May 15, 2009 by Diane Tate

Maslowian cosmic crises

Sauntering over to the gym with ample time for weightlifting before the spin class that Lily was so keen to have me sub for her, I breathed easy. Confidently.

Then 5 minutes before class, I ran into Rob - the "other" spin instructor - and immediately grasped that...

I needed to beam to the club ACROSS TOWN to teach.

Where is space/time travel when you need it?

Grabbing my bag, my computer and my bling (for Monte Carlo Casino Nigh t later on), I dragged my sorted state of affairs through streets downtown, straggling along in cycling cleats, workout gear, and fur coat. En route, charitable onlookers picked up my CD case that dropped out of my overstuffed bag. Thankfully, I was able to procure da BOMB cabbie who rushed me across town in 13 minutes. I barely escaped after snatching some personal items that had fallen out onto the seat ...

Busting into the studio, I thought all systems were "go" as I came upon the students dutifully spinning away (and miraculously not snarling at me being 25 minutes late) ....until I realized that....

....one of my prized Tommy Hilfiger sandals was gone!

...leading me to ponder:

How on earth would I bling at the Civic Center later?

Well, Jo-Anne (being her generous and together self) provided auxiliary bling for my feet. But the best news of all was that I dared to push all thoughts of my prized shoe lying on Sacramento Street or on the back seat of aforesaid cab aside and boldly go beyond the improbable:

Upon brand verification, the first gym confirmed my precious sandal was in their posession!

Livin' the high life.

Thanks to Jo-Anne, order was restored and I was able to bling out at Civic Center and even snatch up a few spa treatments in the Silent Auction....for The Cause, of course.

April 4, 2009 by Diane Tate

Two steps forward….

And that would be which humans, being resourceful in exactly what way?

I was quite aware that the trip down from my mountaintop customer service experience today was inevitable…but it felt so soon….and the descent, so far…

I know it’s possible to order prescriptions online…have them sent to you…the whole internet thing and all….I’ve done it. And yet today, I knew, in the deepest recesses of my profoundly intuitive self that I would have to – for some cosmic reason as yet unknown to me – make a live visit to the Kaiser Pharmacy for my first transaction.

Entering the pharmacological SuperStore (Costco meets Epcot) was in itself awe-inspiring: a wing for Member Services (that came later), a cafeteria, health kiosks, a bakery (I’m sure they’re serving a preventative form of sugar) all left my head spinning. When I managed to find my way to the pharmacy, I was confronted with Grand Central Station-like billboards advertising whose prescriptions were ready (felt a bit un-HIPAA-ish to me but perhaps data transmitted in open-air is less regulated).

In any case, all went somewhat as hoped – prescription received by doc, filled, waiting – until the Moment of Truth came: payment.

CONEXIS, the administrator (= money gatherer) of the COBRA insurance coverage on behalf of my former employer, had no issue taking my $800+ in cash I paid to continue coverage and updating its website to say I was now in “covered” status.

But they missed a little detail: they didn’t tell my insurance provider. Which, I learned to my astonishment, was no vagary but actually standard ‘practice’: the customer service rep admitted that his whole raison d’etre is fielding calls from people trying to fill their first prescription or make their first doctor’s visit (you know, get health services), only to get denied service because….

…patients are supposed to manually tell the provider that CONEXIS says we’re covered and…

I’m clinging to the assumption that the “.org” means that CONEXIS makes absolutely NOTHING on these transactions.