The Boy's New Smile

While I was working on the "August EC Stuff" post my son was playing at his friend's house on the trampoline. I don't like the trampoline, and have a standing rule that the kids can't be on it if there isn't an adult outside watching them on it - not just outside doing stuff, but actually watching them.

Of course, just having supervision can't prevent accidents.

And he's the kind of kid that, through his tears of pain, apologized for breaking an adult tooth! I got him calmed with the assurance that the dentist will be able to cap it and no one will ever know unless he tells them (or loses the cap); and got him back to smiling by pointing out he has a fierce fang now and a wolfish grin, and had better not bite his sister Blossom no matter how bad she torments him since he'd cut her up bad for sure (not that he's ever bitten anyone, but silliness was called for).

I suppose it is the natural perversity of childhood that they can't have these minor accidents during normal office hours; it's always the middle of the night or on weekends. I almost hope he doesn't get his cap done before Halloween: he plans to be a pirate, and the broken tooth would enhance his costume nicely.

August EC Stuff

I joined Entrecard about August 17, so I don't have a full month's info ... but it seems to be "the thing" to make these posts, and I do appreciate those participants that have dropped and|or advertised on my blog. So here goes:

Top Droppers
Whatever Comes To My Mind
PipeB Web Hosting
Top Form Secrets
The Traveling Pants
Juliana's World
Red Pine Mountain
The Simple Witch
Journal of Journey
Modern Witchcraft
My gypsygoods

Advertisers
(this is a partial list, sorry: I didn't think to start keeping track sooner)
Just Renae
Infinite Possibility
Crete Delights
Comely's World
Young Urban Professionals nOOk
Atom Sounds
Barefooted Me
Hawk's Photos

And my personal favorites (in no particular order) I would not have found without EC:
Eco-friendly Life and Toys
Homebound
Clean Solutions
Thyme2dream
My Name's Not Mom
Asdquefty's Journal
Red Pine Mountain
Ken Armstrong Writing Stuff
Wahm Cafe
The Shopaholic Nightingale
Environmental Chaos
PlasticLess
BlueStem Winery
Tiggyblog
Learn tricks of blogging
Easy Homemade Fragrance and Essential Products
My Autism Insights
Connect with your Teens through Pop Culture and Technology
Squidom.com
The Peanut Butter Blog
Just Renae - A Digital Scrapbooking Addict
The Transparent Hypnotist
Coffee Tickle
Geek Riddles

On a Personal Note: Blargh

Today was one of those days at work that definitely call for a "TGIF." Maybe a "WTF" and a "DIAF" too.

(Acronyms)

TGIF: "Thank God It's Friday"
WTF: "What The F!ck"
DIAF: Die In A Fire

I have a simple job I like very much: coordinate enrollment of physicians in health plans. Mostly I create and track paper, a comfortable endeavor for someone like me who probably has OCD (but hesitates to cop to it because it would interfere with my dedication to being lazy). The problem with my lovely job is there are two faces of health plans: HMOs and PPOs. The HMO side is a breeze. The PPO side is nothing less than a nightmare.

PPO Nightmare

For starters, there is no director in charge of the PPO as there is for the HMO. That got dumped "temporarily" on a guy who is already overworked about 12 years ago. So the day-to-day stuff falls to me (which now, after five years, is fine, although at first it was scary as hell). Only that guy won't just let me handle it. He waits - lurks even - until the last possible minute, then second-guesses, pointlessly badgers, and nit-picks every little thing.

Four years ago, the president of the PPO Medical Advisory Board (the group of doctors that approves new physicians for membership in the PPO) died. He has yet to be replaced. He was the guy who signed the contracts, so I have four years of contracts, unsigned, waiting for either his replacement or the end of civilization, cluttering up my workspace.

The health plans keep buying each other, merging, splitting - and in all that, they lose our doctors. Just *poof* - gone. So I have to resubmit applications years later, and meanwhile their claims get rejected and they don't get paid for the work they've done, and their office managers call me - not the health plans - screaming or in tears or both to fix it.

And the doctors themselves do all sorts of cute footwork - going independent, then joining a different group, then going solo again, all without mentioning to us - and their claims get rejected and there is screaming and tears ... or they move their offices and don't mention it, and claims get rejected, and ... you get the idea.

So all week I worked on getting an update ready to send out to the health plans. A few new applications, a couple of resubmissions, a change of address, and some terminations. It took longer to do than it should because (1) I am having a hell of a time adjusting to the medication I'm on and (2) all of the applications had expired licenses and I had to wait until I got updated copies from the office managers.

The "temporary" director signs the cover letters for these updates. I had printed them out Thursday afternoon and left them for him to sign. He signed them all, then when I went in this morning to get them, he asks why a particular doctor isn't listed in the summary of changes. Because of the medication I couldn't remember off-hand and had to go back to my desk to check the database; meanwhile he's talking at me about "he's on staff, he was approved by the Board, why aren't we sending out his application?"

Finally I get words in edgewise: "Because his license is expired and I haven't gotten the new one."

AND THEN he has the GALL to ask me, "Well, did you call them?"

The only reason I didn't quit right then was because two things tangled on my tongue: "No, dumbass, I figured I'd just throw his application away and pretend I knew nothing about it forevermore," and "You know what? YOU call them, I quit."

The PPO doesn't pay me a cent for the work I do, and easily 85% of my workday is filled with PPO crap. I'm done. Monday I'm talking to the HMO director (the HMO is the side that actually pays the temp agency to have me there) and let her know that either the PPO has to (1) get a director, (2) demand accountability from the health plans if not the doctors and (3) start paying me, or I have to no longer do PPO work there. Otherwise I have to quit. I can't handle that level of stress at work with everything else I am trying to manage; I'll be damned if I do it for another week for free.

---

Tune in tomorrow when I should be less cranky and getting to some overdue posts on August's Top Droppers, great blogs I found through EC, and my paranormal adventure.

Back from Reality

I took a couple days off from cyberspace ... it was one of those rare weekends that I felt "IRL" calling and couldn't ignore it.

We'll return to our irregularly scheduled ramblings tomorrow. :)

Meanwhile, feel free to check out my new "other" blog at Today.com (where you can get paid to post without renting out your opinion!).