Insurance frustration

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Certainly talk to your doctor but they don't do much if anything with the payment or insurance angle. Id ask to have a meeting with the insurance scheduler.

Just glad you got the appointment but sickening you've suffered all this time and that as well as the cavalier attitude of the doctors staff need to be addressed but since he/or she is performing a skilled task on you I'd suggest make a separate appointment for that so it doesn't distract from the operation of botoxing

 

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@ltapilot I’ve had a similar problem with a new, brand-name-only oral medication since September. I had a $45 co-pay for all of 2022, but then they quit paying for any of it in September, October, and November with zero explanation, but then they paid for it in December - again, no explanation for the change. It costs $1,000/month out-of-pocket. Now after all my battling, my co-pay is $300 (while most of my costs are $0, $4, etc.), but I just barely got the medication a few days ago and I’ve been fighting a battle for all this time. I couldn’t afford another $1,000 this month so I went for 10 days without my medication while I fought the entities and sat on hood for 10 hours over 10 days. I was told all kinds of lies and conflicting information by both my doctor, her PA, my pharmacy, and my insurance company. It was a huge hassle and a medication that by suddenly stopping, I could have had seizures. One pharmacist told me it was because she herself required to speak with my doctor to approve it. But the next day a different pharmacist was working, and he put it straight through! Explain that! I’m not looking forward to the mess again in a few weeks’ time.

Most of the time the stupid system works but when there are these flukes, they are true time-and-energy sucks and nightmares. The thousands of dollars I’ve had to spend on the medication came from hard-earned, overtime-work money I’d saved to pay for my time off from work after my knee replacements. Now I don’t think I’ll be able to get the surgeries in 2023 and I am furious. Yet we have zero power in these situations, except to go without.

Still, on the bright side, at least we have our Botox coverage in the long run, we live in a country where we *can* get Botox, and we have the kind of bladder problem that responds well to Botox (not common!). In that regard, we are exceptionally lucky compared to some of our friends here.

Thank you for pointing out that Botox injections are scheduled as a surgery. That’svsomething important for people who want to try it, but haven’t had it yet, to know. Even though Botox injections are mostly done outpatient in the United States, Botox is serious business and in most other countries it’s a full-sedation procedure. But it is a miracle!

I think you should consider changing doctors’ offices. Or, give them one more chance, but that’s it.

Good luck with your shots in the near future!

 

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@snow, that's horrible what they've done with your medication! There's so much in our medical system that's just not right, but I guess these companies realize that we as indicia have limited power so there aren't likely to be repercussions to the company if they maltreatment us.

I'm fighting to try to get a medication that my gastroenterologist has prescribed for the fatigue that is part of my liver disease. He prescribed 50 mg a day, but told me to double it after a week if it wasn't helping enough. I did that, and had him call in the updated prescription. Now, though, my insurance won't pay for it until the end of the month because they say I'm trying to refill the prescription too soon - and never mind that I went through the original prescription much faster than expected because I took it according to my doctor's instructions, or that the pharmacy has the new prescription showing the increased dose. I'm out of the medication now, and won't be able to get more for another week and a half unless I want to pay for it out of pocket. So it's back to being exhausted all the time, which is NOT what I'm paying all this money for to have insurance!

I got you're able to get your medication covered at a more reasonable level!

 

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It's ridiculous that it requires us to be on a hamster wheel making a living to pay for living not to mention possibly over medicated. Because without the insurance what would the doctors prescribe? Or not?

 

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I finally, finally got my Botox today. I'm quite certain that the problem with insurance was with his office, but he told me that they'd done everything right and it was the insurance company's fault. Considering that as soon as his office had a different person work on the paperwork, it took just a few days to get it approved (and at the larger 200 unit dose), I think it's pretty clear that it was a problem on his end. If it happens again, I'll find a different urologist.

I think his office is understaffed. I stood at the counter for fifteen minutes before one of their people showed up to check in patients (there were half a dozen of us waiting in line by then). The doctor was asking the tech if I was ready as soon as I'd been taken back to the room, when she was still going over my meds.

At the end of the appointment, I had a really weird experience where the tech came back in to clean the room while I was still in there, and she told me to just go ahead and get dressed while she got the room ready for the next patient. I'm still putting together my thoughts on that, and it's probably a topic for a separate post anyway. But it was strange - I've never been asked to get dressed while others were still in the room.

 

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Congratulations on your Botox! It is not a treatment I will be brave enough to do but having worked in the medical side of such an office I think you're right understaffed and incompetent in the insurance handling at the office