I’m writing this while a very large, very critter furry makes a bed of my forearms. He’s telling me it’s 1:00 am, and we should be in bed. I’ve tried to move him, but he’s insistent. So forgive any misspellings, etc. Kuma is a most persistent cat!
I've had a very tumultuous couple of weeks and a very bad couple of days. It all boils down to what I see as putting money and profits over people, especially people who suffer from chronic pain and other chronic conditions. I swear they view us as nothing more than walking dollar signs because we are so desperate to find something… anything… that will give us relief.
On April 25th, I had another MRI done on my spine – the first since my surgery.
On April 27th I had my first visit to the Pain Clinic doctor that left me enthused and hopeful. He studied my MRI and history before my visit and blew me away with this. It’s the first time since my old PCP that anyone had done that. Usually, it was fill out the paperwork and once meeting the doc, wonder why you bothered.
He told me my spine had deteriorated more since my surgery and that I had severe stenosis now from my thoracic through my sacral regions. He said he was going to refer me to the neurosurgeon who’d done my surgery, but he didn’t think any surgery would help me at this point. I was at the top end of “very severe,” and no wonder I was suffering chronic pain.
He started me on Gabapentin and said he was ordering an authorization for a spinal shot. He told me he thought that these two together (med and shot) had only a 40% chance of giving me any relief, and that ultimately I’d need to have a device implanted in my spine that I could control via remote control. Every time I’d have a pain, I could press the button to turn that pain into an electrical buzz or whatever it felt like to me (seems everyone describes it a little differently).
Then, on May 4th, I had my first visit with the physician I call “the Lupus doc.” She had me give another four or five vials of blood for more technical testing; told me Lupus is a lifelong disease, warned me that the medicine she was putting me on could cause build up behind my eyes and I’d need to see an eye doc yearly or go blind. Then she told me she’d write me a letter giving me the test results and what they mean, as well as any new instructions on meds.
This letter should come in 2-3 weeks, oh… and she’d see me again in 3 months. That was it. The extent of what I felt should have been a very important doctor’s appointment; one explaining what this disease is, recommendations of lifestyle changes, etc. Instead, it was all very cold and by-the-book. She gave me another pack of depo-medrol, but no pain meds.
My hopes for relief now rested on the shot at the pain clinic. After not hearing from them for over 2 weeks, I called and asked what had happened. She said they were having issues with the authorization, and I told her if I’d not heard something positive from her by Friday, I’d call my insurance company and find out what was going on. Needless to say, I heard from her with “good news” by the next day.
Yesterday, I came straight home so I could have some time to talk to my hubby about “stuff,” and he came out the front door, phone in hand, as I was about to go up the first flight of stairs. The caller was one of the people from the Pain Clinic. She was calling to verify my appointment for the next day (today), and oh, btw, it’d be $300 cash on the spot as a facility charge, and that was separate from doctor’s fees, etc.
That blew my mind. This was the first I’d ever heard of anything like this! I told her I’d never been charged like this before with my insurance, and I wanted her to email me exactly what she just told me so I’d have it in front of me when I called my insurance company about it.
I’ll give her credit, she did email me right away. I called my nurse consultant, but I feared it was too late in the day to catch her. So I called the customer service number. I know insurance companies are pure bears about some things, but the “people” part of their services are fantastic with this company. I told the agent the gist, and then read him exactly what was written in the email. After consulting my plan he told me they were telling me the truth, if they coded it exactly as she was saying. He also told me they didn’t have to code it that way, that there were other ways of coding this procedure that wouldn’t incur that $300 charge (and oh, it was really $200, he explained). Furthermore, if t hey were charging it this time, they would probably code it this way each time I went in for shots, since this was a multiple shot procedure. I asked him if this didn’t sound like a money-grab to him. He agreed, and told me I could probably find a doctor who would do this that would code it differently.
$200, plus physician’s fees for a procedure that the doctor, himself, told me would only take about 5 minutes to perform.
$200, plus physician’s fees for a procedure that the doctor, himself, gave only a 40% chance of providing any relief.
Thinking about this yesterday evening, Tony’s diaries came to mind. All the hassles he has with the Pain Clinic, especially regarding money. I’m sure there are many of us who have experienced similar hassles.
We’re all desperate for relief from our pain. We live every minute of every day with pain that courses thru our body in waves of varying degrees. We cry for even ten minutes of relief; we push It down and try to go on with our lives, our jobs, our relationships. But as Tony wrote tonight, the pain controls our life.
This pain clinic knew what kind of pain I was living with; they had the proof in the form of an MRI right in front of them. They have an office inside a hospital. I’m assuming the hospital is claiming that office as a “surgery center.” However, as a matter of principle (not to mention a tight budget), I refuse to play their game.
We had a large, long rainstorm in the early morning hours today, and it turned cold. Not only did the weather change give me a migraine, but it kicked up my pain levels to 9. Needless to say, I didn’t go into work. So far, I’m averaging at least one day every two weeks where I’m not at work because of my pain. This is not a good thing. But sure enough, the pain clinic called this morning to verify my appointment that afternoon. Hubby picked up the phone and told me who it was. I told him to tell them I would NOT be in, and I wouldn’t be rescheduling.
I honestly don’t know what I’m going to do at this point. But I refuse to be driven into medical debt by money hungry medicos. I still have to worry whether or not we’re going to be “sequestered” this year, and we’re putting money aside just in case.
I still am in shock with the Pain Clinic’s code… $200 before I ever walk in the door. We’re discriminated against, humiliated, and taken to the cleaners because we can’t get the meds to manage our pain, and all they give us instead are procedures and non-narcotic meds that know aren’t going to help much, but it sure brings in the money. I can’t help but think they see our desperation as a cash cow for them. ARGH!