The balance between paying down debt and savings

[iris lilies]

Jp, it is interesting to hear about your work.

[Tradd]

@jp1

Have you heard about the shutdown of the systems at Lurie Children’s Hospital in Chicago. Everything was shut down for at least two weeks.

https://www.axios.com/local/chicago/...outage-network

[jp1]

Jp, it is interesting to hear about your work.

Thanks. I don't often talk about work online. Both because I am ever mindful about saying anything inappropriate or negative, but also because I realize that commercial insurance is not an especially interesting topic to non-insurance people. SO occasionally reminds me about that second point when our good friend B, who I met through work, and I get into a shoptalk conversation when the three of us are hanging out.

[Tradd]

Thanks. I don't often talk about work online. Both because I am ever mindful about saying anything inappropriate or negative, but also because I realize that commercial insurance is not an especially interesting topic to non-insurance people. SO occasionally reminds me about that second point when our good friend B, who I met through work, and I get into a shoptalk conversation when the three of us are hanging out.

I find it very interesting as well.

[jp1]

@jp1

Have you heard about the shutdown of the systems at Lurie Children’s Hospital in Chicago. Everything was shut down for at least two weeks.

https://www.axios.com/local/chicago/...outage-network

I saw the headline the other day but hadn't really paid attention. I don't know if we've ever seen the submission but I get cc'd when our claims team opens claims on all our insureds so I assume we're not their insurer since this hasn't crossed my desk from a claims perspective. From the somewhat cryptic wording in the article my guess would be that in this case they are actually acting as a tech provider. Most likely they paid someone to develop a proprietary electronic health record system (fairly common in the healthcare world) which they now sell to other healthcare providers. If that system gets hacked, or otherwise stops working, they are going to get sued for failing to provide the service to the medical professionals they've sold it to since they have likely contractually agreed to some sort of guaranteed service uptime level. In this case the purchasers of the tech are probably small pediatrician practices that use them as the primary hospital for their patients when a hospital is needed.

[rosarugosa]

I found it interesting as well, JP. I worked for a megacorp insurer for most of my working career. I started in claims, and finished up in HR, so I never had more than a fuzzy idea of what the underwriters did.

[Tradd]

I ended up pulling more out of savings and it’s back down to $1K. I threw it all at cc. Just barely into 5 figures. Will become 4 figures in on payday.

[iris lilies]

I never have a balance of more than 30 days on my credit card. I put big amounts on my credit card. It’s interesting and amusing to watch my credit score bounce up and down when big amounts go on it.. Like I care… because I don’t.


But this month because I put The landscapers’ fee on my credit card I got a notice that my credit score had plunged again.oh well, and I’m glad I’m not using the credit score for anything.

[sweetana3]

Iris, same boat here. I have put up to $18,000 on a cc and paid off. I would have given them a check or even cash but they wanted the CC. I was not even picking it up right away so the check would have lots of time to clear. Some merchants are very strange. We put everything! on our Amazon CC card to get points. We are pretty much always over 810 or more on score but as you said, it does not matter.

[Tradd]

I know, it’s funny watching my credit score inch up a wee few points with each big chunk paid off.