Wednesday, May 26, 2010

How to make your patients feel NOT reassured...

So, I was getting my next round of blood work last week, and here's how it went:  I handed my superbill thingy to the lady behind the computer and she starts plugging in stuff into the database for insurance purposes and stuff.  And then, while I'm waiting, she lets out a low whistle.

"Hey, Ken!"  She yells back into the lab area.
"What?" The lab tech calls back. 
"What's the billing code for a lupus antibody panel?"  She asks, reading the name out slowly so everybody in the back of Student Health can hear.  Ken comes out from the back.
"For a what?"  He asks again.  She repeats the name of the test series.
"The code for it?  Hell, I ain't ever even heard of it," he says, scratching his head.
"I guess we're gonna have to look that one up.  What would it be under?"  They then begin a long conversation about what category of testing that would be considered. 

The girl sitting next to me with her pee cup in hand gives me a strange look, and I suddenly want to crawl under my chair.

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