I have spoken out once before about the abuse of pain patients in the state of TN. Just when I thought I undestood the game they seem to be playing with our lives, they make matters worse.
In January every year, pain management patients are given new pain management contracts to sign. Unfortunatly, this year, they all contain a new clause:
I give (Name of Clinic) permission to share information, including diagnostic and treatment details, as needed, with appropriate drug and law enforcement agencies, pharmacists, the State's Board of Pharmacy, insurance companies, or other medical professionals who provide my health care for purposes of maintaining accountability and for investigation of any possible misuse, sale, or other type of diversion of my pain medicine. I agree to waive any applicable privilege or right of privacy or confidentiality with respect to these authorizations.
In other words, because I am a pain management patient, in the great State of Tennessee, I am forced to sign away my right to medical privacy in order to receive treatment. I have no choice, I must control my pain. The medications are necessary for me.
I also use Reiki, light yoga, and meditation for pain control. With the medication, I sleep for a few hours every night, and am able to spend a few hours each day taking care of the activities of daily living. Without medication, I do not sleep, except sporadically, and I spend every waking hour flat on my back, in total misery. I try to use as little of the narotic as possible, yet still keep my pain controlled.
Listen to me here. I have been beaten down by this system so hard, that I am apologizing for needing pain medication. Every visit to my pain management clinic leaves me feeling just a little more humbled. Having a nurse watch, while you collect your urine for a drug test is not fun. I shouldn't be made to feel like a criminal because I am in pain. Once upon a time, people in my conition were appropriately medicated without having to jump through hoops, or sign their rights away.
As if being forced to sign away my right to privacy wasn't enough, I have been informed that I am required to have another MRI, since it has been over five years since my last one. Of course, it is not medically necessary. My condition can not improve. I can't have more surgery. I was told at Emory, in Atlanta, that my condition is cronic, and is expected to deteriorate slowly. I was told that it could never improve. The treatment will remain exactly the same, even if deterioration has occured. An MRI now serves no diagnostic purpose, other than to satisfy some arbitrary rule the DEA has seen fit to impose on pain management patients.
In order to get this unnecessary test, I will need to visit a Doctor, who is included in my Medicare advantage plan, and convince him to write an order for it. Medicare will pay for that visit, and I will pay my copay. Then, Medicare will pay for 80% of a 1200$ test. My 20% will be at least 240$. The only way I will be able to pay for that test will be to use my food budget to pay for it. My son and I will be really hungry for a month, so I can pay my percentage of a charge for a test I don't need, and which serves no diagnostic purpose.
THIS IS EXACTLY WHY MEDICAL COSTS ARE OUT OF CONTROL IN THE UNITED STATES!
I really don't want to go hungry for an entire month, and see my son go hungry, in order to satisfy some rule that some bureaucrat dreamed up while sitting on his backside in some little office in Washingon DC.
I don't want to sign my right to the privacy of my medical information away.
But, I will do both things, because they have me caught in a trap.