Fucking HMOs

The BBQ Pit
1

As if THAT’S anything new.

Some of you may know the depression I’ve been trying to fight off for a while came to a head the past couple of days, so I decided to make an appointment with a head shrinker this afternoon. Fortunately, my employer offers this nifty little thing called “Employee Assistance Program”. This allows anyone to visit a shrink three times for free at one particular mental health center.

Problem #1: My employer does not include this particular center on its “inside the network” (or whatever the hell it’s called) service. This means that after the inital 3 visits I have to cover the $200 deductible and approximately $18-10 per visit after the initial visits. Now what fucking kind of logic is THAT shit!

Problem #2: The two mental health clinics that ARE included in my employer’s network thingy are booked til at least September. Oh, yeah, I’m studying the survivability of a crash in my make and model of car and I wanna wait til September to see someone. Fuck.

Problem #3: I really liked the chick I talked to today. Unfortunately she’s a M.S.W. and L.I.C.S.W. but NOT a M.D., which means she can’t prescribe head drugs.

Problem #4: My inside the network clinics are booked til 3 August. Hence no head drugs til then. And I don’t EVEN want to get into how many people I told my story to as I was sobbing while they transferred me back and forth trying to fit me in.

Some of this is my fault, I’m sure. If I had a regular doc I could call him/her to do a scrip over the phone; unfortunately I’ve been to a doc maybe twice in the past 5 years. And I COULD go to an out-of-network provider but I don’t have the cash. And if I have to pay that co-pay I REALLY won’t have the cash.

And you know what’s pissing me off the most? If I called one of those fucking clinics and told them I’ve had a temp of 103 for the past three days and my lower back hurts, they’d have me in for a consult and write me a scrip for antibiotics so fast it would make your head spin. Of course, I don’t have a temp; I’ve just been bawling for 3 days - not nearly the same thing.

2

That’s it. It’s time our government declared war on the HMOs.

3

Not enough “goat-felching” in my OP?

Come on, people, some sympathy please! :wink:

4

Well, you pretty much covered it all…

5

I don’t know this is a solution for your problem, but many areas have mental health clinics that have fees on a sliding scale. They don’t always have MDs at these clinics. But it does give you someone to talk to, without the month long wait. Maybe you could look into that?

pat

6

I feel your pain and anger, Sandyr.

When my brother was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, he had Group Health. His doctor basically said “You have pancreatic cancer, go home and die.”

Rob had Group Health. (In my family, we now call it “Group Death” BTW.)

We decided that he should go to this hotshot tumor clinic at the U of W in Seattle. This was not on the GH network. No problem, we figured he could go and we would pay the difference between what they pay their providers, and what the new Doctor charged.

No dice, baby. If you are not a “preferred provider,” you get paid zilch.

We decided to go anyway. When he saw the new Doc, his white blood cell count was astronomical, and they admitted him to a hospital in Seattle that was also not on GH’s network. We are talking a $13,000 bill.

Fortunately, the Doc Rob saw knew a guy in my town who WAS on the network, and instructed him as to what chemotherapy protocal to follow. He died anyway, but at least we did everything we could.

I think that GH and HMO’s like them are fine as long as you do not get seriously ill. If that happens, you might as well pick out your casket and buy a cemetary plot.

Sorry you are not doing well, and I hope you are able to get some help. Depression is a serious problem, and sometimes it is a chemical imbalance that can be easily corrected with drugs.

Hang in there, honey, and find some help SOMEHOW. The world is a scary place to live, but there are alot of wonderful people to meet, and places to see. You just haven’t run into them yet.

Life is worth fighting for.

Scotti

7

Thanks for the advice.

I did a little calling around yesterday to see if I could figure out if such a thing exists in my area, and you were right - there ARE a couple of clincs that have a sliding scale. I’ll let you guess which two have it :mad:

8

According to some friends of mine who are kinda in the same boat, the two best words you can say to the EAP people are “I’m suicidal”. Doesn’t matter if you are or aren’t. Those’ll get you in real quick.

Robin

9

Could you just go to a Doc in the Box and get your old prescription refilled for a couple weeks? Just about any corner Med Stop has an MD that should be able to help you out. Tell him you can’t stop dreaming about Barry Manilow. Tell him you’re thinking of getting another piercing. Do it up right with the really pale makeup, purple eyes, shallow breathing, haggard look, etc and he ought to hand you a bag of Prozak big enough to make a rhino dance. It’s worth a shot.

10

The cure for HMO’s is requiring all the officers and legal teams to use the same services and wait in the same lines.
If we could pass a law requiring that, the system would shape up in no time.

11

Alternatively, the richest and most powerful country in the world might consider using some of that wealth to install an actual medicare system.