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I had to provide a urine sample to get my ADHD medication. It was sold to me under the auspices of drug testing, even though ADHD meds are out of your system in
by HeyImAlex 6y ago
I had to provide a urine sample to get my ADHD medication. It was sold to me under the auspices of drug testing, even though ADHD meds are out of your system in 48h. A month later I received an explanation of benefits from my insurance company that said they received a 14k bill and had paid 4k of it, so I was on the hook for the other 10k. Furious I went to my psych. They casually said “we’ve taken care of it, you shouldn’t receive an actual bill”. Uh, that’s not the point? The point is why was it necessary to send my urine for 14k in testing in the first place? You cannot convince me they weren’t getting kickbacks from this program. Finding a new psych is difficult, so the next time they asked me to pee in a cup I asked if they’d charge my insurance the same way again. I haven’t been asked for a urine sample since, which is odd considering they have signs clearly posted saying drug tests are mandatory. I guess not _that_ mandatory, huh?
It’s wild that individuals are forced to navigate this system, much less fight it when they’re being fucked. The idea that there are people who’s sole purpose is designing beurocratic gears to grind money out of sick people makes me sick. And they employ an army of low wage call center folks to do their bidding, work that I can’t imagine is super rewarding. How much better would the world be if we tore down these machines and paid all of those people to do literally anything else?
- mattkrause 6y agoAt $14k/test, they could nearly afford to buy a used but functional GSMS system system just for you(!).
- iaw 6y ago> You cannot convince me they weren’t getting kickbacks from this program. Given all the problems this caused for the opioid epidemic I'm disappointed (but not surprised) such behaviors are still be legal.
- SkyPuncher 6y ago> I had to provide a urine sample to get my ADHD medication. It was sold to me under the auspices of drug testing, even though ADHD meds are out of your system in 48h. FYI, they weren't checking for your ADHD medication. They were likely checking for marijuana. * Marijuana can introduce side effects that basically make it look like you have ADHD * Most ADHD medications are stimulants, they have counter indications when taken with marijuana * Stimulant prescriptions are under scrutiny right now, so places have been doing more diligence > A month later I received an explanation of benefits from my insurance company that said they received a 14k bill and had paid 4k of it, so I was on the hook for the other 10k. Furious I went to my psych. They casually said “we’ve taken care of it, you shouldn’t receive an actual bill”. Uh, that’s not the point? The point is why was it necessary to send my urine for 14k in testing in the first place? The underlying problem is how a bunch of stuff gets billed. Basically your pysch and insurance company have a pre-negotiated rate for re-imbursement on this - it has little to no bearing on what you actually pay as a patient. It's pretty much all BS because there's a secondary system for resolving those bills.
- r00fus 6y agoIt's that secondary system that really should be transparent, not just the "stated price" which everyone knows is BS.
- SkyPuncher 6y agoI agree. I've had some insight on the other side. I understand why it's the way it is, but as a patient/consumer it's impossible to understand what my healthcare costs are going to be.
- tsjq 6y agoKickbacks from test labs, scan / x-ray centers are normal in India.
- ApolloFortyNine 6y agoThis is kinda the scary part of insurance, and it happens in every industry where insurance exists. It's very expensive for insurance companies to fight charges, so generally mechanics know a magic number they can give that is way higher than they'd charge you, but the insurance company wouldn't bother to fight. Ever have work done on a car/boat and have the mechanic offer to pay your deductible? I've had it happen most of the time. And this part of insurance is hard to fix simply because of how valuable people's time is, and the cost of the insurance company simply being wrong in the end (reputation hit, possible legal repercussions, and cost of the investigation).