Overboard! Tales From A Claims Department

I haven't blogged too often about my "previous life" as a nine to five employee but every once in a while, something will remind me of a funny situation or story that happened while I was an office worker.

Here's one of them.

One of the jobs I had within the large insurance company I worked for was in the claims department. Part of that job included processing dental claims.

I'll never forget the time I received a claim form requesting reimbursement for a set of dentures. Some of the questions on the form were left blank so I couldn't process it. Back in the "Stone Age", we used to have contact with claimants so I picked up the phone and called "Buddy" for the missing information.

He was very nice but became a bit evasive when I asked why he needed new dentures when he had made a claim for a set only a few months before. His contract had a five-year limit on new chops unless this claim could be processed under the special "Accidental Dental" clause.

So after going back and forth with him and not really getting an answer, I finally got right to the point and asked "Where are the dentures we just paid for?"

Hesitantly he replied, "They're somewhere in Smith's Lake".

Okay, that's the last thing I expected to hear so even though I had the information I needed and told him I couldn't pay the claim, I just had to ask "How in hell did they end up in a lake?"

Being the good sport he was, he told me he had gone on a fishing trip with his buddies, had a little too much to drink, got a little seasick out in the boat and yep, while puking over the side, had those sparkling pearly whites we had just paid for fall right out of his mouth and sink to the bottom of the lake in front of his bloodshot eyes.

And no, I didn't keep a straight face, I laughed into the phone and had a good chuckle which, unfortunately, was at his expense.

Claim denied!