Ah, the 21st Century

[drcpunk]

I had a bill from the hospital where one of my doctors used to work, and found a receipt confirming that I'd paid the copay portion of it, as I'd thought. The doctor's staff have never gotten back to me about that, since, what with the move, they have decided that it is not their responsibility to deal with the hospital's billing, even though it was their error not to post the payment in whatever fashion the hospital requires. So, it's a good thing I found the bill.

I called the billing lady and asked if I could photocopy and mail the receipt.

"Oh, that will take too long. Just fax it," she said.

"The one thing I don''t have is a working fax machine," I said.

"Oh. Well... I guess you'll have to photocopy it. Maybe you could find someone who has a fax machine?"

I said I'd try and called mnemex. He was sure our fax machine did work, or could be made to, but pointed out that it is also a scanner.

"So, you can scan the document and email it. You could probably scan it right to the computer, but it may be easier just to use aan SD card."

"Okay," I said, "but please talk me through this."

"Sure. Get an SD card and -- wait a minute. You have a digital camera."

"Oh! Right!"

The billing lady was delighted at the idea of my emailing her a picture of the receipt, and she gave me an email address. The next day, I confirmed that she'd received the email, and she said that the photo was very clear. By the afternoon, the records had been updated.

Ah, the 21st century.