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Basically, one player is the “monkey in the middle” while two or more players pass an object — usually a ball — around the “monkey” who tries to intercept the object and get out of the middle.
It’s a great game for kids. The really tall kids go on to become NBA players.
”Monkey in the Middle” is fun when it IS a game.
It is NOT fun when a patient is put in the monkey role.
Great idea.
Trouble is, not all rollators are equal — particularly in handle height.
My PCP (Reyes & Reyes in Hollywood FL since we’ll be naming names) ordered a rollator for me via a company called, variously, One Home Medical Equipment or One Homecare Solutions of Miramar FL. One Home something is the only provider my Humana Gold Medicare allows my PCP to use.
Still with me?
There are four entities involved:
- The patient (me)
The PCP (Reyes & Reyes)
The vendor (One Home)
The Medicare insurer (Humana).
A fifth entity — Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, a/k/a CMS — supposedly controls everything Medicare and some things Medicaid.
No, I don’t know why the abbreviation is not CMMS. Government decision.
A little history
While walking with a cane, I was threatened by a noisy ankle-biter. Trying to fend off the pest, I lost what little balance I had and fell. The dog’s owner finally collected the animal and I got to my feet.
Unfortunately, for me, one fall leads to another in short order.
I appealed to my PCP, who was aware of my balance issues, that it was time to get a walker.
The walker, a/k/a rollator, was approved by the PCP and ordered from One Home.
Someone from One Home called and asked my height and my weight. Fair questions that I answered honestly.
Within a few days, a rollator was delivered and a gentleman named “Mr. Allen” showed me how to use it.
We both realized that the rollator’s handles were too low for my height. The maximum height of the handles was 35 inches from the floor. We agreed I needed something with higher handles. Mr. Allen told me what to order.
Since I already had the walker I agreed to try it for awhile. He assured me it could be swapped for a different machine later, no problem.
I tried the Drive Medical 507S — you won’t find it on the manufacturer’s site — and discovered
- 1. It causes pains in my neck
2. It causes pain in the deltoids
3. It puts my normal focus point about three feet in front of the walker; too low to see approaching vehicles — cars, perambulators — and small children not on the lookout for geezers unless I raised my head, putting more strain on my neck.
Bottom line: While I COULD use the walker for a few block tour, more than that and I paid the price.
So,
I asked my PCP to order a replacement rollator and provided the information Mr. Allen had given me.
And I waited.
And waited.
Apparently, One Home or Humana was not satisfied with Mr. Allen’s ID of the taller rollator.
Apparently One Home elected NOT to contact my PCP and tell the office staff (a) what was wrong with the order and (b) how to correct the problem.
Eventually “Eric” from One Home called me and told me — the patient — about the issue.
Why One Home didn’t immediately contact the PCP’s office is beyond my ken.
The PCP’s office, per Eric’s instruction to me for the PCP, resubmitted the order for a taller walker — but failed to include the specific item number and UPC code as Eric instructed — and marked it “STAT, 2nd Order.”
No one notified the patient that an order had been (re)submitted.
So I waited and waited and waited some more.
Finally. “Tomeka” from One Home called me and left a message on the machine to call her company.
I called and talked to a person named “Katie.”
AGAIN, WHY IS ONE HOME CALLING THE PATIENT? The problem is between it and the PCP's office.
Katie finally found the paperwork and told me what the PCP’s person must do.
At the risk of being redundant, what can the patient do; this is a PCP matter.
We don't have the capability
I asked “Katie” if she could email the requirements to me — obviously One Home cannot contact the PCP. Why?
No, we don’t have the capability for that, she replied.
I then asked “Katie” if she could send a paper letter to me.
No, we don’t have the capability for that, she replied.
You might want to read that exchange again; it IS unbelievable.
I asked “Katie” to tell me what the PCP’s staff needed to do, ”by the numbers.”
She apparently was authorized and “had the capability” to do this.
I wrote down, exactly, what she claimed One Home — or maybe Humana — needed and sent this information to my PCP.
WHY ME ?
I’m the patient. It is not my job to order the device (although I can, and may, go buy the unit and be done with the aggravation).
I’m too old to play “Monkey in the middle” with anyone but my grand kids.
I would hate to think that the order would be rejected again because the requested unit was out of stock — I doubt anyone has the “capability” to make a decision to supply a unit of the other color.
And then I would wait and wait, and wait some more before someone from One Home called to inform the patient that there was a problem with the information the PCP’s office faxed over.
A quick word about Humana
According to my PCP, Humana is the 800 pound gorilla of Medicare insurers in South Florida.
When I signed up with Humana a few years ago, I asked the visiting salesman, Luis Gonsalez, if there was any way I could contact Humana Customer Service other than by telephone. Telephone is the only option. BUT, promised Mr. Gonsalez, I could contact him and he would resolve any issues with Humana.
My only contact with Mr. Gonsalez is when he sends me a Humana birthday card.
I complained early on to Mr. Gonzalez, via email and even USPS mail. His response: nothing, zip, nada, effis (zero).
So much for Humana promises.
Perhaps it might be better to be insured by an “Avis mentality” provider, one that “tries harder.”
Medicare is a profitable business and where there are many Medicare-eligible geezers, the competition for the business is serious.
I have options; perhaps I will exercise them in October (Medicare enrollment period).
LATER
On April 3 my PCP's office sent, for the THIRD time, an order for the higher-handled rollator.
I have a copy of the fax sent to One Home and a copy of the confirmation that the fax from the PCP was received by One Home.
On April 20 I received a recorded message from Humana that it approved the PCP's service order. Humana never states WHAT the approved service is, just that something ordered by the doctor has been approved.
Has the rollator been approved? So far only Humana and One Home know.
Still, there is hope. One Home took its own sweet time to notify me that the PCP's order was lacking. Maybe the Chinese virus will be blamed.
Meanwhile, I'm confined by City edict to my driveway, so the too low rollator sits unused.
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