5 ms·

I'll be totally honest–I'm having a really hard time generating a fair opinion on this matter. I'm not going to pretend to know how depression works, how often

I'll be totally honest–I'm having a really hard time generating a fair opinion on this matter. I'm not going to pretend to know how depression works, how often it strikes patients, or how much it disables a person. If you truly can't work, I get it. OTOH, if you can go on vacation, it would seem to me that you could perhaps work part-time, try to attend vocational rehab, or something. I know it's not popular to side with big insurance companies, but I can't blame them for at least investigating claims like this.

enjo 17y ago
My father is a V.A. Dentist. He routinely sees veterans who are collecting big benefit checks and receiving full medical (plus travel compensation) for PTSD. The the thing is, they never get "better". They live on the tax-payees dime perpetually. Most have never seen combat. This is a lot like that.
- pyre 17y ago
  > Most have never seen combat. That's anecdotal at best.
- antipaganda 17y ago
  There's no widely-accepted cure for PTSD yet. Sometimes people get better on their own, but we really don't know why.
nfnaaron 17y ago
Obviously none of us knows how the woman's therapist or other professional counseled her. But I can imagine a mental health professional telling someone "you should try to get out. Don't lock yourself at home. Go out with friends. Go to the beach. Just don't sit at home in the dark and stew." So, you go out. You smile. You make progress. It's not "I'm cured," it's "this is one thing I'm doing to help myself." For the insurance company to deny coverage based on that, is about the same as denying coverage for anti-depressants because you're taking anti-depressants. Of course we can assume that they're just looking for a reason, any reason, to deny coverage. The worker who did this probably gets better performance reviews for more denials. The closest to reasonable that this could have ever come, is for the insurance company to request consultation with her and her doctor. What actually happened is a non-qualified functionary made a potentially life-threatening decision. Probably just before lunch.
pyre 17y ago
Having severe enough depression to get some sort of long-term disability from insurance isn't something that comes without a doctor's note. So a doctor diagnosed her with this severe depression, but the accountants and lawyers were the ones that diagnosed her as cured from it. Ignoring whether or not the depression was severe enough for her to be on disability, I would assume it's something for a doctor to decide... And I somehow doubt that they showed the Facebook photos to a doctor and the doctor said, "Yea she's cured!" without having a personal interview with her.

enjo 17y ago

My father is a V.A. Dentist. He routinely sees veterans who are collecting big benefit checks and receiving full medical (plus travel compensation) for PTSD. The the thing is, they never get "better". They live on the tax-payees dime perpetually. Most have never seen combat. This is a lot like that.

pyre 17y ago
> Most have never seen combat. That's anecdotal at best.
antipaganda 17y ago
There's no widely-accepted cure for PTSD yet. Sometimes people get better on their own, but we really don't know why.

nfnaaron 17y ago

Obviously none of us knows how the woman's therapist or other professional counseled her. But I can imagine a mental health professional telling someone "you should try to get out. Don't lock yourself at home. Go out with friends. Go to the beach. Just don't sit at home in the dark and stew." So, you go out. You smile. You make progress. It's not "I'm cured," it's "this is one thing I'm doing to help myself." For the insurance company to deny coverage based on that, is about the same as denying coverage for anti-depressants because you're taking anti-depressants. Of course we can assume that they're just looking for a reason, any reason, to deny coverage. The worker who did this probably gets better performance reviews for more denials. The closest to reasonable that this could have ever come, is for the insurance company to request consultation with her and her doctor. What actually happened is a non-qualified functionary made a potentially life-threatening decision. Probably just before lunch.

pyre 17y ago

Having severe enough depression to get some sort of long-term disability from insurance isn't something that comes without a doctor's note. So a doctor diagnosed her with this severe depression, but the accountants and lawyers were the ones that diagnosed her as cured from it. Ignoring whether or not the depression was severe enough for her to be on disability, I would assume it's something for a doctor to decide... And I somehow doubt that they showed the Facebook photos to a doctor and the doctor said, "Yea she's cured!" without having a personal interview with her.