I can believe it. Y’all haven’t been doing this for a year and a half in the US. Far too much of the US still hasn’t really started doing it. Here in China, they’ve been doing the quarantining, testing, masking, more testing, double shot vaccination, and tracking for the past year and a half.
At one point when I called my PCP’s office the receptionist said “wait shouldn’t the government pay for that?” I was like yes they should, but sadly they don’t.
The really frustrating part is that testing and tracing are really good for personal freedom and the economy. The US is either in a state of superficial normalcy or crisis because we don’t actually know who needs to isolate. So either no one isolates and we all get sick or everyone isolates and the economy shuts down.
There’s really no reason the federal government can’t be taking a more active role.
You do know the federal government, as in the clown-in-chief, did take a very active role, as in doing every damn thing he could to negate any actual progresss, last year, don’t you?
Good to hear this. Even mild cases suck.
When hubs got COVID the first time, I took him to the Urgent Care center for a test so I would be able to bitch at him over being a Covidiot. He’s been tested three times since because delta. We got the first EOB last week which said we owed almost 300 bucks because he didn’t get a referral. Hubs stressed while I advised patience and waiting for a bill. We got a corrected EOB today which said he owed nothing. I expect we will go through this another 5 times because he also shared delta with me.
Yes I’m well aware of that lol.
Two family members from the US visited me (in Canada) last night.
Both had been double vaxxed, but both had been required to take rapid tests, and pay $200 each (and apparently this was discounted). Apparently they could get a free test but that would take two days. They’re worried about getting back to the US (their vacations end on Labor Day).
The older one’s mother refused to get vaccinated, and this was the first confirmation that I’d received that they were doing the right thing by getting vaccinated. My mother was the only person present who had not been vaccinated.
Let me introduce you to the US Health Care “System”.
Think of it as about 10,000 individual health care systems, each of which is applying the “I didn’t get rich by writing a lot of checks” theory of financial success.
I developed symptoms of a cold or allergies on Saturday last, worsened slightly on Sunday, enough to buy myself a bottle of cough suppressant. Symptoms were still in place Monday and Tuesday I decided I needed to get tested. My experience with that was very similar to OP’s: no appointments available for days at local Walgreens and CVS locations. Finally I found Baptist Health’s Emergi Clinic about 10 miles from here – no appointment needed! Walk on in and get tested! Open 'til 9 pm! Awesome - I get off work, drive up there …
And there are people hanging out in the parking lot and a big sign by the front door that says “Sorry, this location is temporarily closed, as soon as some patients leave we’ll reopen.” I asked a guy how long he’d been waiting – 1.5 hours. A security guard popped his head outside to survey the scene and I asked him when testing would begin again. “Oh, we’ve already stopped testing for the day. As soon as we do a certain amount of tests, that’s it. Come back tomorrow.”
So I went to Walgreens and bought one of those $25 home kits. I was negative for COVID and I’m doing the second test today to be sure.
From someone who works in a doctor’s office, yeah testing sucks.
If you’re lucky they’ll have a testing site for the masses listed on the local health department webpage. If not you will have to schedule one at a pharmacy or something which could be days out.
We’ve got immunocompromised patients who can’t get PCR tests for as many as four days out, and that’s with a STAT doctor’s order which is about the best we can do.
Note also that under federal law testing is still free if ordered by a doctor, under Section 6001 of the Families First Act.
~Max
This is what gets me with these stories, and other similar medical/insurance/testing stories. It’s always like it’s the first time any of the people in the doctor’s office, at the insurance company, or at the testing center have ever encountered this situation before. “We don’t know what to do,” “I’m not sure what the next step is,” “I don’t know what form the insurance needs,” “what is the referral supposed to say?” etc.
I call the insurance company, “how do I get covered service?” “We’re not sure.”
I call the doctor, “I need a referral for covered service” “We don’t know how to do that.”
I call the provider for covered service, “what do I need to get treated and have it paid by very popular insurance?” “We don’t know.”
People that do work in the medical area, what am I missing? I understand some of it with Covid, that things are constantly changing, but I’d think that if you work with the same insurance company on lots of patients, you’d sort of figure out what the procedures are.
Referrals are different for every insurance provider and sometimes even for different plans under the same insurance company. Sometimes they have to be done through a web portal and sometimes they have to be done by the PCP and sometimes we have to actually call up the insurer and ask them for the okay.
You may have better luck asking for the order on a prescription pad or letterhead. As I wrote above with a doctor’s order the test is free for you according to federal law, your insurer’s preferences be damned.
~Max
There are little manned stalls five minutes’ walk from me in either direction that give you as many as you want, and Boots and other pharmacies will also give you them. No ID asked for or needed. Loads of people I know have to take them twice a week for work.
Of course, it might mean that we have higher positive test rates than areas where people can’t easily get tested.
Federal law still requires insurers to cover testing at no cost to the patient when there is a medical reason for seeking care, such as exposure to the disease or a display of symptoms. But more of the tests sought now don’t meet the definition of “medical reason” and are instead for monitoring.
The federal rules that make coronavirus testing free include exemptions for routine workplace and school testing, which has become more common as students head back to the classroom and as companies mandate regular testing for unvaccinated workers.
Because insurers are not required to cover that regular testing, some patients have already received testing bills as high as $200 for routine screenings, according to documents that patients have submitted to a New York Times project tracking the costs of Covid testing and treatment.
Rebecca Riley recently received a $200 bill from a laboratory with an unfamiliar name. When she called to inquire about the charge, she learned it was a fee for a Covid test. Her son, a high school student, is regularly tested at his Los Angeles-area high school.
“I didn’t expect to get any bills,” she said. “I feel stupid, but I’d heard the tests were free.”
Also:
And insurers are now treating Covid more like any other disease, no longer fully covering the costs of care.
Maybe it’ll help convince people to get vaxxed…
Read this again and just realized they tried to deny him coverage after a POSITIVE test!?!? Am I reading right? So they tried to argue that getting a test for a disease he had wasn’t medically necessary?
EDIT: Also I don’t know your current situation but I hope you both make a full recovery.
The thing that’s really frustrating is when there’s a miscommunication between insurance and the doctor and the patient has be the go-between. While they might be extremely sick.
@needscoffee and some others: It’s pretty obvious that the private insurance model just doesn’t work with a pandemic. Insurance companies generally stay in business by only paying out the bare minimum they’re contractually or legally obliged to pay out, with the exception of preventative medicine. Something like a covid test where essentially you are protecting the rest of the public is just going to have tons of holes if private insurance has to pay. And obviously insurnace, especially with them having some legal obligation works to an extent, but people just being willing to pay out of pocket or local governments setting up free tests has had to fill in the gaps. Not to mention people who don’t have insurance. And ultimately a lot of people in the bottom 50% fall through the cracks (which winds up affecting everyone).
Yes, you read that right. I was wrong about the count, though. First he tested positive for COVID and they told him that it was safe for him to just count 10 days from the onset of his illness (which was 14 days prior to his first test) and then he could call himself cured and go about his daily life.
I wasn’t happy about that, so 10 days later, he got tested again. Positive again. A week later, he tested negative. I forgot about his middle test.
About 6 weeks later, I felt like I had a summer cold, but because delta was out and about, I got tested. Positive. I made hubs get tested because he was doing a lot more hacking and sneezing than me. Positive.
2 weeks later, I got tested and came up negative. He got tested a week later and was also negative.
Looks like we are going to be doing this insurance/billing dance for a very long time because he got an EOB for the second positive test today and owes $258.00. He’s stressing. I’m smoking weed. Smoking pot doesn’t solve any problems, but it helps me not care about them.
Thank you also for the good wishes. I am feeling fine and credit that to me being fully vaccinated. Hubs still can’t get hard, and he is having problems with math. The same math he did for a living for over 40 years.
Jesus that’s fucking nuts.
Good to hear your health is in good shape. Rough to hear about your husband.
I have a whole lot of mixed feelings about this. He’s my husband. I love him. It makes me sad to see him like this, but it really is his fault because he refused to get jabbed or take any precautions. Long story short, the only reason he’s vaccinated now is because he didn’t want me to spend almost 3 grand on another Kovid Kitten.
Yes, I think that is becoming pretty apparent, just from this thread. Where I am, everyone gets a PCR test if they have the slightest sniffle or have come into contact with someone who has it, just to be on the safe side - you can get a PCR test delivered next day to your home, or just book into a walk-in or drive-through testing centre (same day). People take the rapid tests really frequently for work and school. I’ve got several boxes of the things.
You could have just said
Sick people aren’t in the best position to negotiate benefits in general.