Blue Shield of CA basically tells Cary Tennis (Salon.com writer with cancer) to GET FUCKED AND DIE.

[Amerigo Vespucci]

VIDEOS @ URL below.

Blue Shield of California To Salon's Cary Tennis: Drop Dead
By Susie Madrak Saturday Mar 20, 2010 2:00pm

http://crooksandliars.com/susie-madrak/blue-shield-california-salons-cary-te

Salon's Cary Tennis is one of my very favorite writers. He's on hiatus from his "Since You Asked" advice column there, where he's written quite movingly of his journey toward sobriety. Instead, he's been blogging about his cancer fight.

Now he faces an even bigger battle: one with Blue Shield, and he needs our help:

I've been recovering from cancer surgery and waiting for the insurance company to approve the next course of treatment, which is eight weeks of proton beam radiation therapy at Loma Linda Hospital in Southern California.This treatment is what my surgeon, Dr. Christopher Ames of UCSF, calls the standard of care for sacral chordoma.

Today I learned that the insurance company has denied the request for this treatment. Dr. Ames is a noted expert on spinal tumors. That's Ames in the ABC7 News video below -- taking four vertebrae out of a woman's neck and ... well, just watch the video. This is the guy who operated on me:

http://crooksandliars.com/susie-madrak/blue-shield-california-salons-cary-te

Dr. Ames says that 8 weeks of proton beam radiation therapy at Loma Linda Hospital is the standard of care and I believe him. So I called Blue Shield. They told me to fill out this grievance form.I put the grievance form PDF on my Web site, where you can download one, too. Maybe if a few hundred, or a few thousand, of these forms were filled out and mailed to Member Services Grievances, Blue Shield of California, P.O. Box 272540, Chico, CA 95927-2540, well ... maybe it would get some attention. Or maybe if you called [phone], which is the number that people with grievances are supposed to call, maybe that would get some attention. On the back of the form are instructions about how to contact the California Department of Managed Health Care. Their phone number is 888-HMO-2219.


Sacral chordoma is a very rare cancer, and proton beam radiation therapy is not a well-known course of treatment. Plus it is expensive. So naturally an insurance company is going to carefully review a request for such treatment.

But Blue Shield wouldn't deny me needed care, would they?I don't want special treatment. I want the same treatment anyone else would get. I just want treatment.

[Maat]

1. K&R.

I've had it with these people. I learned as a social worker, there is NO place better than Loma Linda for helping people through certain health challenges. They treated my daughter after she was rescued (abandoned and abused prior to our adopting her). Miracle workers they are.

They saved many a kid on my caseload.

[Amerigo Vespucci]

3. And this is not a frivolous request from Mr. Tennis...

...as you state, this is an accredited institution with a track record of success. If a life can be saved, save it. It's that simple.

[Delphinus]

4. Do insurance companies care

that lives can be saved? The almighty dollar is the only thing they usually care about saving.

[Amerigo Vespucci]

5. Of course they don't, and every time they let someone die...

...it should become front page news. Every single time.

[grace0418]

15. No. If you die young they don't have to worry about paying for expensive procedures

when you're older.

[Maat]

6. Heck, yeah!

Whatever Loma Linda does ... works!

I helped a family whose daughter received a new heart ... no less. She made it!

[HowHasItComeToThis]

2. CARY IS MY FRIEND

REALLY

[Tuesday_Morning]

9. I don't know him...

..but I adore him. He gives wonderful, almost holographic, advice.

Of course, I'll call.

[Fumesucker]

7. And we are all going to continue to be at their "mercy" for the foreseeable future..

Thank you Congress..

Thank you President Obama..

[area51]

13. +1 (n/t)

[Lorien]

18. Indeed. Rah, rah, go team!

[madrchsod]

8. photon beam is the cheapest and best therapy.

according to medicare the cost of new technology saves money and lives.

my insurance company demanded a x-ray before a photon image of my shoulder. the x-ray is ancient technology compared to photon imaging!

[eppur_se_muova]

12. Proton, not photon? nt

[eridani]

10. And congress is about to FORCE us to pay protection money to these useless shitstains

--forever.

[Vinca]

11. The insurance company MO is to deny, deny, deny and hope

you die before they're forced to provide funding for the necessary treatment. I'd suggest this guy go to the media, but apparently he is the media.

[Lorien]

17. I'd like like to know what provisions the current HCR bill has for stopping these kinds

of denials. I pay for my own private insurance; I've only received $200.00 worth of coverage over the past 12 years, but I've paid out over 78K in premiums plus tens of thousands in deductibles. They automatically deny EVERYTHING. So who is going to stop the company MO?

[grace0418]

14. "I want the same treatment anyone else would get." Unfortunately, that's exactly the

treatment he IS getting. He's getting denied, just like everyone else who doesn't have the millions to pay for treatment on their own.

My mother had breast cancer and one of my sisters had breast cancer. My doctor wanted to get a baseline reading of my breasts because of that. Since I am a bit younger and have dense breasts, standard mammograms will not be conclusive for me. So she wrote a prescription for an ultrasound. It all made sense to me, especially since taking preventative measures (based on a clear family history) would perhaps save the insurance company a lot of money in very expensive treatment down the road.

The insurance company waited to deny the claim until after I'd had the procedure. Luckily it was only a few hundred dollars, but it still pissed me off.

[Lorien]

19. You speak the truth

I just wish that more people were listening.

[Tesha]

16. These are the "Death Panels" the Republicans keep warning us about.

But as in so many cases, what's going on is psychological projection:
The death panels are real and operating today, to the benefit of the
stockholders of the health "care" corporations and Rich Republicans
benefit from them, so they project the evil that they're doing onto
us and our proposed health reforms, claiming that it is we who will
be *INTRODUCING* "Death Panels".

Tesha