27. Medicare Number Mix Up

The day before I have my chemo I have to go and get a blood test. This is what tells the nurses what dose my chemo should be. If my numbers are good then full dose, if not good then they change it or may delay it. I go to the clinic at Sutherland Hospital as it is easy for them to read the report direct from their system. It's also pretty easy to get to. I park on Kareena Rd and walk about 500m to the hospital entrance. I'm not going to pay for parking if I don't have to and the walk is good for the body.

This past Monday I rock up at the clinic and the lady at reception asks to see my Medicare Card, just like the other two times I had my bloods taken from them. She says "Have you got a new Medicare Card recently?" Nope, had this same one since I got it years ago. "Hmmm, the number is different in the system". I show her my drivers licence so she can tell it's really me. She changes it in the system and prints out new stickers. The old number is still on it and it has reverted in the system as well. "That's strange. I wonder why I can't change it." She goes and gets another lady to help her. They faff about on the computer for a while. Think it's changed, print new labels and nope, still old number. The other lady says "We'll have to call Rosie in Medical Records and get her to fix it". She tells me I may get a call from Rosie about it. I look at my red emergency card and my port card and both of those stickers are also the wrong number. Very strange that it was the third visit that they picked up the discrepancy.

I gave my blood, 3 vials as usual. The nurse saw my port bracelet and I asked if she would use it and said that you have to be specially trained and usually it's only oncology nurses and a few other specialty nurses that are. She just did the normal way and taped a cotton ball over the needle puncture. After about an hour I took this off and ended up with a blood blister type bruise in the crease of my elbow from the sticky stuff on the tape. Sigh! More war wounds from dressings I guess.

I walk over to the oncology reception as I wanted to make an appointment to see Paula the psychologist. I mention about the Medicare Number being wrong. They both tried to change it and it looked like it was fixed on their computers. I asked them if I should mention it to Medicare and they said not to worry. I thought that was a bit weird as who was the person to where my charges were going? I wouldn't want them to check their claim status and get freaked out by chemo, scans, and surgeries etc. I made the appointment for Paula and went home.

While I was having lunch I had a thought and checked my receipts and hospital discharge forms etc. It seems like my GP had the correct number, Dr Inder did as well. My mammogram, ultrasounds, biopsy all did. I checked my Medicare Claims on the app and noticed that there was only one charge on the 30/11/22 for the nuclear medicine x-ray to trace my lymph nodes. I remember that the guy at the reception had asked to see my Medicare card and had trouble finding my appointment and then another guy said that if I was having surgery that it would be with the red folders. He then found it and maybe he updated the Medicare number or added it. Whatever happened, it was on my claims history.

I continued eating lunch, thinking and analysing the data of everything and concluded that when I was about 8 years old I had a cyst removed from beneath my right eye (right side again!) and it was at St George Hospital. I wouldn't have had my own Medicare card, I would've been on the parents card. Mither got hers out and yep, that's the number, except the 2nd last number was 2 and on hers it was 9. Donna mentioned (when she'd seen my text message in our sister group of the number stuff up story) that that number is the issue number and when I was 8 years old it probably would've been the second card issued. So, I surmised that the lady who did my admission for my lumpectomy and auxiliary clearance surgery saw that I had been there before and didn't check the number on my form. I should've been a detective. I do love detective shows. Anyway, I digress.

Tuesday comes around and I check in at reception for my chemo. The reception lady (who I think her name is Tracy, or maybe Trudy - need to check that. She has a soft Irish accent) gave me a sticker to put on. This is so I'm registered and it's in place of a hospital band. I see that it is the wrong number again. She realises that she needs to print out another page as she hadn't done that yesterday. Nup, still printing the wrong number again. It's not fixed and it's reverted in the system again!!! Anyway, she tells me to go in for treatment and she'll get it sorted. Halfway through my treatment she tells me that she's gone down to the Medical Records department and it's been fixed now and is printing the correct number. I had told her about my detective story, Mither had given me her card so I could show them too. I asked if I should call St George Hospital and she said "nae bother". Gotta love the Irish and Scottish way of talking. I will have to have another operation after my chemo which probably will be at St George so I'll make sure it's correct that time around.

It's makes me wonder how often this happens. If the details are wrong does the hospital or the doctors or department just miss out on the money being sent from the government? Mither checked her claims history in the medicare app and she didn't have anything that was for me. Strange and not very good. Is that meaning the money is just floating around without anywhere to go? Does it just get put in a holding fund? How long before it's reallocated back into the budget? Does anyone investigate? The hospital and health system has been underfunded for years and years and then the pandemic really showed how bad it has gotten. I don't want someone else's stuff up to impact money coming in. I did notice that my PET scan cost $905.35. That was charged to my claim history. I am CERTAINLY very grateful I didn't have to fork out that amount!

So, stay tuned for any more weird Medicare number shenanigans.