Insurance company refuses to pay $156 for the CT Calcium Score that identified my major heart issues
An update on my post about CT Calcium score & two short posts.
A quick update: The post that I get the most questions about is “How to get a CT Calcium Score.” The most frequent question is: “Where can I get one?” and “How much does it cost?”
The cost question was a surprisingly hard question to answer.
The costs generally range between $100 and $250. I but I didn’t know much precise cost until this week. It came in at $156 and as I pointed out in the previous post, my insurance was likely to not cover the expense. I accepted that expense and felt it was still worth it for me and my family.
As you may recall, it was actually fairly difficult for me to get the test because my primary care doctor wasn’t willing to recommend it. I had to enlist a friend to connect me directly with a cardiologist. (Thanks Jeffs!)
The price didn’t surprise me, since I knew it was coming. But what was a bit humorous to me was the response from my insurance company.
As you will recall, the test revealed that my heart was blocked more than 90% of people my age and it also identified that I have Left Ventricular Hypertrophy (LVH or hardening of the heart tissue).
So you would think that my insurance company would be thankful that I identified these conditions so that I can now take proactive steps to reduce the risk that I will have a heart attack. And since the cost was so low at $156, maybe they would now cover the expense.
Nope! The insurance company denied the claim saying that I didn’t qualify to get this test even though 2 years ago I had all of the clinical indications that I could be at risk. I had high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and high triglycerides for about 10 years.
But since I wasn’t 45, I didn’t qualify to have this covered by my insurance.
It’s pretty wild. Especially considering the fact that about 50% of Americans that experience heart attacks have no prior indication that they might have a heart issue!
I’m not mad at my insurance company for not covering it. I knew that this was a possibility. But I would suggest that this might be a broken system if saving lives is the goal of the health care system. What do you think?
We are drawn to friends that excite us.
But that excitement comes in different forms.
Some friends make us feel happiness, love, energy, positivity, and they fill us with optimism.
But some friends excite us because they fill us with rage, fear, hate, or pessimism.
These are very different feelings of excitement.
Sure, it is true that some people are able to use that fear or rage and convert it into fuel to slay dragons and storm the castle, fighting towards a righteous cause to rescue the princess and save the day.
But I find my life to be much more joyful when I’m surrounded by friends who see every challenge as an opportunity. When those friends are filled with hope, positivity, and optimism—it’s a feeling that easily transforms into love.
Don’t define yourself by what you oppose; define yourself by what you stand for.
Don’t debate a rock.
Before engaging in a debate, I like to ask, 'What's a significant belief or opinion you've changed in the past year or two?' If they haven't or offer something trivial, I simply smile and nod.
There's little value in debating with someone who never changes their mind.
If you get ANY value out of this, could you consider sharing it with 2 friends?
I mean.. I don't think anyone believes that insurance companies are in the business of saving lives or improving health. I think we all believe they are in the business of making money and everything else is secondary or tertiary. If we ACTUALLY cared about improving overall health, lifespans, outcomes in general, and saving money by proactive work, our entire healthcare system, from insurance to providers, would look radically different. We are a reactive society that wants to have our cake, eat it too, wash it down with a bunch of booze, skip exercising, sleep not enough, and then pop a pill each morning to make it all better. And our healthcare and insurance, and especially drug industry, is all about keeping this system in place. All we need to do to see how bad things are is look at the "free" public school breakfasts and lunches that are offered to our kids and just how unhealthy they are. We are literally training our kids from kindergarten age to be addicted to sugar and unhealthy fats, and then wondering later why we have an obesity epidemic. Instead of more outdoors time, more exercise and play time, more PE classes, we have less than ever. The Europeans have us whooped hands down in these areas. They see the issue. We know the issue is here as a country, but we continue to bury our heads in the sand and ignore the inconvenient truths in front of us. There is no greater threat to American security, IMO, than the looming health crisis.
Thanks for this post! Added it to my todo list Monday from your last post. Great reminder for me to do it :)