People suck! The last two weeks of love had been dominated by fighting with Cigna over coverage and prior with denials. I have to say that I think Dr. Chirag Shah, Dr. Karen Weinstein, and Alexis R from Cigna were at the top of my list of people who suck untimely yesterday (more on that later.) The two doctors are medical directors at Cigna or Evernorth (a Cigna subsidiary) whose job is to review and deny prior authorizations. Given the speed with which my requests were denied, I’m skeptical that they reviewed the records.

Cigna uses PXDX, a computer program, to deny claims in seconds. The doctor signs off on the computer program’s decision without the patient’s record being reviewed. At this time, Cigna is fighting two separate class action lawsuits for denying claims without proper review. One based in California arose from a patient whose vitamin D lab test was denied coverage despite a diagnosed deficiency. Funny enough, they denied my vitamin D lab tests three times last year despite the diagnosis being on my records from three different doctors. I will also be fighting to have those expenses reimbursed.

Back to people suck. The person that sucks the most this week is Sidney from Jackson, MS. She was kind enough to avail herself of my credit card to purchase nearly $750 in goodies. Unfortunately, Sidney is not the brightest bulb on the tree. She updated all of her contact information on the file before changing the email address, so I have her home address and phone number. Dear lord the area between her ears is as empty as a liminal space.

Fortunately, my credit card company shut down and blocked the orders immediately. Nonetheless, I was still on the phone for twenty minutes making sure the account was now secured. The representative I spoke with was wonderful and professional. She took care of everything expeditiously. Of course, the dilemma now is to if I should file a police report. Kohl’s canceled the order immediately, so there are no monetary damages. Yet Sidney from Jackson, MS still committed fraud. I’m not sure I’m willing to waste my time. Anyway, people suck and I hope I never see any of these folks in a crowd or otherwise.

I had so many incredible teachers over the years, but one stands out. If you had told me the first day I sat in this class that this teacher would change my life, I would have laughed at you. The grade was tenth, the class was speech and the teacher was Mr. Quinlan. In that class, he saw something in me and invited me to join the speech team. At first, I was reticent to join, but ultimately decided it would look good on college applications so I joined.

I joined the team to compete in the extemporaneous speaking category. In this category, speakers had to draw three questions and then pick which one they were going to give a speech on in 30 minutes. It was baptism by fire, but it gave me the ability to speak confidently in front of rooms of people as well as synthesize information quickly and succinctly. These skills have served me well as an adult and I’m forever grateful to Q for that gift.