he failed a routine hearing test at school. The nurse called to tell me. My response was that he shouldn’t have failed it because he had had a tube placed in that ear a couple months before. I asked if he could be tested again. He failed test #2. We were offered a complete audiological exam at no cost at the local university. We didn’t have two nickels to rub together back then so we took advantage of the opportunity. Owen failed that third test and the tech who did the testing recommended we get into the ENT who placed the tube asap.
We were fortunate to get in right away and the news was not good. Owen had a large cholesteatoma (benign tumor) in his left ear and it was sitting on the dura of his brain. It had eaten away all of his hearing bones and he had zero hearing ability in that ear. Surgery was scheduled three days later. Our insurance plan would not pre-authorize the procedure stating that the tumor was benign and thus not an immediate threat. The surgeon sent documentation that the tumor would continue to grow into Owen’s brain resulting in permanent neurological damage. I threatened a state insurance commission complaint if surgery was not authorized immediately per the surgeon’s recommendation. Surgery was authorized at 4pm the day before the procedure. I cannot even describe the stress of this.
To make matters worse, our deductible was $12,000 and the surgery center wanted that up front to do the surgery. We had to get a HELOC loan on our house…and thankfully had a banker who would transfer that money to us at the 11th hour to make this happen.
Surgery was 6 hours long. The tumor was removed and Owen’s hearing bones were replaced with titanium and his ear drum was rebuilt. Very long story short, the surgery had to be redone 6 months later because the new hearing bones failed and had to be replaced. We had to fight again with the insurance company to get them to cover this. It was an insanely stressful year. I learned to use the state insurance commission to get them to provide benefits for which we paid dearly. What BCBSH of MT put us through was so unnecessary. And, I would fight them again tomorrow. Owen has almost perfect hearing in that ear…about 90%. He’s 19 now and we have to get that ear checked annually.
I consider myself to be deeply empathetic and I am amazed at what I do not feel for this man who was gunned down. It bothers me that I don’t feel badly. It isn’t right what happened and I know that. However, the events above are just ONE example of the hell that I have dealt with being self insured and responsible for every health care dollar we spend from premiums to deductibles to out of pocket expenses.
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