7. Is It Worth It?

Stassi

S tassi groaned. “Not again?” She leaned into the copier and started doing exactly what she had watched Sage do earlier in the week. She opened up trays and peered in every crevice. But she couldn’t find one ounce of paper that had gotten stuck. She tapped with some force along the side of the machine, but nothing. Finally, she turned it off and waited thirty seconds before turning it back on. It couldn’t hurt. When the copier had sprung back to life, the jam seemed to have fixed itself. She nodded.

She could do this. Although, it felt like the last four days had proven otherwise. This had been the longest period of her life, and she wasn’t sure how she could possibly make it to another week. She returned the copies to the desk, where Darlene was leaving. She spotted Stassi.

“Do you think you could handle it here for a couple of hours? There are only two patients scheduled to check in during that time, but I have to run to a meeting. It’s something all employees have to do before they have their last day. They want to know how I liked it here, things like that. It could take two hours, but I’ll try to hurry back.

“I should be fine,” Stassi confidently spoke, but silently she wondered where that confidence came from. Darlene would be having her last day the following day and Stassi wasn’t confident of anything. How could she do this alone? She still felt like a fish out of water.

“Great! If you could please take care of the tasks I put by the phone. Most of them are a cinch and you shouldn’t have anything to worry about. I’ll hurry back.” She gave a wave and was off, leaving Stassi to fend for herself.

“You can do this,” Stassi mumbled. She picked up the list and read through the first one. “Check eligibility on these three patients.” The patients were listed and that was easy enough. She sat behind the computer and typed in the patient’s information. The circle continued to go around and round. She leaned back in her seat and watched it. Easy enough if the network was working. But it was constantly going out and they needed network connection to access the billing system and insurance websites. The screen popped up, telling her to try again later and Stassi rolled her eyes. How was it possible a company could function like this?

“Stassi?”

Stassi swirled in her chair as Missy Daniels approached the desk. Missy was her main supervisor and while she was just a year or two older than Stassi, she had an all-business outlook on her job.

“Hey, Ms. Daniels,” Stassi stammered. “Network is down. I’m waiting for it to reboot back up.”

“Should be short,” Missy stated. “So, I wanted to bring you another copy of the dress attire. You received it on your first day, but something must have been lost in translation.” Stassi frowned and looked down at her scrubs. She didn’t like the drab apparel but attempted to dress accordingly, no matter how hard it was. She looked back up and took the sheet from her. “I think you’ll find it most helpful to read at the bottom. Large and gawdy jewelry is not to be worn.”

Stassi nodded and removed her earrings. “I’ll keep that in mind.”

Missy turned and walked away from her, and Stassi scowled at her backside. Why did it matter what accessories she wore? The patients wouldn’t mind or shouldn’t. It gave a certain style to her and surely accentuated the attire she was forced to wear. She dropped her earrings in her purse and attempted her best to shrug it off. If she had to abide by the rules, then she would, if only for her dad’s sake.

She moved closer to her computer and refreshed her screen, attempting to pull up the system again. A box popped up on the screen. Restart your computer. An error has been detected. “Sure, it has.” She restarted her computer and looked down over her list. There wasn’t one task she could fulfill that didn’t rely on the computer. When her computer was back up, she attempted to get back into billing system.

She couldn’t imagine that her father was aware of all of these issues and not doing anything about them. The hospital machines were falling apart, with little that anyone could do about them. She could only imagine that the copier had been in the hospital from day one. It was always dragging in the few times it worked right away. This was something that her dad needed to be involved in, or nothing would ever change. The management clearly wasn’t using the budget correctly or none of this would be happening.

She pulled up the first patient when the system was finally loaded. She checked the insurance, then got on the portal to locate the patient’s eligibility. She did that for all three patients; it was a breeze once the internet was working. Task one was fully accomplished. Task two was calling an insurance company and trying to find out why they denied the patient’s claim. This was her first time dealing with the insurance companies, without Darlene by her side. She’d be lying if she said she wasn’t a tad reluctant, but she put on her best confidence and placed the call.

Stassi was on hold for twenty minutes before the representative came on the line. “Hi, I’m trying to find out why a claim wasn’t paid.” So far, so good.

The rep went through a line of questions, having Stassi stutter through where to find some of the needed information. However, after several minutes, she was able to get everything answered. A patient walked up while she was in the middle of it. The patient wasn’t due for another twenty minutes, so Stassi pressed her hand against the mouthpiece to hush her voice.

“Take a seat and I’ll call you up in a minute.” Surprisingly, she began to feel like a pro. Why was she so worried about this in the first place?

“Are you there?” The woman asked, her sarcasm thick.

“Um yeah, sorry. You were saying?” Stassi poised her pen to take notes.

“This patient ran out of benefits a month ago. That was three days before this appointment.”

“Huh?” Stassi asked. “I don’t understand. We show that we called in the benefits before this appointment, and we were told that the patient would be seen and 100% would be covered. Instead, nothing was covered and now this patient is left owing five thousand dollars.”

“Well, benefits were called in prior to the appointment where benefits were exhausted, so it would have been covered at that time. However, another claim got to us before yours, so none of it’s covered.”

“I don’t understand,” Stassi groaned. She frantically looked between the computer and her notes. “This patient can’t owe this much. They’re low in funds, which is liable to bankrupt them. Isn’t there something that you can do?”

“Ma’am, it doesn’t work that way. No benefits, no coverage. Do you have any other questions?”

The nonchalant response from the rep had Stassi’s blood boiling. She wouldn’t stop at that because the one insurance rep was giving her unfortunate information.

“No,” she mumbled. “Can I have the reference number?”

The rep rattled the reference number off, made her ‘goodbye,’ and disconnected the call. Stassi stared at the computer where she needed to put her correspondence, but it was crappy information that she was given. How could she return to the patient and explain that nothing could be done? A rock fell into the pit of her stomach.

The woman cleared her throat from the patient waiting area. Stassi turned her gaze to her and motioned for her to approach the desk. She would get her checked in and then get back to the other patient.

“Have a seat and the therapist will be with you shortly.” Stassi forced through a smile and waited for the woman to go back to her seat. Stassi put that she was waiting and turned back to her previous patient. She scrunched her nose in thought, then a possible solution hit her. She didn’t know much about it, but she recalled that Darlene had called on an assistance program that could help a patient with their bills. It was at least worth a shot.

She looked at the counter, where all the important phone numbers were listed and finally found the number she was looking for. She quickly dialed it and waited for someone to answer. After only a couple of rings, a man picked up.

“Hi, John, my name is Stassi. I work at LA County, and I have a patient who needs some assistance in paying a bill and hoping you could take a look.”

“I’d be happy to. Provide the patient’s details, name, date of birth, when the date of service will be, and their income.”

Stassi gave the name and date of birth and then gave the date of service. “I don’t have the income, but I’m sure I can get that from the patient and give you a call back.”

“This service has already happened?” he asked.

“Yes. The insurance won’t cover it and the patient isn’t able to pay her bills.”

“I’m sorry, but we can do nothing about that. We only take care of payment before a service.”

Stassi’s jaw dropped. “That doesn’t make sense. Some patients wouldn’t know if their service would be covered, so what do they do? Have to suffer?”

“That’s not really our concern,” he began.

“What?” Stassi couldn’t believe the way he was responding. Every patient deserved to have compassion and care given to them. “You’re not doing your job, if you’re saying you don’t care.” Her voice raised a few more notches. She felt a hand on her shoulder, and she looked up to find Sage staring at her. She tilted her head and gave a sympathetic look before turning to the waiting room and calling the patient.

“Hey Sage,” the woman said, approaching her. “I’m used to the nurse grabbing me.”

“She had an appointment, so you’re stuck with me. How ya feeling?” Sage glanced over at Stassi before Stassi turned back to her call.

“I’m just trying to offer our patient some peace. Please tell me there is something you can do.”

“My hands are tied. If the request had been made before the patient came into your office, then there’s a chance we could help, but we have nothing available now.” Stassi sighed and sank into her chair.

“Alright. Goodbye.” She disconnected the call and stared at the cursor that hung in the middle of her screen. She went to the correspondence and typed out her information, from the call with the insurance company to the call with the assistance rep, then glanced down at the amount that was read in the patient’s balance. Her father would certainly assist if he had the funds, but since he personally doesn’t, then maybe there was something he knew that could assist the patient. Patients had to have better options than what they were given. It wasn’t fair. She grabbed the list and looked over her tasks, feeling like a failure that she couldn’t complete them all satisfactorily. She tossed the list to the side and shook her head. The system was broken, and she didn’t know how to fix it.