Seven Months

The boys are seven months old today! Hard to believe that it's been that long. We are so thrilled to have them -- they are more and more fun every day. (In honor of the occasion, James had another great day with his bottles -- over 500 ml today.)

Stanley was the one who got a special celebration today, though. His dogwalker from when we lived in Philly was in town visiting friends, and she came by to see Stanley. He was so thrilled to finally have someone who was actually here to see the dog! And we had a wonderful time catching up with her and hearing the news from the 'hood.

When James was in the hospital, I was occasionally reminded of her, because James and Stanley had something in common -- a social life outside of Mike and me. We knew a lot of people in our old neighborhood, but more than once we'd be out walking and someone who we'd never seen before would come up to us and greet Stanley by name. And similarly, when James was in the NICU, he was seen by some residents, specialists, etc. who we'd never met. It's not bad, but it was a little strange to have our dog and our baby have these independent lives!

We had to go over to the hospital today for some bloodwork for James, and to pick up one of his prescriptions. Our insurance is not great, but given the amount that we've cost them this past year, I have mostly just been grateful for it. But today they really annoyed me. The prescription we were getting refilled is Prilosec -- a very common reflux medicine that's over the counter unless you're a baby and need to have it specially compounded into liquid form. First, the insurance put a hold on the medicine because (heaven forbid!) I was trying to refill it three days before our thirty day supply was going to run out. But then, after the pharmacist called them, it turned out that they'd placed another hold on the medicine because they needed a medical authorization -- basically, for the doctor to call them and explain why this medicine was medically necessary. Seriously? For Prilosec? The fact that my kid is being seen by a pediatric GI specialist isn't good enough for them? Do they think we're dragging him to the hospital and paying these specialist copays for fun? Do they think giving unnecessary medication to our newborn would be our idea of a good time? And do they think this specialist is prescribing medicine just for his own amusement? Does the fact that the kid has a feeding tube not perhaps indicate to them that he might have some GI-related medical needs?

So to be clear about this, BCBS is willing to waste the time of a highly-trained pharmacist, willing to waste the time of a doctor who has had years of medical training and decades of experience, and who is chief of his division, not to mention my time, to justify a medication that is both commonly prescribed and available over the counter in another form. And do you want to know what their share of the cost of that medication would be? Fifteen dollars. That's it. Their piddly little bureaucrats are willing to take a doctor and a pharmacist away from patient care for who knows how long to justify fifteen lousy bucks. I cannot believe this is a cost-effective strategy for anyone. It's ridiculous.