Rate your ALS on a scale of 1 to 10!

[Nikki J]

Sounds like a sick joke doesn't it? I have new insurance this year and have to get riluzole from a different mailorder pharmacy. A nurse just called and said the insurance requires her to ask some questions one of which was to rate my disease on a scale of severity! I could see this with pain as it is commonly used for that but how bad is your ALS? Any one else get asked this?

 

[Nuts]

OMG. How about "10--it's ALS"?

 

[krnNdug]

I thought this might have been a troll from the heading...insurance doesn't get it...

 

[ralsip]

I was diagnosed with type two diabetes five days before my ALS diagnosis. A couple of months later I got a voicemail from my health insurance company, Federal Blue Cross Blue Shield, that I qualified for additional benefits. I thought that was pretty neat and was excited when I called them back and expected to hear something about ALS. The nurse I spoke to however wanted to talk about how they could help me lose weight to control my diabetes. I was polite but told her losing weight was not really ideal for the terminal illness I have and that if I lived long enough to have problems from diabetes, those are problems I would gladly have. She also did not seem to know what Als was. One of my first of many interactions that drove home why this disease is called an orphan disease.

 

[swalker]

ask some questions one of which was to rate my disease on a scale of severity!

This brought a smile. I wonder who was more surprised - the one asking the question or the one (probably not) answering it.

When I was going through the disability process, one of the questions I was repeatedly asked was regarding when I expected to get better and return to work

Steve

 

[tripete]

simple rating answer IT SUCKS! IT WILL KILL ME! I had to go through this BS lately as well.

 

[gooseberry]

I cant repeat my husbands reply

 

[nebrhahe53]

I think my reply would be why dont you rate a terminal disease, and now please give me the phone # of tghe presedent of this company so I can complain

 

[Nikki J]

Thanks guys. I was not expecting the call to begin with but this question really threw me! My old insurance was so much easier. The doctor sent in the prescription. They mailed it to me. I paid. End of story. This one they called and scheduled the delivery now this follow up call which apparently happens at some to be determined frequency

 

[nebrhahe53]

Were you forced to change insurances?

 

[Nikki J]

No I switched because the old one paid for riluzole but not some of the other things I might need this year. And they have lower coinsurance for dme. It depends on how things go for me if this was a bad or a good decision!

 

[ECpara]

OMG, this gave me a chuckle. Rate your ALS, ha ha ha ha ha how about a 20? You can't get a worse diagnosis than this. Reminds me of the calls I used to get from Tom's long term disability insurance asking me how he was doing. They wanted to see if he was capable of going "back to work"! I was polite but really?

 

[Barbie]

good grief! so, we all want to know what you said!

 

[MaxEidswick]

.

 

[Comoguy]

Nikki, I could see some paper pusher at the insurance company naively asking this question but what really surprises me is that it was a nurse. You would think that she/he could have handled it better and informed the insurance company of the absurdity of the question before speaking to you. Glad you find some humour in it!