<p>I wonder if the insurance plans of these Catholic organizations cover erectile dysfunction meds.
PATheatermom - yes!</p>
<p>Every drug is not available at cvs. Welcome to the world of specialty drugs, where one fights every year to get authorized, even for conditions such as CF, CP, chromosomal conditions that will never change, etc. Then it’s fighting to get the med delivered timely each month. Monthly co-pays of $200+. I find it difficult to get worked up over a drug that is available for $15-20/month, less if you put the $ in a FSA account. I do find it easy to get worked up over more and more and more gov’t intervention. Would someone really choose a different employer over $200/yr.?</p>
<p>I understand those of you that are using bc for other purposes, but what type of % of bc use is that? It has to be very miniscule.</p>
<p>Someone said what if your health organization is bought out by a Catholic hospital? What’s the difference between that employer and any other being bought out and having different coverage? Also, lots of factories change health insurance plans every year (and correspondingly, what they do and do not cover).</p>
<p>I don’t see much difference between not covering bc and any/all of the other “exclusions”. I just read our policy book and there are 5 pages of exclusions, many of which appear to be medically necessary conditions. This is a large factory employer, not some tinsy group with horrible coverage.</p>
<p>I’d also like to see the link where individual coverage is cheaper than a group plan. I find that difficult to believe. Many of my clients are self-employed and they are paying $15,000-20,000 for a family policy with a high deductible, little preventative care and crappy coverage.</p>
<p>S graduated from a Catholic univ. It simply was not the nightmare a few interviewed students are making it out to be.</p>
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<p>Ours just went up to 20K per year for our family plan, probably due to DH’s cancer history and the fact that this year I had six very expensive treatments and finally, surgery for my neck problems. We also have a high deductible.</p>
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<p>Are physicians at Georgetown University’s student health clinic, or Georgetown hospital, authorized by the university to prescribe BC pills for students and employees? Does the latest federal policy have anything to say about this? If I’m not mistaken, the university still can set a policy that its physicians may not prescribe BC pills to students. However, if it offers a student health insurance policy, the insurer must cover the cost of BC products (the pills or device). Must the insurer also cover the cost of the visit to a prescribing doctor, whether or not the student must go off campus for the service?</p>
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<p>I don’t have the studies, but I highly doubt it’s that miniscule. I had far more friends who were on birth control than were sexually active in high school. I’ve been on birth control, and was not sexually active at the time. If you go to your doctor about menstrual cramps, it’s pretty much the first prescription they offer, and that’s only one non-contraceptive purpose.</p>
<p>[Many</a> Women Use the Pill for Reasons Other Than Birth Control | Healthland | TIME.com](<a href=“http://healthland.time.com/2011/11/16/many-women-use-the-pill-for-reasons-other-than-birth-control/]Many”>Many Women Use the Pill for Reasons Other Than Birth Control | TIME.com)</p>
<p>According to this, 58% use the pill at least in part for other purposes. 14% solely for non contraceptive purposes. I don’t think that’s miniscule.</p>
<p>Thanks for the links. You’re right. It is much higher than I would have guessed.</p>
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<p>Possibly. And, DD’s public college in a state with medical marijuana may not prescribe nor fill these prescriptions. So? Go else where.</p>
<p>DH had a blood work lab slip. I suggested he also get a CRP test. Since it was not checked on the lab slip - I checked it. A very common, covered and non emotional/moral laden test. When the lab tech saw it - she said DH’s DR. NEVER does these tests since he has concerns with the interpretation of the results. So, I guess DH must now find another Dr. - or get the Feds involved. Yes, sometimes a solution takes a bit of personal initiative. I would hope Georgetown students could summon enough to solve this particular issue - they DID after all gain admission to GT.</p>
<p>dietze, 136</p>
<p>net price health insurance. We are investigating for Medicare, and there is some uniform price disclosure. But the otherside is that the medical Providers are prohibited from disclosing how much they are being reimbursed and which company gives them less hassles.</p>
<p>As a consumer, which would you have,: Happy insurance companies are happy doctors and nurses?</p>
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<p>TatinG, I read that article too. Here’s an excerpt:
[Birth</a> control hard to come by at Fordham University - Los Angeles Times](<a href=“http://articles.latimes.com/2012/feb/10/nation/la-na-fordham-20120211]Birth”>Birth control hard to come by at Fordham University)</p>
<p>We have no idea of the details of the situations described. That said, yes, law school is expensive. A student paying $45k a year for tuition plus living expenses and medical insurance might in fact be living under a strict budget. When the university itself says that it will cover birth control that is prescribed for health issues, and then does not do so–well, I can entirely understand the frustration. </p>
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<p>Not hereabouts (California). We need a membership.</p>
<p>The New York state law requiring coverage went to the Supreme Court and the Court refused to hear it. The makeup of the Court is different now of course. The New York Supreme Court relied on a Supreme Court decision Employment Division v Smith in which the Court speaks to religious exemption to generally applicable laws. Scalia wrote the majority opinion - </p>
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<p>and </p>
<p><a href=“Laws”>quote</a>are made for the government of actions, and while they cannot interfere with mere religious belief and opinions, they may with practices. . . . Can a man excuse his practices to the contrary because of his religious belief? To permit this would be to make the professed doctrines of religious belief superior to the law of the land, and in effect to permit every citizen to become a law unto himself.
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<p>So the distinction may be whether abstaining from birth control is a practice or a belief or somewhere in between.</p>
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<p>Well, your particular medical provider may not be able to provide that information, but if you know someone in health care, can’t you just ask them? </p>
<p>We changed from United Healthcare last year to BC/BS this year, based on something a couple of my friends said to me regarding UHC and their reimbursement difficulty. When I was still working in health care, I probably could have asked our finance director which provider has been the easiest to deal with and gotten an answer (that BC/BS is easier). I will say when we did switch, I found out a couple of my out-of-network providers all of a sudden became in-network. To me, when a provider chooses not to participate in a certain plan, that says a lot. Unfortunately it took me many years to figure this out.</p>
<p>Now that we are BC/BS, and as I’ve had appointments in this new year and have to update my insurance information at visits, I’ve always gotten positive responses from the office staff. It costs a bit more, but my initial experiences are telling me its worth it.</p>
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I assume you mean ‘abstaining from providing coverage for birth control’ as we have not yet reached the point where actually USING birth control is a mandate.</p>
<p>Slithey: You absolutely do NOT need a Costco membership in the state of CA to utilize either the pharmacy or the opthamology services. It is against state law to require a membership - just state at the door you are going to the pharmacy and they let you in. (Just called to triple verify this fact).</p>
<p>LongPrime:
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<p>Medicare payments are set for providers based on location - Suburban/Urban/Rural. So, you can have provider in an area which could possibly have been considered rural 50 years ago still receiving reduced payments while the provider just across the street in and ‘urban’ area receives a considerably higher compensation.</p>
<p>As a consumer you are able to access medicare reimbursement rates by googling the CPT code and your area code. Medicare is often touted as a successful and provider loved single payer system, yet if you dig a bit deeper you’ll find major discontentment in the provider community. I assume the ‘which companies give them less hassle’ refers to Medicare gap/supplemental policies such as Secure Horizons etc. And as a secondary provider these gap policies operate under the same secrecy as regular HS policies. So, I still want to see a NPC for the gap providers since the Medicare rates are available.</p>
<p>“You can make all the practical and public policy arguments you all want. The fact of the matter is that the Supreme Court will undoubtedly hold that requiring a church to violate its beliefs is unconstitutional.”</p>
<p>Actually, quite the contrary. This is pretty much settled law, especially in Scalia’s decision in Employment Div. v. Smith.</p>
<p>GMTA, teriwtt. ;)</p>
<p>Thank you LasMa, although you may need to refract your post since I had to look up GMTA!</p>
<p>Thank God for internet lingo websites!</p>
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<p>Yes, you’re right. The Court would look at whether contributing monetarily towards the purchase of something is a belief or merely an activity. I would argue that if the church can refuse to contribute towards insurance to buy something then why is it much of a leap for Catholics to refuse to pay taxes in a state that has the death penalty since a portion of those taxes support state mandated homicide? That’s when you slip over into Scalia’s warning that “every citizen become a law unto himself.” Quakers would have a great argument to not pay taxes at all since much of it goes towards supporting war efforts.</p>
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<p>dietz, that’s interesting, because every time I go to our local Costco pharmacy, located way the heck in the back of the store, I’m asked to show my Costco card when paying. We do not have to do so for the opthamology services, which are located at the front of the store. Very odd, and thanks for checking.</p>
<p>They just want you to feel,like you should be a member, Slitheytove.</p>