Ohel Moshe Virtual Shmoozing

B"H I've actually been doing a lot better than just Shlepping my way through the saga of the virus. But I have an "excuse," namely that--in contrast to my grandfathers who didn't live to see me, I get to see my grandchildren just about every day--I've got a world-class support system. Still, kind people will occasionally engage me to ask what's the biggest challenge, and I would respond that the most challenging aspect of old age, even before there was the virus to contend with, is that there are not the same opportunities for pleasant surprises in old age (in large measure that, just in waking up in the morning, one may have exhausted the pleasant surprise quota of the day already).

I had been going through the rampant mixed emotions that one goes through when one is utilizing--unfortunately quite frequently these days--his excellent dental insurance plan. The good news is that I'm covered--and really well covered by staying within the network--and the bad news is that copays on services beyond fillings can get to be expensive, even after insurance has paid (at often a discounted basis to the dentist) its share. So on balance, it's not the best news to need to "pay" the oral surgeon a visit.

But now here comes the good part of this story.  My oral surgeon had relocated, by two miles at most, her office in recent months, and CareFirst Blue Cross had ignored both her submitted paperwork and her follow-up calls, to the extent that she was being viewed as out of network for the past couple of months. I asked her if she would let me help, and she assented. It happens that I'm a nearly-fifty-year member of the Healthcare Financial Management Association, and I found in the national membership directory CareFirst's senior director for regulatory affairs. Two mornings later when I looked in the provider database for Blue Cross participating oral surgeons, you can guess whose name appeared.

So there are pleasant surprises in old age, and the most pleasant surprise of all is to still be able to help good things happen especially on behalf of people who have done well by you. I'm amazed that my oral surgeon was actually surprised that I'd devote energy to her cause, so from her vantage point there was Kiddush Hashem involved; though from my vantage point, who wouldn't devote a half-hour to search through a membership directory, type a note, and make a call for a friend (anyone in the medical world who doesn't hurt me is a really precious friend!).

Incidentally, her maiden name was Serafin, though I have no reason to believe that this oral surgeon is of Jewish.....extraction.