After hand washing the bigger dishes, he loaded up the small dishwasher before taking the rest of the night off. He had work tomorrow, which meant he had to plan for bus delays. Dillon wasn't wrong… life was ruff.
Max blearily checked his phone for the time, it was only six ten and he was ready to go back to bed. Since he decided to catch the six twenty bus, he had left an extra ten minnets early… he was regretting that life choice at the moment.
Worse… all seven sins had attached themselves to his key chain. He wasn't sure if he should be glad they had shrunk, or mourn that they insisted on following him around for the indefinite future. As he waited, two others had joined him on the bench.
Thankfully the bus was a bit early, now he could relax for the thirty minnet ride. As Max walked the rest of the way to the clinic, he shivered in the early April chill. He needed a better jacket, maybe a raincoat too if he was going to be taking the bus for more than a few weeks.
Max wasn't surprised Erika was waiting for him the second he walked through the employee entrance. He quickly put his lunch in the already full fridge, good thing he enjoyed Tetris then followed her our of the break room.
"You'll be training with Donna today, she'll give you the scripts, get your accounts started so you can log in, after lunch you'll start shadowing calls. You don't need to memorize the scripts, they change too often, part of being in health care, but I do expect you to be able answer questions on demand. Understood?" Erika demanded as she briskly walked to the furthest phone room.
"Yes Ma'am!" Max had to jog to keep up, she was fast!
"Good, get your accounts set up first, perfect, Donna, this is Max. He's all yours today. Let me know if you have any problems, Athena was down yesterday so I need to know if things aren't working again." Erika rattled off before leaving.
Donna was probably in her mid-thirties, she was in sweat pants and a hoodie as she sipped on her coffee. Her dark brown hair was only held back by a struggling pony tail, large blue glasses, very pink socks. She was a little overweight, but otherwise she was average looking.
"Kay! Hey Max. I'm Donna, grab a seat and roll it over. That one is a training computer, here's the general log in." Donna offered handing him a folder. "Go ahead and start getting set up, I'll check on you in a bit. Scripts are in there too."
"Okay." Max glanced around, the cubicles were surprisingly spread out, except these two. His was directly behind Donna's, no doubt to make it easier for training. Max had two monitors, a landline, headset, two drawers… and a mat with a ball? Max shifted the mat off to the side so he didn't accidentally step on the ball when he stood up.
Max logged in, then had to call support to get assigned an email. After he had his email he sent out over two dozen requests for accounts. Athena… looked a bit overwhelming… he was watching the training videos and started taking notes with lots of arrows… lots and lots of arrows.
"It's a mad house first week of the month, we have to verify every patient's insurance before their appointments. We take calls for seven walk in clinics, five primary cares, two women's, two physical therapies, and four pediatrics. Each room takes different clinics. For primary care we call the day before their appointment to confirm they will be arriving. It's keeping our no show rate down. It will probably take two or three weeks before you get access to all the insurance sites, so you'll be on Athena verification until then." Donna explained as they came back from lunch.
"Oh, I thought… Phreesia was for check in?" Max asked looking over his notes… don't tell me I messed my notes up already…
"Oh, that's only for when they physically show up, or check in online. Don't trust the insurance verification, Phreesia is only good for updating demographics." Donna explained as she sipped on her tea.
Max was mildly worried she would explode from caffeine overdose. He had seen her drink two coffees, two teas, and a red bull all before lunch… "Oh, okay." Max's head was starting to spin…
Donna laughed, "It's a lot, but you'll get it. We don't usually deal with Phreesia, that's mostly front desk staff. Though we do sometimes get pulled to help out when its super busy.
Max was grateful when he was finally free. His digital notes were already over four pages long. "See you tomorrow Donna, thanks for today!" Max waved as he packed up.
"See ya Max!" Donna waved without looking up.
Max debated taking the bus to the store to pick up headphones, a thermos wouldn't hurt either… but honestly, he couldn't afford them right now. He had to find a way to get another twelve dollars before Wednesday.
Thankfully, the next two days Max was catching on much better, he also had his own Athena log in. Phreesia was rejecting him… le sigh! He'd even started on voice mail duty. He'd listen to the voice mails, start a phone note, then send them to Donna. After she approved them, or had him make tweaks, they would be sent off to the providers, or relevant personnel. So far, lots of medication refill requests.
Max also had his first paycheck. $214. Max was so relieved he didn't even care that he had to take a taxi to deposit it today. He could have scanned it in with his phone, but that was still a three day processing.
Max was so relieved he teered up as his balance updated with his paycheck funds. He immediately sent his rent. Max pulled out the bus route… three miles…. With a sigh, Max started walking to the closest bus stop that would take him home.
It was after almost ten before he arrived home.
"We should break down your paycheck so we can have a realistic idea of what you'll bring home bimonthly." Reed called as soon as the door was locked.
Max blinked at the green frog, "I'm exhausted Reed, I'm going to shower… and sleep." Max did exactly as he said, crawling into bed, his shoulders, feet, neck, and back were all so sore… maybe he should invest in the back pillows like the others. New shoes wouldn't hurt either… he'd walked more in the last month than in the last six combined.
At least for now, his biggest worry was Robby coming to pick him up Friday... talk about fun.