Where Is the Care?: How $21.00 Turned Into Over $21,000 in Medical Expenses at S.F.G.H.
In the early morning of Monday May 23rd I was suffering from and attempting to recover from an unknown infection. I had run out of the medication prescribed by the wound care clinic and was in severe pain.
I called urology as they were still in the process of investigating my illness. Urology had prescribed for me vicodin and cyproco (an antibiotic). I advised the doctor I was broke and S.S.I. Pending. He felt since the other medications had failed this would be the best combination for me until I was seen by urology again on Friday.
Here is where it gets interesting-considering how much the City considers homeless people and G.A recipients as a drain on society.
I attempted to call around for transportation and medication assistance. When I first called the Mayor’s office I was transferred to neighborhood services. Pat in neighborhood services had some interesting replies to my concerns. First, “not have ability to handle that”. Then her idea of care was that for me to “care for myself” and get there anyway I could. I advised her of the fact I was attempting to avoid a $675.00 ambulance ride charged to the city and then to my credit report, as I had no ability to pay. And it also would seem logical that someone would provide either transportation vouchers (taxicab) or some other form of transportation assistance i.e. “care”.
I also told her I had called all known transportation services (M.A.P.S.-D.P.H Disability unit) as well as the supportive services unit in my S.R.O nothing was available. Again asking the question Where is the care? She decided that the office of neighborhood services considers my frequent inquiries as “abusive” in tone and she did not have to continue her discussion with me. Neighborhood services provide no care or services to G.A or homeless constituents.
At the same time I was dealing with transportation issues I was also trying to find assistance or a funding source for the $21.00 I needed for my pain medications. I could find no service in the city to help me get my legitimately prescribed pain medications. I made the decision at about 11 A.M that if I received no replies from anybody I would admit myself to emergency at S.F.G.H. In the course of all of this I spoke to a few supervisors’ aids and the Mayor’s office and had asked these educated people did they not see the concept of denying $21.00 dollars of medication versus over $2,100 in medical bills to the city as quite stupid?
The response from the Supervisors was “blame the Mayor.” The Mayor’s secretary Paige had no response, and the executive personnel at General Hospital advised their policy is “not providing vicodin for any outpatients at no cost” and “authorizes your admission to emergency services for your pain control issues.” It now seems the city will pay at 1,000 times the cost versus a fraction of that because of “policy.”
Nobody knows where the policy originated from, but the hospital is “bound to this policy by executive order.” Yet it is “the homeless and welfare recipients that drain the resources of the city”? As was the case in this situation I could not make contact with my caseworker (or he just chose not to call me back). Either way, at this writing, almost a week later, I still have not heard from him.
So, as with a lot of other “recipients,” I had to do my own legwork. Again, I had been calling since 7am, leaving messages with city officials. Either they would not call me back, or the ones that did had nothing to offer (i.e. “Care”) to deal with my situation.
People wonder why I begin to sound “abusive” when I call downtown-could be because of all the crap I have to deal with when attempting to get a straight answer out of these non-homeless, overly-educated city “officials.”
Finally, I managed to get some taxi vouchers from a social worker for the floor I am to be seen on this Friday in urology so I could get to the hospital with the “least burden” on this city’s taxpayers. I was, however, denied my vicodin and had to wait eight hours in the lobby before being seen to obtain pain medication (vicodin) in the hospital.
I have since been prescribed other medications which do not relieve my pain in any way close to the vicodin and I am relatively still bed ridden with continuous and constant pain.
Care my ass!
Richard