It was sixty degrees today, the highest high ever for this day in Duckford history.  We also had a half-inch of rain fall, mostly when I was walking from my spot in the parking lot to the office.  Now we're getting 60mph wind gusts.  I love winter in Illinois... I just wish it was, y'know, happening this year.

At work, I can honestly say that the claims kicked my ass all day.  Twerent none of 'em what went down easy.  It felt like every one of them had something wrong with it, as opposed to being of the "three key presses, two mouse clicks and get paid" variety.  It isn't really that simple, but I'm not exaggerating by all that much.  It's nowhere near as intimidating as it used to be... mostly.  When you have a claim for $60000 hit your screen and you know that every auditor between here and the home office in Texas is just dying to find the teeniest mistake and doom you to a lower tax bracket forever, it can be a little stressful. 

When a claim enters your queue, it's supposed to be all set and ready to be processed.  Today, though... today was apparently Drive Wonderduck To Drink day.  Literally a quarter of the 200 or so claims I worked today didn't have the name of the doctor or the organization he bills through listed correctly.  Sometimes you can fix that... the computer isn't so smart that it can pick out the right organization when the doc works with, like, eight different places.  Think I'm exaggerating?  Doctor's own office.  The hospital he works with.  Two different hospital-associated clinics: one pediatric, one adult.  His office might have a clinic as well.  The doc's specialty practice.  The partnership he has with another doc.  Then the Urgent Care place people go to when they can't get appointments with their "real" doctor.  That's eight right there, and while they're all the same doctor, he might be billing to any of them at any time... fortunately each of them has a separate ID number.  In theory.  That's where the computer falls over and we have to come in and fix the mess.

Except when we can't, because sometimes a doctor was hired by an Urgent Care two months ago and is only now getting around to sending us the bills for his patients.  And gosh, lookit that, we have no record that Dr Smith works at that place!  So away goes those claims to the home office to deal with... hopefully we'll get them back at some point, after Dr Smith has been added to the rolls. 

Imagine beating your head against a wall.  It's kinda like that, except the wall is covered with broken glass, razor blades, and that stupid hot mustard Chinese places serve for you to dip your egg rolls in.  Each one of those takes time and doesn't pay you anything.  Bah.

Oh, and I discovered that I had been looking at the wrong Holiday Days Off list, too!  I had been looking at the one for the other branch of our business, the collections folk based in Colorado or somewhere like that, and they get Christmas Eve off.  Me, I have to be in tomorrow.  Well, shucks.

It could be a lot worse, though.  I stopped at the Walgreens near the office to pick up my monthly batch of Keep Wonderduck Alive pills on the way home tonight.  That's the Walgreens that's a block away from the Big Shopping Mall in the area.  The place was packed with Crazy... and that's just a drugstore near the mall.  What must the mall itself be like?  I know not, nor wish I to know.  I've done my time in Hell after all, and to that place I intend to never return.  If I'm lucky.

Posted by: Wonderduck at 11:28 PM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
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