Dr. Farmer: otolaryngologist who performed tympanoplasty (ruptured ear drum fixing surgery) on me last November.
Dr. Kay: Dr. Farmer's associate who I saw before he directed me to Dr. Farmer.
Klais: my insurance company.
The sequence of events:
Call #1, to Princeton Otolaryngology: I need to schedule an appointment with Dr. Farmer, but he is no longer an associate at Dr. Kay's office. Try to schedule with Dr. Kay, but he's booked until August, and I should really follow up with my surgeon anyway.
Call #2, to Dr. Farmer's new office: I can get an appointment next week, but they've never even heard of Klais and the out of pocket fee is almost $300.
Call #3, to Princeton Otolaryngology: Try in vain to get an appointment with Dr. Kay, and they claim to have never heard of Klais either.
Call #4, to Princeton Healthcare Systems for a referal: I tell them I need someone with a background in ear surgery, and they refer me to Dr. Farmer, the only one on their list. By the way, they have also never heard of Klais, even though I got their phone number off my Klais card.
Call #5, to Klais: Get directed to a voice mailbox, then my phone lost reception while I was leaving a message:
Call #6, to Dr. Farmer's office: They give me the name of the only other dr. they know about.
As it stands, I have a tentative appointment with Dr. Farmer, and will undoubtedly jump through numerous ridiculous hoops trying to figure out whether Klais will cover it.
And the moral of the story is don't rupture your eardrum.
I realize not all of you know the sad story, so here's the short version: rupture eardrum probably while swimming on June 11 2005; find out about it in October; many doctor visits; surgery on Tuesday of Thanksgiving week in Princeton (intubation, ear cut off, skin from scalp covers hole in eardrum, ear sewn back on, stay overnight in hospital, cool scar); insurance fiascos, etc, etc. All I need now is for someone with an MD behind their name to put the flashlight thingy in my ear and tell me if everything is normal. Apparently that's just too much to ask.
4 comments:
how did you rupture it in the first place? :) hope it all works out soon!
Oh, jeez... I hope it all works out soon!
so, um... did I just not finish reading your blog? or did you add some more. I don't remember the picture either. I am officially not too bright.
Keep us updated.
no you're plenty bright. I changed it after I got to my computer with pictures on it. plus there were spelling errors ;)
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