I work for Medicare and get all kinds of calls. Most calls are fine, but there are some instances where things go off the wall. From mental issues to entitled family members who think being married/children/parents of an individual on Medicare gives them access to the person’s record. (HIPAA says no, BTW).
Obviously, there are instances where things go so far off the wall that they break through the other wall and go right into ‘what is wrong with you’ territory. This is the most notable to me and was the first time I’ve had extreme racism thrown at me for no discernible reason.
I pick up the call and give the standard Medicare greeting, which includes asking for their name and Medicare number.
Caller: “Not giving you any of that, tell me why my claim was denied!”
Me: “Unfortunately, I’m not able to do that without opening your file; to do so, I need to get either your Medicare number or SSN per HIPAA requirements.”
Caller: “Oh, heck no! You stupid [N-word]!”
I stopped paying attention at this point, not having expected someone to bring out THAT word at me, and it knocked me off kilter. Luckily, we have a script for that, and I brought that up, gave them the lone line I needed to warn them that their behavior was unacceptable, and ended the call right after.
As part of the process of ending the call like that, we also have to report the calls to a team that investigates them. It turned out that this caller had done similar things before and is now permanently banned from ever reaching a live agent any time they call Medicare from their phone number. They have to leave a message and have a senior agent call them back, who has full authority to hang up on them any time they decide to get uppity.
You have to REALLY mess up to get to this point, as the government agency Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services has to actively make the decision to blacklist you from reaching a live agent first contact.
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