opiate_advocate
Greenlighter
I am new here (first post), but I am in a very serious and devastating situation and have to know what to do about it....
If I am missing something, or you have heard of this, please comment... because I am totally at a loss here what my next move is.
Background
After the opiate crisis shit kept showing up in the media, it became hell for pain patients.
WE became the ones to blame, and penalize.
If you require >90mme (morphine milligrams equivalent)......you're "over medicated.
If you are physically dependent on medicine.....you are a drug addict.
If you ask questions about obtaining your medication, you're a drug seeker.
Patients that have been through every treatment, Physical therapy, injection, and surgery without success...you're a lost cause
Pain management uses a "one size should fit all" approach,
concerned more about minimal numbers, then managing an individual's actual pain.
Most doctors have become rude, impersonal conveyor belts, rushing patients in and out, not giving a shit about them.
MY STORY:::
I have been on pain medication for about 15 years,
oxycodone HCl 30mg for 11, and fentanyl patch 50mcg for 7.
I have degenerative disc disease, nerve damage, ankylosing spondylitis, bone spurs,
arthritis, bursitis, sciatica, and Lupus.
Am I 80 years old? No, I am only 32, so naturally,
anytime healthcare professionals see what my medications are,
they immediately treat me like a leper.
My doctor has been treating me for 10 years.
I have followed every rule, and have never asked to alter my meds.
Fast forward to last week, after an insurance issue, trying to get my doctor to do the correct paperwork , she decided to cut me off my meds, and enroll me in detox.
OUT OF NO WHERE.
I am still dumbfounded how things got this way, over an insurance inconvenience. I could understand if I failed drug tests, or was constantly trying to get my meds upped, but there was literally nothing that I did to deserve being banned from my meds and forced into the worst pain and withdrawal I have ever felt.
In 2017, insurances started requiring prior authorizations for patients receiving >90mme (morphine equivalent) every 6 months, to evaluate if the higher dosing is appropriate. I have always been approved. This past month, my doctor's office claimed that my insurance denied my oxy script, because "provider is legally not allowed to prescribe more then 60mme", and since i'm on >320mme, it can only be obtained by a pain management doctor.
She wrote me a new script for 2 15mg oxycodone a day, (literally 1/5th of my normal dose), and thought that was sufficient.
I was in disbelief and hysterics, so I called my insurance company.
They said my case was denied because the doctor's office didn't finish the paperwork, not because of any limit.
(Dr did the right paperwork for my fentanyl patches the week before, and they were approved. (fentanyl= 120mme)
After several phone tag calls back to my doctor's office to tell them what the issue really was,
they refused to fix my prescription, and said: "sorry your doctor won't be giving you these prescriptions any longer".
WHAT IN THE FUCK IS THAT?
Randomly, after all these years under her care, I'm cut off?
This is absolutely brutal and cruel.
So I say again, what in the fuck is that?
Just merely staying out of withdrawal, I went through the 15's in a week. I made an urgent appointment with the pain place that originally recommended my dose.
Different doctor, who had clearly made up her mind before seeing me, that I need to get off my meds.
Then she realized, her superior was the one that recommended my 5x/day ox and fentanyl patch every 3 days.
She told me to return to primary care for medication issues, referred me to another clinic for another opinion.
and then called my Doctor with that absurd consultation.
Out of meds, and in agony, I started to cry.
This felt like punishment for something I did not do, but it all started with a pre-auth they didn't do right.
I was hoping they would just fix the issue, and not make me go through this.
IT BACKFIRED.
Before I could even say hello to my dr...
She was pissed off that I was there, and accused me of drug-seeking, and lying.
She said "did you honestly think you could just come here and I would give you medication?
I spoke with the Pain clinic, the plan is not to get another opinion,
the plan is to get u off all the medicine.
So I found treatment centers that take your insurance.
Call them now while I'm here."
What in the fucking shit?
YOU FORCE ME INTO IMMEDIATE SUFFERING AND WITHDRAWAL WITH THAT RANDOM SCRIPT CUT OFF, THEN SURPRISED AND PISSED THAT IM BACK?
ANY healthcare provider knows patients on opiate pain meds for long periods of time, CAN NOT be rapidly or suddenly reduced or cut off, it is not safe.
Is this legal? I thought their 1st rule was "DO NO HARM"?
((((((APOLOGIES FOR RUNNING LONG WINDED...I GAVE THE WHOLE STORY INCASE IM MISSING SOMETHING?))))))
Please let me know what you think, and what you would do if this happened to you.
If I am missing something, or you have heard of this, please comment... because I am totally at a loss here what my next move is.
Background
After the opiate crisis shit kept showing up in the media, it became hell for pain patients.
WE became the ones to blame, and penalize.
If you require >90mme (morphine milligrams equivalent)......you're "over medicated.
If you are physically dependent on medicine.....you are a drug addict.
If you ask questions about obtaining your medication, you're a drug seeker.
Patients that have been through every treatment, Physical therapy, injection, and surgery without success...you're a lost cause
Pain management uses a "one size should fit all" approach,
concerned more about minimal numbers, then managing an individual's actual pain.
Most doctors have become rude, impersonal conveyor belts, rushing patients in and out, not giving a shit about them.
MY STORY:::
I have been on pain medication for about 15 years,
oxycodone HCl 30mg for 11, and fentanyl patch 50mcg for 7.
I have degenerative disc disease, nerve damage, ankylosing spondylitis, bone spurs,
arthritis, bursitis, sciatica, and Lupus.
Am I 80 years old? No, I am only 32, so naturally,
anytime healthcare professionals see what my medications are,
they immediately treat me like a leper.
My doctor has been treating me for 10 years.
I have followed every rule, and have never asked to alter my meds.
Fast forward to last week, after an insurance issue, trying to get my doctor to do the correct paperwork , she decided to cut me off my meds, and enroll me in detox.
OUT OF NO WHERE.
I am still dumbfounded how things got this way, over an insurance inconvenience. I could understand if I failed drug tests, or was constantly trying to get my meds upped, but there was literally nothing that I did to deserve being banned from my meds and forced into the worst pain and withdrawal I have ever felt.
In 2017, insurances started requiring prior authorizations for patients receiving >90mme (morphine equivalent) every 6 months, to evaluate if the higher dosing is appropriate. I have always been approved. This past month, my doctor's office claimed that my insurance denied my oxy script, because "provider is legally not allowed to prescribe more then 60mme", and since i'm on >320mme, it can only be obtained by a pain management doctor.
She wrote me a new script for 2 15mg oxycodone a day, (literally 1/5th of my normal dose), and thought that was sufficient.
I was in disbelief and hysterics, so I called my insurance company.
They said my case was denied because the doctor's office didn't finish the paperwork, not because of any limit.
(Dr did the right paperwork for my fentanyl patches the week before, and they were approved. (fentanyl= 120mme)
After several phone tag calls back to my doctor's office to tell them what the issue really was,
they refused to fix my prescription, and said: "sorry your doctor won't be giving you these prescriptions any longer".
WHAT IN THE FUCK IS THAT?
Randomly, after all these years under her care, I'm cut off?
This is absolutely brutal and cruel.
So I say again, what in the fuck is that?
Just merely staying out of withdrawal, I went through the 15's in a week. I made an urgent appointment with the pain place that originally recommended my dose.
Different doctor, who had clearly made up her mind before seeing me, that I need to get off my meds.
Then she realized, her superior was the one that recommended my 5x/day ox and fentanyl patch every 3 days.
She told me to return to primary care for medication issues, referred me to another clinic for another opinion.
and then called my Doctor with that absurd consultation.
Out of meds, and in agony, I started to cry.
This felt like punishment for something I did not do, but it all started with a pre-auth they didn't do right.
I was hoping they would just fix the issue, and not make me go through this.
IT BACKFIRED.
Before I could even say hello to my dr...
She was pissed off that I was there, and accused me of drug-seeking, and lying.
She said "did you honestly think you could just come here and I would give you medication?
I spoke with the Pain clinic, the plan is not to get another opinion,
the plan is to get u off all the medicine.
So I found treatment centers that take your insurance.
Call them now while I'm here."
What in the fucking shit?
YOU FORCE ME INTO IMMEDIATE SUFFERING AND WITHDRAWAL WITH THAT RANDOM SCRIPT CUT OFF, THEN SURPRISED AND PISSED THAT IM BACK?
ANY healthcare provider knows patients on opiate pain meds for long periods of time, CAN NOT be rapidly or suddenly reduced or cut off, it is not safe.
Is this legal? I thought their 1st rule was "DO NO HARM"?
((((((APOLOGIES FOR RUNNING LONG WINDED...I GAVE THE WHOLE STORY INCASE IM MISSING SOMETHING?))))))
Please let me know what you think, and what you would do if this happened to you.
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