Tuesday, January 7, 2014

Waiting for nothing.

I've done my best to be a patient patient.  At the follow up for my leg issue on December 4th, the receptionist told me that Blue Cross of Texas was very slow to send approvals.  Three weeks she had said, so I was prepared to wait that long.  With Christmas and New Year's, I prepared myself to wait until after the new year.  That was fine by me because by paying my deductible in January, I'm set for the year should any other medical issues arise.  I toughed out all the walking during the holidays at Celebration in the Oaks and the Audubon Zoo.  Walking around the mall and taking the kids to Christmas activities around town.  I waited every day for a phone call or a letter in the mail saying approved or the dreaded denied, and nothing ever came.

Yesterday was the first day back to school, so I decided I had waited long enough.  I got on the phone and called Blue Cross.  I punched in all the numbers and went through all the steps to get a live person on the phone.  She looked up my info and said that member services was handling this and transferred me.  I again went through all the button pushing only to end up with a message saying they were closed.  (huh?)  I did what I had to do for the day, and called back later in the morning.  The automated system kept cutting out on me, so it took a few tries.  Eventually I got to live person number two.  To my dismay, she tells me there is nothing on file.  Nothing pending for me.

Nothing.  No pre-authorizations at all.

I dialed my doctor's office and the receptionist couldn't believe it.  She had the confirmation and had faxed the documents to Blue Cross on December 9th.  She had even stamped it "urgent" and that it needed to be done before the end of 2013.  Somehow on Blue Cross' end, they lost my paperwork.  While on the phone with me, she wrote them a note that this had been sent a month ago, and re-faxed the approval documents.

I cried and cried yesterday afternoon.  All of this time I had been thinking this was almost over.  Four months of being limited on how much I can walk will be behind me.  Soon it would be fixed and I'd be on my way to being better.  Not that I am all that thrilled about being cut on, but it's the only way out of this....   So I cried all afternoon with no end in sight.

BUT today...  Oh today!!!  This morning right at 8:30 my phone rang.  My approval had come through.  Wow... all of these weeks of waiting and in less than 24 hours it was APPROVED!!  Pre-op is next Tuesday and my procedure is Thursday.  I'm terrified as can be but relieved to finally have moved in the right direction.  In trying to look on the bight side, at least with the delay my deductible for 2014 will be met.

To be continued......





 
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