My Day

I've enrolled in another clinical trial, this one for a medication that works on "fibro as a whole", i.e., it's not a sleeping pill, not a pain pill, but will help with both symptoms. 

The problem is, I have to go cold turkey on my other meds for a week before I can start theirs. Twice today, I blacked out from the pain. When I say "I feel like garbage", I'm not kidding, because that's where I came to ... with my shoulder in the bathroom wastebasket.

So much for anyone who claims that I'm imagining things.  This is what the medical profession calls an "objective symptom", i.e., incontrovertible proof that there's something wrong.  Although there are some quacks who won't believe it unless they see it for themselves.

On a roll

The other lawyer, for six months, had been ignoring my requests for convenient deposition dates for the doctors. Since motions cost $36 to file, I'd really rather manipulate her into filing them so I don't have to spend the money. So, once again, she has spent $36 to get her *own* hand slapped. :)

The sleeping pills I've been on the last two weeks don't put me to sleep until 2 or 3 AM, but in the morning I'm finding it even harder to get started than when I was getting only 2 hours of sleep naturally.

Next week, I'm going to enroll in a clinical trial for Fibromyalgia/Poor Sleep: A Vicious Cycle. It's not clear whether the pills are intended as sleeping pills or pain pills, but we'll see if they help.

SCORE ONE FOR THE GOOD GUYS

After letting the lying lawyer know that I am aware that it's specifically HIPAA (Federal law) that gives me the right to amend my medical records, she's suddenly backed down on her lie that it's "illegal" to correct the false statements in there.  She's still not willing to have her clients correct-and-initial, to indicate that the mistakes were their doing, but she will let me put in a Statement of Disagreement, which is my legal right under HIPAA. 

Since it will be evidence in the disability case, as well, my disability lawyer is going to go over the statement before I put it in.  That should quickly quash any objections the lying lawyer may try to make about not wanting me to put in certain phrases; if it's "lawyer-approved", she's not going to be able to claim I don't know what I'm allowed to (or not allowed to) put in the statement.

We've decided to do it in the same way as a Motion for Summary Judgment: two columns, one with a statement of what I want changed, and one with the facts/documents supporting why the original isn't accurate.  Then there can be no argument that my version is no better than the original, because there will be exact quotes from doctors who have said that I do have a physical ailment and do not have a psychological ailment, with reference to where those quotes can be found.

HIPAA says they have to write on each page that I have a dispute with "see attached Statement of Disagreement".  That means that every single page of the records from 2000-2003 is going to have that written on it, which makes it real clear that this is not just a one-time mistake, but a clear and definite pattern of writing false things in medical records at every single one of my appointments. 

I'm hoping that by the time I'm done with Health & Human Services, the Inspector General, and the Bar Ethics Committee, the only one of us left with a job will be me.  Maybe when they're the ones with no job and no prospects in their own careers, they'll be a little more understanding of why I sat on their exam tables sorta subdued -- that's not proof of depression, it's proof that when you're wondering where your next meal is coming from, you don't do cartwheels down the hall.

That still doesn't fix the problem that someone -- either the doctors or the insurance company -- owes me for the three years of disability benefits I lost, but it makes it a little more likely that the insurancecompany will re-evaluate my claim on the real facts and not on the false notion that I'm just a hypochondriac too lazy to work.

Well, here it is 2 AM and I'm awake again despite taking the sleeping pills. This gets really annoying; they work for a few days and then I'm back to being awake most of the night. Not sure how they expect me to get back to full-time work when I can't sleep at night. (This is what cost me my job in the first place.)

Finally Proceeding Toward Success

I came across a brochure from the place that does my mammograms, which says I have the legal right to have my medical records corrected.  That's a long way from the statement from the quacks' lawyer that it's illegal to change medical records once they've been written.

The brochure said to call the Compliance Coordinator to find out how to do it.  I explained to her right off that I had no complaints at all about her medical group, I needed the information because the group I do have a problem with refuses to even consider doing it.

She explained that my first step is to write a letter requesting changes to the records.  I said I did that, and they refused to even discuss it.  Told me to take it up with their insurance company.  The insurance company told me if I wanted anything done, I needed to sue them.  When I sued, the lawyer told me it was illegal to make any changes.

According to the Compliance Coordinator, what is really illegal is to refuse to even allow me to place a Statement of Disagreement in the file, which they've refused to do because they don't believe they did anything wrong.

The next step is to complain to the Federal Government www.HHS.gov/OCR/HIPAA

So, we'll see whether having a Federal investigator demanding to see the files scares them into agreeing that changing the lies is preferable to a thorough investigation of their whole procedure and possibly losing their Medicare accreditation for violations.