Red Tape Crap

I started calling the doctor's office, every day, on January 24th. In my last ditch effort, I called again today, I love that my phone times my calls, and was on the phone for 35 minutes. Do you know how long I talked to a human voice? Approximately 5-6 minutes of that phone call. I hate cutting through the red tape crap. If I was poor, without health insurance, my son would have no problem being seen, having authorizations for every appointment, and the bureaucracy would be nil. Instead, we are middle income, have private insurance, and before every appointment we have to get authorization. What happens if the doctor doesn't handle it in a timely fashion? Let's say I call in for the authorization 2 1/2 weeks, when technically the big wig hospital my son is being seen at said a couple weeks notice is ample, and the day before his appointment the authorization still has NOT been faxed! Oh, wait, he has 2 more appointments this month, one next week and one the last week of February. What of those?

"Are they appointments that need authorization?"

Yes.

"Who told you that?"

The hospital staff themselves!

"Do you have paperwork stating that?"

No.

At this point she goes back to the appointment at hand. GREAT!

His appointment is at 10:30 tomorrow morning, which means we have to get up at the butt-crack of dawn to get ourselves ready, pack EVERYthing for Cameron, and get on the road, during commute traffic. Guess what? It's 4:30 and I still don't have authorization for the appointment. IF I need to reschedule? FORGET ABOUT IT, I'll have to pull the money out of my butt, because the next available appointment won't be for ANOTHER 3-4 months!!!

UPDATED: Apparently I had to work them late, but it's amazing how quickly they got the authorization. I received a call at 6:30 pm saying we're approved for our visit in the morning. Now, why exactly couldn't that get done 2 weeks ago? Why have I been forced to waste my time every day for the last 2 weeks? Hmmm...