Bloggin' Umholtz

The Rest of the Story

I promised you a follow up to Flummoxed. Here it is.

My wife uses oxygen at night to sleep. The machine that provides it is leased from a medical supply place and paid for by our insurance. When we moved, the medical supply place came and got the machine and we were instructed to contact our new medical equipment supplier upon our arrival in Harrisburg. Enter Praxair again. My wife called and was told that in order to get a new machine she would have to go for another sleep study because that’s the only way the insurance would cover it. That was in November! She just now got the appointment with the neurologist and because I’ll be out of town she has to reschedule.

What has gone wrong here?

The insurance company has actually and effectively stopped her treatment. What gives an insurance company the right to do that? What gives them the right to overrule a physician?

We complain about rising health costs and often we blame the doctors and the hospitals. In both my case and my wife’s, our doctors back in Ebensburg have been extremely cooperative in trying to get our needs met. It is the insurance company that has thrown up the roadblocks… and in so doing will actually be spending more money for doctors appointments and sleep studies that are not needed. My wife has had several studies over the last two years and while it has been awhile since I’ve had one, my apnea is doing just fine with my current cpap machine and setting.

So Like I said in my last entry I am completely and utterly flummoxed. By giving control of our health care to non-medical professionals we are actually increasing our insurance costs. This has got to change. Healthcare in this country has become a complete and total disaster. Sad but true.