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3081

<p>Yes, mommusic. The hospital bills the insurance company by the minute for recovery room time, I’m sure. So the insurance company sets an allowance for each procedure (1 hour for my husband), effectively practicing medicine, but they get around this by pointing out that they are not dictating care but only what they will pay for. </p>

<p>The irony is that this ended up costing the insurance company a bundle. </p>

<p>I agree, Faline, that we should be happy that this week is going better than the last one for LTS!</p>

3082

<p>Now I know why so many people are seeking medical treatment outside the U.S.</p>

3083

<p>Wow, NYmomof2!
I’ve had surgeries and yearly check-ups for which I’ve been under anesthesia and nothing like that has ever happened to me. One of my nurses actually once said that some patients get irritated with the requirement to have someone accompany them and claim the taxi driver as the person doing the accompanying and there is nothing much they can do about it. The nurse was escorting me to the front door where my husband was waiting in the car to pick me. After one of my surgeries, the surgeon asked if I wanted to stay in hospital for a few more days but I wanted to go home asap.</p>

<p>LTS:
I’m so glad that you are doing better!</p>

3084

<p>and another</p>

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</p>

<p>[New</a> Haven Register Blogs: View from the Valley: Country music on tap for Shelton ‘Relay’](<a href=“http://naugatuckvalley.blogspot.com/2008/06/country-music-on-tap-for-shelton-relay.html]New”>http://naugatuckvalley.blogspot.com/2008/06/country-music-on-tap-for-shelton-relay.html)</p>

3085

<p>Just wanted to let you know I’m thinking of you. Although no one really “knows” what you’re going through, I’ve been following your posts and have some idea, having worked in a comprehensive cancer institute and also being married to an oncologist (pediatric) who is a 6 1/2 year survivor (for lack of a better term, I hate the way that sounds) with a 2-5 year survival expectancy. So much for statistics. </p>

<p>I like the red shoes in this world, since I’m not the red shoes type in real life. Well heeled. Well healed. Hmmm…</p>

3086

<p>I’m betting most of us have insurance stories. Following D’s birth, hospital stay was typically 2 or 3 days. I fought to go home right away - My doc said okay, but the baby was required to stay 24 hours; so I gave in and did, too. Just a few years later, I heard stories of folks fighting to be *allowed * to stay more than overnight.</p>

<p>However, sometimes I hear the European model held up as an example. They have beaurocracy, too - just a different kind. Instead of the insurance battles, theirs are medical. A doctor is required to follow a set protocol for diagnosis and treatment. If he varies from this prodocol (I think he’s allowed to vary maybe twice a year - not sure of the exact numbers) he has to go before committee and justify himself.</p>

<p>My H’s coworker’s wife was a doctor, and we heard lots of horror stories.</p>

<p>I guess it’s obvious that if there were an easy answer, we’d have found it already. (My personal complaint is that PPO’s negotiate a lower fee. Uninsured people end up paying a much higher “sticker price.” Where’s the logic in that?)</p>

3087

<p>" It’s especially horrible when you consider that for those who lose the cancer battle, this is how their very last days will be spent - caught in insurance battles…" </p>

<p>And once they die the insurance battles don’t go away. My husband died at the beginning of Feb. The insurance company and the hospital are still arguing over $45K+ in bills from December 2007, (well, I just looked it up, and at least from the insurance side it thinks everything is now kosher as of 6/03/08…)</p>

3088

<p>I’m sorry to hear, UCD, that your insurance company and the hospital are unable to resolve things. It must be very difficult for you.</p>

<p>I recently was the pickup person for a friend having day-patient knee surgery (ACL repair, like everyone I know). When I arrived, I found her very nauseated, unable to understand what was being said to her, and I flat-out refused to leave with her. I was obnoxious: “what if she throws up in my new car?” I was seemingly helpless: “I just don’t understand what you want me to do. I can’t lift her into the house.” and so on… until I felt she was ready to go. Then I took her home and waited with her until her husband got there. One of the nurses took me aside and told me she wanted to become an “advocacy nurse” who worked on the patient’s side in these cases. I still don’t know if it’s a real field within nursing, but if it is, I’m hiring one the next time I’m hospitalized. She also told me I was doing the right thing. </p>

<p>The problem is that we have a national health INSURANCE system when what we need is a national health CARE system.</p>

3089

<p>UCDAlum, I am so sorry that you have had to deal with insurance battles even after your husband’s illness and death. I hope that things are getting better for you and your children.</p>

<p>dmd77, you did the perfect thing - I am very impressed by your resourcefulness! It was very clear that the nurses who were caring for my husband in the recovery room did not like what they had to do. I think there is a real need for “advocacy nurses” in quite a few situations.</p>

3090

<p>^^dmd77, my oncologist told me he sat next to two “patient advocates” during the first several sessions at ASCO. He said it as if it is a legitimate, recognised position (he was thrilled to see them there)…you are so right in that we do need a national health CARE system. Today, I had chemo again, and with the injection of benedryl once again lost a lot of motor control, could not type on my blackberry, could not complete the simple task of lifting saltine cracker #101 to my mouth, and had that horrible feeling of being very close to the line. My daughter is here - for which I am grateful - she kept asking, what can I do to help? Something to drink? Something to eat? More blankets? Fewer blankets? Elevate the chair? Lower the chair? Should she go get Reggie, my nurse? I asked her to just please hold my hand. So she did; she held my hand for 20 or so minutes, until the worst part of it wore off. I needed the touch, the feel of her hand, the sense of her personhood, her very powerful life force, to keep me anchored on this side of the universe. </p>

<p>What happens to people who have no one to hold their hand? Who have no one who cares about them, or who can be there for them, owing to economic/resource stresses of their own? Nurses don’t have time for hand holding…</p>

<p>UCDAlum82, I am so very sorry that on top of your most precious loss you have to deal with insurance company disputes. I am thinking of you and wishing you great, great comfort and hopefully even happiness again.</p>

3091

<p>latetoschool: I have been in that position, in a oxygen tent with no one to hold my hand, and we make do. But you are right. It is so much more difficult. Thanks for being so concerned for everyone. I am so glad your daughter was there holding your hand.</p>

<p>UCSAlum82: I echo LTS’s remarks. I hope you find fulfillment. Our hearts are with you.</p>

3092

<p>LTS, when I was in the hospital after my surgery for my bone cancer in my femur, the nurses did in fact hold my hand in the recovery room. I had sent my husband home (he’s not great in those situations although he’s always there if I need him) and I just said to the nurse “could you please hold my hand for a few minutes until I don’t feel dizzy?” She did a great job.</p>

3093

<p>UCSalum82-just read your post- sorry to hear this news about your husband, and the insurance company battles, too. With sympathy.</p>

3094

<p>As a nurse I find touch to be one of my most powerful tools in helping patients. I am an OB nurse and when women are “losing it” in labor I always hold there hand, touch them and talk softly right in their ear. There are a few women who don’t want any touch, but when they are panicking they almost all want that human connection.
I started my career on an oncology floor and spent many hours in the middle of the night sitting with patients holding their hands.
I for one, never let my relatives be in the hospital without someone there. Preferably it is me as I know what is going on medically but you almost have to have someone there to keep an eye on the patient these days.</p>

3095

<p>Re “patient advocates” (#3092):</p>

<p>

</code></pre>

<p>[Definition</a> of patient advocate - NCI Dictionary of Cancer Terms](<a href=“http://www.cancer.gov/Templates/db_alpha.aspx?CdrID=44534]Definition”>http://www.cancer.gov/Templates/db_alpha.aspx?CdrID=44534)</p>

<hr>

<p>[Patient</a> Advocate Foundation](<a href=“http://www.patientadvocate.org/]Patient”>http://www.patientadvocate.org/)</p>

<p>[Patient</a> Advocate Programs at the ASCO Annual Meeting | Cancer.Net](<a href=“http://www.ascocancerfoundation.org/patient/Advocacy+and+Policy/Patient+Advocacy+and+ASCO/Patient+Advocate+Programs+at+the+ASCO+Annual+Meeting]Patient”>http://www.ascocancerfoundation.org/patient/Advocacy+and+Policy/Patient+Advocacy+and+ASCO/Patient+Advocate+Programs+at+the+ASCO+Annual+Meeting)</p>

3096

<p>Epistrophy, thank you for that, especially the link to the Patient Advocate Foundation. That looks like a very solid organization and it addresses specifically many of the issues that my oncologist is upset about - patients cannot afford their co-pays, and, they will be financially shut out of getting the new drugs in the pipeline. </p>

<p>Since it’s already a viable organization with all of its structure apparently sound, and since it looks like exactly what is needed and that we actually have some chance of making a positive impact, I am going to vett it, and see if the five year survivor and I can get them on a call and see how we can help. At a minimum it looks like we can give them money, and they can use it to help people. </p>

<p>At first glance, the board of directors looks solid, so, let’s see how it looks after we take a deeper dive into its structure…</p>

<p>Amazing, really, to have had cancer for months now and this is the first I am hearing of this formal, recognized role.</p>

3097

<p>

</p>

<p>–Dwight D. Eisenhower</p>

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<p>More on the Patient Advocate Foundation:</p>

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<p>[Free</a>, Personalized Assistance for Cancer Patients :: PNNOnline ::](<a href=“PNNOnline - Información, y notas sobre actualidad y sexo”>PNNOnline - Información, y notas sobre actualidad y sexo)</p>

3099

<p>I went to the UTMB med school graduation last Saturday to cheer on my newly-hooded physician friend. I was heartened and impressed to learn that they had chosen to give their class gift towards a fund for uninsured cancer patients.</p>

<p>What impressed me most about the gesture was that even as completely green physicians, fresh out of medical school, they recognized that this is one of the most critical problems in healthcare today. Thought of you, and thought you’d like to hear about it.</p>

3100

<p>LTS,
There are a couple of folks I have known from the CML part of Cancer World who have attended ASCO meetings as patient advocates. They have been heavily involved in the various CML listserves I’ve frequented and come back with the latest articles, describing chats with researchers, etc. I frequently know about some of the latest research and upcoming trials before my onc does – and she attends ASCO every year and is rather current on things.</p>

<p>I just got a new bill from my onc’s hospital the other day. Seems they have refunded payments back to the insurance company for services in June 2006. Meanwhile they are still trying to get me to pay. WTH??? No word or updated EOBs from the insurance company on this yet. Good thing I used to work in benefits – at least I speak the language and can deal with these people, and I am healthy enough to do so.</p>

<p>UCD, I hear you loud and clear on the insensitivity of insurance companies in paying claims. My nephew died at age three months due to a rare enzyme deficiency and major multiple heart defects – the insurance company refused to pay for the muscle biopsy of his heart that was taken shortly before his death – because the testing wasn’t completed until after he died. Turns out that biopsy was the only definitive piece of evidence they had of what was wrong, and whether or not this could happen again if my sister had another child. Hell hath no fury like my sister when it comes to her loved ones – that bill disappeared rather quietly after she went up the bureaucratic ladder.</p>

<p>UCD, I am glad to see you back on the list and hope you and your Ds are finding comfort and joy in each other.</p>