Updates to the Hospital Bill and Metro

Here's an update on those two posts.

Medical Bill

I called the collection agency a couple of days after I did the post. I essentially did all of the talking.

I explained the series of events regarding payments. My inability to get a bill that accurately reflected the amount of money I owed. I said I didn't think it unreasonable to get that. I said it was ridiculous that not once but twice it took a month for the hospital to cash my check. And that fact made it impossible for me to determine the actual balance owed. I said I wasn't going to over pay the bill because then it would take months to get that money back.

The guy on the other end agreed with just about everything I said. In fact he barely got in a word edgewise with that I had to say. He agreed that overpaying was not the way to go because it would take a while to get that money back. That it was not out of the question to get an itemized statement showing the actual amount owed.

He said he could send one out but that it would be quicker if I called the hospital and asked for one. He gave me the number to call. I called. I left a message for someone to contact me about getting a bill. No response. A couple of days later I called and left another message. No response. I called last week. Have yet to receive an answer.

I did receive an itemized statement last week. One small problem it did not include the payment I made at the start of the month. A big surprise. What was a big surprise is that it only two a few days to cash my check this time instead of a month. I'm going to be sending small random payments each week. This way the hospital can't say they haven't been receiving any payments from me.

And I'll continue to call to see if I can get anyone to call me back about getting an itemized statement. I won't be holding my breath on that one.

Metro

It would have been hard to top the weekend experience I had with Metro but last Tuesday did. I can usually leave my house and get to my office in around half an our give or take a few minutes one way or the other. Last Tuesday I left my house at 8:05 and didn't reach the office until 9:25. It was just a complete and total mess.

It seems there were two problems on the Red Line which of course had an impact on trains going in both directions. While I was waiting on the platform at Rhode Island Ave. in a span of about 10 minutes I say no less than six trains were going in the direction of Glenmont which of course was not the direction I needed to go. In that time frame no trains were going in the direction of Shady Grove the direction I needed to go.

When a train finally pulled in going to Shady Grove it was completely packed. In fact people practically fell out of the train when the doors were opened. I think well maybe when the next one comes along. The next train sign showed the next train in 10 minutes. It was packed. In fact most trains were packed because of the gap in time between them.

I decided I would go up to Fort Totten and then transfer to the Green Line and get to down town that way. But one small catch, by the time I decided to do that, the next train going in that direction wouldn't be arriving for another ten minutes.

Finally, finally trains started running in the direction I needed. One was finally not completely packed and I was able to get on. But we had to stop before each station because there was a train servicing the platform. So Metro went from not enough trains to too many.

What I don't understand is, why one of those six trains going to Glenmont that went by in that 10 minute period, wasn't taken out of service and sent back in the other. this would have been a completely empty train and could have helped ease the congestion. But then again that would be taking into consideration what passengers were going through and what could help them. And that's something Metro rarely seems to do.