POZ Community Forums
Meds, Mind, Body & Benefits => Insurance, Benefits Programs & HIV => Topic started by: woodshere on December 03, 2010, 04:28:40 pm
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I just got off the phone after talking with my insurance provider, who I would not have been talking to if it weren't for being HIV+. It is my standard procedure that if the person I am talking with does not give me what I want I ask to speak with their supervisor, and if supervisor doesn't give me what I want I ask for their supervisor so on and so forth. My experience is eventually I talk with the right person and get what I want or at least some sort of concession or something. Today I asked to speak with the first person's supervisor and she said no. I was shocked. I had to take a walk to calm down and I thought back to the days of ACT UP and what all they did to get changes. I wish their was that sense from EVERY one now! As profits just keep rising for insurance companies coverage is getting worse. Something has just got to change!!
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You 'prolly' got somebody in a call center who is paid minimum wage or maybe a little more than that. Those calls should be recorded if the insurance company is one of the larger ones. I hope you called back and got somebody that could answer your question(s). I know what you mean though.. I too hate to deal with idiots that should be able to help but can't then have to ask the call get escalated to somebody who does. Mortgage companies are the same way too.
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Woods
Totally agree with you. And it needs to draw in others whose insurance only works when they are well.
t
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hope, she was very nice and really quite knowledgeable, but what i am asking for i know is above her pay grade and i am going to have to talk to someone else. I want to get a my meds refilled after just having them filled, due to i am about to loose a sizeable amount of money in my FSA if I don't and other financial reasons regarding a deductable i will have at the end of next year. Probably nothing that can be done, but I want to try as many avenues as possible.
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Sadly, you are probably SOL. Insurance companies have gotten pretty rigid about following the rules... and with the cost of meds.... well, the best you can hope for is a refill on the 30th or 31st.
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I agree that the insurance companies have an unrelenting attitude towards protecting the profits of their shareholders and a lesser feeling of responsibility to indemnify their clients which is what we pay them for the service for to start with. Hubby literally spends 3 days a week on the phone or fax dealing with his shyster insurance company. Not an easy feat for someone that can barely speak. You would swear that they have 500 pages of secret unwritten code that you cannot find on a single page of the policy. Then there is the additional bit that is "subject to interpretation" however, whomever decides to define it. I think their is more honor among mobsters than insurance. At least if you are dealing mob, you know the outcome is someone will be swimming with fishes in the bottom of the Chicago River when they don't abide by contract. >:(
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One way to get there attention is Purchase 1 share of there stock. As a share holder you now have a share holders relations contact avalible. what you do is call present your problem with them and basically ask when the next meeting os share holders is and where and inform that since the customer service of the companie you are now a partial owner in is lees than exemplaery you will bring it to the floor and hold the meeting up untill you are satisfied with the outcum. 1 share gives you a voice that can not be silenced. you will get action very quickly on the problem.
Bear
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kinda with you here, i feel sorta played about ten minutes ago by my insurance's pharmacy... waiting until i authorized a charge on my card, and then telling me about atripla's copay assistance voucher program?! why couldn't she have told me that before i made payment?
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well, after i posted that last comment i did some research... after a more informed consideration, i feel i should retract any hint of support for the current incarnation of the act up organization and its viewpoints... i'm not happy with the state of insurance and healthcare in the usa, but i don't feel act up represents me or my concerns at all.... that is all
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why couldn't she have told me that before i made payment?
that's just capitalism. LOL
after I signed the receipt for my last haircut, the hair stylist informed me that if we HAD cut off my left-over-from-the-80s rat-tail and donated it to "locks of love", the hair cut would have been free. Heck! If she had told me that sooner I would have jumped back in the chair and had it hacked off after growing it for nearly 23 years. :o
As it was I got the free haircut just a few weeks ago when I went back.
what in particular did you not like about ACT-UP?
Without a lot of the attention they garnered for the HIV epidemic in the late 80s to early 90s (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Act_up) we might not have the attention the crisis needed or the meds that we do today and the situation would have been far worse. Were you looking at a particular "branch" of ACT-UP? Most of the ACT-UP groups have dwindled away (I would imagine that a lot of those activists died off in the 90s), which is sad as we could use some of that fire to help with rising numbers of infections and lowered ADAP funding today.
(http://i918.photobucket.com/albums/ad21/leathermanmikie/silence_equals_death.jpg)
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I'm more than willing to be open minded and always open to correction, and if I am ill informed please do so. Does ACT UP as it currently exists agree with these two articles? True enough, I was searching mainly for my local branch. I am a native and resident of Atlanta, so when I googled ACT UP Atlanta this is what I found.
http://www.thebody.com/content/art32220.html
http://clatl.com/atlanta/act-up-its-not-just-about-aids-anymore/Content?oid=1225344
also quoting from wikipedia
Factionalism in San Francisco
In 2000, ACT UP/Golden Gate changed its name to Survive AIDS, to avoid confusion with ACT UP/San Francisco (ACT UP/SF). The two had previously split apart in 1990, but continued to share the same essential philosophy. In 1994, ACT UP/SF began rejecting the scientific consensus regarding the cause of AIDS and the connection to HIV, and the two groups became openly hostile to each other, with mainstream gay and AIDS organizations also condemning ACT UP/SF.[20] The group would link up with People For the Ethical Treatment of Animals against animal research into AIDS cures.[20] Restraining orders have been granted after the organization physically attacked AIDS charities that help HIV-positive patients,[21] and activists have been found guilty in misdemeanor charges laid after threatening phone calls to journalists and public health officials.[22]
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Zach, take my word I am referring to the ACT UP of the 80's/early 90's!!! A group not afraid to take on the then status quo and fight for necessary funding and attention to the HIV/AIDS epidemic.
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what a shame the name and groups have been co-opted like that, zach. Betcha 9 times (or more) outta 10 if you told someone who lived through the 80s and 90s thst ACT-UP groups were now linked up with PETA and denialists, that those 9 or more would be shocked. I know I am.
However, it you look at ACT-UP NY (http://www.actupny.org/) the original group, or actup.org (a worldwide group) you'll see that their focus is still HIV/AIDS (even if their sites are a little out-dated). There really were no "branches" of ACTUP (NY) per se; just similar groups that developed during the time when we were trying to get any meds (besides AZT) fast-tracked because HIV+ people were dying off like flies.
As I said without ACT-UP making waves years ago, things would not be so nice right now. But also as I mentioned, many of those early activists died of AIDS or have grown older - and obviously no one took their place and kept the mission going. How sad.
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The ACT UP chapter in Philadelphia does not engage in non-HIV advocacy, is very active, and meets weekly.
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The two current groups using the name ACT UP in San Francisco and Atlanta have NO relationship to the original ACT UP and are diametrically opposed to the original ACT UP aims and purposes. Their nefarious use of the ACT UP name is deliberately deceptive and is nothing short of diabolical, and they are to be avoided and condemned.