Month: September 2003

OK, yet another entry into the rant category today.

Yesterday, I dropped off my wife’s prescriptions off at the Wal-Mart pharmacy in Bend. I told them I would pick them up after I got off work and made it back in to town at around 7:00 that night. It was 9:00 AM when I left Wal-Mart yesterday morning.

I got back to Wal-Mart that night around 6:30 to find my prescriptions were not ready. “Why?” I asked. “Because we need a new OHP card,” said the oh-so-friendly lady behind the counter. A “rebill” they called it.

They had the card’s information on file, and usually don’t ask for it, but I produced my Oregon Health Plan (OHP) card anyway. Now, there was NO new information on the card, other than the addition of my daughter to the card (who wasn’t getting medication in this case). Lydia’s information, her policy numbers, etc… were EXACTLY the same. So I handed her the card. And I waited.

And waited.

And waited some more.

Thirty minutes later, after other folks who had rebill problems had theirs fixed and had their drugs given to them, I still didn’t have mine. The 300+ pound man sitting next to me, taking up two seats, was starting to fall asleep and I was sure he was going to collapse on to me. I finally went back up to the counter.

“What’s the story on my medication?” I asked.

“It’s done,” said the same lady, who was having a nice time chatting with the previous lady at the counter, but wasn’t nearly as polite with me.

“So why can’t I have it?”

“Because we have to get your OHP information into the computer.”

“My OHP information hasn’t changed, why does it all have to get reentered?”

“OHP has changed a lot of stuff for us.”

“I understand, but when the information that I provide hasn’t changed, why does it all need to get reentered? My name, address, numbers, and everything, is still the same as it’s always been. We’ve gotten dozens of prescriptions filled here.”

“She’s entering it right now.”

“Let me have my card back. I’m not going to wait around for this.”

“You’ll have to go to the other window and ask for it.”

The “other window” was the drop-off window. There were about five or six people waiting in line over there to drop-off things. So I wait again in line.

And I finally get up there and see what the problem was. The lady they have entering information into the computer not only has fingers that are about an inch thick (reminded me of Homer Simpson, when his fingers were too big to use the phone), but she’s a very slow typist. I watched her input some information in to the computer, and it was annoyingly slow. About 10 words a minute slow.

I asked her for my card, once I got up there. She said, as perky as she could: “Oh, I was just getting to yours.” I’ve been here for 35 minutes, at this point, and you’re just now getting to it?!? Needless to say, I asked for my card back, and left. I’ll deal with them later.

I can’t wait until I get some real insurance and get off OHP so I don’t have to deal with those shmucks again (as they’re one of the few pharmacies left in Bend that will take it that doesn’t close at 5:00 PM).

Update at 4:00 PM: Just got a call from my wife, who tried to pick up, and was told “It’s not ready.” And now suddenly OHP isn’t paying for what they paid for before. It was cheap, so we just paid for it, and I’m looking for health insurance as we speak.

Chris is feeling the pain, and I am, too. Gregg pointed me in the direction of an article on the Inq (reprinted from PC Pro) that sums up my feelings exactly: Fire Your IT Directors and Managers. Now. Please.

Quoted:

HERE IS SOME harsh, cruel but worthwhile advice. If your company was hit by the recent SQL Server virus, and you are a Director level member of your company, then I advise you to fire your IT Director now. If you don’t have an IT Director, but you are nominally in charge of IT, then fire your IT Manager now. Also please identify who is responsible for the company firewalls, and fire him or her as well.

You might think this is a little harsh, maybe a little hasty. It is not. Those companies which got infected did so entirely because of their own carelessness. There was no reason for them to get infected, and no need either.

I agree wholeheartedly. I’ve seen far too many experts that manage IT departments that are far too inept for their own good, yet control not only jobs in the department, but employee actions. The article makes good points that the staff isn’t too blame, and that the blame for this lies in the hands of management. It also includes some ways to make sure you’re shut down tight.

I know I’m sick of getting bounce backs from viruses I supposedly sent out. I don’t have any virus. I never did. My firewall is setup properly at home and at the office. I had the Blaster patch installed long before the worm hit. Yet, somehow, Microsoft Certified shmucks have awesome jobs and getting paid twice as much as me. I’ve lost a job I was applying for in the past because I wasn’t certified, though I could do the work better than the guy who was. But the human resources folks were just looking for keywords on their resume, doing what the hiring department tells them. I’m not one to pad my resume, but maybe I should start, just so I can get past the morons in HR? Reminds me of an old User Friendly strip that I have hanging on my wall.

I still remember the worst job interview I ever had. I walk in to get interviewed by the HR director, and she wants to see some of the Web sites I’ve done. The only browser she has on her poorly-managed PC? MSIE 3.0 (this was when 5.0 was out). Needless to say, my sites looked like crap in her browser. Thankfully I had a printed copy of them on hand.

OK, I’m done now.</rant>