Tuesday, March 22, 2016
The Scary Efficiency of Autonomous Intersections
Monday, March 21, 2016
FPGA Prototyping Techniques
Wednesday, March 16, 2016
SINGAPORE CHILDREN HOSPITALIZATION COST – KKH VS TMC
Ref: http://bumblebeemum.net/2015/05/12/singapore-children-hospitalization-cost-kkh-vs-tmc/
SINGAPORE CHILDREN HOSPITALIZATION COST – MY EXPERIENCE WITH KKH VS TMC
In March this year, both MF and MY were hospitalized one after another. Now that the ordeal is over, I thought I would share my experience, so that you would know what to expect in the event *TOUCH WOOD!* your child is admitted.
MF’S HOSPITALIZATION AT KKH
MF was having serious vomiting and stomach pain one night. Since all the clinics were closed, I decided to bring him to KKH. We reached there at about 10pm.
After a round of medication and observation at A&E, they eventually decided to admit him at around 1am. In between 10pm to 1am, we were waiting around the corridors as the observation ward at KKH was only for very serious cases.
ROOM TYPE
I requested for a single room, but they were out of single rooms. Hence, they were only able to give him a 4-bedder (Class B1). If you are going to KKH, do note that they do not have 2-bedders. So in the event one-bedders are filled, your next available option is 4-bedder.
LABORATORY TEST
During his stay, they did a stool culture and diagnosed him with Rotavirus. (I know what you want to ask. YES, he took Rotavirus vaccination before when he was a baby. But he still caught the virus anyway at 4 year old.)
MEDICATION
He was given probiotics, stomach pain medication, glucose syrup and fever medication.
DOCTOR’S CONSULTATION
Every morning, a group of doctors would come around to check on him once.
TOTAL BILL
He was admitted at 1am on a Wednesday and discharged at 4pm on a Friday. This was considered only 1 day stay. His total bill was$746.20 after government subsidy.
Since laboratory tests and medications would differ based on the illness, what you may want to note are the following:
Bed cost per night = $210 + GST (after government subsidy).Daily treatment fee = $89 + GST (after government subsidy).Doctor’s fee = $153.03 + GST (after government subsidy).A&E fee = $103.
So the base price (excluding lab test and medication) for a 1 day stay at KKH (Class B1) was around $586.67 (inclusive of GST).
MY’S HOSPITALIZATION AT THOMSON MEDICAL CENTRE TMC
MY started trembling in the middle of the night and was running a high fever above 40 degrees. I immediately rushed him to TMCinstead of KKH because it was nearer to our place and I reckoned waiting time was much shorter. There was a 24-hour clinic at TMC, but it is important to note that it is NOT a pediatric clinic. The resident doctor is a GP.
LABORATORY TEST
Upon arrival, after registration, I immediately got to see the doctor. He inserted a suppository to bring down his fever. They did an influenza test. The result was out in like 5 minutes. (Okay, I don’t remember exactly how long, but it was pretty fast and felt like just 5 minutes.) The test was negative, so they suggested I do a blood test. Since the blood test had a longer waiting time, they decided to admit him for the night. (Yay, no waiting in corridors!)
ROOM TYPE
I requested for a single room, but just like at KKH, they were out of single rooms. However, they had an empty 2-bedder, which they let me use as a single room (i.e. we were the only occupants.) The following night, they transferred me to a proper single room.
MEDICATION
MY’s blood test showed that he had a mycoplasma infection. Hence, he was put on antibiotics. Other than that, he was given fever medication.
DOCTOR’S CONSULTATION
He was attended to by Dr Ang Ai Tin. She came by twice a day to check on MY, once in the morning and once in the evening. 90% of the children admitted at TMC were attended to by Dr Ang Ai Tin, so the doctor’s fees below should be pretty representative of a TMC stay.
TOTAL BILL
MY was admitted at around 3 or 4am on a Friday night and discharged at 12noon on Sunday. This was considered 1 day. His total bill was $2239.95. (Woah, that’s 3 times of MF’s KKH bill!)
Medication and laboratory fees will vary according to illness, but the following costs are what you should take note of:
Accommodation (single bed) = $530 per nightDaily Treatment Fee = $145Doctor’s Fees (For Dr Ang Ai Tin) = $749Resident Doctor Services (this is the charge for visiting TMC’s 24 hour clinic in the middle of the night, akin to A&E fee at KKH) = $95
So the base price (excluding lab test and medication) for a 1 day stay at single bedded at TMC was around $1519.
SUMMARY OF SINGAPORE CHILDREN HOSPITALIZATION COST
A table of comparison for the fees between KKH (Class B1) and TMC (Single-bed) for a 1 night stay:
(Excludes medicine, laboratory and procedure fees.)
PROCEDURE FOR PAYMENT WITH PRIVATE HOSPITALIZATION INSURANCE
We have private hospitalization insurance coverage for both kids. Below was the procedure for paying the hospital bill via private hospitalization insurance.
FOR KKH
Upon arrival, I paid $103 for A&E Fee. (I used CDA.)Upon admission, I paid deposit of $610 (I used CDA.)At discharge, we were not required to pay any balance since we had private hospitalization insurance.The hospital submitted the bill to our insurance company, which paid KKH for the bill. KKH was to refund us the A&E Fee and deposit I had paid earlier.We filled in a form for the above payments to be refunded back to the CDA account.$698.02* was refunded to our CDA account.
* If your Math is good, you must be wondering why only $698.02 was refunded when I paid $713 earlier. If you refer to my KKH bill, you will notice a “Miscellaneous – Non Treatment Related” charge of $14. I have NO idea what that was for, since KKH did not give an itemised bill. I definitely did not call for room service. That $14 (or to be precise, $14.98 after GST) was NOT covered by our insurance. So I was refunded $713 – $14.98 = $698.02.
Our hospitalization insurance had a clause stating that if we stayed in a restructured (government) hospital, we would receive a cash incentive of $175 (for class A) / $225 (for class B1). So our insurance company sent us a cheque for $225.
FOR TMC
From arrival to discharge, I did not have to pay a single cent, because the hospital had records that we were covered by private hospitalization insurance.The hospital submitted the bill to the insurance company, the insurance company paid them. End of story. We did not have to do a single thing.
TMC FTW!
After discharge, we were required to return for two follow-ups with Dr Ang Ai Tin. Our hospitalization insurance covered post-treatment. So for the two visit, I paid for the visits first, then sent the receipts to my insurance agent to process. The insurance company subsequently reimbursed us.
IMPORTANCE OF HOSPITALIZATION INSURANCE
This was not the first time my kids were hospitalized. I always tell my friends, the first thing you need to buy when your baby is born is not new clothes or new whatever. It’s hospitalization insurance.
WHEN CAN / SHOULD I BUY HOSPITALIZATION INSURANCE FOR MY CHILD?
You can purchase it the moment you register your kid’s birth (i.e. your kid now has a name and BC number.. Yippee!) and you should.
WHY THE URGENCY?
Because *touch wood* you have no idea when your kids would fall sick and newborns are not known to have strong immunity.
AND BECAUSE INSURANCE APPLICATIONS TAKE TIME TO PROCESS!
When MY was 6 weeks old, he was hospitalized at TMC for 1 whole week for RSV + MRSA. You can imagine, this recent 1 night staycation cost $2000+. How much did our 1 week getaway, complete with massage services by physiotherapist and aromatherapy by nebulizers, then cost.
We had bought hospitalization insurance for MY immediately after he was born. Even then, after 6 weeks, the plan was not in force yet! Can you imagine my horror???
Turned out, our plan was approved shortly after we bought it. But it took a long time be in force (the insurance company blamed CPF timelines). To cut the long story short, because we had bought it long ago and it was approved, the insurance company eventually paid out the full hospital bill.
SO REMEMBER: BUY HOSPITALIZATION INSURANCE RIGHT AFTER YOUR KID IS BORN!
Tuesday, March 15, 2016
How Does an Apache Web Server Work
Ref: http://science.opposingviews.com/apache-server-work-1782.html
How Does an Apache Web Server Work?
Apache is a web server application that handles incoming and outgoing HTTP traffic.
The Internet exists as a collection of Web servers that host Web pages that users can access from their computers. These server must run server software to handle user requests. One such software package, the Apache Web server, offers a free server solution for developers to host Web pages from. As such, it has become a popular program for website hosting. The Apache server works by handling URL requests to the server through specific communication protocols in a multithreading fashion, and extending itself to work with programming and database languages.
URLs and HTTP Protocol
Apache is web server software, and as such handles primarily Hypertext Transfer Protocol requests through Universal Resource Locator address requests. URLs are simply the name of a website that users enter into Web browsers in order to locate a Web page. When the user enters a URL, the browser sends an HTTP request to the server computer running Apache, usually on port 80. The HTTP protocol is the Internet standard data transfer protocol for Web pages, so when a user makes a URL request to an Apache server, the Apache server will handle the HTTP request and return the requested Web pages.
Multitasking/Multithreading
An Apache server will handle numerous HTTP requests at a single time. In order to do this, the server has to run on multiple "threads" of execution. A thread is a part of a program that branches off from the main program and runs at the same time in order to accomplish a specific task. The Apache server will create a new thread for each HTTP request that will handle fetching and returning the requested Web page. This allows Apache to serve Web pages to multiple users at the same time.
Program and File Serving
Along with Web pages, the Apache server can allow users to download files to their computers, which Apache will also handle via HTTP. These include audio files, movie files or certain documents such as Word documents or PDF. If the user requests a program file for a scripting language, such as PHP, Python or Perl, then the Apache server executes the program and sends the output of the program to the user through HTTP. However, in order to process requests for documents containing scripting languages, the Apache server must have installed the appropriate module for that language.
Apache Packages
The Apache server comes as a standalone package, as part of larger web serving programs and complete with modules to enhance its performance. A popular implementation of the Apache server is the "LAMP" (Linux, Apache, MySQL and PHP/Perl/Python) stack. This configuration packages the Apache server with its Web-serving capabilities with the MySQL database and scripting languages such as PHP in order to serve database content for updated websites such as blogs.