well, i arrived home last night to find a parking ticket on the drivers window of my car. awesome. now, there are times in the past when i've received a parking ticket or two that were totally fair. i'm thinking of a time in my youth when i was headed to a concert, was running totally late, and couldn't find parking anywhere, so i pulled into a metered spot. i put in as many quarters as i had, and was about ten minutes short of making it till nine pm when the meters ended. fine, i thought, i'll risk it. you know how this ends. i come out of the concert to find a ticket for 8:57 pm. ANNOYING AS ALL HELL, but fair.
last night...ugh. not fair.
as i've mentioned before, i recently moved, and i was unsure about the parking restrictions around the new apartment building. therefore, to avoid tickets i read EVERY sign EVERY time i get out of the car. seriously. i look like a frickin' tourist, but i don't care because i don't want to get a parking ticket! my favorite place to park (because it's actually not a thousand miles away) has two restrictions: you can't park there during events at the nearby stadium unless you have a resident permit, and no parking from october to april from 3-7 am for snow plowing. fine. i made sure to register my car with the city so i got a resident permit to take care of the first restriction, and the second one, well it's july, so if it snows, we're all in trouble.
well sometime between ten pm monday and eleven pm tuesday, they (the fuzz i guess, or whoever makes up these rules) installed another sign. no parking between four and six pm. what? fine, you want to change the restrictions and make my life harder (i buy a lot of stuff at target, ok? it's tough to always be walking a couple blocks with those bags. i'd much rather be able to park close to my house. just saying.) whatever. but it'd be helpful if they a: let us know they changed the restrictions, or b: had a grace period, or c: put a sign up saying "the restrictions will be changing here...etc., or d: DID NOT STEALTHILY PUT UP A SIGN IN THE MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT THEN START PASSING OUT PARKING TICKETS TO UNKNOWING RESIDENTS LIKE THEY ARE FREAKING CANDY.
sixty bucks. SIXTY BUCKS.
look, i'm glad you're making parking restrictions because we all know there are douche-bags out there who would double park in front of fire hydrants just to be funny, but I CAN'T FOLLOW YOUR RULES IF I DON'T KNOW THEM.
Wednesday, July 21, 2010
Tuesday, July 20, 2010
insurance.
look. i was recently taken to the emergency room in a big flashy ambulance, but that is a story for another post. this post is about the lady i called at the insurance company to discuss the payment of the "services" i received at said emergency room. here goes.
i have health insurance. sure, it's nothing fancy, but heaven forbid i keep my sixty-five bucks a month in my own savings account to be used when i do get sick when i could be giving it to some giant company in order to have the privilege of carrying around a little paper card so that i am legal and then have to pay more money when i am sick. fine. whatever.
i *recently* moved, so my stuff is still in boxes... so i couldn't find my PACKET telling me of all the glorious benefits my sixty-five bucks a month was gaining me over at celtic insurance. i have my insurance card, but nothing else. i tried to log onto the website, but it doesn't think i'm a customer. hmmm.... in order to sign on to the website you have to have some obscure password on the paper documents that they sent me years ago when i signed up for this 'insurance.' look, if i had access to the paper stuff, i wouldn't need the online stuff. also, i am trying to save the planet here, so you don't send me any paper anymore. it's all online! of course this was late at night (when all the best work gets done) so when i tried to call the CUSTOMER SERVICE HOTLINE, it was after business hours.
so i just called back this morning. after explaining my situation to the representative, she informs me that she will send me a packet in the mail with my login information, as she cannot retrieve that information for me. here is a direct quote from the celtic website... "Call 1-800-477-7870 during business hours and a Client Service Representative can retrieve this information for you." um..... am i missing something here?
so, realizing the dead end that conversation had reached, i tried another tactic. i asked her if she could just look up my benefits then, because really, that was all i was trying to do. i just wanted to know what was covered regarding the e.r. and the ambulance. to which she obliged (two points.) (but don't get too attached to those points missy.) turns out there is a $250 emergency room deductible, but if you are admitted, the deductible is waived. hmmm... okay. here's where we turn directly to the conversation.
me: "what does it mean to be admitted?"
representative: (slightly louder) "ADMITTED."
m: "right, admitted. what exactly does the insurance company understand as 'admitted?'"
r: "were you admitted at the emergency room?"
m: "well, i was taken there in an ambulance. not by choice."
r: "did they admit you?"
m: "i was there for several hours, had my own room, and received treatment. does that count as being admitted?"
r: "did the HOS-PI-TAL AD-MIT you?"
m: "i have a bill for the services i received while in the hospital. i mean, that sounds like being admitted to me, but what say ye?"
r: "were you there for more than twenty-four hours?"
m: "no, just about three."
r: "then you still have to pay the deductible."
m: "um...."
r: "if you are in the emergency room for less than twenty-four hours the stay does not qualify as being 'admitted' to the hospital."
m: "fine. that is all i was wondering."
glad we got to have that entire conversation about what "admitted" means. that was really enriching to my life. forty-five seconds i'll never get back. and i suppose, twenty minutes spent blogging about it that i'll never get back.
i have health insurance. sure, it's nothing fancy, but heaven forbid i keep my sixty-five bucks a month in my own savings account to be used when i do get sick when i could be giving it to some giant company in order to have the privilege of carrying around a little paper card so that i am legal and then have to pay more money when i am sick. fine. whatever.
i *recently* moved, so my stuff is still in boxes... so i couldn't find my PACKET telling me of all the glorious benefits my sixty-five bucks a month was gaining me over at celtic insurance. i have my insurance card, but nothing else. i tried to log onto the website, but it doesn't think i'm a customer. hmmm.... in order to sign on to the website you have to have some obscure password on the paper documents that they sent me years ago when i signed up for this 'insurance.' look, if i had access to the paper stuff, i wouldn't need the online stuff. also, i am trying to save the planet here, so you don't send me any paper anymore. it's all online! of course this was late at night (when all the best work gets done) so when i tried to call the CUSTOMER SERVICE HOTLINE, it was after business hours.
so i just called back this morning. after explaining my situation to the representative, she informs me that she will send me a packet in the mail with my login information, as she cannot retrieve that information for me. here is a direct quote from the celtic website... "Call 1-800-477-7870 during business hours and a Client Service Representative can retrieve this information for you." um..... am i missing something here?
so, realizing the dead end that conversation had reached, i tried another tactic. i asked her if she could just look up my benefits then, because really, that was all i was trying to do. i just wanted to know what was covered regarding the e.r. and the ambulance. to which she obliged (two points.) (but don't get too attached to those points missy.) turns out there is a $250 emergency room deductible, but if you are admitted, the deductible is waived. hmmm... okay. here's where we turn directly to the conversation.
me: "what does it mean to be admitted?"
representative: (slightly louder) "ADMITTED."
m: "right, admitted. what exactly does the insurance company understand as 'admitted?'"
r: "were you admitted at the emergency room?"
m: "well, i was taken there in an ambulance. not by choice."
r: "did they admit you?"
m: "i was there for several hours, had my own room, and received treatment. does that count as being admitted?"
r: "did the HOS-PI-TAL AD-MIT you?"
m: "i have a bill for the services i received while in the hospital. i mean, that sounds like being admitted to me, but what say ye?"
r: "were you there for more than twenty-four hours?"
m: "no, just about three."
r: "then you still have to pay the deductible."
m: "um...."
r: "if you are in the emergency room for less than twenty-four hours the stay does not qualify as being 'admitted' to the hospital."
m: "fine. that is all i was wondering."
glad we got to have that entire conversation about what "admitted" means. that was really enriching to my life. forty-five seconds i'll never get back. and i suppose, twenty minutes spent blogging about it that i'll never get back.
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