Maddy Barone Send Message

Love this tea! We’re on a winter storm watch. Good day to be home drinking tea.

I’m feeling pretty celebratory. The &%$! Research Assist has been resolved. I sat down at my computer this morning, ready to stand my ground, but it turned out to be not necessary. The email I sent to the Adjudication team last night had been answered and was waiting for me in my inbox. I wrote up a quick report and sent it to the Fraud Escalation pod. Shew! *wipes forehead It may still come back to haunt me in a week or so, but for now, it’s off my desk. So I am able to relax and enjoy this tea. Sweet, smoothly spicy, and soothing, it’s making this day go a lot better.

What a horrible, absolutely rotten, day at work. I cried, literally, at my desk. Some of you might remember that Research Assist where the pharmacy is insisting they should be paid? I sent proof the beneficiary was admitted to the hospital and that the pharmacy would have to submit to receive payment from the proper Medicare carrier. Now they’re coming back and saying that’s not valid; the patient was never there.

I’m like, EXCUSE ME? What the he…? Do you think I hired a forger?

Can you believe that? I have emailed the situation to the adjudication team to see if they have encountered this before. I have run out of options. If Adjudication has nothing, then the next thing this pharmacy will need to do to get their $38.00 is file a Congressional Inquiry. Yeah, bring it up to your congressman or woman.

This whole business made me cry and then my tummy got queasy. Either the stress is getting to me or I’m getting sick. Could be either one. I drank my last cup of this and I did feel a little better. I don’t hate my job (although I did toy briefly with the idea of putting in my notice) but some days it’s just not worth the stress. I’m switching now from tea to booze.

I received a catalogue from Tea Source, probably quite some time ago, but I only got to my post office box today. I perused it, thinking, “Oh, that sounds good,” and “Oh, I bet that’s yummy!” But I am not ordering any more tea for a while. That’s not really a hardship since I do have a few Tea Source teas in the cupboard, including this one. It is a lovely, warm tea. So nice for a winter afternoon. It’s not super cold yet, although I saw on the TV weather that it is expected to get below zero later this week. (Oh, goodie!!) And an inch or so of snow too. (Double goodie!!) I have plenty of this left, so I think I’ll have it again in a few days.

I sipped this tea while I wrote out my Christmas cards this afternoon. Was there ever such a perfect occasion for a Christmas tea? It is so smooth and tasty This is leftover from last year, so I was afraid it might be a bit stale, but it seemed fresh. I just adore those little candy canes!

Today at work was almost but not quite as bad as I expected. I worked three of the four Research Assists, including the one where the pharmacy was insisting the patient was not in the hospital. I finally obtained proof of the patient’s admission and sent a copy to the Contact Center for them to tell the pharmacy to shut it. That sounds rude, and I guess it is, but really, I can’t wave a magic wand and issue payment when it isn’t allowed. The pharmacy will need to submit the claim to the correct carrier to receive payment.

Anyway, I have a sample of this tea. It sounded so good. I brewed it exactly per the instructions, but it was bitter. Maybe I over leafed, or 5 minutes was too long. Generally I steep black teas for 3 minutes or so. I rarely add anything to my tea, but I added a couple of the rock sugar from Teavana to it and it was better that way. When I re-steeped I let it go only 3 minutes and it was much less bitter.

I really love it when a tea company allows online orders of samples. Some don’t, and if they are a new-to-me company I probably won’t order from them. But when I can order four or five samples I am far more likely to find a tea I love and of which I will order 50 or 100 grams. This tea won’t be a re-order, but I’m really glad I got to try it. I’ll finish the sample with a little sugar additive, and less steeping time. I may update my rating then.

Today wasn’t a very happy work day, but I’ve had worse. Tomorrow will undoubtedly be worse. I noticed just as I was getting ready to punch out that I had been assigned four RAs. Research Assists. That is when a pharmacy calls the Contact Center and the phone rep can’t answer their question. The phone rep fills out a Research Assist and it is assigned to someone who (theoretically) can answer and/or fix the issue. About 50% are very easy and take four or five minutes. About 25% are more involved, but still pretty easy and can be worked in about 10 or 15 minutes. The other 25% are nightmares sent from the bowels of Hades to torment innocent people who didn’t create the issue and will spend two hours on it and still won’t be able to fix it. Since I had ten minutes left of my day I opened the first one.

After about 30 seconds of reading the form I closed it. A claim had been denied for date of death. This is when the patient passed away but the pharmacy continued to bill after the date of death. Obviously, if Ms. Doe passed on May 20 Medicare isn’t going to continue to pay for oxygen for June. However, the date of death was entered incorrectly and Ms Doe was alive and well and using her oxygen. So the claim was re-processed to allow it to pay. BUT Ms. Doe was in the hospital in June, so the branch of Medicare that I work for doesn’t cover that. It has to be paid by Part A (hospitalization or skilled nursing facility, etc). So even though we tried to pay the claim, the computer system automatically denied it due to inpatient. The pharmacy insists Ms. Doe was NOT in the hospital and our records are wrong. So two weeks ago I re-adjusted the claim AGAIN to pay out. No dice. It denied a third time.

It makes me want to throw something. Hello, I do not work in system support. I don’t work in any department that can somehow over ride the system and force it to pay this claim. My job is to take the money back when a claim was paid in error. According to our computer records, the claim is denying properly.

I’m really looking forward to tomorrow. Sorry for the rant. :) I enjoy this tea. It is not an absolute favorite, but it is pleasant and mild, even soothing. I have about 15 grams of it left. I won’t have any trouble finishing it off, although I won’t buy it again.

I received this sample in the mail today. It was a complete surprise, and a lovely lift to my spirits. Thank you!

I brewed up a cup after the annual business meeting at my church this evening. It was a dark amber in the cup, almost the color of cherry amber. I let it cool slightly and sipped. Very nice. Definitely spicy, but not overwhelming. A bit sweet, naturally so as I didn’t add any sugar or honey. This may become my favorite evening chai. It is absolutely perfect to sip on a chilly winter evening. I look forward to having this while I snuggle under and afghan with a good book. We are expecting snow on Friday night, and after I get home from taking my mom to the hairdresser’s I know what I’ll be doing.

I’m sick! Or getting there. I think that might be why I felt so down and lethargic yesterday. Now everything hurts. I feel like an over ripe tomato whose skin will split at the merest touch. My finger knuckles hurt. My head hurts, my throat is sore. So I did what I usually do when I’m sick: I dug out my DAVID’s Cold 911 tea and brewed a cup. What I wouldn’t give to be done with work. Sadly, we are behind, and I’m not really sick. However, since I work from home, I am going to pull on a big old flannel nightie (the hideous one that makes me look like an old granny but somehow gives me comfort) and put in a full day at Medicare. If I feel worse tomorrow I might call in.

Meanwhile, more tea.

Today was not one of those days. I slept late, went to church, did some grocery shopping, worked on a quilted table topper for a Christmas present… It was a nice day. I have no reason to be grumpy or blue.

But I am. Grumpy AND blue. I tried to trace the cause of this disagreeable mood, and I think it might have been my weekly budget planning. Christmas is killing me, and my expected income is severely less that I’d hoped.

Amelia Peabody, heroine of the mystery series by the same name, calls tea ‘the genial beverage’. It was too late for regular black tea (caffeine, you know) so I brewed up a cup of this honeybush tea. It didn’t make me magically perky, but it was soothing. Tea might not cure all ills, but it doesn’t hurt either. :)

I finished off the last of this today. This tea lives up to its name. It was a cold day today. Really, it wasn’t terribly cold, it just felt like it. Perfect tea drinking weather.