Cutting the Red Tape

There is an old MASH episode in which Hawkeye learns the army has listed him as deceased. He spends the rest of the show trying to undo a simple clerical error, and getting buried in the paperwork involved. That is not too far fetched if you work in today's health care system.
Today I am grateful for the opportunity to help some people deal with the red tape. I spent a good portion of today working on two such issues. One was a pregnant woman whose Medicaid caseworker had signed her up for a program that only covers contraceptive management (a little too late, as it turns out). The other was a man with a dislocated shoulder and two very good insurances. Problem was that neither wanted to claim responsibility for being the primary carrier. And, when we straightened that out, they decided the injury must have occurred either on the job, or as the result of an accident (both of which would indicate someone else should pay the claim). Just to complicate matters, his disability insurance was bombarding him with forms the orthopaedic surgeon needed to fill out, so he could continue getting some sort of income while he heals. Don't even think of getting the government involved. Their attempts to streamline the system have only made matters worse.