The Art of Intimidation

Dr. Waseem Khan’s office did not call yesterday, at least not on the number I left them last week. 

This morning I called the Florida Medicare Fraud Hotline.  They do not investigate fraud against individuals, just fraud against Medicare.  

They did refer me to the Department of Health.  I’m not sure what that was for.   Maybe one of those government run around deals.

So I called Dr. Khan’s office again.    They said they called my cell phone yesterday.  I don’t turn on my cell phone when I am at home.  It doesn’t get reception here.  It’s for when I’m away.

They agree that they owe me money.  My account showed a credit.  They will know exactly how much this afternoon.  They will call me back. 

How long does it take to refund money?  This is from Dec., ‘09 and Jan., 2010. 

Now for the art of intimidation:

If you always talk in a pleasant but firm voice you can say just about anything and not upset people.  If you aren’t getting responses you like – ask the person’s name you are speaking to, ask them to spell it – twice. 

This usually produces a helpful response.

If not the next step is to ask for their immediate supervisor’s name and phone number, ask them to spell the name – twice.  Ask when the supervisor is likely to be at that number, is there another number where they might be reached.

That usually gets things moving in the direction you want. 

6:00 p.m.

No call from Dr. Khan’s office. 

But Lory and John came over and mowed my lawn (hay field) and weed whacked the thistles and poke weeds.  Then I had them check why my shower had suddenly stopped working.  John took off the shower head and found pieces of a rubber gasket were plugging it. 

WOW.  It’s sure nice to have a man with tools around once in a while. 

Now I’m going to buy a whole new shower head – I thought maybe I’d be calling a plumber who would say I needed all new pipes or something. 

Life does get better sometimes.

Later….