Small World

I am learning more and more as I grow up how small the world really is.

In order for this story to begin I need to explain my job, which I don't think I really have. So let me elaborate. I work in health insurance, we insure people across the 50 states. I am on the phone for 8 hours a day...yes 8 hours. To top it off I say pretty much the same thing roughly 120 times a day. I have found that people do not like insurance, they actually loathe it. People are rude, call me names, and sometimes forget that I myself am a human being and have feelings too. We have all been there when it comes to insurance, had a claim that didn't go through correctly or found out a procedure wasn't covered the way you thought it was. So, I do understand their frustrations...and believe me I tell them this in my most soothing telephone voice possible. I always try to be upbeat and speak with a smile in my voice, I have found it can make the caller in a better mood as well. But let's face it I am bored, and some days have just had enough of being robot! But then....

Yesterday (02/01/10) I took a call from an insured. Their id number popped up, as did the names. I recognized them immediately and couldn't believe. It was someone I knew. I won't use their names, part of the job, I will call them Mike and Christine. I figured it was a provider but I was still excited because, well I mean let's face it this is high excitement stuff in my job! And what happened next floored me. It wasn't the provider, it was the insured. Mike and Christine are some of my mom and dad's good friends from high school. Mike has recently been fighting a battle with cancer and has had several on-going treatments. Christine was calling in because they were trying to go home, but were told by home health care they couldn't because they were waiting on the insurance to verify benefits. I asked to place her on hold...I had not told her who I was yet. What I did...I consider nothing. I simply looked on one of my "cheat sheets" saw that we didn't need any notification, so I could release the benefits for home health care. I have always known my family to call Christine, Christi, so when I got back on the line I called her Christi and proceeded to state who I was. She was flabbergasted...much like I was when I took the call. She then asked how my family was and we small talked for a bit. She said it was thanks to me that Mike was going to go home on that day.

My family has been following their journey, I still can't believe that I took that call. What a small world we live in. And what a Great God we have. I think it was meant to be. It gave them yet another story for their journey and made me realize that maybe my job is a little better than I thought after all.