So today, as the story goes----I don't really mind because I have nothing else I have to do. Since my insurance information was incorrect, I wanted to make sure I could accomplish what the script had ordered. I navigated the telephone ladder to the ordering doctor's site in Albany, and eventually spoke to a real person, a nurse. I tried to explain my concern, but she said as she couldn't see the script herself, she couldn't help. I said I had faxed it, as that was one of the offered means of contact, and offered to do so again. She said that wouldn't help, because "there are thousands of pages of faxes." OK, I gave up on that.
But before I drove to the hospital lab, and risked the chance of being turned away because of false insurance identification, I called the hospital, and got in touch with someone in the lab. After another conversation, and reassurance, I drove to the hospital to fulfill my mission---to drop off the specimen vial.
I arrived at the hospital and asked at the main desk if the lab was open. It was. And if I could just go there for the drop-off. No, I had to check in at the registration desk. There, the intake person verified all my information on her computer, and then presented me with 2 sheets of paper confirming what had just been confirmed, and asked me to write in my name, address, contact information, both insurance carriers, with id numbers, addresses and telephone numbers and sign and date the second page. I filled in, I admit, only some of the nformation, knowing it would most likely never be read anyway. She asked if I would place my hand on the scanner which was on her desk. I did so, rather hastily, because, ick, all those patients before me with sickly hands. She said I needed to press more firmly on the glass, but I told her the arthritis in my hands prevented me from doing so. She didn't mind, no problem there. Finally, she handed me 4 more pages, the now-mandated Medicare out-of -pocket ESTIMATE of cost, 2 pages of New York Facility Fee Notice, and a page for Trinity secure payment information and Third Party Arbitrators.
I asked if I could then go to the lab to deposit my vial, but, no, I was directed to the main waiting room, where a dozen or so dejected-looking folks were waiting to be called. After a while I noticed they were being called by numbers. I didn't have a number tag, so asked at the desk, where the man informed me that if I had been in one of the 2 admitting rooms, I would be called by name. So back I went to the waiting room.
After about thirty minutes of waiting, my name was called and I entered the room where I was told to just put the vial on the table alongside the others. Mission accomplished!
My point is that none of this was necessary. All the authorization and information was present. The result would have been the same with a simple drop-off.
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