I think my insurance company is trying to kill me; not in an

aggressive stabby way, more a passive aggressive, we can see you’re dying of thirst but we’re not going to let you use our well kind of thing. It’s all passive-aggressive, not taking responsibility,

just going to not do our job and if harm comes to you because of

that it’s not our fault kind of thing. It’s really annoying, stressful

and truly a shitty way to be treated.

Given that I give them more than I pay in rent each month, you would

think that they could live up to their minimal responsibility to

provide the drugs that they are contractually obligated to provide.

When I saw the doctor Monday morning, she told me (not that it was a

surprise), that if I didn’t get this medication soon, hospitalization

would be considered. I’ve been trying to get this medication for three

months; because I knew this was coming.

Hi, my name is Larry, I’ve been suffering from Psoriasis for most

of my life. I’m trying to restart a prescription for a drug called Humira

that is very effective; while on it I was as clear of psoriasis as I

have been in my adult life. My psoriasis is severe enough that I’ve

been hospitalized multiple times. When it’s really raging I can barely

walk, much less work at anything more physically strenuous than

tapping on a keyboard. I’m fairly sure that if it’s not kept under

control, and I get into a state known as ‘pustular exfoliation’ I

would probably die of septic infection.

My health insurance provider seems bound and determined not to cover one of the few medications that I know to be effective at letting me live a normal life.

The thing is that I was on this medication for about 2 years, before

they decided to start throwing obstacles in the way of renewing the

prescription. I went for a routine visit to my dermatologist in

April. He wrote a renewed prescription; the insurance company replied

that they needed a Tuberculosis test before they could approve the

medication; well since I was vaccinated with the BCG Vaccine as a child I of course test positive for the antibodies to TB. A fact which is easily discoverable to anyone with access to my medical records and which had already been determined at least once by the same insurance company. So two months go by, I get a chest x-ray to show that in fact I’m not wasting away from TB. I request my medicine, I’m told it’s in processing, and that the pharmacy will call soon, by this point I’ve been off the medications for two months, but I’m still doing OK. I’m busy with work, and various other projects (hey I have a life!) and I think that the medication flow will start in

July. During July and August, I’m calling the pharmacy every week, and they say they haven’t received authorization, I call the insurance company, and they deny all knowledge of prior authorization. This brings us to the last two weeks, I’m calling the pharmacy, the

doctor’s office and the authorizations department to see if my medication will ship.

Monday morning, I called from the doctors office, after speaking to the nurse who faxed the form twice in the last week; both times, the insurance company claims not to have received it. So I picked up a copy of the form and took it to the insurance companies office; to make sure they received it since apparently their fax machine is broken.

This morning when I called, the insurance authorization person I spoke to claimed that the clinic had “the wrong fax number”; I was looking at the form the clinic gave me at the top of which, in bold face is the correct (verified) fax number. They also want more data, which they have already received at least once.

Folks, this sort of thing is why we need to hold the health insurance companies to account; we need a public option, if only to change the dynamic of the industry.

I have decided to give my insurance company one last chance to make this right. But if the drugs are not shipping by 11am pacific time on Wednesday August 26. I will name them. It will be a new post so subscribe to the RSS feed now if you want to be the first to know.

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