Time seems to be eluding me of late.
Days are slipping by and I accomplish nothing.
Except maybe take a few daft photographs.
Like this next one that I think looks like a dog’s face…
Um, you have to tilt your head, perhaps…
Maybe if I spent less time chasing dew drops…
Maybe if the Medical Profession spent less time annoying me…
While I fully acknowledge that I am far luckier than most, I can’t resist having another niggle because if there’s one thing that really annoys me, it is thoughtlessness, lack of consideration.
Stupidity I can possibly forgive because people can’t help being stupid. Can they?
At long last on Tuesday, I met my new psychiatrist. He who has the power to adjust my anti-depressant medication.
What makes my situation a slight challenge is that the medication I have been on for literally years now, serves also as a pain reliever. When I was on “oxy” this was irrelevant. But now that I have no other form of pain relief, it is rather important.
There surely must be other drugs, but this is the only one my new doctor is prepared to play with.
Why it’s a “game” is because I need to take another drug to control my evermore restless legs. This used not to be much of a problem but now that I am considered “geriatric”, the combination of the two drugs is frowned on. Risk of falls, etc etc.
But the new doc spent an hour evaluating my case and cautiously agreed to slightly reduce one drug in order to add the other. A trial period. Agreed.
But then you have to deal with the insurance company.
“They say they have to have prior approval from the doctor before they can cover it.”
Well the doctor ordered it. Isn’t that the same as approval? But I am too easily fobbed off.
This morning I could see on the patient portals that nothing was happening and a weekend is fast approaching. Meanwhile I had checked online the price of this drug which needs “special approval.”
Should have thought about that yesterday, shouldn’t I?
Called up the pharmacy and they confirmed, no word yet from the doctor. So I asked “how much is it?”
“Eight dollars.” I said I thought I could afford it. After all, the other drug which my insurance and Medicare were covering without all this happy hoopla, still cost me $90.
What hope is there for people without insurance?
All of this makes me want to spit, but the pharmacy had to add their own little twist.
They agreed to let me have the prescription for $8.
So Grant and I toddled off to see them and they greeted me with: “we only have enough for three days.”
Could they not have thought to mention this to me on the phone?
Maybe they didn’t realize till they went to fill the prescription?
Well that excuse doesn’t work, because according to their website, the prescription was filled, yesterday. It just had not been marked clear for pick-up.
So what happened in the meantime? This sort of thing used to go on all the time in Washington. The pharmacy regularly ran out of the medications they knew they would need. How incompetent is that?
No-one ever bothered explaining, but I suspect it is all to do with Rules and Regulations ( don’t want any law suits!) and Insurance Companies and Pharmaceutical Companies and the dastardly merry-go-round they have created just to irritate the shit out of people like me.
Silly to get annoyed over such a thing? I hate being an insignificant statistic in their extortionate game.
And it really shames me that this is the best we can do.
Such inefficiency seems inbuilt nowadays and no-one feels any shame that they are part of it!
Sadly you’re right!
The purpose of insurance companies is to make money. They do that by rejecting as many claims as possible. They are not in the health care business. Sorry you have having to endure the endless struggle to get the care you need.
Clearly! I had a statement the other day from Medicare telling me that charges of some thousands of dollars “May or may not have been approved”. Well isn’t that helpful. If they are unable to say, one way or the other, don’t send the f…ing statement! I keep going for treatment and not being asked for a penny, very nice, but for all I know someone is adding up a grand total. Me, I am one of the lucky ones! It just enrages me that people who are in pain or really sick have to deal with this sort of bs when they are at their most vulnerable. To me it is obscene, a total disregard by the government of this country for its citizens.