Blue Cross and Blue Shield denied payment for the proton therapy Robert “Skeeter” Salim’s doctor ordered to fight his throat cancer. But he was no ordinary patient. He was a celebrated litigator. And he was ready to fight.
Is this supposed to be a feel-good story of the little guy working within the system?
No. The story admits that early on. It's yet another expose on how crooked the system is so that even one of the elite have to fight to get the treatment that their doctor recommends.
Top trial lawyers with personal doctors who are willing to invest tons of their own time into your case. Personal doctors who also happen to be experts on the technology in question.
Overcoming this type of abuse is utterly impossible for the average person, as the patient himself acknowledges.
It's called an Orphan Crushing Machine story. As in, "how nice it is that the whole community came together to raise money to stop little orphan Annie from being tossed into the orphan crushing machine!". Stories that don't bother to ask the important questions like "Why is there an orphan-crushing machine?" and "Why on earth did they all have to raise money to pay someone to stop an orphan from being tossed into said machine?!"
Once you learn to recognize them, you realize it's what 99% of 'feel good' news stories really are.
But this one is a lot more sensitive to that narrative than most, so I'd still recommend the read.
"Hello yes I'm your insurance agent, now before I read this decision to you, are you now or were you ever a lawyer? No? Okay denied get fucked L + ratio."
And the MRI machine they cover has no appointments for 6 weeks. There are probably 3 other MRIs on the drive to that one sitting unused. You sit there and wait for no reason. Welcome to America.
I went through the same thing on my knee. 3 pointless appointments and two months to get to the MRI, that should have been the first step.
How can they be saving money by adding extra steps to my diagnosis? It's not just the insurance companies that are the problem. Medical providers have their own schemes to milk the insurance for more money.
Look, I'm not saying that I endorse or encourage the idea. I'm just saying that it's a constant source of disappointment that American society decided that school shootings are a thing to do, and not "bank and insurance company headquarters" shootings.
In my experience most offices and banks have more security than schools. You can’t even get into the building where my office is without a keycard for the front door and a virtual pass that’s tied to your work email.
Maybe not the offices, but the homes of the owners and CEOs. I have family that works in insurance as a typical office peon, they don't deserve to be shot they'd probably join you in shooting the CEO lol
Read the article, he literally spend his entire fucking life fighting companies for Committing medical malpractice. I know lawyers are known to be sleazy but this man seems to be fighting this battle every day
Welp, it's the trash can for this device, then. I was such a sucker. I paid the $100 extra for their silly hub to have Homekit integration, doing things the way they wanted. Then they turned that off, so I switched to Home Assistant to preserve my investment. Now it only works with their garbage phone app.
If I wanted something I had to open a separate app just to use, I would use the damn garage door opener I already have.