A brief rant, then a vow of small measure

Man. So, some chic just called me because her sister just cut off her finger, but she needed to verify the insurance benefits. I told her, first, if she cut off her finger, to heck with the insurance, get to the ER and get it stiched on...but the nurse line said to call here and verify the benefits first. What? The "nurse line", of which I think there are four in our area ALWAYS tells every patient to go the doctor for anything, because of liability issues.... I can't bring myself to believe they'd tell someone to worry about insurance for a missing finger, first of all, but most importantly, WHY CALL TO ASK IF YOU NEED TO SEE A DOCTOR WHEN YOU JUST CUT YOUR FINGER OFF!!!??? Of course you need to see a doctor for that. Unless you've a family memeber that's a med student and just wants the practice.

Now, after informing her of the near immediate need to get her sister in here, I told her she had to call the insurance company itself to check benefits, as we could only verify whether the insurance was active or not... She promptly wanted my name and my supervisor's name/number, which I gladly gave her. Why not? If she's dumb enough to make all of these phone calls while her sister is bleeding to death from a missing finger, it should be a great conversation I have with the boss when that phone calls over....

So, being armed with self-righteous fury, she asked me to transfer her to someone that would know about benefits. I said, "Sure, just give me the number off of the insurance card." What insurance card? She had no card. Had no information about her sister's insurance whatsoever. She wanted me to know about her sister's benefits based solely on her sister's name and the fact that she was a college student.

Now, I realize that in cases of emergency, many people panic and get El Stupido Supreme. But come on. Let's just point to my original point and reiterate "In case of emergency, go the the emergency room, do not pass go, do not worry about insurance, just seek immediate medical treatment. Death is not preferable to medical debt."

Now, a vow. I was trying not to post to the blog if I only had complaints. Instead, I think I'm gonna just try to post daily. *shrug* We'll see.