Polaroid Photo

Mon
15
Dec '08

Update on Rob’s hands

Here’s the latest on Rob’s hands. Last week the insurance finally approved his claim and said that he could have the surgery. Yay! I waited to post until we had a surgery date, which… we still don’t have.

Why? Because the doctor’s office said that they needed written authorization. It took a couple of days for Rob to reach the insurance company, which he did today, only to be told that they need the doctor’s office to make the request for the written authorization. Needless to say, when Rob called the doctor’s office to tell them that, the person who handles scheduling was gone. Maybe tomorrow he’ll get on the schedule. More likely, he’ll just have to jump through another hoop.

9 Comments »

9 Comments

  1. Michael Michael on 15.12.2008 at 23:00 (Reply)

    Yeesh. Thank ghod here in ‘Merica we don’t have one of them socialized health care thingees, with all of that bureaucracy.

    I hope Rob’s able to get things all squared away sooner rather than later, with a minimum of new hoops to jump through.

    1. Mary Robinette Kowal Mary Robinette Kowal on 15.12.2008 at 23:04 (Reply)

      I know. I keep thinking that in Iceland it would have been done already and with really excellent doctors. Gah.

  2. Todd Thorne Todd Thorne on 15.12.2008 at 23:19 (Reply)

    Isn’t it amazing how the insurance industry shakes you down both coming and going? It’s like they go through extra training to make things as difficult as possible.

    Hopefully Rob is able to look past the bureaucratic noise and focus on having the surgery and recuperating quickly.

    1. Mary Robinette Kowal Mary Robinette Kowal on 16.12.2008 at 00:27 (Reply)

      Usually we pay out of pocket, but have this insurance through Rob’s employer. It seems like way more of a hassle.

  3. Charles Tan Charles Tan on 15.12.2008 at 23:21 (Reply)

    Hope things work out and hopefully an appointment gets scheduled before the holidays.

    1. Mary Robinette Kowal Mary Robinette Kowal on 16.12.2008 at 00:28 (Reply)

      That had been our hope, although we leave town on the 21st so I’m doubtful in the extreme that it will happen before 2009.

  4. Karen Karen on 16.12.2008 at 09:19 (Reply)

    I didn’t know about Rob’s hands, how awful. I’m also sorry about the hoops you’re jumping through, adding stress to an already stressful situation. Crazy insurance companies, crazy us for…well, all that.

    Also, congratulations on the Asimov sale, that’s awesome! as you can see, I’m catching up on your blog :)

    1. Mary Robinette Kowal Mary Robinette Kowal on 16.12.2008 at 11:40 (Reply)

      Thanks. It has us both irritable at the system, but there’s not much we can do.

  5. David Loftus David Loftus on 17.12.2008 at 12:16 (Reply)

    It’s weird, the things this modern life does to our body . . . and vice versa. I’ve been suffering from “golfer’s elbow” — the opposite of tennis elbow — on the left side. It’s aching and pain in the elbow, occasionally accompanied by nerve tinglings down my arm to the fingertips. This is all due, I guess, to years of pounding at computer keyboards — probably some that were ergonomically misplaced, and I know our home iMac keyboard takes a lot more force to press its keys down than my G4 laptop. (I always pressed hard with pencils in school, too; which left a callus on the back of my right middle finger.)

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