Why am I not surprised?

Today on Erin's blog, the continuing adventures of attempting to acquire speech therapy....

I should have known. I guess, deep down, I did, otherwise I never would have called. When he finished his evaluation at the end of April, I was told by our therapist that this was the procedure: she will finish her report, the report will be submitted to insurance for approval, and once a verdict on approval was received, either I would be contacted (in case of rejection) or he would be put on the wait list for a spot. Then all I had to do was wait to be called when his spot on the wait list came up.

You can see where this is going, right?

I finally got smart. She said it would take 2-3 weeks for the report to be ready and submitted to insurance. Fine. I decided to be generous. I allowed 7 weeks. That should be plenty of time for report completion and submission, and hopefully for a verdict from the insurance company on approval. Right? So when I called today to verify that Luke was on the wait list, you can imagine what I was told.

"No ma'am, I'm sorry, I don't see him on the wait list." You're kidding, right? No, of course you are not kidding. NOTHING else in this process has gone right, why start now? "Your therapist may have just forgotten to send us the paperwork. I can put him on the list, but the person in charge of getting insurance approval isn't in until the middle of next week. Here is her name and number; why don't you try calling her on Friday of next week. Hopefully, she will have had time to look at it by then." I was also told that he would be put on the wait list as of today, even though his therapist said it would be based on his exam date. (Maybe it will be, I'll have to ask the wait list lady.) She was just the receptionist, so yelling at her really wouldn't do any good, and she was very nice and completely volunteered the name and number of the woman who handles the wait list. I can assure you, THAT person will be getting an earful from me. A nice and mostly polite earful, but an earful nonetheless that will clearly and firmly express my displeasure at this whole fiasco.

This is the most asinine "process" (I use the term loosely) I have ever seen, and it clearly DOES NOT work!!! What if I hadn't called? How long would we have sat here waiting for a phone call? How long would it take most people for it to occur to them that the speech therapy people said they would call with an opening and then did not. What if I had tried to give them the benefit of the doubt (fat chance now!) and wait to see if it all worked out correctly come August? How much longer would this whole thing have lasted? How much longer will it last? Because it ain't over yet, folks. I have no doubt there will now be some further glitch, be it insurance or therapy availability or something. There is no possible way this is the last hurdle. I just have no more faith in this mess. Something else will go wrong, I'd be willing to bet money. It's just a matter of when.

Don't worry, I'll bring you the latest when it does.

Currently feeling: so friggin' tired of this whole mess!