Melissa Bagwell Sandi Brown Jordan Kate Smith Booker Cyndie Mike Bullock Rachel Belcher Carol Skolnik Christa Coulter-Scott Lynn Croad Dana Scott Diane Gillespie David Newcomer Donna Whitehead Gray Eileen Christenson Selander Ebony K. Maynor Karen Girgenti Sonya Glover-Washington Gail Bryans Welch Sara Huff Peggy Hitchcox Imelda Caratao-WeidmanJo Scott-Petty Patti Rainey Jacobson Rachel Johnson Miller Joyce Lee Vail Karen Marchand Singleton Kathy White Merrill Tony Lowery Karen Larsen Lazzo Melissa Bagwell Nancy Skinner Sharon ORiley BarbourTeresa Patterson Welsh I share this with my Nursing-related friends, primarily. I do so, to provide a better understanding of my experiences related to hospital assisted Long Term Disability. As you may know, I have been out on LTD since December 9, 2010, not mentioning those times of STD and LTD between the years 2006-2008 secondary to complications of chronic Systemic Lupus Erythematous (DX: 22 y/o ) . Well, today, I received a telephone call from Beaufort Memorial Hospitals LTD provider, Prudential Insurance Company. Out of no where....I was rudely TOLD I have until Friday of next week (which is only 4 business days to obtain information and the 5th day to submit data) to provide Prudential with supporting documentations from ALL my physicians, or my LTD will end the following Monday. The policy indicates coverage up to the age of 62. For all the medical and emotional stress I have endured from the hospitals HR dept, and it representation by Prudential, it simply does nothing less than to re-trigger emotional fear and fear-related stress that should they terminate my disability, I will be homeless once again. Living in my 2003 Impala, with only the clothes I can pack away. Where or where would I plug in my CPAP machine or my aerosol machine? What would happen to my friends, DAISY our bulldawg, Jesse and Mae(grumpy cat) our cats? Where would we bathe? Who would even help us? It is common practice for Insurance Disability companies to extend medical record releases for 30 days. Today, however, I was infomed attempts have been made for the past 3 weeks to contact you with requests to return our calls. Calls? WTF? What fudgy phone call? Besides, what ever happened to a letter and where TF are those letters? Where TF is an email correspondence? I have received NOTHING. Yet, I answered a phone call around 4:45 PM this afternoon from a caller ID UNKNOWN. I rarely, like 1:100 times answer an UNKNOWN caller ID. Does Prudential truly want me to believe a company worth $1.107 trillion in assets cannot afford Caller ID? Once again WTFudge? This has been an antagonizing path of struggle for life quality these past 5 years. Last year when we lost our home, secondary to Prudential stopping payouts even though I work 16 weeks myself fight to keep my LTD benefits and every Primary Care Providers tried, as well, I thought I had hit the bottom of the bottom. In fact, I did reach into that never-ending abyss. Yet, here I am today and I struggled and prayed my way back up out of that abyss. Now, the Devil Damn Prudential Disability Department is damningly determined to destroy my life once again. I share this with each of you Nurses and Healthcare Providers to learn from my experience. Learn from my tears. Learn from my classification of being a psycho. I beg you to be more prepared for your future and NEVER, EVER, rely on your Human Resource Department to protect you. Your HR department will give you strokes and persuade you they have your best interest at heart, but they do not. (Unless, of course, you meet an individual employee in HR who possess a Christian Heart. Yet, maintain caution, because once HR discovers the compassionate care offered to you, that HR employee will be terminated, as was done to my compassionate HR representative.) Remember: HR is there to protect the organization, not the employees. I plead with each of you, not to ever let one illness wipe out your savings, your nursing retirement, your 401K resulting in the loss of your job, and your home. We are each only one illness, one paycheck away from homelessness. Receiving that very first disability check is not reassurance. It is always a battle to continue. A major battle, even for intelligent professionals, because we are NEVER to be Disabled. For me, it was a stain on my own personal integrity. I have worked in Healthcare from the age of 15 as a volunteer, 16-17 CNA. 26-28 LPN. 28-today, a Certified Licensed Professional Registered Nurse. Never did I ever foresee being disabled or relying on Long Term Disability benefits. However, I DID work and pay into the system for Social Security Disability for all those years. I DID work and pay into my own, hospital trusteed, Long Term Disability program for all those years. And for what? Just to be told today, I have until next Friday to provide all medical documentations to PROVE my disability or it will be terminated. What frightens me, is I still have unforeseen days of limitations. Days of immobility. Days of respiratory distress. Days of chronic back pain. Risks of spontaneous emboli. I am being observed for metastatic adenoma and received Q6Mo CT Scans/ Pet Scans. I have been informed my risks factors out weigh my benefits for removal of the pulmonary nodule. I have been told the risks out weigh mu benefits for biopsy of my mediastina lymph adenopathies. Each requiring addition Q6Mo PET SCANS for the next 2 years. I have been informed I am a high probable risks patient for CVA after the previous thrombosis and a history of Factor 5 Leiden. On any given day, I can awaken in CHF and yet, the HOSPITAL, that organization who should be focused on human compassion, is only focused on those paying- patients and not those professionals delivering that care. Any one of these ailments I possess can occur tomorrow or next week and I must gamble will I be able to complete the collection of all those documentations by Thursday to ensure delivery by Friday? For those of you who worked with me at BMH, lets remember David Gordon, dying from a brain tumor, who had to return to work for 6 additional weeks before Prudential approved his LTD. My advice, although not asked, yet freely offered, is to obtain you own Private LTD insurance coverage. AFLAC is one. My husband has AFLAC, yet it only covers him. Do your research and NEVER EVER rely on the HR department to fight for you, because they did not fight for this 30+ yrs (at that time) successful, highly successful performance appraised, award winning nurse. What makes you believe you are guaranteed a different outcome? Please be prepared and learn from my unfortunate experiences. Become educationally informed and make the best decisions for yourself, while understanding my life experiences, I encourage you to seek self-preservation not from HR, yet from your own protective processes. Do not to follow in my footsteps. ~~ Frightened and fearful. ~~ Robin of Robinology
Posted on: Sat, 13 Dec 2014 00:26:31 +0000
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