See that guy? He comes with the Fisher Price zoo animals set---each letter has a corresponding animal. (V is for vulture.)
He also happens to be Maya's favorite animal, for at least the past week. Today was her 3 year pediatrician appointment, and when the doc walked into the room she proudly held it up and declared "Ehh!!!"
And so he said "Well, look at that! Are you showing me your . . . errr . . . "
So I volunteered "Her vulture. It's her vulture."
(It's semi-embarassing and really funny at the same time. Forget the koala, the penguin, the quail . . . I'm just going to show off this kind-of-ugly-carcass-eating-bird.)
Vulture(s) #2: The insurance people.
I decided to call and check on the progress of my appeal. I'm waiting to get the verdict in writing before totally losing my mind, but it looks like they are going to deny the appeal based on upholding their position that SLPs are not qualified providers of feeding therapy. This is ridiculous on every level. I'm not going to quit.
Side note one: Just finding out that it was denied was a 47 minute, 3 phone call process. The first rep "accidentally" disconnected me. The second rep tried to find the information and mumbled to herself for 20 minutes before "transferring me to the appeals department, where they would have more information"----but she just transferred me back to the main menu, where I started again. The third rep told me there's no such place as "the appeals department" but then was semi-helpful.
Side note two: When I type "I'm not going to quit" it looks resolute and determined. Which I am. But when I hung up the phone with the 3rd rep, I turned Elmo on for Maya and sat at the table and cried. It is just infuriating to be so powerless to help fix my situation. I'm doing everything I know to do, I speak intelligently, calmly and forcefully, and it is literally impossible to get anywhere. As angry as I am for me, I'm also angry for the people who are less educated, speak english as a second language, don't have the time to fight, etc. Insurance companies just suck the money right out of them. They're definitely vultures.
In other news . . .
The party prep continues! Look what Maya helped to make during therapy today . . .
She made the balloons---the cake at the bottom is a wooden sign . . . there's a little heart that says "Maya" that goes in the cake, but I'm still looking for it.
3 comments:
I think it's awesome that Maya likes the vulture. Poor guy never gets any love otherwise.
I'm so sorry about the insurance BS. It's so incredibly stupid, like they are trying to deny the sky is blue, just because some guy there already said it was green, and they don't want to look dumb. Except for the firmer they stand, the worse they look. It makes you wonder if they even read what you sent. I don't suppose you can actually speak to the person making the determination? So completely not the same thing, but to get our suction supplies covered, I finally spoke with the claims reviewer and had to explain that no, this was not feeding tube related (they don't cover those supplies). It was disturbing to me that the person who was denying the coverage didn't have a flippin clue what they were even denying. Anyway, your determination is admirable and I hope you can break them. Just don't break yourself in the process.
I must note, someone previously commented that the verification words are made by real people. I agree. Mine was just "butcri" Butt Cry? Too awesome.
I laughed so hard that I cried on the vulture #1 story. And it has taken me three times to get the verification word correct. Maybe I need a set of those letter myself.
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