Sponsor me in the 2005 MS Walk! Why? Read here.
Same Google Hits, different day. Last night, it was �Modeling Models� (huh?!) and �spot on my throat.� I truly wonder what all these model seekers think when they find mycomments on the bridal fashion show? This thought makes me laugh.
The Boyfriend and I went to see Casablanca at the Wang Center last night. The Wang Center is home to the Boston Ballet (presently performing The Hunchback of Notre Dame), but they have a classic film series every year. I�ve seen The Wizard of Oz there twice. Much different seeing something like that on the huge screen as opposed to my little TV at home. Casablanca, too. The Boyfriend had never seen it before, so it was fun to watch him watch it for the first time. All in all, it was a nice night.
Chris was even in a passable mood when we got home, which was a relief. He told me my mom had called, which was odd, since she knew I wouldn�t be home.
I called her back, and she read me a letter she�d received that day from Gary, the son of my grandparents� best friends. Gary grew up across the street from my mom, and she�s known him his entire life. Now, he�s got two kids in college and is making zillions of dollars each year. A couple months ago, he and his sisters threw a 50th anniversary party for his parents. Gary gave them a brand new, fully-loaded Jaguar as an anniversary gift. It�s a beautiful car. And he was psyched to be able to do it for them. He�s a very sweet man who likes to share what he has.
Mom sent him one of her �Dear-friends-and-family-I-have-MS-won�t-you-pledge-me?� It�s been nice, reading the really great outpouring of support she�s received as a result of the letter. Gary�s card was no exception. The letter itself made both of us cry. The thousand dollar pledge check enclosed made us all say �WOW!� That was really all we could say. Just wow. What else is there?
She�s going to hit three thousand dollars worth of pledges. I�ll have about five hundred, I think. It�s still going to be a long walk.
*****
Last July, I went to see an otolaryngologist (ear, nose and throat doctor) because there�s something wrong with my ears. My Eustachian tubes don�t stay open, so I have that just-off-a-plane blocked ears feeling all the time. I have for years. I�ve learned to live with it, but depending on the day, it ranges from annoying to uncomfortable to extremely painful. I�d managed to give myself TMJ in the process of unblocking my ears so many times each day. I�d seen five different doctors before this one, all of whom agreed that yes, they could see what my problem was, but no, they had no idea what was causing it or how to fix it. Dr. Dainton was my last hope.
He looked at my head, then at my x-rays and my CT scan, then at my head again. He told me that my jaw was a normal, regular sized jaw for a female adult American, but that the top part of my skull was slightly smaller than average. This means that things fit together but are slightly askew, putting extra pressure on my Eustachian tubes. And no, there is no cure. They�d need to elongate the tubes somehow, and that doesn�t appear to be possible. So I suffer. I take a Claritin every day to keep any other interference out, but there�s nothing at all I can do to fix it. Hey, at least now I know how and why I�m defective�
(There is a point to my telling this story today. Really.)
When I made the appointment to see Dr. Dainton, I also called my PCP and asked Liz, the office manager, to call in my referral number. She agreed. We hung up.
A couple weeks later, someone from Dr. Dainton�s office called and told me she hadn�t received a referral for me. I thought that was odd, but agreed to call Liz again. When I spoke to her, she sounded aggravated and said, �When I called them, she kept asking me to send a paper referral, and I kept telling her that Harvard Pilgrim doesn�t do paper referrals, the number is all she needed. But I�ll call her back.�
The day of the appointment, I brought the referral number with me, just in case, and offered it up to the reception staff. They told me I was all set.
Two months later, I got a bill in the mail from his office. The bill stated that I�d never generated a referral, and now owed them 160 dollars. I wrote across it, �Referral was generated, please re-check your records� and sent it back.
I did get one other bill from them, which I unwisely ignored, but I was fed up. I�d dealt with this four times already. This was why I have insurance!
Friday, I found a letter in my mailbox from a constable�s office on the north shore, telling me that he�d been contracted to file a warrant against me for non-payment of medical expenses.
I was pissed. I left a very polite, but very angry, message on the constable�s machine.
This morning, one of the women from his office called me back. I explained to her my whole process�the call to my PCP, the second call to my PCP, the referral offered at my visit, the mail sent back to their office. I sympathized with the office wanting to get paid, but told her that I felt I�d done everything correctly as a patient, and that it was their responsibility to work this out with the insurance company if they wanted to get paid. This is why I have insurance�so I don�t have to pay for a visit to my doctor! She agreed that it didn�t sound like my responsibility, and told me she would call me back once she�d spoken to the doctor�s office.
This afternoon, she called me again. She�d called the office, and the billing person confirmed with Harvard Pilgrim that a referral number had in fact been logged for my visit to his office. She wanted to apologize for bothering me and for having made me go through all of this again.
How incompetent can one billing person be? Now, not only is it unlikely that they�ll ever get paid for my visit in the first place, but they also have to pay this constable�s office for the time they spent working on clearing up the situation.
People�s stupidity astounds me sometimes.
But, hey, at least it didn�t come down to pay the 160 bucks or go to jail. That would have sucked.
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