Pronto, já passou ;)

It is true, I had a stressful week and it turned out that it was all due to a computer error.

To make a long story short:

The office of my oncologist at Sloan-Kettering (MSKCC) wanted to schedule my appointments (to sign the protocol, CT scan, etc) but MSKCC Financial Services had my account "on hold." The account was "on hold" because they claimed that they had not received any authorization from my insurance. On the other hand, my insurance guaranteed me, every time I called, that they had sent the authorizations/referrals to MSKCC.
I was caught in the middle of this, along with the secretary at my primary physician's office who was trying hard to help me out. I could see that it was obviously a communication problem. If my insurance and the hospital spoke to each other directly they would resolve everything. However, whenever I tried to give the name and telephone number of the person in charge of my case at my insurance to MSKCC Financial Services, they would just cut me off saying: "No we don't want the number, you can call them and tell them to fax us the authorization" or "we'll call you back." I guess it must be a New York thing or perhaps I have just been spoiled by all the attention they give me at Dana-Farber, but the end result is that I became really frustrated.

And this went on for six days.

When a patient advocate from MSKCC called me on Monday, I had reached my limit. I raised my voiced when she kept telling me that my insurance had said NO to my authorization request. I know that, unintentionally, I yelled the name and phone of the person in my insurance that they had to talk to, so she had no choice but to write it down and call my insurance and that's when we all found out that there was a mistake in the system. It turned out that every time the hospital called the insurance a recording would say: "patient has exhausted the authorization." But they never talked to anyone directly.

Patient IS exhausted! That's what I would say. There has got to be a better way to resolve these types of issues .

At last, however, everything got resolved. All it really took was, in fact, a phone call from MSKCC to the insurance person.

I'll sign the protocol on the 28th after doing a CT scan and then start the treatment.

It is a beautiful Autumn morning and what I really want is to go for a walk... but I must stay close to the phone. I must wait to hear from NYC. I must wait wait wait wait wait to be told when I can start. Come to think of it, cancer patients do a lot of waiting. For the last two months I have been basically waiting. I should have bought an around-the-world plane ticket...

In the beginning of August I asked my Health Insurance for an authorization to allow me to start the R7112 clinical trial at MSKCC, a hospital outside my network. This trial from Hoffmann-La Roche is only offered in 3 states: Colorado, Texas and New York. I confess that I did not have a lot of faith in my HMO. I was basically waiting to hear a NO. Once I heard a NO I would appeal. With my cancer curriculum I thought it would be easy to show the health insurance that they will benefit if I find a treatment that works... and so I continued to wait for the negative answer in order to appeal. I waited all of August and all of September.

When I gave up waiting to hear from my insurance, as I was ready to start STA 9090 at Dana-Farber, E. from my primary care physician called.

"Elsa they said YES you are all set to start the trial in NY."
"MY insurance said they would cover the costs?"
"YES."

Coincidently at the same time the oncologist from Sloan called to let me know that there was an opening in the study... (yes we also wait for a spot on the trials)

I told her I was ready to start immediately, my insurance had said YES.

You might ask why I am still waiting, why I am still at home. Why haven´t I packed? . Why am I still gardening and thinking of walks?

That will be the next post. Right now I am going to take a walk and forget the phone.