Well my back continues to trouble me. I still can’t stand up straight, sit or walk for more than a short time, and am barely able to work. I’m just grateful that I have the kind of job that allows me to work while laying on my stomach. I’d like to see my doctor do that!
And what the hell is wrong with Healthnet?! They were great when I had to spend 2 weeks in the hospital earlier this year. That was a $100K bill I didn’t have to pay! But now I’m just going out of my mind. [the sorted details are to follow…]
I first have to visit my general doctor (who is only approved to dole out either prescription drugs or x-rays). So I’m first sent off for a round of x-rays. That is an amazing process since I have to drive now into town for the x-rays at a different hospital. Since I can’t sit or stand in the waiting room, they had to get me a stretcher so I could lay in the hallway and get laughed at by all the people walking by. I was hoping to take the x-rays with me back to the doctor but, as it turns out, the process works like this: the x-rays are developed by radiology and then walked over to some sort of “x-ray analyst” that reviews the images and sends the findings back to my general doctor. Evidently, this takes about 3 days to process. In the mean time, I’m losing about $200/day not getting paid -and not getting any real treatment for my condition. Now I am allowed to return to my doctor where he reads off the findings from the x-rays and tells me that there is nothing out of the normal showing which means I get to visit some other sort of specialist now…
So the transfer goes something like this: I am refered to a specialist (an orthopedic doctor) who first send the paperwork back since it didn’t have any x-ray shots in them. After the refereal was re-sent, my name gets put into a computer that takes 24 hrs. to process for some reason before I can actually make an appointment. Now I’m finally set with my new doctor for January 10th! I’ve sent complaints to Healthnet as I’m not able to sit, walk, drive, work, or fuck for that matter and now have to wait another 3 weeks before I get to be refered yet again for another appointment with probably an MRI shot. Now I understand that they just can’t go around requesting MRI’s for anything under the sun but do they actually understand that they’re basically denying me “treatment” for what will probably be 2 months because of their “processing”? Hell, I’ll be lucky to have a job at all to be able to afford the $400/month for their so-called “coverage”. I’m looking hard to find a quick solution to this problem but I’m considering driving by the CEO of Helthnet and having myself a little “chat” (ok maybe I’ll just send them a bunch of emails). I’m sure I’m going to be finding another health insurance company after this little affair… God help me.