congratulations

for the second time in my life now i'm entrenched in a battle for crohn's medication. a battle, specifically, with my new insurance carrier and the fact that i once again am rapidly running out of medication. yet each time i've tried to switch insurance--both when i went on hopkins insurance and now--it takes literally weeks for my information to go through. i end up on the phone, trying to get people to pull strings just so that they can tell me, you know, a group and ID number, so that i don't have to spend $450 cash on my crohn's medication. again.

so far everyone has been very friendly and helpful. it'd just be nice if they'd be friendly and helpful without me having to make extra phone calls to make sure they're doing their jobs. the saving grace is that my pharmacy here--just a duane reade, but they're so efficient--is extremely friendly and helpful. when i went to get my first refill, knowing it'd have to be transferred from baltimore, i started what i thought would be a horrible process a week in advance. it took a matter of hours. "all we have to do," they told me, without my even having to ask, "is call down to baltimore and get the prescription. it'll be ready this afternoon."

in baltimore, mind you, at the rite aid i went to through grad school, this would've been an incredible production number. more often than not, i'd go to pick up my prescription only to find out that it hadn't been filled because, say, they didn't have the drug but hadn't bothered to call me to let me know. then, when i'd talk to them, after waiting in line for literally 25 minutes because laquisha was too busy chewing her manicure and talking to her friend about her date with da'quan, she'd be a total fucking bitch to me and act like it was my fault she hadn't filled the prescription.

it's bizarre to think that people would be more friendly, more efficient in new york, the city most people regard as extremely tough. but at duane reade (and countless mcdonalds, clothing stores, and restaurants) the customer service can't even be compared to that of baltimore. so i think, maybe, it should be "baltimore: if you can make it here, congratulations."