Comments on: A Supportive Medical Team is Apparently a Luxury Item Not Covered by Health Insurance http://dancingwithpain.com/a-supportive-medical-team-is-apparently-a-luxury-item-outside-medical-coverage/ Tue, 09 Mar 2010 22:33:16 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 hourly 1 By: Tracey @ I'm Not Superhuman http://dancingwithpain.com/a-supportive-medical-team-is-apparently-a-luxury-item-outside-medical-coverage/comment-page-1/#comment-9558 Tracey @ I'm Not Superhuman Mon, 26 Oct 2009 14:49:19 +0000 http://dancingwithpain.com/?p=1274#comment-9558 Wow, I feel like you’re living my life! I have chronic knee pain, and during the summer of 2008 my doctor set me up with a fantastic physical therapist. Things were going great, my knee pain was lessening thanks to the strengthening my physical therapist was doing. Each visit she would check my knees again to see if and how they were improving. She’d use a cold laser to tackle inflammation. And she’d modify my exercises depending on how my knees were feeling that day. As my strength increased, she’d add a new exercise or modify an old one. I really, really was improving.   But every month I was required to fill out a progress report for the insurance company. It would ask ridiculous things like, Rate your pain from 0 to 10. As if I know the difference between a 6 and 7. After 32 sessions, my insurance said I was cut off. But my plan (which, by the way, I pay for each month out of my pay check, thank you very much!) allots 60 physical therapy visits per year. I was only at the halfway point.   My physical therapist sent in a request for me to continue treatment, and asked me to fib on the progress report. (Just put a 4, she said, because it’ll look like you’re healing faster.) After a lot of back and forth, I was rejected. According to some man in some desk in some town far, far away, I wasn’t healing fast enough. (As if I didn’t already know that! I’m the one dealing with the pain after all!!) My physical therapist petitioned them again with not luck. My doctor said he couldn’t do anything since they don’t take a doctor’s opinion into account on recovery matters.   Needless to say, the whole process was infuriating. My doctor and physical therapist—both of whom had seen me and  examined me—understood the physical therapy was helping, if slowly. But, as my physical therapist said, my condition isn’t something that will just heal overnight. Even so, none of that matters. What matters is that my stupid progress reports didn’t note change fast enough.   I’m sorry you’re going through this too. Now I try to keep up on my PT as much as possible (I had to join a gym to have all of the equipment I need, and even now I still can’t do certain exercises) but don’t have someone adjusting PT as needed. Wow, I feel like you’re living my life! I have chronic knee pain, and during the summer of 2008 my doctor set me up with a fantastic physical therapist. Things were going great, my knee pain was lessening thanks to the strengthening my physical therapist was doing. Each visit she would check my knees again to see if and how they were improving. She’d use a cold laser to tackle inflammation. And she’d modify my exercises depending on how my knees were feeling that day. As my strength increased, she’d add a new exercise or modify an old one. I really, really was improving.
 
But every month I was required to fill out a progress report for the insurance company. It would ask ridiculous things like, Rate your pain from 0 to 10. As if I know the difference between a 6 and 7. After 32 sessions, my insurance said I was cut off. But my plan (which, by the way, I pay for each month out of my pay check, thank you very much!) allots 60 physical therapy visits per year. I was only at the halfway point.
 
My physical therapist sent in a request for me to continue treatment, and asked me to fib on the progress report. (Just put a 4, she said, because it’ll look like you’re healing faster.) After a lot of back and forth, I was rejected. According to some man in some desk in some town far, far away, I wasn’t healing fast enough. (As if I didn’t already know that! I’m the one dealing with the pain after all!!) My physical therapist petitioned them again with not luck. My doctor said he couldn’t do anything since they don’t take a doctor’s opinion into account on recovery matters.
 
Needless to say, the whole process was infuriating. My doctor and physical therapist—both of whom had seen me and  examined me—understood the physical therapy was helping, if slowly. But, as my physical therapist said, my condition isn’t something that will just heal overnight. Even so, none of that matters. What matters is that my stupid progress reports didn’t note change fast enough.
 
I’m sorry you’re going through this too. Now I try to keep up on my PT as much as possible (I had to join a gym to have all of the equipment I need, and even now I still can’t do certain exercises) but don’t have someone adjusting PT as needed.

]]> By: Sara Firman http://dancingwithpain.com/a-supportive-medical-team-is-apparently-a-luxury-item-outside-medical-coverage/comment-page-1/#comment-9555 Sara Firman Mon, 26 Oct 2009 14:00:28 +0000 http://dancingwithpain.com/?p=1274#comment-9555 Loolwa - I have just been led to your blog via your excellent AARP article.  I want you to know that I have subscribed and will read more.  Your story is important and shocking. Next month I shall be speaking at a Conference in Chicago to physical therapists who work in the water.  I myself am an practitioner of <em>alternative</em> aquatic therapy. I want to share with these clinicians the aspects of  'alternatives' that science (and insurance) are leaving out of their service to people in need, to the people they serve. Your story adds another piece for me.  I will do what I can in my own arena to help.  So glad to discover you.  So deeply sorry to hear of all you have had to face and continue to face. With respect and care, Sara Loolwa – I have just been led to your blog via your excellent AARP article.  I want you to know that I have subscribed and will read more.  Your story is important and shocking.
Next month I shall be speaking at a Conference in Chicago to physical therapists who work in the water.  I myself am an practitioner of alternative aquatic therapy.
I want to share with these clinicians the aspects of  ‘alternatives’ that science (and insurance) are leaving out of their service to people in need, to the people they serve.
Your story adds another piece for me.  I will do what I can in my own arena to help.  So glad to discover you.  So deeply sorry to hear of all you have had to face and continue to face.
With respect and care, Sara

]]> By: Florence Mathieu-Conner http://dancingwithpain.com/a-supportive-medical-team-is-apparently-a-luxury-item-outside-medical-coverage/comment-page-1/#comment-9499 Florence Mathieu-Conner Fri, 23 Oct 2009 15:51:13 +0000 http://dancingwithpain.com/?p=1274#comment-9499 Hello Loolwa, I am currently helping a British lady moving to Tel Aviv to find an doctor specializing in treating chronic pain. Could you make any recommendations for her? You can email them to me and I will pass them along to her. Thanks a lot for your time, and I hope you feel better every day! Florence Hello Loolwa,

I am currently helping a British lady moving to Tel Aviv to find an doctor specializing in treating chronic pain. Could you make any recommendations for her? You can email them to me and I will pass them along to her. Thanks a lot for your time, and I hope you feel better every day!

Florence

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