Posted by drummer (209.105.132.103) on December 15, 1999 at 18:06:59:
In Reply to: UPDATE: BC/BS backsliding on me posted by gary g on December 15, 1999 at 14:45:04:
Hi Gary,
I understand and respect your frustration with Health Insurance Companies. I’ve had the same frustrations myself.
Insurance Companies will ALMOST always want to RE-VERIFY the need for supplies and SOMETIMES medications. I think in the long run it is in OUR best interest to supply OUR Health Insurance Company with the list of medicines and supplies that WE have tried and the BENEFITS associated with use in the treatment of Cluster Headaches. This gives them all the important information they require to make their policies. HOPEFULLY with the information that WE and OUR doctors can provide on the BENEFITS of Oxygen and other medicines it will pave the road for easier access for US and others in the future. Do NOT assume your insurance company knows all there is to know about the treatment of Cluster Headaches, but be happy that they are asking.
I will again post the link to how I EDUCATE my Health Insurance Company year after year after year with the help of my Neurologist. Again, this is important to ALL Cluster Headache sufferers. Just because I am educating BC/BS in New York doesn’t mean that BC/BS in Maine or in Tennessee or in Maryland will also have the same EDUCATION. It is important that we ALL EDUCATE every Health Insurance Company out there.
I would also like to add that the Pharmaceutical Companies set the price for medicines NOT the Health Insurance Companies. For example, Glaxo Wellcome sets the price for Imitrex injections at an amount of money. NO ONE regulates what amount that Glaxo can set this price. Currently the price for an Imitrex injection is $110.42. The profit margin for Glaxo on Imitrex is HUGE! The Health Insurance Company is simply the “middle man” that WE pay a premium to that is forced to pay the price for Imitrex. The ONLY way to lower OUR premium with the Health Insurance Company is to get Pharmaceutical Companies to lower their price of medicines.
Why everyone is “beating up” the “middle man” is beyond me. In my humble opinion, it is the Pharmaceutical Companies that make Health Insurance premiums go up and make Health Insurance Companies RE-VERIFY medicines that shouldn’t be RE-VERIFIED. An Imitrex injection costs far less than $110.42 to make. (average wholesale).
One more example why the Health Insurance Company MUST RE-VERIFY medicines. There was a famous singer who was getting Oxygen to make himself younger. He was having his Health Insurance Company pay for this treatment. When the Health Insurance Company found out that it was complete and utter bullshit that this “Oxygen Treatment” was NOT working to make this famous singer younger they immediately stopped paying. This was good for US. This made OUR premiums go down. Thank goodness the Health Insurance Company RE-VERIFIED this idiotic singers “ Oxygen treatment”.