The other day, I had to submit some papers for insurance claims. And I made everybody work for it. In the run to submit the papers, I fretted over small things, got frustrated, made other people work for me, and ultimately felt bad about it all.
The story goes like this...My Baba was admitted to the hospital a month back due to undiagnosed fever and drug reaction. He was in the hospital for eight days. He is now fully recovered and in excellent health. Because I have paid the premium for the insurance under which he is covered, I thought of claiming the hospital bill.
I duly downloaded the form and got it filled from hospital authorities. Then I immersed myself in work, gave reasons that I had no time to call, or complete other formalities to submit the claims, and delayed the submission.
In the first week of March, I thought of calling the insurance helpline to cross-check if I had got all documents. That's when I realised a couple of things. To start with, I had filled up the wrong form. Secondly, the end date of submission was 30 days from discharge. And I was already on day 26 from discharge.
Now started the run against time! The same evening, I took a printout of the correct form and left early from office to visit the hospital to get the new form filled. As luck would have it, the TPA section had closed early that evening and I returned empty handed. That also triggered the chain of making others work for me.
I handed the form to Aai to submit it to the hospital authorities the next morning. She also had the additional task of coaxing them to fill up another form when they had already filled one before.
Fortunately, the hospital authorities filled up the form without delay and I got it back the same evening when it was submitted. To fetch the form from the hospital, Aai had sent one of her office staff.
By the time I got the form, I realised that I also had to photocopy all the medical reports. The documents had to be couriered to Bangalore the same day. I couldn't locate the Blue Dart office near my office and asked Aai to show it to me.
Just opposite the Blue Dart office, I could find a photocopier, who was copying a lot of documents for two customers who were there before me. I fretted over the lost time as I waited for my turn. Finally as I got my copies, the Blue Dart office was about to close. We stepped in and they closed down the shutters.
We finally did manage to send out the courier by 8 PM that day.
But I felt quite sad after all that. I had made a lot of people work for me to submit those docs. Especially when I had wasted time initially and not downloaded the correct form.
Was the money really worth the tension and frustration that I faced that day?
The story goes like this...My Baba was admitted to the hospital a month back due to undiagnosed fever and drug reaction. He was in the hospital for eight days. He is now fully recovered and in excellent health. Because I have paid the premium for the insurance under which he is covered, I thought of claiming the hospital bill.
I duly downloaded the form and got it filled from hospital authorities. Then I immersed myself in work, gave reasons that I had no time to call, or complete other formalities to submit the claims, and delayed the submission.
In the first week of March, I thought of calling the insurance helpline to cross-check if I had got all documents. That's when I realised a couple of things. To start with, I had filled up the wrong form. Secondly, the end date of submission was 30 days from discharge. And I was already on day 26 from discharge.
Now started the run against time! The same evening, I took a printout of the correct form and left early from office to visit the hospital to get the new form filled. As luck would have it, the TPA section had closed early that evening and I returned empty handed. That also triggered the chain of making others work for me.
I handed the form to Aai to submit it to the hospital authorities the next morning. She also had the additional task of coaxing them to fill up another form when they had already filled one before.
Fortunately, the hospital authorities filled up the form without delay and I got it back the same evening when it was submitted. To fetch the form from the hospital, Aai had sent one of her office staff.
By the time I got the form, I realised that I also had to photocopy all the medical reports. The documents had to be couriered to Bangalore the same day. I couldn't locate the Blue Dart office near my office and asked Aai to show it to me.
Just opposite the Blue Dart office, I could find a photocopier, who was copying a lot of documents for two customers who were there before me. I fretted over the lost time as I waited for my turn. Finally as I got my copies, the Blue Dart office was about to close. We stepped in and they closed down the shutters.
We finally did manage to send out the courier by 8 PM that day.
But I felt quite sad after all that. I had made a lot of people work for me to submit those docs. Especially when I had wasted time initially and not downloaded the correct form.
Was the money really worth the tension and frustration that I faced that day?
I do that all the time. And I beat myself up about it for a long time after. But I can't seem to implement the lessons I have learned. It's frustrating and demotivating at the same time. Why didn't I pick up all the good habits that my parents have? Why did I have to be stuck with all the bad ones?
ReplyDelete