Time for a new application to BMS

04Oct09

I’ve been unemployed by the system of corporate greed for almost five moenths. I am freelancing alone, flying solo. I don’t recived unemployment and my insurance will cease at the end of 2009.  I am trying to set things up so that I have access to all my meds and health providers, etc. I am also making progress on my book about  my struggle with mental illness, Beautiful Wreck: Sex, Lies & Suicide.

I am once again applying to the BMS Abilify Patient Assistance Program because I am close to jobless except the few writing gigs I have –and almost homeless unless I receive a loan for which I applied from the Actors League Fund for my rent this month (meaning October). I chronicle here what happens.  Thanks for reading!

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Tags: Abilify, Abilify Assistance Program, Beautiful Wreck: Sex, BMS, Lies & Suicide, Stephanie Schroeder

Dear Bristol-Myers Squibb, again

09Apr09

April 8, 2009

Bristol-Myers Squibb

Abilify Patient Assistance Program
VIA Fax

I have attached the last of my out of pocket medical expenses—$400 for two visits to my psychiatrist thus far this year (2009).

I also just want to let you know that my problem of not being able to afford Abilify (and other medical services, prescription medications) lies not only in other medical bills incurred that I must pay in order to keep seeing my practitioners (such as my psychotherapist and psychiatrist/psychopharmacologist), but also in the medical services I do not receive and the prescription drugs I do not buy because I cannot afford them. I do not see my dentist for a recently cracked tooth and many other dental issues because I cannot afford to see him. I cannot go to my breast doctor who follows a large lump in my breast because I cannot afford to pay the AETNA deductible, nor see to my internist for my yearly physical for which I am due next month. I also do not buy my asthma medication (Advair, Singulair) because I cannot afford that either. I am having much trouble breathing, but that is nothing compared to what will happen if I don’t take Abilify.

I find it extremely ridiculous that BMS considers a part time salary of $25,000 annually “too much” to qualify for the Abilify Patient Assistance Program, especially in New York where prices for goods and services are quite high and rent is astronomical. But, I appreciate your help with my appeal and hope that this letter accompanying my unpaid medical bills provokes some rethinking within the Patient Assistance program about what is and what is not “too much” money for patient qualification.

Thank you for your continuing attention to this matter.

Sincerely

Stephanie Schroeder

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Then what?

04Apr09

dear steph,

sometimes, when i think about it, i get a little worried about you. it appears that your staying in balance depends on you earning a certain amount of bucks. with uncertain times popping up, what happens to you if you cannot earn.

are there any conditions where you could still access that damn pill?

let’s say through no fault of your own you cannot come up with the 12.

then what?

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about Flourishing with Bipolar Disorder

31Mar09

See: Interview with New York City Publicist and Writer Stephanie Schroeder about Publicity Tips for Creative-types, Artists and Independent Business Owners, and about Flourishing with Bipolar Disorder: http://www.aliceboyes.com/stephanie-schroeder.

Dr. Alice Boyes is a Psychologist who combines the best of Clinical, Social, and Positive Psychology. She likes to encourage people to think bravely, openly, and creatively about their dreams.

Article printed from Psychologist. Dr Alice Boyes: http://www.aliceboyes.com.

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Tags: Abilify, bipolar, bipolar disorder, creativity, Dr. Alice Boyes, mental illness, New Zealand, pharmaceuticals, psychology, Stephanie Schroeder

Ridiculous Exemptions and other Stupid Stuff

30Mar09

from my friend Ken in Holland:

this is really a criminal matter creating millions of victims. really shocking. is it not clear that the health insurance industry that makes really huge profit is only in business to make profit, not insure people’s health?

some interesting non-insurable pre-existing conditions where you cannot get insured in the land of the free and the home of the brave. interesting because they are unbelievable. i could never get insured there = no health care. luckily, or unluckily i would still have the v.a. and medicare only because of my age. and would they bring me anywhere close to the expertise here in holland? experience proves otherwise.

in the 50’s the u.s. had the highest longevity numbers. not any more.

…The Miami Herald asked several other major Florida insurers — Aetna, Humana and Blue Cross Blue Shield of Florida — for copies of their underwriting guides. All refused, saying they contained propriety information and were confidential.

Searching the Web, The Miami Herald found underwriting guidelines for Coventry Health Care, which owns Vista; Wellpoint; Assurant Health; and Blue Cross Blue Shield of Nebraska.

Among the health problems that the guides say should be rejected: diabetes, hepatitis C, multiple sclerosis, schizophrenia, quadriplegia, Parkinson’s disease and AIDS/HIV.

Some guides echo Nebraska’s warning on the Web that it’s ”intended as a reference tool only,” with final decisions made by managers.

COVERAGE VARIES

Insurers have different criteria. Sleep apnea and fainting for no known cause are reasons for denial for the Nebraska plan, but not for other plans. Vista doesn’t want to cover severe acne, but other guides seen don’t mention it. Insurers often use measures of body mass index to reject those who are too heavy or too thin.

For cancer, the key is how patients have been doing in remission. Wellpoint, a national insurer, rejects applicants who have had breast or prostate cancer within the past five years. With other types of cancer, 10 years must have passed. Assurant Health, based in Milwaukee, rejects most patients whose cancer has not been in remission for at least eight years.

Other reasons for automatic denial by various companies: alcohol-related problems of people who have not been abstinent for at least six years, chronic bronchitis, severe migraines, and a cardiac pacemaker installed within the last two years.

Some insurers will automatically reject applicants who are using certain prescription drugs. Wellpoint denies anyone who within the past year has taken Abilify and Zyprexa for mental disorders as well as Neupogen, which is used to treat the side effects of chemotherapy. Vista lists the anticoagulant Warfarin and the pain medication Oxycontin. Both companies list insulin.

The medications, of course, are indications of specific health problems. To make sure that applicants are not lying, insurers hire a data-gathering service — Medical Information Bureau, Milliman’s Intelliscript or Ingenix Medpoint.

Intelliscript and Medpoint do computerized searches of a person’s drug use, gleaned from pharmacy benefits managers and other databases. The two companies say they comply with privacy laws. ”Ingenix requires each Medpoint client to obtain the authorization of the individual applicant or insured person,” said Ingenix spokeswoman Karin Olson.

Last year, the Federal Trade Commission accused both companies of violating the Fair Credit Reporting Act by not offering to provide consumers with information about them. The companies agreed to settlements in which they promised to let people see their personal information.

---

and what will baby steps barry o do? the same as the crises. have wall street insiders fix things. and have the health insurance industry fix things. the foxes in the hen house.

‘change’ – just another empty american style advertising con job.

profit has to be taken out of  the health care equation just like profit has to be taken out of the drug trade. there are no other solutions for a civilized, caring society.

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Tags: Abilify, Big Pharma, bipolar, coporate greed, health insruance, mentail disorders, mental illness, pre-existing conditions, Stephanie Schroeder

The holy grail: ABILIFY

28Mar09

Abilify, 10 milligrams:

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Tags: Abilify, Big Pharma, bipolar, bipolar disorder, BMS, mental illness, Stephanie Schroeder

…and AETNA is just as bad

28Mar09

I called my health insurance carrier, AETNA, yesterday simply to have someone help me find on their really confusing AETNA Navigator website my prescription drug policy so I can prove to BMS in my appeal that AETNA is not now covering my meds, that I am, in fact, in the coverage gap.

A nice customer service examined my account and after about 25 minutes told me there were less expensive alternatives to Abilify: Risperdol and Seraquol, neither of which she could actually pronounce–I had to help her. Both of those drugs I have been on before and been bloated, constipated, had vomiting , tremor and diarrhea, was zombie-like, constantly tired and (see prior post) suicidal. She wasn’t impressed, just indicated if I want cheaper drugs, I might want to consider them. While I certainly want less expensive drugs for everyone, I don’t want to be forced to stop taking the one medication my psychiatrist and I have found to really work for me (and so many others), Abilify.

Well, I finally found the AETNA prescription drug policy for my HDHP and printed out a copy, but had left my pharmacy printout at home. So will be faxing my appeal documents to BMS on Monday. Will keep y’all posted.

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Tags: Abilify, AETNA, Big Pharma, bipolar disorder, BMS, Bristol-Myers Squibb, healthcare, mental illness, pharmaceuticals, Stephanie Schroeder

BMS agrees to $2.1 settlement to avoid guilt in payoff scandal

27Mar09

Bristol-Myers pays $2.1M in FTC settlement

Hey, that’s less than 10% of BMS CEO James Cornelius’ total takeaway earnings for 2008! If they gave me approx $1200 worth of Abilify the cost would be, um, according my really bad calculations (don’t know how I graduate high school or college without knowing how to figure out percentages), .1833% of his earnings. Even if BMS gave the estimated 1.2 – 2.3 million US citizens with bipolar disorder (various sources) who are medicated and take Abilify the drug free for three months, I’m pretty the company wouldn’t much miss it. That’s  just my opinion.

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Tags: Abilify, Big Pharma, BMS, Bristol-Myers Squibb, FTC, James Cornelius, payoff, pharmaceuticals, Sanofi, Stephanie Schroeder

What happened last time I could not get Abilify

27Mar09

It was September 2005, I had lost my job, was living in place I did not want to be and paid the bulk of my unemployment for rent. I could not afford COBRA and also could not afford Abilify even with an Rx discount card. So, I took some random medication I had lying around. It was Risperdol that had been prescribed to me years earlier– I thought it would help keep me sane. It didn’t

The incident(s) described below took place in November 2005:

Five West

I am # 5 W 0 2 5 – Bed 1 and I am bipolar.

From the window of my room in the Jersey City Medical Center, I can see the Jersey
Avenue stop on the light rail, as well as the Liberty Science Center, both of which I have
nonchalantly passed—or traveled—on my daily commute.

That was then. This is now.

I got here by swallowing several hundred pills: very strong anti-depressants, narcotics,
mood stabilizers, sleeping pills, anti-psychotics.

I downed the pills with orange juice, falling asleep in my bed, and stewing in my own
juice for 24 hours where my girlfriend found me unconscious and covered in my own
nauseating bodily fluids.

Who the hell knows what day it is? It might be Saturday. The only reason I care is that I
am getting out Monday. Who knows what time it is? I took a nap after breakfast and
morning meds. I’m so bored and bereft of any humanity, our room is watched on a
monitor, I’m wearing a gown without a back, I have to stand in line waiting for
medication I don’t want, and I’ve broken out in a rash from the soap provided. Places like
this enforce rather than treat insanity, I think.

A small steel serving tray bolted to the bathroom wall above the sink serves as our
mirror, my distorted face and body reflects in the tarnished metal like a funhouse image. I
can’t do my hair properly, even with the product I am allowed to have. My usual funky,
spiky style eludes me. I’m embarrassed by my flat hair. Even on this locked ward.

I shuffle along the hallway in my loose sneakers like a mental patient (they take away
shoe laces so you can’t hang yourself). I ask for a pencil and paper. And, because I am
white, well-educated and well-spoken, am granted a pen. But, I must rip out paper from
my notebook—the metal spiral might turn into a weapon.

I choose a vegetarian menu, thinking it will be better than the gross so-called meat they
serve. We all eat on command and trade food like schoolchildren. Corlette—a man
trapped in a woman’s body, he tells everyone—which scares the crap out of most
patients, takes any and all uneaten food; I cop all the unwanted coffee; my roommate
Liana complains at every meal, “This isn’t what I ordered,” like she’s at a fancy French
restaurant.

Liana jabbers all day about her court case. It turns out she’s been “cheeking” her meds
and one day a bunch of brutes burst into our room, hold her down, and inject her with a
shot of Haldol.

Liana is yammering on. She’s the real thing. A paranoid schizophrenic, I am sure. A total
conspiracy theorist. She believes the IRS stole her property and money. She’s been
working on a legal case against the government agency for 15 years. And it’s finally
coming to fruition; she will see the judge next week. And while the judge will actually
decide if she is to be committed to an institution for the long-term, Liana believes she is
getting her day in court, to be vindicated and the IRS convicted of grievous crimes
against her.

GED or JD, mental illness knows no boundaries. There’s Carl, the Vietnam vet who just
got his papers giving him his fate. One he won’t reveal to anyone. Glendora is a
professional exorcist, the fire and brimstone “mother” of the band of boys and men here
who congregate in the common room watching religious programming all day long. She
preaches eternal damnation on a locked ward full of mental cases for Christ sake. They
all love Bush, “cuz he a Christian man.” “I offered to braid her hair, I thought it might
just make her look better,” Liana bellows. “But no, she only trusts her hair to almighty
God.”

I was in the ICU for two days before I woke up. The doctors weren’t even sure I would
wake up—or in what condition. My friends and family were told I might have brain
damage. They kept vigil until I awoke, groggy and confused, belligerent, but with all my
faculties.

I couldn’t avoid the loony bin this time. I’m a repeat offender. Three attempted suicides.
Off I was shipped to the psychiatric ward by a middle-aged Italian male psychiatrist who
couldn’t look me in the eye and an energetic young white, redheaded female social
worker who “just wanted to help.”

My parents flew in from Wisconsin and visited me every day between the odd
configuration of visiting hours the nuthouse allowed. Their emotional pleas for me to
accompany them home to the Midwest to rest and recuperate just irritated me. “I will not
regress,” I told them with much irony. I was trapped in a locked ward and wanted to go
home. My home. New York City.

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Tags: Abilify, bipolar disorder, healthcare, mental illness, psychiatric incarceration, Stephanie Schroeder, suicide

That’s what friends are for…

27Mar09

From my friend K, a 70something ex-pat outside of Amsterdam:

dear-est stephanie,

wot a crock of shit!

someone being forced to spend half their income on one critical medication is kosher in the land of the free.

and, the extra energy you must spend in getting relief, – an unsure prospect.

and where do they get off asking such unrealistic prices to begin with. this makes my blood boil.

your work is cut out. luckily you are not afraid to put up the good fight. your phoney insurance company is no help.

1. suing them for endangering your life and others.

2. suing them for excessive profiteering on helpless people who depend on them.

(most likely drawn out and without the most expert of council, result if successful in little more than a slight reduction of your costs after years of litigation. with the right council – who knows. lots of bucks and the supreme court?)

and, who to get behind you -

1. consumer union.

2. the obama health department.

3. your congressman and senator.

4. ralph nader.

5. dennis kucinich.

6. psychiatric bodies.

there must be watchdog organizations to pitch in.

get on tv. pbs. bill moyer’s. amy goodman’s democracy now. radio – lenny lopate. maybe mainstream will pick you up giving the turmoil at hand.

write op eds. you need a team to get all that done.

in the meantime – can you buy cheaper mail order from canada, mexico?

those criminal, fascist mother fuckers.

do not cave in.

From my long lost and now found friend M, a 50something Canadian:

…saw your letter to Bristol Myers and it makes me wish you were a Canadian. My Botox is over 5 grand a year and covered. How unfair that you have to fight for coverage for something you need. It sounds like you’ve had a challenging time Stephanie. I want to hear about it (or as much as you want to tell me

From another friend:

Interesting blog, Galiath. I used to work for Squibb many years ago, and it was a scary place to be. Staffed by soulless people, but you knew that already. I was working on some software for them, a system that tracked the quality testing process. It would never have worked if there was a problem with one of their drugs. It’s probably been changed by now, but I couldn’t believe that Squibb was allowing this situation to continue, or that the government would. Wait a second – what am I saying – I bet both were happy that the system didn’t work.

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Tags: Abilify, Abilify Assistance Program, Big Pharma, bipolar, bipolar disorder, BMS, Bristol-Myers Squibb, friends, media, pharmaceuticals, press, Stephanie Schroeder