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This episode is sponsored by biocare nutrition. Use code HangryWoman on your next order.
Mila Clark shared her personal experience as a Black woman living with adult subclinical autoimmune diabetes and the challenges she faces within the American healthcare system.
Although she has adequate medical insurance, she faces difficulty obtaining needed medical equipment and filling prescriptions due to sudden coverage issues and prior authorization requirements.
Mila’s account highlights the complexities and barriers that individuals with chronic conditions often face when navigating the healthcare system, and emphasizes the need for increased accessibility and understanding of patient needs.
She calls for a patient-centered system that prioritizes patient well-being over corporate profits, and invites listeners to engage in lively discussions while promoting her podcast and encouraging support for her work. Masu.
Overcoming Medical Hurdles: A Personal Journey
Introduction: Welcome to the Diabestie Podcast
Welcome back everyone! Today, I’m going to delve into a topic close to home: the frustrating hurdles we face in the health care system. As an adult with underlying autoimmune diabetes, I have had my fair share of struggles with insurance, pharmacies, and paperwork. So let’s unpack it together.
Health struggles of entrepreneurs
Picture this: I’m an entrepreneur. That means I’m paying the health insurance bill. It seems to give you strength, right? Well, it comes with its own unique headaches. With high premiums, endless paperwork, and fights over coverage, it’s a real ordeal.
Recognizing privilege in struggle
I acknowledge my privilege despite being a Black woman and stepping into a health care system that does not prioritize people like me. At least for now, I can afford quality medical care. But financial instability lurks everywhere, threatening to throw everything into chaos.
Unexpected prescription predicament
Imagine my surprise when I visited Endo about a month ago. And I keep all my prescriptions together. He moved his office and we are in the process of cleaning everything up. So at that time, I felt like I was following my prescription pretty well, but when I saw him again in early January, I thought, Okay, I’ve gone back through all my medication history and this is all must be updated. Basically, I am obsessed with new habits. And for me, it was like, okay, so there’s just some sorting that you have to do.
Addressing prescription issues
By the way, my insurance hasn’t changed. So my insurance was exactly the same. Well, it was actually a better plan than the last time we saw the ending. So, I think there were changes, but there was more content, and that was the idea and the goal. Then I changed that plan in June of last year. I’ve been working on this plan for a really long time. It’s been a long time and I was like, at least five months ago, I was going to do all this. So I was already spending money on prescriptions. I was already spending money on supplies.
Frustration’s Mount
I needed technical supplies. I just had my insulin patch put on, so I have everything I need, and everything I need is here. So we did that. We renewed our prescriptions. They’re all the same insurance prescriptions, but somehow I’ve been put in a position where I’m like, “That’s not me, I wish I could explain that to you guys.” Just like I go to fill all my prescriptions, I go to the pharmacy where I have filled prescriptions for the past 5 months without any problems.
A never-ending battle: Rant and seek solutions
And suddenly a problem arises. Suddenly, the insulin I take is no longer covered by insurance. Therefore, newer formulations of concentrated insulin should be used. Suddenly, my insulin patch requires prior authorization, which I didn’t need before. I was able to obtain them as stated in the official collection. I don’t know what happened. Then I tried to use the coupon, but the insurance flat-out was “I don’t know how to apply it.” And the pharmacy said, we don’t know how to apply this.
advocate for change
That’s my rant for today. And I think there are two questions that I would pose to you. One, have you ever had to deal with this? What does that look like for you? And two, how can we fix it? Make this system work better? What kind of patient advocacy can we do to help them? Because right now it’s not helping us at all. It works for pharmaceutical companies and it works for the insurance business itself. But I know it’s frustrating for doctors to have to pre-approve something they’ve already done or advocated for, hey, I prescribed this.
Conclusion: Call to action
Anyway, that’s the episode. Today is up to here. So he asks two questions. I look forward to a lively discussion. Thank you for listening to my solo episode today. And I hope that you can reduce the stress of living with a chronic illness. And you don’t have to do everything that seems pointless. Thank you for your attention. Thank you so much for supporting the podcast.
Take action: join the conversation
Well, that’s it for this episode. Take care of yourself and I’ll talk to you next time. good bye. If you want a transcript and video podcast of this episode, be sure to visit diabestipod.com. You can get all of this. And I think video podcasts are also appealing. It’s fun is not it. It’s very similar to an audio podcast. I keep it short so I can focus on other things throughout the day, but please visit diabestipod.com. It’s very helpful for podcasts and it’s very helpful for me.
summary
Get all the information you need about every episode in just one second. It’s like a fantasy. But that’s it. Yes, it’s finished. I’ll tell you next time. good bye.
