29Dec
Off

The A-Holes At Aetna

Next time you need a colonoscopy, you’d better pray you aren’t insured by Aetna. The insurance company just announced that it won’t be covering the use of propofol, an anesthetic used to make the procedure less painful for patients.

According to Aetna, the medication is “medically unnecessary,” a claim which colonoscopy patients in New York area last year might not agree. Seventy-seven percent of them were given propofol, which requires the presence of an anesthetist in addition to the doctor performing the actual colonoscopy. According to Aetna, the presence of both medical care providers represents an unnecessary expense.

I had my first colonoscopy earlier this year, although thanks to the propofol I was unconscious the entire time. If my aching buttocks are any indication of what went on while I was out cold, I feel pretty comfortable saying that there is NO way on God’s green earth that I would EVER undergo that procedure conscious. Nuh-uh. No chance. Not even after a lobster dinner and a bottle of Moët & Chandon. No. Way.

So, anyone want to place a bet on whether Aetna sees a spike in patient claims for colon cancer treatments in, say, the next 10 years?

Posted by Chubby Mommy in Health News
  1. jae says:
    December 29, 2007 at 8:32 pm

    Being stuck with Aetna, I can’t say it surprises me. I doubt they use their own insurance.

    jae’s last blog post..Alvin!

  2. Chubby Mommy says:
    December 29, 2007 at 8:43 pm

    I’ve got to say that I’ve really lucked out with health insurance since I went from having none to being married and immediately added on to VH’s military insurance. Now that he’s retired, we get to pick our own doctors and if they’re part of the network their charges are capped at a certain amount, and so is our out-of-pocket expense.

    Their dental plan sucks though.

  3. Mad William Flint says:
    December 29, 2007 at 8:52 pm

    I used to work for those smacktards when I was in my mid 20s. It was a pivotal point in my career; one in which I had the epiphany “Holy Crap. It’s not my imagination, I really DO know better than these people.”

    This of course precipitated 15 (and counting) years of saying what I think on a job, which is why I’m never at a company for too long :-)

    But yeah, I pity anyone stuck with them.

  4. Chubby Mommy says:
    December 29, 2007 at 9:08 pm

    Saying what I think is probably also the reason why: (a) I no longer practice law; and (b) I haven’t worked for anyone other than myself for 12 years.

    Both of which I’m rather happy about, thank you.

  5. wg says:
    December 30, 2007 at 3:06 am

    Heh. I’ll bet one of their accountants got to try doing it to somebody and couldn’t get the hang of it because he wasn’t used to the subject being out cold.

    wg’s last blog post..I can haz gingerbread?

  6. Donna B. says:
    December 30, 2007 at 4:16 pm

    It’s the prep day before colonoscopy that I will want to be unconscious for next time.

    Donna B.’s last blog post..Another Dubious Honor for Shreveport

  7. Chubby Mommy says:
    December 30, 2007 at 5:17 pm

    Oh, man. That part really IS awful, isn’t it? I half expected to emerge with 6-pack abs afterwards.

  8. Mark says:
    January 2, 2008 at 9:11 am

    I agree with Donna–the day on the toilet chugalugging water is the worst part. A colonoscopy is very unpleasant, but not bad enough for anesthetics, which have their own serious risks.

    Insurance is way too over-regulated. I think it should be opened up to market forces and people should be able to buy — and pay for — what they want. If you want higher level coverage, with an extra physician in attendance at things like colonoscopies, then that should be available, at a price adequate to cover its considerable costs. If you don’t care about that, you shouldn’t have to subsidize those that do.

    The original concept of “insurance” has been lost: a group of people in a contract with a company for the company to cover them for risks specifically enumerated in the contract. If it’s not in the contract, it’s not covered. If the contract doesn’t suit you, don’t enter into it and go find some other group of people contracting with some other company. If nobody offers what you want there’s probably no market demand for it, but you’d be welcome to start your own company to offer it if you feel differently. People more and more these days think “insurance” should be a universal entitlement for a fixed fee, with uniform services for everyone.

    In Japan there’s a 30 percent copayment for any national health services. That’s another way to limit use of services that really aren’t necessary (although anesthetics for colonoscopies are not covered under any circumstances).

  9. Chubby Mommy says:
    January 2, 2008 at 11:05 am

    Well, since I was anesthetized during my colonoscopy, I really have no way of knowing whether the discomfort is so great that I could consider going without or not. I had an endoscopy at the same time, so I’m pretty glad to have been out of it for the whole thing.

    Being rather pain-sensitive, though, I can imagine demanding an end to the procedure, so to speak, if the “discomfort” got too unbearable.