Medical bullshittery, New Insurance, who dis?
In my last blog in 2023, I talked about Kancare, the Kansas version of Medicaid, and how useless it is with many doctors not accepting the state medical insurance, and this rant, to call it what it is, is an extension of that blog, so you might want to read that blog first for the context of what I am about to rant about.
The TL;DR is that switching from Blue Cross, Blue Shield, to Kancare, administered by United Healthcare, meant the loss of all but one of my wife, Erin’s doctors, as they did not take Kancare, leaving us with the task of finding doctors that take Medicaid insurance, which is no easy task, I can assure you!
After a fight to get a referral to a pain management clinic in Hutchinson, we finally got an appointment set, after many referrals being sent over 15 days. But now we have the issue of Erin not having any pain medication remaining, leaving her with little option but to visit the ER for a pain shot as needed when her pain becomes intolerable, as her primary care doctor refuses to help get her to January 30th.
When Erin had an appointment at the end of December at Wesley Family Medicine, the resident doctor, Dr. Walston, said to Erin, I can confirm this, as I also attended the appointment with her, stated that although they do not prescribe narcotics, such as Hydrocodone, but they could offer her Methadone, which is also a narcotic, but, I digress. At that time, we turned down the offer, as we had tried Methadone previously, as it had a limited effect on her pain, and he said, if you need it in the future, contact us.
Roll forward to this past Friday, January 5, 2024, and Erin called Wesley Family Medicine, leaving a message because no one simply answers a phone at doctors’ offices. To get a callback, saying that Dr. Walston declined to prescribe the Methadone and was spoken to, in what Erin considered a condescending manner, with comments such as you’ll have to go to a Methadone clinic.
We, like, I’m sure many others thought, a Methadone clinic is a place to help drug addicts get clean, not somewhere to get help with pain. Moving forward to Saturday, 1/6/2024 morning, we found ourselves in the ER as it was clear that Wesley Family Medicine would not help us. The ER doctor informed us that many Methadone clinics offer limited pain management services and could prescribe a month of Methadone. Dr. Walston’s nurse could have explained this instead of using language such as “you’ll have to go to a Methadone clinic.” It seems that some of these people need more customer service training!
Erin is not a drug addict; she is suffering from severe rheumatoid arthritis, which causes excruciating pain if left untreated, which is where we are right now, through a combination of doctors not wanting to take Kancare insurance, and doctors, from my perspective, straight up not wanting to help Erin get through to her first pain management appointment with Hutchinson Clinic on the 30th of January.
And, for good measure, here’s more bullshittery. Today, we received two letters from United Healthcare informing us that they have declined to cover Erin’s Hydrocodone and Myrbetriq, stating, “After careful review, this request has not been approved.” because she had not tried a non-narcotic, or other medications; that you can read as we don’t want to pay for that, so we are making it as hard as possible to get the medications she has been using for many years, it’s a case of “new insurance, who dis?”
A goddamn insurance company should not be able to get between a doctor and their patient in regards to their care. But, this will not change soon, as our politicians are bought and paid for by the medical, insurance, and other industries. The US is the only major country to not offer socialized healthcare!
It seems my misgivings about switching to Kancare from Blue Cross, Blue Shield were very much founded. It’s been a nonstop fight to get any treatment at all, not only from providers but also from getting the maintenance medications Erin requires. All this was handled by BCBS of Kansas, as we had already done the pre-approval bullshit for them years ago. There should be a way to pass all that information from one insurance company to the next to avoid this new insurance; who dis? bullshittery.
Kancare fact: the Kansas state insurance, Kancare/Medicaid, is administered by Aetna, United Healthcare, and Sunflower Health Plan; all three are companies with a profit motive. In my opinion, government programs should not be administered by for-profit companies, it creates a conflict of interest!