Wrung. Out.
Today was supposed to be "relaxing" but I ended up working for about 5 hours on a problem a friend was having who was desperate for help. Then my wife and I had to go to a jazz concert, which given my brainpower reserves, felt agonizingly long. We got home, I sat down, and felt absolutely spent after another long week.
The bomb that went off this week was getting a call from the rehab center that my Mom is currently staying in that her insurance was going to be cut off today (11/17) and she'd be on the hook for anything going forward. Never mind that she's only been back there 3 weeks post-stroke and has two broken heels. She needs 24x7 professional care and she needs extensive therapy but it boils down to the fact that the insurance just wants to send her to a nursing home.
I don't even have a problem with that if I'm honest because that's where she'll have to be but it's the timing. She's not making progress "quickly enough", but how much progress is someone going to make just after a moderate stroke in which they can't communicate properly? The head of therapy at the rehab facility says it can easily take a month just for things to start working properly after a stroke because up to that point the brain is a jumbled mess. So why are we sitting at 3 weeks and she's not progressing "quickly enough"?
They're full of shit of course. I keep hearing from the staff, and seeing for myself, that she's making pretty good progress. It's going to take time, and therapy, to improve and they don't want to pay for that. So an appeal was filed, and denied. The "physician reviewer" agreed with the insurance company. Shocking. Truly shocking. We have filed a second appeal which I assume will also be denied but it buys us a bit of time trying to figure out where the hell she's going to be able to go that will be paid for.
It's truly disgusting how the insurance companies leave families scrambling like this after a major traumatic event. What if my Mom didn't have two kids advocating for her and was on her own in this situation? I can pretty much guess what would happen and it's frightening and depressing to contemplate.
I hope I never hear someone praise the healthcare system in the United States again or tell me that it isn't the absolute dumpster fire of a mess that it really is. I might end up spitting in their face and they'd deserve it.