A couple of years ago I climbed Mt Whitney in California. One of the climbers that day was from
the east coast and failed to show up for work a few days later. The family became concerned and called the car rental agency in Las Vegas where he flew to and rented his car. The agency said the car had been returned. After another day of him missing they called the car rental agency again to confirm and once again the agency said the car was in the lot. The next day the rangers found the car was still parked in the Mt Whitney parking lot and search and rescue was finally dispatched.
In this case I believe it didn't make a difference because the climber appeared to die from acute injury on the mountain the day of his climb but in another scenario maybe those 2 days would've been the difference between being rescued or dying from exposure.
Oh so many systems take "pass the buck" to an insane level. My employer switched insurance providers recently. Twice we were referred to a specialist for one of my kids and each time it took about a week for the referral to be approved (apparently the PCP referring you isn't enough with this HMO).
The only thing that has changed is my HMO; the kids still have the same pediatrician with the same office staff for which referrals were never a problem in the past. However, the insurance company made sure to tell me that they are not the ones delaying it, because it's technically the administrative department of my pediatrician that has to do the referral review. The fact that insurance company mandates that the referral review must be performed by a licensed nurse and follow a byzantine process, of course, has nothing to do with the delay.
A couple of years ago I climbed Mt Whitney in California. One of the climbers that day was from the east coast and failed to show up for work a few days later. The family became concerned and called the car rental agency in Las Vegas where he flew to and rented his car. The agency said the car had been returned. After another day of him missing they called the car rental agency again to confirm and once again the agency said the car was in the lot. The next day the rangers found the car was still parked in the Mt Whitney parking lot and search and rescue was finally dispatched.
In this case I believe it didn't make a difference because the climber appeared to die from acute injury on the mountain the day of his climb but in another scenario maybe those 2 days would've been the difference between being rescued or dying from exposure.