FAX You.

Our health care system causes me concern for many reasons. One of the most alarming is the administration of the system by those in the trenches.
True story. I help administer our health care - our company uses a very large health care provider - which requests, prefers actually, that all correspondence concerning employee maintenance from the activation to deactivation of their plans be handled via fax. I have issues with the fax machine, the public openness of their placement in many offices, the speed at which they relay information, etc...
Recently I had to activate an employee's insurance. I did as requested, filled out 11 pages of paper work and stood patiently as I fed into the fax machine each page, waited for them to scan, and then submit/process. In return I was rewarded with a one line print out which read "OK" giving me the confidence that my fax and all it's precious information was in fact relayed and my employee could rest easy knowing they'd be insured.
A week later - via the USPS I received a typed letter saying my fax was missing one piece of information and I should re-fax not the one missing piece - but the entire document - because this is how things are done. I phoned immediately raising my concern but was assured this was the proper procedure and there was no alternative. I couldn't give the missing information via phone they needed a faxed, and then scanned record. During the call it was also revealed that only 6 of my 11 pages were received and my "OK" meant zip.
A little frustrated I did as told and again faxed all 11 pages and was rewarded with my one line confirmation "OK"
This time I decided to be proactive and phoned the representative the next day. I was told my fax was not received. Calmly but sternly I replied "But I have a fax confirmation that says it was relayed and to the number you gave me. It says "OK"." The representative told me that might be the case but I still needed to resubmit all 11 pages - I could mail them. However, I was told because of the time that had elapsed the employee would have to be enrolled in the next billing cycle which was not acceptable. I said I faxed the information timely and received not one but two "OKs" and the employee should not be punished for this exercise in archaic information transmission. I was told that I had to prove my faxes were indeed sent within the allowed time period. When I asked how I could possibly do this and expeditiously I was told "fax us the fax confirmation pages..."
Seriously health care administrators? Fax you.