True Tales of a Talker #8: The Repeat Offender

Sometimes it’s fate. Sometimes it’s pure luck. But for whatever reason I get to speak to a certain representative at an insurance company that sure is a pleasure to talk to.

I started working at Maine Veterans’ Homes in January of 2015. I got off to a slow start; even thought I wanted to quit after the first three days until my husband told me to suck it up. No, really, he did. I came home crying thinking I couldn’t do this job and he asked me “Do you like what you do?” I told him yes. He said “Then don’t cry about it. Ask for help. Figure it out.” So, I pulled up my big girl undies and went to work with a new attitude the next day and have never looked back.

Over the first few months I got the hang of it and, you can ask my supervisor, I started cleaning up accounts like wildfire! I was doing my job and enjoying myself. I was calling insurance companies, demanding my claims process and the payments were coming in. I was even cleaning up the accounts of our other homes besides the one I was assigned to. The part of the job that took the most work and most of my time was Mainecare. There were plenty of accounts that had balances because of not having cost of care letters in the system. I would have to lug these giant binders out of a cupboard and go through them one by one to find them. If we didn’t have the correct ones, I would call or email the DHHS workers and ask for them. The claims that needed to be reprocessed or the questions I had on them would have to be called on.

That’s when I met HER.

When Theetra answers a call, she is happy and always willing to help. The first few phone calls I made to Mainecare she would answer. She was always so helpful and she knew who to ask or was able to decipher what either we or the system was doing wrong.  As we worked on the claims together we got to know each other too. In fact, I would go home from work and my stepdaughter, Jayden, would ask “Did you talk to Theetra today?” And I would say yes. When I told Theetra this it really made her day. Even now, she asks about Jayden and I ask about her daughter, Ella. Having little girls in our lives in another thing we get to share.

With the communication system they now have at Mainecare, they are able to see which workers are online and email them directly to find a quick answer. Often times if she can’t find the problem her coworker Bruce can. (I call him Mr. Bruce. He just sounds like a Mr. Bruce.) She gets the answer right away and I fix the claims and get them paid.

At the end of every phone call she expresses that it was wonderful to talk to me and I tell her the same. When you have a rapport with a person it shows and things get done.

So now, when I call Mainecare, and I hear the standard greeting ‘This is Theetra. How may I help you?” I respond “THEETRA!!!” And she says “Sharon! I was HOPING it was you! How are you, girl?”

And the call begins.