Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield says it won't tie payments to the length of time a patient went under anesthesia.
*stares directly into the camera*
Gee. I wonder what could have happened to provoke that change of heart.
Blue Cross has some really messed up guidelines for patient care, like saying that critical care isn't medically necessary if the patient is discharged to home within 24 hours. Except when a patient presents, the doctors only know how they are at that particular moment and treat them to the best of their abilities. No one can tell when a patient comes in presenting with stroke symptoms how long they'll be in the hospital, but Blue Cross doesn't care.
Commercialized healthcare is all about making money for shareholders. They couldn't give two shits about their member's health.
Blue Cross denied my insurance when I presented to the ER with biphasic anaphylaxis. They said I was out of danger because at the time I presented I was between attacks. They were going to discharge me when I went into the secondary reaction. Despite the secondary reaction that happened in front of their in network doctor I was still denied.
Blue Cross denied my health insurance for an emergency MRI for a suspected brain bleed after a major chiropractic injury because they illegally dropped me from my plan when my immigration status changed. I am still waiting to hear the outcome of this almost eight years later.
I’m currently in an open dispute with Blue Cross along with several other thousand people in Minnesota because they refused to cover the cost of epi pens, a life saving medication for those of us with anaphylactic allergies. The reason I was given when I asked about it was “there’s no proof you need it.”
I have been waiting to hear the outcome of this case for over five years.
Blue Cross were actively letting me starve to death in 2018-2019 when my mast cell disorder got progressively worse. I was presenting to the ER with idiopathic anaphylaxis. Blue Cross suggested psychiatric care, much to the annoyance of the ER doctors who kept having to save me.
When I argued against a Blue Cross doctor who wasn’t a mental health care provider for saying, “you’re probably just bipolar” and refused to take the ridiculously high dose of SSRIs she wanted to put me on, I was slapped with a “patient is non compliant” label that followed me all the way to my new provider who was utterly baffled by it and promptly had it removed.
I wasn’t non compliant. I just wouldn’t let their neglect and ableism kill me.
In short, Fuck Blue Cross.
Fuck them all the way to hell and then some. They’re a money grabbing, soul sucking drain on humanity and the fact that they’d even consider something like refusing to cover extra anesthesia when a patient is already on the operating table is a testament to their evil.
I hope their CEO’s never know peace for the rest of their lives. However long that happens to be.
