I received three pages of information about the procedure which the doctor ordered. The first and third (which very easily could have been one page) pages were about pre and post activities. The second page was clearly most important, at least to someone. I have reproduced it here including the exact punctuation and font styles.
"Dear Patient, please remember that it is your responsibility to provide us with your most current insurance information INCLUDING a copy of the front and back of your insurance card (even if you have already given the information to us in the past). The back of the card is extremely important as it will include the appropriate phone numbers to call for authorization and pre-certification. Our Pre-Certification Coordinator, Jane Doe, must have a copy of your most recent insurance card (again, front and back) no less than five days prior to your exam so that our business offie can ensure proper processing. Thank you for your cooperation."
The day before the exam I received a call from the hospital. The caller said the purpose was to validate the information about me that was in the hospital database. It is clear that there are multiple databases because some of the information was not correct and yet I knew it was correct in other systems. Most surprising to me, however, was an exchange at the end of the validation questioning. I said, "that’s for 3 PM tomorrow, correct?". The reply was, "I don’t have that information. You will have to call the doctor for that."
