Back in December 2004 I was living and working in the US, staying in Marshall, Virginia, when I came down with a bad flu. I finally packed off to the Fauquier Hospital where the folks treated me well and in a few days I was reassured and on the mend.
No complaints so far.
Then there was the money.
The desk at the ER didn't accept payment and, in any case, asked for my travel insurance details and said they would recover it directly.
Except that it turns out that my Insurance only reimburses me after I've paid the bill. Now, we have a problem. I managed to get the bill paid for the Hospital services because they allowed online payment, but paying the Va. Emergency Medical Association is turning out to be a bit harder.
In the first place they seemed to have no contact address that i could discover from Australia. In fact, "Virginia Emergency Medical Association" is a genuine Googlewhack, and the link doesn't go to the organisation itself at all.
But they have a surrogate and today they sent me a bill with the suggestion that I "access my account via the Internet anytime!!!" Lets not forget the !!!. I would find them at PerYourHealth. Sounds good, lets have a look.
About this time it all starts to go pear-shaped.
- No online payment option (and without a Zip code most US businesses wont accept electronic payment by furrin cards, even from Citibank)
- Contact by 800 phone only during Office hours (800 numbers don't work outside the US)
- I can't change my contact details to include my email address because the form demands a US Zip code, and I don't have one and could probably be charged for providing a false one.
- So then I hit the feedback form to give them a piece of my mind.
I check all the check boxes in the online survey and fill in the text boxes for
"Positive comment" (a bit short)
"Negative comment" (rather longer)
"I wish you'd add information about" (Terse) and
"To improve this site I recommend" (Getting a clue about the rest of the world, and how to use the Internet) and submit. - Tah daaah! result.
Web Site Survey
Microsoft OLE DB Provider for SQL Server error '80040e10'
No value given for one or more required parameters
/PYH/feedback.asp, line 83 (But there are no more parameters to fulfill you idiots!)
So I'm stuck here blogging their stupidity while I have $158 just itching to get into their bank, but no path to that bank account.
Guess they'll have to wait till the next time I'm in Fauquier country because I'm not wild about goin down to the bank (a bank, what's that?) lining up to get a US$ denominated counter cheque ($10), stuffing it in an envelope and posting it (another buck) when all it would have taken was little open thinking at damned near any point along the way.
Thank god their medical staff are better than their accounting and communications people.
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