At Last...

Well, yesterday was one for the books. I began the day by calling my patient advocate to relate the most recent occurrence with the surgery scheduler (see previous post). Shortly after leaving a message she returned my call and had followed up with the insurance department, trying to make sure they all had all over the same information. As the day wore on my patient advocate, the surgery scheduler, the insurance department, and my insurance company all had a big pow-wow to discover what exactly they were missing in order to finalize my surgery. The common denominator was, guess what, yes...it was that same letter that I had emailed to my patient advocate and also emailed twice to the surgery scheduler and was told it was the wrong letter.

Around lunch time I was called by the surgery scheduler and informed if the insurance company was unable to produce the letter by the end of the day then my surgery would be rescheduled. I was devastate and angry. NO matter how many times I have said, "The letter I emailed y'all last week is EXACTLY what you are needing, she still refused to listen to me. Having no other recourse than to try to find someone else to help me, I called in a healthcare advocate.

Healthcare Advocates are an additional benefit provided by my husband's employer. They are the mediators between insurance companies, their providers and patients. The lady who helped me was able to get all parties to listen and agree to hold off until tomorrow about the "no surgery" timeline. She questioned each one of them about the receipt of the email that I had stated I had sent to them. Each one claimed they never received the email (even though the surgery scheduler stated it was still the wrong letter). I asked for additional email addresses and emailed the letter to them again. After my scheduled visit with a family I returned to the office to fax and then hand deliver a copy of the letter that I had emailed. As I was faxing the letter to the surgery scheduler, she called to say that they had received the letter and she was faxing me paperwork to complete before my pre-op appointment and pre-admission appointments scheduled for....tomorrow (today)!

I will hang in there and not let them get the best of me. I will hang in there...I will hang in there!!!!!