insurance stupidity

i called children's hospital right away but the earliest appt was thurs afternoon. the appt setter suggested i call back later in the day explaining once appts were filled they would open an evening clinic so i might be able to schedule something earlier later. [that made sense right?]

then a few hours later i got a call from the hospital telling me we needed a referral from Z's primary dr, that ins wouldn't cover the specialist without it. insurance rules are ridiculous! i have xrays from the er verifying a broken bone, why does the primary need to get involved? isn't that a step backwards or am i just stupid?

i call the primary & tell them we need a referral, that i tried to take him there but was told to leave, that where they told me to go was closed, that i ended up in er, that i already have xrays, that he doesn't really need to be seen, all i need is a stinkin referral so he can get his cast on at children's, blah, blah, blah, don't get me started!!!!

they don't give referrals out to patients who aren't established, so yes, he did have to go in for an appt. [gee wonder why our healthcare systems is so f-ed up? everyone needs their cut...] oh & i didn't find that out directly either, when i called & explained the situation they forwarded me to someone where i left a vm & i never got a call back; we went down there out of desperation to get the referral.

we got all checked in & actually got to met Z's dr, she said she had received a call early in the morning requesting her referral but she couldn't give it out beings she had never seen him before. again, i explain the glorious days' events to her & she told us under normal circumstances they could have done everything the er had done except they were extraordinarily busy that day & their xray machine was down.

she also told us if anything like that happened again to just take him directly to children's. [oh & B called the ins, yeah, we ain't welcome on base.] the only new guidance she gave us was she didn't want him going to school until he had a real cast on, he was too rambunctious & bound to hurt himself further if we didn't restrict his actions with a straight jacket.