A letter to Healthcare Insurance

My initial visit and evaluation to Dr. Ketchum at Froedtert was in January.  I have the 'Navigate' plan where I have to be referred to EVERY doctor by my primary care physician in order for insurance to cover it.  They didn't cover my bill and now I have to appeal to them.  Here is my letter:

Let me give you a recap of being 23 and living with a chronic pain condition that is swallowing my life whole:

As you have probably seen by my records, I go to the doctors quite often for my Thoracic Outlet Syndrome and Chronic Pain. I make phone calls to different doctors every day at different facilities and talk to different nurses and receptionists who think I’m full of crap because I have an invisible illness.  I have to research treatments and doctors I need to go to in my spare time because I cannot spend every waking moment in a doctor’s office.  I miss work days for doctor appointments and unbearable pain.  When I can go to work, I usually have to force myself to work through the pain.  Every single dollar I make is ever so difficultly made. 

So when I find that my insurance company that I have had for years didn’t receive a referral from my primary care physician and a $612.00 bill is sitting in front of me, I become perturbed.  While trying to get ahead with my bills by working through the pain, balancing doctor’s visits, physical therapy and managing everything at home, I find myself not being able to get ahead of my bills when issues like this arise.  I’m trying my hardest to get better so I never have to see an inside of another doctor’s office again or wear an itchy gown or be injected with more medications that may or may not help me.  Trust me; I’m as sick of it as you probably are reading this.  But I cannot do that without your help. 

Last July, I had surgery for a first rib resection.  Originally we thought it would take away many of the symptoms I’ve been experiencing.  However, it failed to do so.  Since surgery, I have been seeking treatments such as massage therapy, chiropractor, physical therapy, trigger point injections, cortisone injections and now botox injections.  If I wouldn’t be trying the injections, I would have to go back to testing such as MRI’s, CTs and a variety of specialists.  Instead, I am trying to pinpoint the problem as fast and as accurate I can, while minimizing costs and as little amount of doctors as I can.

I started receiving Trigger Point Injections from Dr. Leiben in November 2014.  During that time period, she was trying to locate the source of my pain that was causing debilitating migraines and neck pain.  Unfortunately she decided to switch practices, and refer me to Dr. Lynch for further treatment, deciding that I needed a longer lasting pain-relief solution.  During that process, Leiben’s office referred me to the future doctors instead of contacting my primary like I had originally asked during my last visit with her and her nurse.  Dr. Lynch examined me and decided to treat me with a cortisone shot, but also wanted me to have further treatment and referred me to Dr. Ketchum for Botox Injections.  Do you see how I keep bouncing around doctors with no stability?

Please re-consider this bill.  I know you have busy lives and have a lot of customers to deal with on a daily basis.  All I’m trying to do is get my life back and try to solve my chronic pain.  With your help, I would have to worry about one less bill and continue my search for what you would experience as a normal life, hopefully pain-free.

Equanimity.

-Kelsey