There are lots of new members! If you’re new to the community, introduce yourself! Feel free to explain why you joined and what you think is wrong with the healthcare system, and anything else you would like to add.

There are lots of new members! If you’re new to the community, introduce yourself! Feel free to explain why you joined and what you think is wrong with the healthcare system, and anything else you would like to add.

There are lots of new members! If you’re new to the community, introduce yourself! Feel free to explain why you joined and what you think is wrong with the healthcare system, and anything else you would like to add.

There are lots of new members! If you’re new to the community, introduce yourself! Feel free to explain why you joined and what you think is wrong with the healthcare system, and anything else you would like to add.

There are lots of new members! If you’re new to the community, introduce yourself! Feel free to explain why you joined and what you think is wrong with the healthcare system, and anything else you would like to add.

There are lots of new members! If you’re new to the community, introduce yourself! Feel free to explain why you joined and what you think is wrong with the healthcare system, and anything else you would like to add.

There are lots of new members! If you’re new to the community, introduce yourself! Feel free to explain why you joined and what you think is wrong with the healthcare system, and anything else you would like to add.

I freelance for a really big media company and weirdly they pay for part of my health care, which is great because if I had to pay 100% out of pocket for it on my own, it would cost me around $5000 a year. But back to the story. Because this company is paying for a large portion of it but I'm responsible for paying 27.76 per month starting in January 2023.... I need a way to pay the bill and it hasnt come in the mail yet and the month is almost up. So I'm using my Identification number (from the physical health care card) to register a login at the Blue Cross Blue Shield website. It accepted my id number. Now on the next page its asking me to register a username etc. I've met all the green check marks requirements on the "step 2 of 3" page and yet its saying "error". The most generic error! Wont even tell me what the error is. I tried on Firefox, nd Safari and the error persists.

So I called 1-800-313-0983 to get help and I've been connected to a call center who has put me on hold now 1 hour!!!!!! What if i was a fast food worker earning minimum wage who was given a 15 minute break for lunch, and no more then that. jesus what do minimum wage workers do when their bosses wont give them 55+ minutes time off of work to sit on hold? Not everyone has this kind of time to be on hold. they have jobs. and they have bills to pay. Again, I'm a freelancer so now I can't take calls from 2 of my clients that are trying to get a hold of me while I'm on hold with Blue Cross Blue Shield of Illinois trying to get this rectified.

It's wrong of BCBS to connect me to a call center overseas who doesn't know how to fix this, who puts me on hold for over an hour. This needs to be reformed for those freelancers who don't make a lot of money and can't take an hour off to sit on hold. This needs to be reformed for the minimum wage workers who dont have the luxury of sitting on hold for an hour. By the time they get off work, BCBS might have closed for the day so the minimum wage worker cant get this fixed after hours. What a broken system.

UPDATE: I hung up after being on hold for 1 hour 31 minutes. finally got to talk to a rep who sounds like they're not in an overseas call center. She found out that the error was related to me registering a username that contained my full first/last name. but the website doesnt even list that as a restriction when choosing a user name!!!!!! That needs to be listed as a restriction but its not listed!

https://preview.redd.it/stj9vzyyiuda1.jpg?width=2990&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=2b04957f0dc095bf8ad4948f46b084989e9cc66c

Open to anyone, not just healthcare workers. Please join the fight for single payer healthcare.

The Lever: Insurers Are Fighting To Protect Their Medicare Fraud. https://www.levernews.com/insurers-are-fighting-to-protect-their-medicare-fraud/

There are lots of new members! If you’re new to the community, introduce yourself! Feel free to explain why you joined and what you think is wrong with the healthcare system, and anything else you would like to add.

There are lots of new members! If you’re new to the community, introduce yourself! Feel free to explain why you joined and what you think is wrong with the healthcare system, and anything else you would like to add.

My doctor decided to rightfully add TSH and 2 other hormone tests to two of my standard blood test (over two years) and it totaled to this, with healthcare with a full-time job. I am disputing this with insurance and the health clinic to the death, but for real, enough is enough:

https://preview.redd.it/dgousl91q4ba1.png?width=852&format=png&auto=webp&s=2e05866323a801881fc3c214cc7838cff2934053

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Impact litigation can provide a way to sue our government for the uneven distribution of these deaths among subpopulations. The children who have been orphaned need representation.

I was diagnosed with AutoImmune Gastrointestinal Dysmotility in August of 2021 by a doctor at Cleveland Clinic. He ordered IVIG therapy for me which was I was denied coverage of by UnitedHealthcare. My doctor did a peer to peer and submitted a written appeal; both were denied. I passed on the paperwork to our insurance guy to send of to the state for an external appeal by the State of Illinois Department of Insurance Review board. He fucked it up and sent it off to UnitedHealthcare's external review board, which obviously denied my claim.

I continued to see doctors at the University of Louisville in hopes of getting further diagnosis to get treatment. Majority of my tests have come back normal.

I have been trying to get IVIG treatment for 17 months. United Healthcare just yesterday denied my second appeal for coverage of IVIG therapy that was denied in July 2022. They said I don't meet the criteria and that I need to see a neurologist for the specific drug that was prescribed. I seen a Neurologist at the University of Louisville at the end of Sep 2022. My results came back normal.

Dysautonomia International reported in 2019 that early use of IVIG was critical in care and recovery of AGID. People with AGID who had IVIG delays were typically due to insurance, with an average delay of 2.8 months and the longest being 8. I'm at 17 months without any treatment.

I haven't worked since September 2021 due to GI issues, nausea and fatigue that comes along with AGID.

Last year, I was quoted by Credo Pharmaceuticals for a quote if I were to pay for IVIG out of my own pocket. They offered me a 10% out of pocket discount....

For 6 months of IVIG therapy, it was going to cost about $93,000 dollars. That does not include the nurse and supplies they also charge you for to do home care... where a nurse comes by an administers that IVIG drug to you through an IV at your residence. To go to a facility would be even more expensive. I think they said that nurse and supplies would be 450 or 500 dollars a week, for 6 months. It was about another $10,000 in cost for an estimated total of $103,000.00

So I would need to 6 months of IVIG therapy... If I responded well to it. IF I didn't respond well, it would be 3 months of IVIG therapy... so half the cost.

Also, UnitedHealthcare also changed the tier of prescription of the medication I take. I take motegrity daily to move food out of my stomach. I take Amitiza daily to move food through my system. I was diagnosed with gastroparesis in Nov 2020. I was diagnosed with AGID in Aug 2021. I have pernicious anemia that was diagnosed extremely late. When I was 29, I was told I had the stomach lining of an 80 year old man. I was vitamin b-12 deficient that also put me at higher risk for stomach cancer. They have been monitoring intestinal metaplasia in the fundus of my stomach for the last 10 years. I have also been suffering from gastritis for the last 10 years; it started off as acute and has progressed to chronic, atrophic gastritis.

I started taking Motegrity in Dec 202 when I was diagnosed with gastroparesis. For 30 days, it costs 15 dollars. For 90 days, it costs 45 dollars.... until today. I got an email from Walgreens saying a 30 day supply now costs $125. A 90 day supply now costs $312. The change occurred because United Healthcare upgraded Motegrity from a Tier 1 prescription that requires a 10 dollar copay to a Tier 3 prescription that requires a 125 dollar copay.

When I come off Motegrity, I start getting sick.

This seems like price gouging and likely criminal.

United Healthcare made 287.6 billion dollars in 2021; with 22 billion of that in CASH.

https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/731766/000073176622000004/a2021q4exhibit991.htm#:~:text=Full%20year%202021%20earnings%20from,13%25%20to%20%2419.02%20per%20share.

I haven't worked at my family's business since September 2021 due to issues with my AGID. They kept me on payroll until early May 2022. I am still on the company insurance plan.

My emergency fund is long gone and my savings are going fast. Inflation sucks because doctor's bills, medication, rent, bills and groceries don't stop... but my income did.

My whole experience the past 17 months with IVIG denials and my whole 2 years of dealing with gastroparesis and motegrity and amitiza and linzess and UnitedHealthcare has been exhausting.

There's no reason why a sick person should have to fight this hard to get treatment. We need drastic and desperate reform to our healthcare system in this country. We need an enforceable bill of rights for healthcare. We need to get special interests out of healthcare. We need to put people above profits. We need to put healthcare above profits.