Trying to get home, sometime
Jun. 6th, 2003 09:00 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jayLast night I got a call from JL -- our 8am briefing to the deputy AA (NASA is divided roughly into 4 major parts, this is the #2 guy in the Aeronautics part) was cancelled. Okay, I thought, I'll sleep in a bit, exercise, catch up on email. Then two hours later, I was riding around with geekchick (we had a beautiful drive around the countryside, sunroof open ;) and another call -- not cancelled, but scheduled in the afternoon.
So I went to the local Kinko's (photocopy shop) and spent the rest of the evening making color prints of my presentation. McDonald's, again. Checked in to the new hotel in Arlington after midnight, talking to Nancy for awhile.
Then this morning, another JL message -- secretary called him and appointment is scheduled for 1pm. Fine, my flight leaves DCA around 4pm, no problem. 20 minutes later... the deputy AA calls JL and reschedules yet again, this time 2:30-3:30pm. JL leaves another message. Bzzzt. There were no seats available to San Francisco or San Jose from here after 4pm, when I last checked (Tuesday).
So... I'm now taking a momentary break from calling airlines. If I'm lucky, I can get on a Continental flight through Houston and get home around midnight. If not, I might have to come home tomorrow. I have nowhere to stay tonight if that happens. Sigh.patgreene has had to patiently deal with these last-minute changes before, but she has had a bad week already...
At least I cleared up a problem yesterday with our medical insurance -- they hadn't paid any claims since January, and we'd been turned over on several counts to collection agencies. They needed to confirm that we had no other medical coverage or co-insurance.
And yesterday's meetings... the FAA guys are uncoordinated. Different offices are asking for NASA to do different, conflicting roles. They aren't talking to each other. At least the food in the Dept. of Transportation cafeteria was good, far better than NASA's. Supposedly the Agriculture Dept. has the best cafeteria, must check that out next time.
And seeing Cathy yesterday was a big lift... (smile). I picked up an article of clothing from her to carry back forhopeforyou... hope that my luggage isn't searched! Whenever I fly home...
geekchick (we had a beautiful drive around the countryside, sunroof open ;) and another call -- not cancelled, but scheduled in the afternoon. So I went to the local Kinko's (photocopy shop) and spent the rest of the evening making color prints of my presentation. McDonald's, again. Checked in to the new hotel in Arlington after midnight, talking to Nancy for awhile.
Then this morning, another JL message -- secretary called him and appointment is scheduled for 1pm. Fine, my flight leaves DCA around 4pm, no problem. 20 minutes later... the deputy AA calls JL and reschedules yet again, this time 2:30-3:30pm. JL leaves another message. Bzzzt. There were no seats available to San Francisco or San Jose from here after 4pm, when I last checked (Tuesday).
So... I'm now taking a momentary break from calling airlines. If I'm lucky, I can get on a Continental flight through Houston and get home around midnight. If not, I might have to come home tomorrow. I have nowhere to stay tonight if that happens. Sigh.
patgreene has had to patiently deal with these last-minute changes before, but she has had a bad week already...At least I cleared up a problem yesterday with our medical insurance -- they hadn't paid any claims since January, and we'd been turned over on several counts to collection agencies. They needed to confirm that we had no other medical coverage or co-insurance.
And yesterday's meetings... the FAA guys are uncoordinated. Different offices are asking for NASA to do different, conflicting roles. They aren't talking to each other. At least the food in the Dept. of Transportation cafeteria was good, far better than NASA's. Supposedly the Agriculture Dept. has the best cafeteria, must check that out next time.
And seeing Cathy yesterday was a big lift... (smile). I picked up an article of clothing from her to carry back for
hopeforyou... hope that my luggage isn't searched! Whenever I fly home...
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no subject
Date: 2003-06-06 10:19 am (UTC)Grrrr. We've been going through the same thing. It took multiple phone calls to convince them that no, we have no other insurance. And the various docs' offices are still confused about it, I think. You'd think with all the moving around that people are forced to do with their insurance these days (we just had ours changed out from under us AGAIN--can you say double deductibles??), that they'd be able to do this a little more smoothly. But it seems as if the default assumption these days is "They must be lying--we will deny all their claims until they prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that we OWE them this money." Guilty until presumed innocent. Isn't that illegal? Oh, sorry. That doesn't count with taxes and insurance.
And to top it all off, we got a letter in the mail the other day saying that our doc's practice is dissolving. Mind you, they have Akien listed as being with a different doctor than he actually is, and I haven't gotten a letter AT ALL yet, so we don't know where OUR doc is going.
Are we having fun yet?
So I'm glad to hear that you finally got it all straightened out. I hope it lasts.
no subject
Date: 2003-06-08 07:19 am (UTC)And rather than contact the insurance company or the patient when a claim is rejected, the medical service providers are quick to turn over the bills to a collection agency. That's often the first time that I find out that there was a problem with their paperwork. And then when the insurance finally pays, it can take weeks for the doctor or hospital to pull back the hounds.
Only about 1 in 5 of the calls made to our home telephone number are ever answered or returned... the rest are all telemarketers or collection agencies. And that's with anonymous-caller-blocking in place!
Sigh. Good luck finding a new primary-care practice for yourselves.