Wednesday, October 31, 2007

 

Betaseron

Every other day, I inject myself with Betaseron. It's an interferon drug designed to slow the advance of my Multiple Sclerosis.

I can handle the injections, I've never been very good with needles, but I've been able to deal with this pretty well. I rotate the injections as I've been instructed. I've very rarely had reactions at the injection sites and of nearly 200 injections now, I can count one one hand the number that have been painful or even unduly uncomfortable (I am jamming a needle into my thigh, arm, abdomen or buttock, after all...). Those are the last good things I will say about Betaseron.

Every other day, after an injection I feel like crap. I have Multiple Sclerosis, after a Betaseron, my MS symptoms are worse. I often have a bad headache. I have difficulty at writing or typing. I have to plan things around my injections. For example, I would never try to do laundry the day after an injection, it would be too hard to tramp up and down the stairs, I would be at major risk of a fall. I'd wear out way too fast to be able to do the job properly.

Luckily, my job requires sitting and using my brain. Still, days after injections are tough at work. There's always some walking involved. If I'm doing a special event, extra movement is required. I have done special events the day after an injection. It's been exhausting, but I've decided to never beg off of a job because of my condition. We do special events on a rotation, if it's my turn, even if I had an injection the night before, I take my turn.

I'm also one of the people [Nameless Company] would like to be in charge of master control on weekends. I'm given the occasional day when I'm the team leader. This duty requires a lot of walking around, a lot of monitoring what other people are doing and walking to the printer, which is ludicrously far away. I have performed this duty on the day after an injection as well. If running a special event is exhausting under these conditions, being team leader is brutal on me. I have begged off of this duty recently, and, somehow, I'm the bad guy.

Betaseron recently went up in price to over $1800 per month. I'm responsible for 20% of that total. [Nameless Company] pays their employees shit. My medication (not physicians or physical therapy, just medication) eats up 14% of my salary. Including everything, I figure about 1 hour and 40 minutes of every work day is spent paying for having MS.

The worst thing about Betaseron, though, isn't the way it makes me feel, or even the price. The worst thing is actually buying it. I get my medication through Cigna Teldrug. They have screwed up about half of my orders, their customer service representatives have been rude, they have threatened to ban me from purchasing medication from them because I have complained. Talking on the phone with them is a baffling ordeal. Hold times have been measured in hours.

Unable to get through on their 800 number to make an order, I was given a number I could call. It was a number that incurred long distance charges. I requested some sort of monetary reimbursement for this. I was told I would receive $20 for Teldrug.

I waited. I didn't expect to receive $20 immediately from Teldrug, their are hoops to jump through, I've worked in large corporations before, I know how they are abou money going out. Still, this company is receiving over $1800 from me monthly. Before I am off the phone with them that $1800 is out of my account and into their possession.

When I asked where my $20 was after 30 days I was that they had up to 30 days to make refunds. When I told them it had been over 30 days, I was told that they meant 60 days. When I called approaching 90 days, I was told that they had 90 days to refund me.

At this point I called my corporate benefits office. They told me the person they dealt with at Teldrug wasn't in but they'd get me an answer as soon as possible. Three days later I received an answer, I would be sent a check. I called Teldrug, they told me my account would be credited, that I would receive no check.

I was upset. It cost me. I have been written up at my place of employment, I cannot receive a raise, cannot be promoted or transfered for six months. The team leader duties I'm doing? I was told I would get a promotion and raise to do that. Now? Nope.

I was told by my manager that if I didn't take on these extra duties that it would reflect poorly on me. So I'm doing a job that I was told I'd get a promotion to do, without the promotion, and if I don't, that it's bad for me.

[Nameless Company] is in the business providing television programming to customers via satellite. It breaks down to people in dark rooms pushing buttons, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. That's what I do. Every other job at [Nameless Company] is in place to support what I do.

If I have a problem with my benefits, our corporate benefits office, our Human Resources, WHO WORK FOR ME, should do their jobs and support me. If it takes over 90 days for Teldrug to refund me $20, the corporate benefits office shouldn't agree with Teldrug and say that 90 days is a reasonable amount of time. That is not reasonable! If I receive poor customer service from a company that gets $1800 a month from me, benefits should be all over Teldrug, forcing them to clean up their act. Corporate benefits shouldn't suggest that I find another pharmacy:

As a consumer, you have the right to choose to continue to spend your money with a service you find satisfactory; perhaps one of the in-network pharmacies will service you better.


Teldrug is in-network. Tedrug is owned by my insurance company. If Teldrug is broken, it needs to be fixed. You don't fix things by walking away from them and hoping they get better, you confront the problem. Benefits should be doing that, at the very least, they should support me in that.

Being on Betaseron costs me a ridiculous amount of money, causes me physical pain, has effect my opportunity for advancement in my job, has caused me emotional distress by having to deal with Teldrug, has caused me emotional distress by having to deal with [Nameless Company] corporate benefits and Human Resources. Worse, I have had to fight against Teldrug to get service, and have been hampered in that fight by corporate benefits and Human Resources.

BOJ

In clinical trials of Betaseron, one subject commited suicide and there were four other attempts...

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Comments:
BOJ,

Please don't forget that although teldrug is indeed owned by Cigna, Cigna is just the "underwriter" for our frickin fantastic self-funded insurance. This means that it is truly just another way the Nameless Company is stickin it to you. No wonder they agree 90 days is reasonable.
 
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