Too much explanation?

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I recently asked my coworkers if there is something in the things I say to the patients we work with that is wrong somehow. I got a call at work that went completely off the rails really fast. Now to be fair, the woman I was speaking to was clearly really high strung and really rude to start off with. She asked me about her insurance. The conversation went something like:

Her: "I just want to know, will I have to pay a copay to see the doctor?"
Me: "You'll have to call your insurance company for that information."
Her: "Okay, but you're going to look up my insurance information when I come in, right?"
Me: "Yes, but I can't always find all the information we need because of the privacy laws. It would be easier if you just called your insurance company."
Her: "I don't understand. So you *can't* look up my insurance?"
Me: "No, I can, but I can't always find everything. So, the easier thing to do--"
Her: "Wait a minute, you're going to look up my card, right?"
Me: "Well, yes."
Her: "So, why can't you just tell me if I have to pay when I get there or not?"
Me: "Well, it's like this. Say you have HAP insurance for example--"
Her: "I HAVE BLUE CROSS!"
Me: ..."I was just using an example--"
Her: "But I HAVE BLUE CROSS!"
Me: "Okay, say you have Blue Cross. Blue Cross has hundreds of plans and policies both in state and out of state and sometimes they only give us part of the information we need. So I can look it up for you, but I can't guarantee--"
Her: "Never mind! I'm just not going to be a patient there. THANK YOU!" *hangs up*

Now, in all likelihood, she was probably just in a really terrible mood or maybe even a really terrible person, but I've had a lot of conversations like this where I've had to repeat myself over and over and over again when someone has asked me a question. *I* think I'm being as thoroughly honest as possible, but clearly something is being lost in the translation. When I asked my coworkers about it, one of them said: "You overexplain sh!t sometimes." Anybody else have a problem like that? What do you do about it?

The system you work in is nuts. People don't understand it, and they suspect they are being had. Probably they are, but not by you. You are in the unfortunate position to take the shitstorm that is really due the CEOs of the insurance companies. It's not your fault. This woman was just stressed out and had reached the end of her tether dealing with her own health issues while struggling with bureaucracy.

Bureaucracy has that effect on most people. Don't worry about it.

When corporations become large and powerful enough, they are indistinguishable from Stalinist regimes.

Well, screwed up healthcare system not withstanding, I kind of pride myself on making sure patients are as informed as possible about what the rules are so they can work within the lines. But then, maybe that's part of the problem these days. There are a lot of angry people walking around right now with no place to put that anger. Yes, we do see the bulk of that. Curiously enough, I can't blame people for being unhappy with the current state of our healthcare system.

My "over explaining" of things, though, tends to happen regardless of the subject. I consistently have to dumb down and shorten what I say just to be understood and even then, I don't get why the person I'm talking to is not getting what I'm saying. I feel like I lapse into Spanish or something when I speak.

She was asking if you could give her the information she needs. You can't. She needs to phone the insurance Co for that. However you kept saying yes because you took her question literally. In the transcript you kept starting with yes, but the answer to her enquiry was no. That was confusing.

She wasn't asking if you were literally able to look up her insurance policy, she wanted to know if you could tell her how much she would pay.

See, that never would have occurred to me. Not in a million years. Boy, listening to people is hard. :/

Aaaah....that one flew by me as well, if it's any relief.

But it did seem like she didn't believe you and thought you were just being lazy when in fact you had no way of knowing.

Maybe you need to act like a dumbass and just repeat that she needs to phone her insurance company ad nauseam until she gets it. Life is too short for this s**t.

I never thought she was being literal. I was wondering why she was saying yes she can look it up but wasn't doing it. That would frustrate me too if someone told me they can do something and won't do it. Plus I always want a straight answer, not hear all these details because I zone out and not hear a word they say because I am waiting for the answer I want to hear, not all this other stuff. Hell even NTs do it too because I have experienced it with them such as my mother for example. Then I still don't get my answer because I didn't hear it because I had zoned them out and I ask them the same question again and then they give me a direct answer and I go "sorry, I didn't hear it."

That's one that I've gotten a lot -- Too many details -- and honestly, I've been trying to shorten things. It's just more often than not, I don't really know how. It's like the only way I can tell you something is by telling you ALLLLLL OF IT. I haven't figured out how to just talk "straight". In this case, I couldn't have just looked it up for her because it would have taken far too long. I've learned that people just don't get that. They think that I'm lazy or trying to get out of doing it. No, it's just that it may take 5 minutes or 20 minutes depending on the insurance plan.

*sigh*, but there's the rub, right? If I say all that, I'm doing it again. So where's the medium?

Amen. I think I need to get out of customer service related jobs, period.