Shame On Me: Listening To "Health Care" Companies Never Seems To Pay Off
Bear with me.
There’s an episode from Star Trek: The Original Series in which Scotty tells Sulu “there’s an old saying on Earth…fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.”
It doesn’t matter if you don’t know who these people are. The point is fairly easy to pick up on. And it turns out that the phrase is an old saying. A variation of it appears in Anthony Weldon’s 1651 book, The Court and Character of King James.
“The Italians have a proverb, He that deceives me once, it’s his fault. He that deceives me twice, it’s my fault.”
So, here we are. It’s my fault. Shame on me.
Last week, I wrote of my struggle with the company that supplies me with equipment needed to help battle my diabetes. It’s been a months long struggle because I went through almost exactly the same thing three months ago.
I’d ended that piece on an optimistic note, writing of how a “resolution solutions specialist” assured me that a mistake had been made and my equipment should be mailed out on Monday.
I should have picked up from the fact that the woman’s title is kind of redundant that something was amiss.
Monday came and went and no communication from the company.
Tuesday I called and she tells me that while the situation had been resolved, they had identified another problem. They realized that my prescription expires on March 25th so I would need a new one before they could ship my supplies.
“But it’s only March 4,” I pointed out. “And it was still February when we started this process.”
“It may be March 4—-“ she started.
I’m not proud of this but I cut her off pointing out that it’s not a question of “it may be March 4,” it was a simple fact: it was March 4. The good news is that I was speaking quietly because I knew if I raised my voice, she could just hang up on me and that would be the end of it.
She continued: “But since you have a three month prescription that would take you into a time when your prescription would be expired, And we cannot honor an expired prescription.
I tried to work this through.
“My prescription is valid now, right?’
“Yes.”
“And I’m in need of getting that prescription filled, right?”
“Yes.”
“So since I have a valid prescription and I need it filled, can’t I get it filled?”
“No.”
“Because my prescription would be expired for the second and third months?”
“Right.”
“Well, how about this: Can you give me a partial refill? Send me one month’s worth and then I’ll get a new prescription and all will be good.”
“We don’t do partial refills. Either we fill the whole thing or not at all.”
“Walgreen’s does partials.”
“We’re not Walgreen’s.”
What I could not get her to explain to me was did they think would happen if they did fill the whole thing. We were talking about sensors and transmitters to read my blood glucose levels and share that information with my insulin pump.
We were not talking about Oxy or any other drug for that matter. Honestly, I suspect it’d still be easier to get a questionable Oxy prescription filled.
At this point, I got the sense she could feel my frustration. I was pretty sure that people around the world could feel my frustration. I would not be surprised to hear that the scientists who monitor volcanic and seismic activity detected something.
“Here’s what I can do. I will escalate this so the Back Office reached out to your doctor’s office immediately to get the new prescription so we can get you your supplies.”
I again thanked her. As for the term Back Office, that is how they refer to the department that handles outreach to doctors’ offices.
So, here we are on Thursday, clearly had not heard anything on Wednesday, and at noon I get an email from her.
“I am reaching out to you to inform our back office has not requested for the prescription yet. I am keeping an eye out on your order and will update as soon as it is requested. If you have any questions, please reach out.”
Questions. Yes. I had one. Many,
First time I called, I got trapped back at the call center with someone who refused to just put me through to the supervisor who was “helping” me and had told me to reach out.
The second time I was able to get through but the news she delivered me made me wished I hadn’t.
“I don’t know why they didn’t reach out, They should have. All I can think is that they are really backed up.”
I wasn’t sure if she delivered that line thinking I should feel sympathy for them but it’s how it came across. And I think she realized that maybe she could have phrased it better.
“Regardless of how busy they are, they should have reached out. You need your equipment.”
The conversation ended with her promising to reach out to the supervisor there, have my issue escalated and get it taken care of.
So, twice in the past week I’ve been told my situation would be resolved immediately, twice I’ve believed and twice I’ve found myself near tears.
Shame on me?