#insurance issues

[halimaidmf]

[the-lemon-light]

i quit

[copperbadge]

So apparently your frustration with an ADHD diagnosis clinic is not unique. Prior to my evaluation I was told they'd already pre-cleared it with my insurance and my cost would be $80 up front. I paid. I was evaluated and told "yeah it sounds like you have ADHD, but we're backed up right now so it will probably take about eight weeks for your report." Not ideal, but fine.

As we pass week ELEVEN I have not called them because it's the holiday season and I have other things going on and don't expect much success with them at the moment either.

Yesterday I received an email. It was not my report, or a request for a follow up appointment, or a follow up on a missed phone call that never happened.

It was a bill for $16. I do not have words for my fury at this moment.

Yep, sounds about right, unfortunately.

I do have a couple of recommendations for you -- one, do ALL your communication with them via email so you have a written record. Two, respond to the bill with a request for explanation of the charge and state that you are obviously uncomfortable paying this given you have not yet received your evaluation. I'd be fine implying that if you are required to pay this additional fee prior to receiving your records, you may need to involve your insurance as a mediator. (Your insurance will be highly unhelpful, probably, but they don't love the idea of getting insurance involved, which can mean an audit of what they charged you for.)

Three, if you haven't already, document when your evaluation date was and when you first requested your evaluation writeup, plus every follow-up request if you made any. Notify them of how many times you've requested it and what the delay was if they gave you an excuse. If you're in the US (I assume, given the insurance thing) you have a federal right of access to your medical records; they are allowed to charge you a reasonable amount to copy and send them, but they are not allowed to withhold them.

I would google "State medical records access" and find out who you report them to in your state, and then send them a letter with a firm 30 day deadline. "If I do not receive my evaluation documentation or an explanation of the delay by X date, I will be forced to report you to [state agency] for withholding medical records." If they respond with an explanation of delay, inform them that they have a right to an extension of deadline not longer than (however long it is in your state, usually 90 days) so you will expect the writeup by (X days from that email's date).

And if they don't comply, report them. I'm glad I didn't have to report mine, but if they can't get you a writeup in 90 days they shouldn't be practicing.

[just-a-touch-of-sass-and-fandoms]

“Get a job that gives you insurance”

“We have state insurance for a reason”

That doesn’t mean shit in this country

Lost my job in December. Health insurance ran out the end of that month. Got a new job in January. I had to wait for my first paycheck (3 weeks later) to ENROLL and then wait 30 days. So I wouldn’t have coverage until March. I immediately started the process to get on my states health insurance to cover me until March.

Middle of February I have sudden pelvic pain to the point I want to vomit it hurts so bad and I am crying. I couldn’t drive and didn’t have anyone to take me so I took an Uber to the emergency room.

I got checked in, then sat in the waiting room for about 3 hours. The pain got mildly tolerable where if I didn’t move, it didn’t hurt, so I decided to go home and would go to urgent care in the morning.

I stood up to walk to the desk to tell the nurses and before I could take 3 steps everything went black.

I woke up with my clothes cut off in a trauma room. Large bore IV’s were being placed in either arm. Labs were being taken. An EKG was being run. I had oxygen on.

I had collapsed. My heart rate did not rise above 40 for nearly 10 minutes. My blood pressure was 80’s/40’s.

They asked why I was there and I said pelvic pain. I told them I had and IUD and was 2 days late on my period. The room froze and they asked for an ultrasound. They found free fluid in my pelvis.

First thing popping into my mind was a ruptured ectopic pregnancy and I was bleeding to death.

They rushed me to ultrasound and rushed my labs. Thankfully I was not pregnant, but had a large ovarian cyst rupture. There was pools of blood surrounding my uterus and moving throughout my pelvis. We could even see the tissue hanging off my ovary on the scans.

My job didn’t start my coverage yet. The state told me their coverage wouldn’t start until March (when my employers insurance would kick in). So all of that happened with no insurance.

The scans, blood work, fluids, meds, trauma consults….my bill was over $7,000 and I was in the ER for 6 hours.

They wanted to keep me overnight because of the blood loss, loss of consciousness, and the risks that posed because of my existing health issues.

I told them I was a nurse, I can monitor my vitals at home, I can replenish my own fluids and electrolytes at home, and I’ll get repeat labs Monday, so they let me go.

A job that provides insurance doesn’t mean it is any good or kicks in immediately. State and government insurance takes a lot of time to apply and process.

We need universal healthcare in the US

If a full time nursing job allows that kind of gap, imagine what “not as good jobs” are like

[theredhairing40]

tasks must be followed

The Blogger: I have many tasks to complete in the upcoming months, and I must follow these tasks by the letter.

Strange Boy: Oh?

The Blogger: The first step is to sign up for Kahn Academy, to get myself used to community college level math. The next step is to contact the tutor I've been working with before, and setting up times to work on this project. If I can get it done that is....

Strange Boy: Isn't there something else that's on the agenda though?

The Blogger: Asking Walmart to cut my hours -_-

Strange Boy: Why?

The Blogger: My supplemental income only allows me to work with a $1.1K budget every month... and with the amount I am making from Walmart for my job, I am making too much.

Strange Boy: Isn't "making too much" actually a good thing though?

The Blogger: Not if the Supplemental Incomes purpose is my basic insurance needs.

Strange Boy: Oh $#!t

The Blogger: -_- *clears throat*

Strange Boy: Right... Right... The religious people who read this blog *facepalm*

[undertalecomic-surfacetale-au]

Rant (delete later)

So. My mom has been given a hard time while she's trying to get another dose of some medicine that she desperately needs. Since it's apparently one that's hard to keep in stock at places or something.

She has incredible pain around her eye, because of a blocked tear duct and has gotten an infection. We went to a hospital last night one that was an hour away. Eventually they gave her something for pain and she felt much better. Since they didn't have an eye doctor there, they sent us home. We got home and went to bed but the medicine wore off, so she didn't get hardly any sleep because of the pain.

She took some of the pain medication they prescribed early because it was just that bad.

She also ran out of an antibiotic that the hospital told her to keep using, since it was prescribed to get rid of the infection and you just needed to give it time. So she's been calling and no luck. I honestly just woke up. And well I woke up to her crying. CRYING. She's not one to cry really, so I know that this is definitely not your average pain nor stress level.

I'm pissed at them right now. And mostly the insurance. She gets her insurance through her job at a hospital. And how it works is it'll only cover hospital visits to ones the main company owns. I won't mention what brand of hospitals I'm talking about, but their insurance policy is STUPID.

None of their hospitals relatively close to us has an eye doctor on call. Except this one that is known for being an awful hospital to go to. So what the f*ck are we supposed to do??

I'm so fed up with medical shit today, you have to go through sooo much just to get treated. It's ridiculous.

Sorry for the rant, but it needed to come out.

[meeko-mar]

Concerning Commissions, and Insurance

OKAY, UH, so I am making a big official post about this, but I’m not done putting details and such together yet and it’s kind of just nagging me that I need to get this out(especially with this ACA debacle just reminding me of it) so...Here’s basically what’s going on with me lately. 

Item one: I don’t have health insurance right now. This is due to me going into my Insurance website(Medicaid) and changing my job/income info so that Chris could have the updated info while applying to financial aid for college courses(electrician’s classes). I now, apparently, make too much for Medicaid to cover me. I was under the impression that I would be dropped later this month(I changed info back in October and the way they worded it made me think January, so I had some time.)

Item two: I recently got put back onto my supplements for PKU(Metabolic disorder where I need supplemental nutrients to get what I would get from the food I can’t eat), which are actually, pretty fucking expensive. I was worried about when my insurance would end, because I cannot even get Insurance through work until my one-year mark in February, and what that would mean if I was billed in the meantime. But again, I thought I had more time, and a smaller window of being uninsured, assuming I can get work insurance going very quickly and/or I find something else through my state’s ACA. 

My first bill for my supplements, came in and was 315 (after insurance!). Later, I got a call from the company, and they said my Medicaid was expired as of November 30. 

I got a second bill that is...A lot uglier. Because I now have no insurance, this bill was over 1,000. No I am not kidding. This shit is stupid expensive. Honestly I don’t know if I can really afford it even with insurance coverage, but that is a question for later.

FOR NOW, I’m kind of screwed; 

I have no insurance, I have a big bill to pay, and I need to either find a new plan on my state’s ACA, or WAIT IT OUT until I can get insured through work. In the meantime, I am not even aware of how many more times I will be billed, I have to figure THAT out. I DO NOT THINK I CAN WAIT FOR FEBRUARY, if I get billed another 1 or 2 times in between now and then, that’s going to completely FUCK my 3 years worth of savings if I can’t keep up with it by paycheck alone. If I have to, I will just DROP my prescription until I am covered again. 

A point to stress: I am very fortunate enough to be in a position where this supplement is NOT critical to my survival. So this is not a mortal panic post, please don’t worry about my safety guys, this is fortunately mostly about my finances. 

(I mean I guess hope that I don’t suffer a surprise medical emergency between now and then, but its not an outstanding concern atm...)

So a lot of this depends on what happens with what Insurance I can find, and I need to figure out EXACTLY how this works and I’m going to have to pursue that... 

And honestly I am fucking LOST as to how the whole ACA repeal thing is going to affect this in the coming several months(like will I get a policy and coverage only for it to get cancelled a few months in because of the repeal that Republicans are hell bent on carrying out? Will I get anything to back me up in their “new plan”? ) That is a whole big clusterfuck of things I am very unsure on and anxious about and frankly, pretty pissed off with the Senate about. 

And at the same time, I am not sure at all if work-provided insurance will carry over if I switch positions, as I WANT TO DO, DESPERATELY and plan on hopefully doing in the near-ish future, because it it done through my union, which is currently the BAKER union. 

SO, THERE’S THAT CONFUSING MATTER.

But okay okay okay, THE POINT to this long-winded thing, is that 

1. I am financially screwed at the moment and 

2. AS SUCH. I will be opening commissions to hopefully soften the blow a tiny bit. 

Like I said, I am working out the details and such, and an OFFICIAL announcement of Commissions will be coming later. But I’ve been sitting on this for the better part of a week, and I felt like it was time to share what the heck is going on. 

Thanks for listening, and if you were wanting to get any commissions from me, consider this your heads up! <3

[twinnflowrr]

insurance is so incredibly frkn frustrating, absolutely no one knows what they’re doing!!!