I went to see my family doctor. My wrist has been hurting since like July or August. Most of time, it doesn't bother me, but then I'll move it a certain way and get a stab of pain that makes me rethink ever making that motion again.
It was X-Rayed, but as I expected, the bone was fine. So my doctor sent a prescription to my pharmacy for Voltaren gel and gave me a written prescription for a wrist brace to wear at night. This is our first line of attack to get this thing healed up.
So before I even get to my car after my appointment, my phone buzzes to let me know I have a text. The pharmacy wants me to call them. I tried, but their phone tree was ridiculous and not setup to handle someone calling them because of a text. At least the voice tree lady didn't understand what I wanted and I gave up. I checked my app, and the prescription showed in work, ready by noon. Okay, I thought, I must not need to call them. They're working on it.
Around 12:20, I check my app again because they haven't sent me a text that my prescription is ready. According to the app, not only is there nothing ready, it's not even in work any longer. Now I call the pharmacy again. I don't know how I made it past the phone tree, but somehow I got a real person.
The assistant or whatever they're called says something along the lines of, you were texted to call, which irritated me. To make a long story short, insurance rejected it with the note that I should buy over the counter Voltaren. That's right, insurance wants me to buy OTC, so they don't have to pay anything and that gel is expensive.
But it gets better. My doctor told me to take my prescription for the brace to a medical supply place, but didn't tell me the names of any. My insurance company's phone app was no help, so I went online on my laptop to their website and they had a whole slew of companies listed.
With no mention of which medical supplies they carried.
I tried a few websites, but one was for like catheters and things like this and another had wheelchairs and mobility devices. And some had no website at all!
The next day, I called my insurance company. That's right. Me, who hates the phone with the fire of a thousand suns had to make a phone call. I got a super nice lady and she did the checking for me. She found three companies that would mail the item to my house and even made a call to the first one on the list for me.
It went downhill from here.
First person I talked to at this supply company: You need the home division.
Second person I talked to: Oh, you're a new customer? You need to talk to the department that handles onboarding.
Third person: Your insurance doesn't cover any wrist braces.
After getting off that call, I looked at my list of two other companies, said to hell with it, and spent less than $40 at Amazon to get the wrist brace.
