How not to buy a wheelchair:
Oct. 16th, 2009 10:23 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
marinessHow not to get a wheelchair:
1. Admit, after significant badgering from family and friends, and after a very bad fall, that you need one.*
2. Head to wheelchair convention and try out some lightweight manual wheelchairs designed for shorter people. Cheer up and realize that maybe a wheelchair isn't so bad. Receive assurances from many very hot women and men that wheelchairs are actually very hot and sexy and you will look just fine in one and a lot better than you will look with a broken knee.
3. Easily get a script from the doctor. Feel reassured, knowing that central Florida's large elderly and disabled population means that a large selection of wheelchairs are readily available at a number of excellent and helpful medical supply centers, with trained staff willing and able to assist you in measuring you and working with you to provide the best wheelchair for your needs.
4. Call Cigna, an entity that terms itself a health insurance organization, and receive specific confirmation that yes, yes, they do cover supplies from Colonial Medical Supplies, based in downtown Orlando, as long as a prescription is provided.
5. Fuel up with French food. (Yay Sweet Traditions Bakery in downtown Winter Garden!)
6. Head to Colonial Medical Supplies. Because, to repeat the point, you have been assured by no less of an authority than Cigna that products purchased with a prescription at Colonial Medical Supplies will be covered by Cigna.
7. Be informed, kindly and regretfully, by a sales agent at Colonial Medical Supplies that in point of fact, they do not have an account with Cigna and that products, including wheelchairs, purchased at Colonial Medical Supplies, with or without a prescription, will not be covered by Cigna, and that in actual fact Cigna has never paid for any supplies purchased at Colonial Medical Supplies. "They keep sending people to us," the agent says. "I don't know why."
8. Call Cigna's 800 number and spend a few happy moments chatting with a computer.
9. Confirm with Cigna's agent that although just last week they claimed they did, indeed, work with Colonial Medical Supplies, in actual fact they do no such thing and never have. Receive names of two other companies in Orange County that absolutely, positively are durable medical supply companies that absolutely, positively will have wheelchairs available and that absolutely, positively work with Cigna.
10. Contact first company named. Number has been disconnected. Contact second company. Number has also been disconnected.
11. Contact AT&T Directory Assistance. Confirm that the second company does not in point of fact exist anyplace in Florida. AT&T is slightly more dubious about the first company, giving three potential companies with similar names. AT&T directory assistance person confides that this is why she no longer works for health insurance companies. "You wouldn't believe it but honestly having people shout at me here is so much less stressful."
12. Two of the companies named by AT&T do not sell wheelchairs. The third terminated its relationship with Cigna last year.
13. Call Cigna's 800 number and spend a few happy moments chatting with a computer.
14. Reach Cigna agent, who initially checks my address and notes that Cigna apparently does not cover any wheelchair suppliers in my zip code, Winter Garden. Announce that I am quite happy to go anywhere in Orange or Seminole Counties for the wheelchair, and that given that I am physically located in downtown Orlando, not in Winter Garden, at this moment, because Cigna sent me there, the Winter Garden address is irrelevant, even if a Winter Garden zip code is attached to the account. Agent cheers up and says chirpily that Cigna covers several wheelchair supply stores and she'll conference call me in.
15. Spend the next forty-five minutes listening to Cigna agent dial various companies listed in their database as customized wheelchair suppliers. These include: an emergency walk in clinic, a supplier of post-mastectomy supplies and breast reconstruction services, "the number you have reached is not in service...", two physical therapy rehab centers, two more companies that refuse to work with Cigna, and a drug addiction treatment center. Begin to question the quality of the Cigna database of customized wheelchair suppliers.
16. Reach a company that may possibly have customized wheelchairs. When the name "Cigna" is mentioned, there is a distinct hesitation on the other side of the phone.
17. Sympathize deeply with this hesitation. Realize, at the same time, that you have in no way consumed enough alcohol to deal with this.
18. Company reluctantly admits to working with Cigna, but is unsure what wheelchairs might be available, and asks for my location.
19. "She lives in Winter Park." "Garden!" "Oh, Winter – what was that?" "NEVER MIND. I can get to to Winter Park." [For non locals, they're about a half hour to forty-five minutes apart, but by that time I really didn't care.]
20. Company even more reluctantly agrees that they do, in fact, have a location in Altamonte Springs, but they are not sure about the wheelchair availability. (The person we were speaking to was in Atlanta.) I give my height, weight and medical condition. Altamonte Springs location is called.
21. Several minutes later, Altamonte Springs location confirms that it does not have wheelchairs.
22. Still cheery Cigna agent announces that we still have one more company on the list! The next company, she assures me, is a national supplier of wheelchairs without a local Orlando location that can come directly to your door.
23. Point out to Cigna agent that this wheelchair is not a temporary thing and the general idea, agreed upon by Cigna originally, was that I would be able to go and try out different models to ensure that I found one that met my needs so that I don't have to buy any more wheelchairs in the future, and that no, I do not just want a random wheelchair shipped to my door. Cigna agent assures me that Cigna wants the same thing. She calls the national supplier of wheelchairs.
24. National supplier of wheelchairs no longer works with Cigna. They provide another company, who, interestingly enough, is not in the Cigna database. Next company is called.
25. AT&T drops the Cigna call.
26. Realize yet again that wheelchair shopping should not be done without the assistance of hard liquor. Purse is regrettably free of hard liquor.
27. Start calling next company; during that call, Cigna agent calls, resulting in some confusion. Cigna agent explains that this particular company does work with Cigna. Nearly fall over in shock. The bad news is that they do not accept calls from patients. My doctor needs to call them, explain my needs, and then they will send a wheelchair right to my door. If it needs to be adjusted for my height and weight, they can do that then.
28. Explain, again, that this is a long term wheelchair and that Cigna had agreed that I could be properly measured for a wheelchair that would be the right size (I have difficulty with standard sized wheelchairs because I'm short) and that I would be allowed to try out different wheelchairs to ensure I was in one that met my needs. "Well, you can call them and explain that, and you can have your doctor explain what you need."
29. "A. Wheelchair."
30. Clarify that what this means is that despite my policy that includes customized wheelchairs, Cigna has no actual way of letting me purchase, with my health insurance, a customized wheelchair fitted for my height and weight in central Florida, even though I will be paying 30% of the price.
31. Imagine what things might have been like if I'd been trying to buy a power chair.
32. Think just how many people – me, my parents, two different Cigna agents, AT&T, various receptionists, sales agents, and so on – had to waste significant time on this because of Cigna's inability to keep their computer database updated.
(In all fairness, it is possible that the Cigna agent misunderstood and that this final company can provide customized wheelchairs – I was too exhausted to call them again once I got home, but I will be following up on this.)
33. Ah, migraine. How nice to realize that for once, you have arrived with a genuine and completely explicable cause.
34. On the bright side, this means that I entirely missed the whole boy not in a balloon story.
********
According to Forbes, Cigna CEO H. Edward Hanway earned $12,236,740 in 2008; here's some more fun stuff about Cigna's revenue and profit in 2nd quarter 2009.
*********
* I have been using a standard issue wheelchair, but it's too heavy for me to use without assistance and is designed for taller people. The idea is to get an ultralight wheelchair designed for petite women – which do exist and are readily available, if perhaps not through Cigna – to increase my independence and have my friends stop worrying about me when I'm walking.
1. Admit, after significant badgering from family and friends, and after a very bad fall, that you need one.*
2. Head to wheelchair convention and try out some lightweight manual wheelchairs designed for shorter people. Cheer up and realize that maybe a wheelchair isn't so bad. Receive assurances from many very hot women and men that wheelchairs are actually very hot and sexy and you will look just fine in one and a lot better than you will look with a broken knee.
3. Easily get a script from the doctor. Feel reassured, knowing that central Florida's large elderly and disabled population means that a large selection of wheelchairs are readily available at a number of excellent and helpful medical supply centers, with trained staff willing and able to assist you in measuring you and working with you to provide the best wheelchair for your needs.
4. Call Cigna, an entity that terms itself a health insurance organization, and receive specific confirmation that yes, yes, they do cover supplies from Colonial Medical Supplies, based in downtown Orlando, as long as a prescription is provided.
5. Fuel up with French food. (Yay Sweet Traditions Bakery in downtown Winter Garden!)
6. Head to Colonial Medical Supplies. Because, to repeat the point, you have been assured by no less of an authority than Cigna that products purchased with a prescription at Colonial Medical Supplies will be covered by Cigna.
7. Be informed, kindly and regretfully, by a sales agent at Colonial Medical Supplies that in point of fact, they do not have an account with Cigna and that products, including wheelchairs, purchased at Colonial Medical Supplies, with or without a prescription, will not be covered by Cigna, and that in actual fact Cigna has never paid for any supplies purchased at Colonial Medical Supplies. "They keep sending people to us," the agent says. "I don't know why."
8. Call Cigna's 800 number and spend a few happy moments chatting with a computer.
9. Confirm with Cigna's agent that although just last week they claimed they did, indeed, work with Colonial Medical Supplies, in actual fact they do no such thing and never have. Receive names of two other companies in Orange County that absolutely, positively are durable medical supply companies that absolutely, positively will have wheelchairs available and that absolutely, positively work with Cigna.
10. Contact first company named. Number has been disconnected. Contact second company. Number has also been disconnected.
11. Contact AT&T Directory Assistance. Confirm that the second company does not in point of fact exist anyplace in Florida. AT&T is slightly more dubious about the first company, giving three potential companies with similar names. AT&T directory assistance person confides that this is why she no longer works for health insurance companies. "You wouldn't believe it but honestly having people shout at me here is so much less stressful."
12. Two of the companies named by AT&T do not sell wheelchairs. The third terminated its relationship with Cigna last year.
13. Call Cigna's 800 number and spend a few happy moments chatting with a computer.
14. Reach Cigna agent, who initially checks my address and notes that Cigna apparently does not cover any wheelchair suppliers in my zip code, Winter Garden. Announce that I am quite happy to go anywhere in Orange or Seminole Counties for the wheelchair, and that given that I am physically located in downtown Orlando, not in Winter Garden, at this moment, because Cigna sent me there, the Winter Garden address is irrelevant, even if a Winter Garden zip code is attached to the account. Agent cheers up and says chirpily that Cigna covers several wheelchair supply stores and she'll conference call me in.
15. Spend the next forty-five minutes listening to Cigna agent dial various companies listed in their database as customized wheelchair suppliers. These include: an emergency walk in clinic, a supplier of post-mastectomy supplies and breast reconstruction services, "the number you have reached is not in service...", two physical therapy rehab centers, two more companies that refuse to work with Cigna, and a drug addiction treatment center. Begin to question the quality of the Cigna database of customized wheelchair suppliers.
16. Reach a company that may possibly have customized wheelchairs. When the name "Cigna" is mentioned, there is a distinct hesitation on the other side of the phone.
17. Sympathize deeply with this hesitation. Realize, at the same time, that you have in no way consumed enough alcohol to deal with this.
18. Company reluctantly admits to working with Cigna, but is unsure what wheelchairs might be available, and asks for my location.
19. "She lives in Winter Park." "Garden!" "Oh, Winter – what was that?" "NEVER MIND. I can get to to Winter Park." [For non locals, they're about a half hour to forty-five minutes apart, but by that time I really didn't care.]
20. Company even more reluctantly agrees that they do, in fact, have a location in Altamonte Springs, but they are not sure about the wheelchair availability. (The person we were speaking to was in Atlanta.) I give my height, weight and medical condition. Altamonte Springs location is called.
21. Several minutes later, Altamonte Springs location confirms that it does not have wheelchairs.
22. Still cheery Cigna agent announces that we still have one more company on the list! The next company, she assures me, is a national supplier of wheelchairs without a local Orlando location that can come directly to your door.
23. Point out to Cigna agent that this wheelchair is not a temporary thing and the general idea, agreed upon by Cigna originally, was that I would be able to go and try out different models to ensure that I found one that met my needs so that I don't have to buy any more wheelchairs in the future, and that no, I do not just want a random wheelchair shipped to my door. Cigna agent assures me that Cigna wants the same thing. She calls the national supplier of wheelchairs.
24. National supplier of wheelchairs no longer works with Cigna. They provide another company, who, interestingly enough, is not in the Cigna database. Next company is called.
25. AT&T drops the Cigna call.
26. Realize yet again that wheelchair shopping should not be done without the assistance of hard liquor. Purse is regrettably free of hard liquor.
27. Start calling next company; during that call, Cigna agent calls, resulting in some confusion. Cigna agent explains that this particular company does work with Cigna. Nearly fall over in shock. The bad news is that they do not accept calls from patients. My doctor needs to call them, explain my needs, and then they will send a wheelchair right to my door. If it needs to be adjusted for my height and weight, they can do that then.
28. Explain, again, that this is a long term wheelchair and that Cigna had agreed that I could be properly measured for a wheelchair that would be the right size (I have difficulty with standard sized wheelchairs because I'm short) and that I would be allowed to try out different wheelchairs to ensure I was in one that met my needs. "Well, you can call them and explain that, and you can have your doctor explain what you need."
29. "A. Wheelchair."
30. Clarify that what this means is that despite my policy that includes customized wheelchairs, Cigna has no actual way of letting me purchase, with my health insurance, a customized wheelchair fitted for my height and weight in central Florida, even though I will be paying 30% of the price.
31. Imagine what things might have been like if I'd been trying to buy a power chair.
32. Think just how many people – me, my parents, two different Cigna agents, AT&T, various receptionists, sales agents, and so on – had to waste significant time on this because of Cigna's inability to keep their computer database updated.
(In all fairness, it is possible that the Cigna agent misunderstood and that this final company can provide customized wheelchairs – I was too exhausted to call them again once I got home, but I will be following up on this.)
33. Ah, migraine. How nice to realize that for once, you have arrived with a genuine and completely explicable cause.
34. On the bright side, this means that I entirely missed the whole boy not in a balloon story.
********
According to Forbes, Cigna CEO H. Edward Hanway earned $12,236,740 in 2008; here's some more fun stuff about Cigna's revenue and profit in 2nd quarter 2009.
*********
* I have been using a standard issue wheelchair, but it's too heavy for me to use without assistance and is designed for taller people. The idea is to get an ultralight wheelchair designed for petite women – which do exist and are readily available, if perhaps not through Cigna – to increase my independence and have my friends stop worrying about me when I'm walking.
(no subject)
Date: 2009-10-17 02:59 am (UTC)But it's not like my private plan is covering everything now anyway!
(no subject)
Date: 2009-10-17 03:09 am (UTC)What you do is, three weeks before your COBRA runs out or when you write your last payment check, whichever comes first, ask your COBRA administrator for a certificate of continuous coverage (stating that you've been covered for the full 18 months provided by law). Fill out the app for CoverFlorida at that point, putting Dec 14 (or whatever your end-of-COBRA date is) for the start date, and provide the certificate of coverage (photocopied, of course; never send your originals), along with the check for your first premium (the application should tell you how much that will be). This should all be done about 3 weeks before your COBRA end date; if you do, you are covered by them the minute they cash your premium check, and if the application is received before 14 Dec, there won't be any gap in your coverage. (Even if it's received after, as long as it's received within 30 days -- 60, in some jurisdictions -- it's still considered to be continuous coverage.)
(Disclaimer: while I was once a licensed health insurance broker, that was fifteen years ago; my knowledge now is just from researching things for myself. This is all HIPAA, though, and that's plain as day.)
(no subject)
Date: 2009-10-17 03:14 am (UTC)So all I'd have to cover is cardiac, neurological and orthopedic problems for one year and then I'd probably be ok.
(geesh.)
(no subject)
Date: 2009-10-17 03:20 am (UTC)(And yeah, "geesh" about covers it. But, you know. HEALTH CARE FOR EVERYONE WOULD BE SOCIALIST. CAN'T HAVE THAT.)
(no subject)
Date: 2009-10-17 03:42 am (UTC)This is what annoys me about the whole socialism argument. And while I suppose you can argue that you can choose your employer (to a degree, depending upon your job skills and other issues) and take the health insurance company into consideration, if you choose to work with Company X because they offer health insurance Y, and they change health insurance companies/plans after you've been there for one year (which has also happened to me) then what do you do?
Wow. I didn't think I'd be ranting that much.
(no subject)
Date: 2009-10-17 03:56 am (UTC)But yeah. "Free market" implies free choice -- and we don't have it. I've never seen an employer offer a choice of more than two companies, and it's pretty rare even for that; mostly it's one company and that's it, if you don't like it you're fucked.
(no subject)
Date: 2009-10-17 04:25 am (UTC)And on a related note, that's also assuming that the employer's primary interest is in employee health, and not, geesh, in order to recruit people, I have to offer health insurance, but to keep the company's bottom line going, I can't spend too much on it. I did work for two organizations - non-profits - that did focus on employee health and did focus on finding health insurance plans that benefited employees, but that's not always the case. Which is why I also knew two university employees who stayed there not out of love for the job but because they had sick kids and needed the insurance - and I expect there were others I didn't know about.
I'm honestly not against a free market - I'm all about capitalism - but that's not the system we're working with and I wish we'd stop pretending we were and squeaking "OH NOES SOCIALISM WE'LL LOSE OUR FREEDOM!" And the truth is not everything does work with the free market system - there's a reason government handles highways, for instance.
And - another issue with calling this a free market system - car and home insurers can make pretty good guesses about the risk of any given driver/home owner based on location, age, the car or house and other factors. But health is a lot trickier. And it's a lot harder to determine the "worth" or "cost" of a person as compared to, "Hey, the blue book value of your car was $5000. Deal."
(no subject)
Date: 2009-10-17 04:30 am (UTC)I love all the people who are like, "I DON'T WANT MY TAX DOLLARS TO GO TO PAYING FOR PEOPLE WHO AREN'T CONTRIBUTING TO SOCIETY". Y'ever think that maybe the reason they're not 'contributing to society' is, oh, because they have health problems they can't get treatment for?
In conclusion, I hate people and I want their heads to explode.
(no subject)
Date: 2009-10-17 04:43 am (UTC)(And I'm not sure why she was the one to pop to mind, given that her books suggest the evils of government influence...)
I'm not always fond of people myself. Next life, I need to return as a cat.
(no subject)
Date: 2009-10-17 04:49 am (UTC)Coming back as a cat would be lovely. (I think I'd miss the opposable thumbs, though.)
(no subject)
Date: 2009-10-18 02:42 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2009-10-18 07:00 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2009-10-18 02:42 pm (UTC)