withold xrays, records, etc, even if you owe money. They are allowed to charge a fee for copying any records, but cannot refuse to provide them. Hope this helps you out--

I'm sure this insurance company practice has been common -- but generally unknown to the public. I was surprised to get a notice in our auto insurance bill INFORMING me that State Farm does consider your credit rating when setting your rates. They stated that my DH's report was closed to inquiry, so they had used mine! Years ago we applied for a store CC to save 10% on a large purchase. When the clerk ran my DH's soc. sec. number our report was incorrect, listing another name and another address! We contacted one of the reporting agencies to rectify it. (Partial success.) It was then that we decided it would be prudent to freeze. I think we have 'unfrozen' on only two occasions since then -- simple to 'open' the record at one reporting agency for X hours and to only X company. We seldom require credit -- not opening new accounts for CC's or establishing utility service, etc. However, I had not thought about hiding our *good* credit causing us trouble. Now it's State Farm...what else? The credit reports are so rife with errors -- that the report keepers refuse to correct -- that I wonder how *credible* they can be!

I think they go very nicely together. I would just stick to chrome because other finishes can be so different depending on manufacturer.

I am so happy to find that my Mom's diaries were not in the bins that were in the basement flood. Yesterday I went down and emptied the three bins, boy clothes especially sweaters are heavy when wet. haha I am sure I would have had another foot of water had not these clothes absorbed as much water as they did. I sat on the second bottom step and put the clothes into garbage bags. Some bags I could only put 2 sweaters in because they were too heavy otherwise for me to bring up the steps and out to the curb with my bad back. All during the night, every 2 hours or so I would bring 2 or 3 bags up the steps and out to the curb. In the morning my neighbour saw how heavy the bags were so she came over and brought the last 4 bags out for me and the 3 large bins. We opened the basement windows to let some air in to start drying things up. Normally my laundry room side dries up quickly because the furnace and hot water tank pilot lights are on but this time they were doused out. Reliance who I rent my hot water tank from came out yesterday morning and said they could not light the pilot light because where the gas comes out it was filled with water. In the meantime my cousin who owns a company that sells and rents tanks and furnaces called and said he would give be a better deal on renting the tank plus a $200 gift card so I cancelled Reliance. The service guys came today and replaced the tank so at least now I have hot water. I asked them if they would remove my upright freezer to the curb for $50 and they said sure so that was also a relief to get that out of the house. Just as I was going down my porch steps to tape the freezer door shut 2 scrap guys came by and they took it away. I also just found out the Province and the city are going to pay in full to have sump pumps put in and back flow valves for those that do not have them. Even with sump pumps those that had them they all flooded. I am grateful they are going to pay for them. I have been sitting on the porch all day because I can't stand being in the house because of the smell. My neighbours have convinced me to call the insurance company because my loss will be more than the deductible because I am sure the washer, dryer and furnace are toast. Because my basement is just cement and unfinished I am luckier than most because every other house around here is used as a living area. People lost so much. One person I know had water gushing out of their third floor toilet and then spilled below through the ceilings. I know this compares nothing to the floods in Texas but to our community it is devastating none the less. Cars have been trolling the streets all night light and people have been taking items people leave at the curb. My neighbour across the street lost so much and people just stop by and root through his stuff, take whatever, and leave it in a mess. He is getting fed up. One guy tried to take my neighbour's outdoor light post because it is situated at the curb, he thought it was part of the garbage. It was recycling day today and people were actually taking the empty bins thinking they were being tossed out. I don't understand why anyone would want items that have been sitting in sewage. Even big toys that have been thrown out. I am sure most of this stuff will be sold at yard sales or put on kijiji. Just not right. I need to get my house disinfected asap because I am so afraid of mould. I already sprayed some bio spray on my duct work. My brother's house 2 streets over flooded too, this is their first major flood where they lost everything in the basement rec room and under the crawl space.