The Insincerity was Palpable

Today started off with a call from someone in my doctor’s office asking how I was feeling and apologizing for what I termed, in the online complaint I’d submitted to Member Services, "failure to provide proper medical care in an emergency situation".

Bite me, thought I, as I listened to her scripted sorry that happened, hopefully it won’t happen again.

I’m sure it will happen again, or something similiar, as it has happened in the past and because incompetence and stupidity appears to be rampant these days.

What happened was one of those pesky female things popped up on Thursday (probably because I’m always wearing tight leggings and the you know what can’t breathe), and I’d phoned my doc for the standard cure/prescription.

She was out of the office that day, so a nurse on the doctor’s care team took the call, insulted my intelligence by quizzing me up the wazoo in a way that seemed like she was questioning my knowing my own body, even somewhat called me a liar and, in the process, showed her own incompetence by saying, "Well it didn’t show up on your blood test".

What a dweeb, thought I because not only are the two not associated, have no relationship to each other, but my fasting blood test was 75 days ago.

I won’t bore you with all that ensued, how I was told to come in at an appointed time the following day — even though I expressed over and over and over that I was experiencing severe discomfort, and how that appointment was cancelled because she called off work that day. I’ll just tell you how I had to do an end run around the provider’s office altogether.

I remembered when, back in May, Activity Director gave us a presentation by a Medical Group setting up office somewhere across the street.

Turns out, the location is in the same shopping center as the market.

I walked in, explained the situation, was prepared to pay out-of-pocket whatever the cost because I was hurting, but learned my medical office’s membership card served as no pay to me.

There’s probably a significant charge back to the provider’s office, but that’s their problem and their fault.

The intake nurse at this neighborhood clinic asked a few questions, respected that I know my own body and inasmuch as what I was requesting was not an illicit drug, just a simple pill, they wired a prescription to the neighborhood drug store and that was that.

After all was said and done, I got online, submitted a complaint to member services that ended with "It’s a sad commentary on life when I can get better service from a neighborhood clinic than my own provider’s office".

What was interesting is that the neighborhood clinic said they are getting quite a few unhappy members coming in associated with my provider’s medical center. Something about the medical center being too busy to care for those of us who have been members for eons because they are now accepting Medicare/Medicaid.

I can see that. It’s much more profitable for them to bill Medicare/Medicaid for all the unnecessary tests, drugs and medications they're ordering for these newbies.

Oh well.

More and more I’m beginning to feel like a dinosaur as everything around me changes, and not for the better.

Tomorrow is Activity Director’s 4th of July celebration and I need to clone myself, be in two places at one time as I need to pick up a package at the mall, hunt down an open bank for cash.

The celebration is from 11:30 to 1:00, which makes me think it’s something more than just the usual something to eat.

I may have to go to the Community Room, check it out and, if it’s not a fun thing, head out, run my errands. If it’s lit, then I’ll stay, move errand to my next free day.