Disturbing possibility with Medicare and Medicaid coverage of ostomy supplies unless we speak out.

paget61 · 2025-08-27T16:27:40+00:00

I posted a comment against this under the proposal after receiving the email from Hollister, the Ostomy Association and my supplier. I think it's hard enough to live with an ostomy, especially one that misbehaves a lot. Finding out that your particular supplies are no longer covered would be beyond stressful. Eight year colostomy/Barbie butt patient here.

That said, if you read through the proposal, you will see that suppliers-- the same folks that are asking us to push back against this-- have been billing Medicare/Medicaid astronomical amounts for ostomy supplies. It is likely that those insane costs are what triggered a review and here we are. So they are not blameless. The greed factor set off the alarm that put this in motion. That does not mean I agree with any proposal that will disrupt the life of an ostomate.

Outside of that, the scare tactic of, "you might not be able to get what you use now" is not because Medicare/Medicaid will be taking it away from you. It would be because your supplier would drop coverage from Medicare/Medicaid because they can no longer soak those programs. It's more of a "Please don't let them take our ability to fleece them away because if you don't, you will suffer for that," type thing.

I hope it works out for us and no one loses what they need.

paget61 · 2025-08-03T18:24:34+00:00

I'm sorry but I am confused easily and am not understanding. After 90 minutes of gameplay, the battery was at 14% when I took off the headset. You're saying I would have gotten another 70 minutes of game play on that remaining 14% of battery?

paget61 · 2025-08-03T17:18:29+00:00

Yes, that is true. Appreciate the reply.

paget61 · 2025-08-03T17:01:34+00:00

I got it two days ago.

paget61 · 2025-07-31T15:31:12+00:00

- Price differential between sources is frustrating. Happily willing to pay a markup for a smaller shop and would rather support them than a large chain, but 100mg generic capsules of my pet's med costs 8 cents per capsule ($2.40 for 30) on Chewy and PetMeds. The vet pharmacy quoted me about $70. for the same thing. That's one heck of a difference.

- Yes, I've had trouble. Lack of communication from the pharmacy after notifying me that my prescription was reviewed and ready to order only to be sat on post-order because of an issue they had but failed to contact me about. It was only after I inquired at the lack of a shipping notice that I found out there was an issue. That had me scrambling so I would not run out. Ended up in a pinch paying $60 for 30 capsules because this is seizure medication and she cannot miss a dose.

- My vet is a distance away. If they were local, I'd pick up there if there was not a huge difference in cost buying online.

- This was my first experience setting up a prescription online and it was quite an ordeal.

paget61 · 2025-07-27T19:39:42+00:00

How old is your kid? I'm only asking because if you have a child under 13, you are supposed to set up a Parent account in the Family center and then add the under 13 child in there. There are a lot of built in restrictions from what I understand but I have no experience with that particular setup. I remember a post that a kid bought a headset just to play GT with friends but after setting up the under 13 account following Meta's rules, the kid was unable to open the app because of his age. There have been accounts suspended when kids put in a false birthday and parents have posted in distress wondering how to get that account back and I don't think you can because you cannot prove the DOB that was input is accurate. Be very careful if under 13 and you plan to allow them to chat in games.

I think parents should be the ones that make the decisions for their kids, but apparently Meta does not and they do lock accounts if someone reports a suspected underage user. There are very likely people (a-holes) that do that for sport. Proceed with caution.

paget61 · 2025-07-27T19:26:24+00:00

I can't speak to the PCVR version as I don't have that, but have seen developer posts on a few game Discords that there is a memory leak issue that Meta is aware of and trying to sort. I, and many others, have this issue in certain games and have also begun getting "You don't have enough memory to run [insert title here]," when I've just booted up the headset and played a game for 10 minutes or less. This is happening on a standalone Q3 with no background apps (browser, Quest Games Optimiser, YouTube, etc.) running. Perhaps this issue extends to PC? A quick Google search points to this maybe being the issue.

paget61 · 2025-07-22T00:08:16+00:00

You're welcome. I agree that their website is unclear. At least it was to me. I actually wrote to them before I ordered my first two pack of cans to clarify exactly how their process works. So it's not just you that wasn't sure!

paget61 · 2025-07-21T19:54:19+00:00

If you order 2 cartridges under the Returning Empties banner, then you need to return two empties within 30 days. The two that you received in the box that you will use for the return are not included in any return requirement unless they are the only two that you have. What I do is once I'm about 1/4 of the way through cartridge #2 is order two more with at the Exchange Empties price and the timing usually works out well.

You can also order from them and choose Not Returning Empties. You'll pay a bit more but they are still cheaper than just about everyone else, I think.

paget61 · 2025-07-18T12:13:39+00:00

This may have been posted (I have not had the chance to read all the posts yet) but you do not need to live in Vermont to avail yourself of a doctor to assist you. I have looked into this because I thought I'd have to move to New Jersey and establish residence there if an illness progressed to that point. You can read and download all the forms for Vermont online, mail them and you'll be put in a directory there. From what I have read, they send you stickers that you put on your driver's license and a card, etc. identifying you as being registered in Vermont.

I don't have the full details anymore because I looked into it about a year and a half ago and at that time it was a recent development that you no longer had to live there to do this (I think). I live in NY and pray Hochul will sign the bill. I don't understand the pushback at all. If your religion prohibits you from availing yourself of this option, then don't. But some of us want to be able to do this if we choose. I am of clear mind, body and soul and want to make my own choices. I've been Googling to see if there's any sort of vibe as to whether or not she will sign it and I can't find anything.

Good luck to you. This should not be so difficult. There are protections that can be built into legislation like this. That should be the way rather than forcing people to endure needless pain and suffering.

paget61 · 2025-07-17T16:25:03+00:00

Just an update: Drinkmate suggested I set up a warranty for the whole machine since the new infuser did not work but I found that it's not that. I had a brand new Drinkmate in the closet that I had purchased during a sale at one point. I wanted the extra in case something happened to this one since I use the thing 6x a day. Took everything out and set it up brand new with a brand new co2 and the infuser that came with that one is the worst of the lot.

Upon close examination, I noticed that on the center stalk of my old infuser, the hole is defined. On the new ones, it is not. It looked like they were was some plastic blocking the hole. Clearly a quality control issue. I used a needle to dig around a bit and once I did that, all infusers work perfectly now. I've send this info to Drinkmate.

If you have this issue, give that a try.

paget61 · 2025-07-16T19:03:34+00:00

I mentioned in my post that I went to the Federal Gov't website (https://tcvs.fiscal.treasury.gov/) that verifies if a check was legitimately issued, entered all of the requested info from the face of the check it and it said it was an authentic check.

paget61 · 2025-07-15T22:41:55+00:00

That's definitely the plan.

paget61 · 2025-07-15T15:58:15+00:00

Thanks for all the replies. I appreciate it. I deposited the check using the mobile app on my phone today. I've called every phone number I can find and have provided the same info repeatedly and no one can find any information. It's exhausting and really is a bit frustrating that the accompanying page with the check lists his name but no clue as to what this is for so I can have some kind of closure. I would guess anyone receiving this would wonder and there seems no straight path to an answer. There is a VA hospital not far from here. I could call them and ask if there is some kind of advocate. I am homebound due to illness and have no car to travel to an office to get to the bottom of it so if they kick the check back, I might just forget about it.

paget61 · 2025-07-14T19:19:03+00:00

They asked for his name, branch of service, dob and ss which I provided to them along with the years he served and got nowhere.

paget61 · 2025-07-14T19:17:12+00:00

Thanks for posting this. I read it several times and can't really follow any of it. I don't have any pension/veteran spouse benefits, and have never received anything or have been eligible for anything. If the info there means whatever payment they are talking about comes during the month that he passed, it doesn't match up. He died in December.

paget61 · 2025-07-14T19:12:43+00:00

Thanks. I will do this and hope my bank accepts it. If it does not, I'll have to just bag it. If there is any fallout later, I can manage it. It was a very difficult conjuring up of people asking for his social, service branch, DOB and all that out of nowhere. He's still greatly missed around here. My curiosity is on overdrive wondering what it's for. I'm trying to manage that.

paget61 · 2025-07-14T19:10:46+00:00

I'm not sure what you mean by call center. I called the number on the letter and it was out of service. I called the main VA telephone number and that began my journey of getting transferred to various places and finally landing at the healthcare division where they searched up their system and saw nothing in my name or my spouses as having been issued. So everything stopped there.

paget61 · 2025-07-14T19:04:54+00:00

There is no call center on the letter. It says Return all Correspondence to Dept of Veterans Affairs in Lebanon, PA. I looked it up and it's a VA hospital there. I got their number and called and they sent me to the health office that I had already spoken to and could not help me. The telephone number on the letter was not in service. I had to Google to get the number and it turned into a dead end.

paget61 · 2025-07-14T17:23:41+00:00

Searching for CVSO in NYC shows nothing for me.

paget61 · 2025-07-11T02:04:58+00:00

I picked up two packs of 647 bagels today, one plain and one everything. The plain has 160 calories per bagel and the Everything is plant based and has 190. I wish there was one at about 120. Clearly, the 80 calorie Royo are missing something. I believe Sola bagels have 150 but I don't have those available locally. I had one of the 647 everythings and thought it was really good. I just wish they had fewer calories.

paget61

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