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Well, here's what I did about the IUD situation:
The last week in May: I spoke with my HR department about the fact that IUDs aren't covered by our spectacular insurance even though the doctor's visit to *cough* "place them" are. She said that there's likely nothing we can do since it isn't in the plan, but she thought it was weird that only IUDs were explicit from the plan when other forms of more expensive birth control were covered. She said she'd talk to our insurance broker and see what the reasoning was behind that decision.
Monday, June 4th: I went to see my lady doc (who, by the way, is the best lady doc I've ever had. I'm not going to share her name because I want to make sure she doesn't get too popular and not have time for me. Do you keep any secrets like this?). Mr. S left the ultimate IUD decision up to me. I decided it was now or never and scheduled a same-day appointment for the 4th (there were time constraints on when this could be done). Let me remind you that this was a $1,000 product, not currently covered by my insurance.
(Skip to the bottom to see how the whole IUD thing went. Again, men in my life other than S, you may not want to read that.)
Tuesday, June 5th: Felt crappy, but was glad I did it.
Wednesday, June 13th: HR manager comes to me and says, "So, in talking to our broker we thought that it was strange that it wasn't covered. It wasn't covered in our old plan, and when we switched brokers, we just copy/pasted the whole plan without revising things. We are slowly revising things to meet the current need and this is one of the things we chose to revise. As of July 1st, we will cover the procedure and the pharmaceutical product."
I then say, "That's nice, but I already had it done." I had no reason to wait since they gave me no indication that there would be any change. I made it clear that I had to do the procedure at a certain time of the month and that time came and went.
HR then said that if I could get my doctor to forward-date the procedure to have happened in July, then it would be covered.
I then call my doctor's billing department, my insurance company and get a sort of run-around saying that my HR department or insurance broker would have to write a letter to the insurance company saying that the procedure would be covered on the date it was given. They can't just change procedure dates.
I go back to HR and tell them what I find and she said that she'd go back to the broker and see what they could do.
Thursday, June 14th: HR manager comes to me and says that they have looked up my insurance claim and have agreed to backdate the coverage to include my procedure and the expensive product used!
I'm so happy I could cry. Life isn't fair for me ... in a good way.
Advice I can tell you that I learned from this experience:
- Always call your insurance company to see what is covered on your plan. Ask questions if it doesn't make sense.
- When calling your insurance company, make sure you get the reference number attached to your conversation. This way, if you have to call them back you can pick up in the conversation where you left off.
- Price shop other, comparable procedures/pharmaceuticals and see if you can bargain with your HR/insurance broker - it helps make your case!
- If you feel your insurance should cover something that it doesn't, you can file a grievance appeal after the claim has gone through.
- It never hurts to ask!
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The IUD Sitch
Since the IUD has to be placed during a certain point in your cycle, I needed it to be put in on short notice. I went back and forth with the doc about pain killers as I've heard and read that this is a painful procedure. She offered to call me in something stronger, but said that Vicodin wouldn't help me as much as I thought because of the type of pain (inflammation) that it would be. She suggested I take a strong amount of ibuprofen right as I get into the docs office. So, I went with the Advil.
Holy balls that was the worst 90 seconds of my life. Intense pain. The kind where I didn't know what to do with my hands and they were shaking and squeezing my stomach. Thank Jesus that I didn't move and that my doc is a pro at these (already did a few that day even before I got in the office!) because she said it could take up to 5 minutes to do, but only took us 90 seconds. After the preliminary measurement and actual placement was over, I felt immediate relief. Like-just-hit-the-ground-after-nearly-falling-out-of-your-parachute-harness relief. She had me lie their for a few minutes to get my bearings and calm down from the adrenaline rush.
I imagine that this was like getting a piercing on an internal organ. The initial pain is awful, but the adrenaline is addictive. Don't get me wrong. I don't want to do this again, but I can see where people are coming from with tattoos/piercings. I'd had piercings (3 in the ears, 1 in the nose), but none hurt like this.
So anyway, the first day was mostly shocking, but I was ok. The next day, thankfully, I worked from home. I would have needed to take a sick day if I didn't work from home. I felt crampy all day and was couch-ridden. Nothing I haven't experienced before with normal woman-issues. I have taken ibuprofen off-and-on for the past week to maintain the pain, but it's only gotten better. Some days I need no meds or heating pad at all.
