To: i-node who wrote (789009 ) 6/10/2014 10:54:10 PM From: J_F_Shepard Read Replies (1) | Respond to of 1578073 Just another story of insurance hardships without the details needed to see whether the truth is being told. This person complained that he couldn't afford his insurance and meds under his old plan and felt blessed to get an Obamacare plan that covered him. His insurance company denied his request for a name brand drug to treat his fibromyalgia, a difficult problem to diagnose and treat. Even the causes are controversial with some considering them psychological and others physical... I do know that if his physician can make the case the insurance company will pay and none of this has anything to do with Obamacare. I have personal experience with situations like this (not fibromyalgia) and know it can be done. However, I also know that the alternative drugs that are approved will do what they are supposed to do. There is no cure for fibromyalgia, just pain management. About 45% of patients are treated with habit forming opioids. Anti-depressants, anti-seizure meds, and even human growth hormone is used..... This person is a malcontent.......going for years without coverage and paying his own bills, he gets excellent coverage but now bitches that he can't get the most expensive drugs and his doctor won't or can't make the case to justify it. He doesn't name the drug he wants....I wonder why? "Economics Patients with fibromyalgia generally have higher health care costs and utilization rates. A study of almost 20,000 Humana members enrolled in Medicare Advantage and commercial plans compared costs and medical utilizations and found that persons with fibromyalgia used twice as much pain-related medication as those without fibromyalgia. Furthermore, the use of medications and medical necessities increased markedly across many measures once diagnosis was made.[152] Controversies Being a disorder defined relatively recently and still not completely understood, fibromyalgia continues to be a diagnosis that sometimes is disputed. Dr. Frederick Wolfe, lead author of the 1990 paper that first defined the diagnostic guidelines for fibromyalgia, has stated he believes the causes of Fibromyalgia "are controversial in a sense" and that "there are many factors that produce these symptoms – some are psychological and some are physical and it does exist on a continuum."[153] Some members of the medical community do not consider fibromyalgia a disease because of a lack of abnormalities on physical examination and the absence of objective diagnostic tests.[146][154] Yunus has referred to some physicians' belief that FM is psychological in nature as disturbed physician syndrome (DPS): "It is the physicians who are psychologically disturbed because they ignore the data, and whatever data there is, they manipulate it to say what they want it to say."[155] en.wikipedia.org