A Week in Review: Heil der Kaiser!

Due to my psychiatrist's office being ass and Kaiser Permanente's apathy towards behavioral health, I have to do whatever it takes to stay sane all by myself. All I have left is my medication and even that is nearly impossible to get. So, I'm picking my blog back up. At least I am trying to. The past few weeks have been brutal on my mood. There have been lots of changes in my life, but I will start with my insurance issues. I will just copy and paste what I reported to NAMI and some other mental health advocates.

I am on three medications that work well for me. Those medications were prescribed to me when we were on a better insurance. My husband works for the city and though they offer several benefit packages, Kaiser Permanente is the only one we can afford since the rates went up.

My therapist is only available every two months if I am lucky, so I do not use her because I do not think it would do any good and it is a 20 minute drive. I would rather not waste the gas. Trying to get an appointment with my psychiatrist is even worse. I probably have not seen her in a year because I would call to get an appointment, she would be booked, and the receptionist would tell me to call next month. It was an endless cycle. I learned to live with this as long as I could get my medication. I had to ask for refills through email because recently (the last few months at least) no one has answered the phone when I called. Not once. It can take up to a week for my psychiatrist to refill my prescriptions because she has to read my email. She has advised me to call and I explained that no one answers when I call. That conversation went nowhere.

I emailed her for a refill on the 7th for my ADHD medication. My pharmacy also faxed them a refill request. They did not refill my meds for more than a week. I cannot function well without my medication, especially for that long. If the same were to happen with my mood stabilizer, it could be life threatening. The mood stabilizer quiets the suicidal thoughts. When I went to email her via the Kaiser Permanente site, I noticed she is scheduled to be out of the office until 2018. There are no other Kaiser psychiatrists within an hour's drive. I have been dealing with my issues by myself and learned to cope as long as I have had my medication. This is something I should not have to do, but it was not worth dealing with. Now that they are not giving me my medication and I cannot get ahold of anyone, I'm stuck.

After some serious phone tag with the Kaiser member representative, she did not believe that I could not get ahold of anyone at the office and was quite apathetic about the entire situation. I will be complaining to whomever I can about this and might be seeking the free consultation of a lawyer or two.

But I will not let it ruin this week. That is what my clients are for.