Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina and WakeMed have expanded their relationship at WakeMed's Raleigh campus on New Bern Avenue.

Under a new pilot program, BCBS will have customer service people on site during the week to assist patients and case managers.

It's the first time BCBS has placed customer service employees in a hospital to help with claims and benefits.       

Previous versions of the on-site service model involved BCBS professionals working with hospital billing departments to help answer patient questions.

It pays to check over your monthly bills. I know this and tell other people to do it all the time.

You never know when you might find an error, computers make mistakes.....you know the drill. In theory, smart consumers know to check their monthly bills for mistakes.

In practice, it doesn't always happen. And I admit, I had gotten kind of lax about it.

So when I happened to check over our cellphone bill the other day, I was at first mystified - then horrified - to discover we were being charged $10 per month for a data plan on one of our phones.

Two weeks ago I wrote about a new deal at Target that rewards you with gift cards for recycling your old electronic gadgets.

What's not to love about a program that puts money in your pocket and allows you to help the environment at the same time?

A reader named Bryan thought the same thing until he and his old iPod were turned away from the Target in Cary.

The great thing about this modern age is that if you feel wronged -- if an airline breaks your guitar, say, and refuses to give you satisfaction -- you no longer have to shut up and take it. Indeed, you can fire back in a highly effective way.

(Thanks, Doug.)