I hope my treatment costs Aetna ten million dollars

What a way to make a living - find every stinking nickel that you can possibly rip from the hands of the sick, and find every way possible to dodge your company's financial responsibility to the people who need it most.

How can they sleep at night doing this to us when we are weak?

Company management runs cowering away clutching obscene bonuses,
while teams conduct meetings on how to squeeze more and more profits from the sick. How morally decrepit can a person be?

They even had the nerve to send me a letter stating that I was eligible for care management, and just to be curious I called them.
After being interrogated to the point of them asking how I got HCV (what the hell business is it of theirs anyhow???), I finally asked the nurse what the purpose of the program is, and of course it is to reduce their costs. (silly me, what was I thinking?)

There was a time when honour was more important than money.

[hph5477]

And another viewpoint is......
I have had very little problems with my insurance company and I am very thankful for the coverage.  Without it I probably would not be in tx now.  My heart goes out to those that do not have any insurance coverage at all as well as those with very high copays.
..I agree with you on the exec bonuses; they sometimes seem out of line with company strategies.  But, I am still thankful I have the insurance coverage that I have.

[Fubarcat]

Insurance companies' goals are to take in as many premiums as possible and pay as few claims as possible.  It's a sick way to make a living for sure!  I have Blue Cross/Blue Shield and have been paying premiums for 10 years with barely maxing out my deductible for those ten years until now.  I figure BC/BS has made close to half a million off my premiums, but now they want to balk at paying for my meds for a year.  I just keep reminding them - either pay now, or pay for a liver transplant down the road.  Your choice!  They don't care.

[DH Bill]

For those of you who have been following my insurance woes, remember I was told next 24 weeks was approved as of last Friday by a girl in NY.... well I just received a call from a nice girl in Oregon who said it isn't quite resolved yet. There is a problem with Walgreens pharmacy who I have been getting drugs from for the last 6 months. They have a problem with payment method. So she will go through another pharmacy that will accept the method. She says should be covered under something called infusions??? but has no idea what my copay may be. She said they will do mail order which I have been trying to get doc to do but he refuses. Says he must see me "EYEBALL TO EYEBALL" every month to make sure I have not committed suicide then approve the drugs. I DO NOT NOW OR EVER HAD A DEPRESSION PROBLEM!!!!! I may go to jail for ***** slapping him if he asked me again if I'm deppressed. My bloodwork is very good according to doc. This Philip Delitch is supposed to be one of the best but not in my book.
I'm one who doesn't like going to the doc or hospital I error to much on this side but after this is over my liver will have to fall out of my body and and I will have to step on it before I ever go back again. I do feel this is going to work out I will just have to keep my sense of humor... right Indy

[DownThisRoad]

My insurance Cigna, Cig Tel drugs (the company that mails out my medicines; Pegasys, Cogagus and Procrit) have been very helpful, kind and treated me with courtesy.  Both the insurance company and mail order pharmacy have kept and continue to keep their mouths shut with their services and with their continued service of getting my prescriptions filled, refilled and sent to me on time.

I am grateful to them for making this process as easy as possible on me and my GI who always calls in my refilled prescription orders.  I added up what they are paying and there would be no way that I would be able to swing the bill per month or per the 48 weeks that I need all 3 of these expensive medicines.

On the long term, I wonder if I will be able to get coverage with another insurance company for health insurance or life insurance after my little fiasco with all these medicines and my records and charts having plastered all over them that I am a hep C patient.  I'll have to cross that bridge when I get there.

[audreywald]

oh my. I cannot believe this is happening to a lot of us. I too received word that I can no longer use the pharmacy I have been using, the pharmcy that accepted what my insurance paid them and charged no copay. They are not "on the list" of approved pharmacies. Now I have to use a Walgreens or something and pay 50 or 60 per month for each medication. They will not even pay for meds I have already received!!! I have to file a protest or some damn thing. Now we have an additional 300 or so per  month for the different meds my husband and I both take.

AND we pay $400 per month just for my coverage as the spouse.

The kicker:

My husband works for the Salvation Army, you know, the charity that exists to "HELP" people.

[harley dude]

Hey Ya'll, let me squeeze in a question- when your finished your last shot, say #48 and you achieved an SVR and your GI says that's it - bye bye, everything looks great, all the blood work, ect.- What next- what does you GI do, does he continue treating you, does he take you off all these meds(sleeping pills, AD's, ect.), what is the usaual routine. Will he test you every so often?- Thank's - Harley Dude

[DH Bill]

You should be able to I think it is state by state as to pre-existing. My co. switched Jan 1st to save money which they only pay a portion
As to Life Ins. Erin the GIPA who posts on this site says we can after we show we are undetectable for 5 years. Problem for me is I will be 60 yrs old then, could be expensive. I changed jobs at the same time I was dx (not knowing) and have not been able to get ins since.
Just for the record before I **** someone off, where I come from "***** slapping" is reserved for guys who don't act enough like a man to be punched by another man like my doctor who thinks he can use his "DOCTOR STATUS" and tell me if I don't like his way  "stop treatment" instead of talking to me man to man and listening to me. Just like some people don't need AD's but some do and I respect and support both but for me not to be able to even talk to him about Effexor not being for me and stopping (and I tried) in fear of being told I'm non-complient is BS. When I see him on Thursday I will have to ask him what perk he gets for having EFFEXOR clocks and posters in a lot of the rooms.

[mrBenny]

I also had smooth sailing with my insurance.  I had a fairly low copay, and there was no argument when my doc prescribed Neupogen for the last few weeks.  I don't feel grateful though, but rather I feel lucky.  Some day, when Kodak lays me off, and sends my job to India, and there's no national insurance, I'll have to do a better job of avoiding diseases.

During treatment I got very depressed, and it didn't lift afterward (except for a brief period when the RBCs were making a comeback and I was feeling more energetic), and now Zoloft is taking care of the problem quite nicely.  Coming off can be difficult -- I did it a few years back -- but it seems worth it to climb out of a hole that seems inescapable.  If I could only ***** slap the serotonin back into better behavior.

[want2live]

Thanks everyone for your support. And to those that are getting proper service from their insurance companies I am thankful that you aren't experiencing the tug of the almighty buck.
At 4/48 could this be my own little Riba rage-a-toreum?

They refused to pay for a portion of my opthamalgic (sp?) exam, the part where they take a picture of the internal eye for reference b4 starting meds. This they claim is not related to HCV treatment (!), gosh they are so smart those insurance people! They know just what treatment is appropiate even though they aren't doctors, nor have ever seen me for treatment.

It's almost as if they just look up treatment stuff in a big book, the book that knows how to treat me better than my expert doctor who wasted all that time in medical school!

Anyhow, I just thought that I would even it up with those petty bastards - for every time they do this to me, I'm going to create a billable event for them. Only costs me a co pay!

Gosh, hope I don't come down with anything EXPENSIVE!!!!!

[MajNeni]

Health insurance - equitable, adequate health insurance for everyone - is an issue to keep in mind as you plan for the November elections (and even the primaries)!
Maj Neni