Insurance

Cass didn't have school again today. It didn't snow again, but it never warmed up enough for the ice to melt. She had fun playing in the snow while I got to sleep in, which of course I loved. The rest of the day was pretty relaxing. The three of us watched a movie together and then I ventured out to get stuff to clean the guinea pig cage and to return movies. The rest of the day I pretty much just relaxed. It was very nice. The only issue we had today was in dealing with the insurance company. We had tried to refill Randy's prescription for the seizure medication that he takes for nerve pain. The pharmacist put it through to insurance and the insurance company and the insurance company said they show his coverage expired 12/31/06. I had signed him up for coverage through Cobra a few days ago. Through 2 phone calls and talking to 3 different people, I found out that, with Cobra, you have to actually make your first payment before they will begin covering everything. They just sent out the bill in the mail to me today. I offered to pay over the phone, but they only accept payments through the mail. At that point, I lost my temper a bit. I wasn't mean to the lady, but explained in a very strong tone that Randy needed seizure medication, which is very expensive, and if anyone had explained to me that the first bill had to paid before anything would be covered I would have sent off payment when I first signed up.

The lady was taken aback a bit by the sudden change in my tone. She began looking at our account (we have been paying for insurance for the last few months). Since they bill in advance and I have been paying a little bit more than what we have been billed each month, we have almost paid for what they would be billing us for. The lady ended up getting her manager to review the account and approve her to activate our account. It should hopefully all be through the system by tomorrow when we go to pick up the medication.

Yesterday I had a battle with the company that pays out the disability. Part of our car insurance policy was to take whatever Randy got paid with his disability and supplement it to bring his paycheck to 85%. of his previous pay. What the disability company did, though, was to deduct what the car insurance company was giving us to bring back down to the 50%. I didn't win that battle.

On days that I have had to deal with issues such as insurance, disability pay, and trying to get Randy into to see various doctors such as the Neuropyshologist, I get frustrated with how the medical world seems to operate. Over the last few months, though, I have read quite a few stories of others who have gone through the TBI experience either because of their own injuries or because of family members. In reading those, I have found that we are incredibly fortunate. The battles we have had to have, have been minor in comparison. There was an article in the paper a few days ago about many people who have struggled to get insurance to even pay for therapy for them. Many got flat out denied and others were limited in the number of therapy sessions they could have. The therapy is such a huge part of the recovery process. I can't imagine where Randy would be at today without all of the therapy he has received over the last 6 months. We have been very fortunate indeed.