chemo day – oxali #7, avastin #4, continuity of care round 4

Well, we had the usual follow up appointment with the oncologist and I explained that I was awaiting a call from Blue Shield about our request for Continuity of Care. His whole office is aware of this nightmare as it has affected over 70,000 subscribers in a 10 mile radius. The office is void of patients so it’s not just us. He says let’s just get it done and worry about it later. Easy for him to say since he won’t be the recipient of a five figure bill but I just tell myself you can’t get blood from a stone.

Once we wrap up with him, we shuffle off across the hall to the infusion center. They do the usual vitals, pre-meds then Avastin. I take a quick break and run downstairs and lo and behold there is a voicemail on my mobile from Blue Shield.  The message stated that we could proceed with his appointment and his chemo. Just 3 hours too late but nonetheless, I have it on record that they have said that he can have treatment and that the Continuity of Care is in process. I’ll live with that but I won’t give up the calls until I get the magic golden ticket that says we are fully approved.

continuity of care – round 3

I called again to see if approval had been granted and was told not yet. So we are going ahead with the appointment tomorrow. No choice in the matter. I’m beyond annoyed and aggravated that I am paying $900 a month for this kind of runaround but it is what it is.

continuity of care – round 2

My gut instinct was right not to trust these customer service people at Blue Shield. After yesterday’s two hour debacle on the phone with a host of players, I was informed today that we need to fill out a form and send it over to them so that they can start the process. Why no one yesterday told me about this and that was with me asking them if there was any paperwork that needed to be complete is just unfathomable.

I faxed over the form and called again to make sure that they have received it and to get someone to say the magic words that he can go ahead with his appointment on Friday. The first person I spoke with said that they did receive the fax and asked  me, “Why can’t he just postpone his therapy appointment?” I informed this nimrod that it was chemotherapy and not just therapy. I called again because I didn’t trust nimrod #1 and nimrod #2 said that they didn’t have a record of the fax and to resend it so I did with them on the phone and this joker advised me to just pay upfront for the chemo appointment. I explained in a heavily sarcastic tone that I would love to do that but the holidays were a bit rough this year and that I didn’t have a spare $36,000 just lying around at the moment. My sarcasm was wasted on nimrod #2. Finally on my third call of the day, I was connected to Saint Sally as I will now refer to her. She personally walked over the form to the Medical Management office which is the department that deals with the Continuity of Care (another fact no one had bothered to tell me about) and that we should proceed with the appointment because she understood that delaying chemo can be a do or die situation. I thanked her and she told me that someone would be calling me back to confirm that he was ok to go to his appointment but regardless, we were just to go.

continuity of care – round 1

Well, I called Blue Shield first thing this morning. I was told that they would put my request for the Continuity of Care into the system and that they would rush it so that his appointments on Friday would be covered, but they explained that this usually takes at least 2 business weeks to get completed. That was just not a good enough answer for me but I’ve decided to wait until tomorrow to follow up on this. I’m already exhausted after this first call where I was transferred to about 3 people, all of whom I don’t trust in the least.