Dr. Goslin’s sidekick, the amazing and trusty Donna, emailed me this morning.
“Cigna denied the prior authorization request for Athena. Dr. Goslin did a peer to peer review, and they still denied it. It is unfortunate that this got dragged out so long, only to have them deny it in the end. I am sorry.”
Athena, of course, being the company that does the genetic testing. We were going to see if I had the markers to allow me to participate in the bulk of clinical trials going on. And Cigna said no. Even after Dr. Goslin explained to their faces why it was important. And it IS important.
I feel defeated. Like…this test? And the ability to participate in the best research going on? It gave me hope that maybe my fucking disease might be USEFUL to someone. We won’t see a cure for this in my lifetime, but goddammit I wanted to be a datapoint at least in GETTING there. I want to HELP.
I don’t know how much the test costs. The last one was nearly $12,000. So yeah, I won’t be able to just DO the test on my own. I am beyond frustrated. I am angry, defeated, disappointed, crushed, depressed, all of this and everything else.
I want this fucking disease to mean SOMETHING to SOMEONE. To get SOME good out of it. To be useful.
And now instead of having the chance to be a data point, I’m relegated to be a statistic.
Find out how much it costs and try some kind of crowdfunding. A guy is getting tens of thousands to do a frigging potato salad, you should be able to do this.
I really don’t want to crowdfund this, even if it were possible. That’s a lot of money that could be spent better – the test is not a guarantee of participation, it’s just a maybe. I’m looking into alternate routes. Maybe there’s a study going on that would be willing to get that test done as part of my participation.
And this is why we need single payer healthcare. No one’s healthcare decisions should be based on the financial interests of an insurance company.
I’m sorry to hear this Vashti. It’s not much better here for me and my family either. My other half is getting a root canal this afternoon and of course I will likely be on the hook for most of it even with Cigna. This is also part of the reason I am moving on from the formerly dropped e. I can’t afford to keep working here… :o(
Not that this helps but I turned this article up. Makes for interesting reading if you can get past the title…
Washington Post
Speaking of crowdfunding, I turned this up…
Indiegogo
That really sucks. Another possible alternative is checking on clinical trials.gov for other studies that may be available in your area. I did one in the past for something else. It’s through the NIH and possibly free, although treatment availability is location specific.