you can check out any time you want...

...but you can never leave the Hotel Hades Hilton.

Yes, i have spent far too much time in the last two weeks trying to escape the vortex of medical and pharmacy benefits that was slowly pulling me into the fiery mire...

Did i get my prescriptions? well, yes, and no.
When i stopped in on Friday afternoon (sept 9) to pick up the Rx's at walgreens, the pharmacist with whom i had spoken in trying to get the rx's transferred was there, and i thanked her for going the extra mile in calling the mail order pharmacy multiple times. she informed me that the number that i finally gave her (after hearing the mail order pharmacist (very begrudgingly) say "yes if you are an express scripts customer then this is the number for a pharmacy to call to transfer your prescriptions") still wasn't the right number. She laughed though, and said: they gave me another number and that worked and it's ok, don't worry about it, it's my job to help you.

That woman is SO getting a Christmas card. so is the pharmacy tech named nick. he spent the next 65 minutes (yes, more than an hour) trying to get the insurance to work so he could give me my meds... Yes, ladies and gentlemen, despite everything hellish up til then, the trip around the molten amusement park was not yet over! When he ran the insurance, it came up that i did not have coverage. he carefully entered all the info from my insurance card again, and still the same: person was terminated.

there i was, friday afternoon, 2:00, trying to quickly pick up my scripts so my sister and i can get back in the car and drive to wisconsin dells for a week's vacation with my cousins and their adorable two daughters... and i'm calling the customer service number on the back of the card, trying to punch through 5 (count 'em FIVE) automated menus and finally getting the pharmacy company that my health care company contracts to do the drug part. his name was rick. yes, rick and nick. and if i knew how to, rick in florida would be getting a Christmas card, too. the man was unbelieveable, and when he finally conceded defeat 47 minutes later, his comment was "i've never been able to not fix something... this is a first, and i'm so sorry."

so we walked out without the meds. (of course i could have paid cash and submitted claims later- but i hardly had enough for vacation to begin with, let alone $369 for the meds at retail...) and i called my company's benefits administrator and asked him to please call the health care person and get things RIGHT. i was going to go to the walgreens in wisconsin dells, and the insurance really really needs to work.

man, i gotta leave- cindy will kill me for not leaving right at 5:30... but i wanted to let you all know i was in fact still alive... and, i think, finally on the way OUT of the Hades Hilton resort... more later.