Kris, Dave and the Lumps: Post Surgery

Monday, 20-Oct-2008

The Good:
Went to Dr. Kuisle's office and had the last drain tube removed. Everything looks to be proceeding nicely. I just wish I'd remembered to ask about when Kris can start going without the binding, but, that can wait for Fridays appointment with Dr. Kuisle.

The Bad:
We noticed Sheba has one of her fangs pointing straight out! Poor thing apparently rammed her head into something and broke off at least one tooth. Dropped her off at the Vet. She'll be fine, if a bit toofless.

The Ugly:
In the realm of 'inquiring minds want to know' this is how Long Term Disability works:
Fill out about a pound of paperwork.
Apply for LTD from Social Security.
Separate from IBM(!)
Choose your insurance plan through the agency handling LTD (MetLife in our case)(!)
Wait a month for your first LTD check (it pays in arrears)
When done with whatever put you in LTD, come back to work.

Now, the primary concern we had was that Kris had already met, and by far exceeded, her out of pocket expense for the year. Changing insurance plans would eliminate that advantage... or so we worried. When talking to the councilor for MetLife, he advocated that Kris go on my insurance on November 1st (she's covered through the end of October on her own plan). He didn't say it in so many words, but, the implication was that if she'd gone to her own insurance plan under the LTD program, she'd once again have to suffer out of pocket costs. Note that while on LTD, she's at two thirds pay, so, this would not be a trivial set back. I don't know how folks who are on their own with the company manage... well, I have my guesses and they aren't pretty.

Add to this the fact that there is a lot of paperwork for separating from the company for the 6 weeks that Kris should be on LTD, and the subsequent paperwork to get back on board with IBM afterwords and it just seems totally inefficient... not to mention something less than you thought you were opting for when you signed up for your health benefits! I for one didn't realize that this was the way that Long Term Disability is handled.

Don't get me wrong, I don't have issue with severing from the company, at least, it's my sense that there is some legal precedence behind doing it this way... I have issue with changing insurance plans mid stride which seems highly likely to increase the medical costs for someone least likely to be in a position to absorb it. It just seems like it's an uncaring way to go about doing things. A way that is guaranteed to increase the stress on someone trying to heal... which is not conducive to rapid recovery at the very least.