"Can I Speak to your Janitor?"

I work at a medical clearinghouse. We assist providers with their needs on the portal and are basically a middle man between the provider and the insurance company (we call them payers). The specific company I work for is well known as being THE WORST in the medical industry.

Anyway. I had this horrible person call in the other day and I had to share. Tl;Dr at the end. Sorry about formatting I’m at work on my phone right now.

Me= me; Karen= angry provider

Me: Thank you for calling _ my name is Erin. Can I get your name please?

Karen: Karen Smith

Me: Thank you. Can I get either your Tax ID or your Customer ID?

Karen: 12-456789

Me: Thank you. How can I help you?

Karen: I’m trying to get a breakdown of Dental Benefits.

• I’m looking at her account and I see she isn’t a user on her org with us. –

Me: It doesn’t appear that you are a user. Do you know Maggie Thompson? She is the main admin and can add you to the org so you can get these benefits online.

Karen: She is no longer with the company.

Me: Ok! I can do an admin change to make you the –

Karen: -interrupting me- HOLD ON! -She answers her phone and then comes back to me-

Karen: Ok

Me: Let me get everything together.

• Putting together my case for our internal notes. –

Me: Can you tell me your title with the org?

Karen: Office Manager

Me: Ok & What is your email address?

Karen: xx@gmail.com

Me: Thank you. What would you like your UserID to be for the Portal?

• We go through a few options and settle on one –

Me: Okay, Can you verify your National Provider ID (NPI) and your Physical Address?

Karen: 1234567890 and 123 Main St, Louisville, KY 22246

Me: That address is correct but the NPI we have on file is different.

Karen: Really? -Shuffles through papers for 2 min-

Karen: 2345678901

Me: Nope. Not that either. It appears we have your group NPI and not your individual NPI. (Said this 2 times prior while she was shuffling through papers)

Karen: This is the only one I have. Can I give you any other info?

Me: No, this is the last thing I need to verify.

Karen: Can we just skip this and give me the breakdown of dental benefits?

Me: I am sorry but I cannot provide that to you. Here at _ I can direct you where to get it on the Portal but we aren’t the payer so we cannot provide those over the phone.

Karen: -speaking while I am- Manager

Me: I’m sorry?

Karen: Can I speak to your manager? You know someone with authority?

Me: Ok give me a few moments.

I placed her on hold for 2 min and collected myself because no manager here would take this call because there is nothing they can do. She can’t login to another person’s account (per our rules) and she isn’t a user and we don’t provide those benefits over the phone, ever.

Me: Hello, Karen?

Karen: Yes

Me: Thank you for holding. Unfortunately, all of my managers are busy assisting other callers at this time. Is there any way I can have someone give you a call back?

Karen: One moment.

She is assisting a patient. She says to the patient that she is talking to ignorant people who don’t know what they are doing and joking around with the patient.

Karen: Hello?

Me: -heard that whole conversation with her patient and wanted to disconnect- Yes. I’m here.

Karen: Do you know who I would talk to then?

Me: I can give you their number if you tell me which payer?

Karen: BlueCross BlueShield

Note: Everyone in the medical industry knows there is 1 BCBS for every state in the USA. So just saying that doesn’t tell me anything.

Me: Which state?

Karen: OH MY GOD! Can I speak to someone who has more intelligence than you?! Can I speak to your Janitor?!

-click-

Yes, I hung up on her. Then took 1 more call and cried a bit in the bathroom. First time I ever cried over a customer.

Like wtf causes people to be so mean?! I have checked and she hasn’t called back, THANK GOD.

Tl;Dr Karen gets angry that I ask which state of BlueCross BlueShield she is wanting the number for. There are 50, one for each state, in the USA. Everyone knows that in the medical industry. She asks for the janitor because he has more intelligence than.