I just had my shoulder surgery last Wednesday. My doctor recommended 4 items that I should have for my recovery. After talking to Sports Bracing the day before surgery, the pricing was just incredible. My insurance only pays 50% so I would have to fork out additional $1350. Out of 4 items, I only agreed to 2 as they seem necessary: pain pump and arm sling. Both would cost me $500 or so. The arm sling is nothing special. For smililar item on the internet would be much less than $100. As for the pain pump, that you cannot get on the internet and it requires office visit and proper dosage calibration.
Anyhow, the day of the surgery for my right shoulder, I woke up in the recovery room with the pain pump inserted into my shoulder and my arm in the sling. Everything appears to be normal but feeling a little wet on the pain pump. The latch of the holster that wrap around the pain pump broke. According to the nurse that was showing me how it works, it was the 3rd time that she saw the latch broke. She was going to call Sports Bracing to send me a replacement latch.
After I got home from the recover room, I was execting a call from Sports Bracing. I waited all day but no call at all. Since I was groggy, I did not think it was in my best interest to make any unnecessary movements or making any call.
In the evening around 8pm, I hear a slight click from the pain pump. The clicks became more frequent. Then, the pain pump holster got wetter. There was a leak in the pain pump. The medication that was suppose to last 48 hours are down to 1/4 full. The clicks to louder and quicker. I called my doctor and was told that there is nothing she can do. I should remove the feeding line of pain pump from my shoulder if there is no medicine left in the pump.
I had to pull the feed line from my shoulder by myself and cover the hole in my shoulder with the dressing. I was worrying about infection and the pain that will come as result of missing pain pump. Surprisingly, there was not additional pain without the pain pump.instead of taking codine, as perscribed by my doctor, I was able to minimize the pain through over the counter Tylernol.
On Friday, I went into my doctor's office with the broken pain pump. She said she would talk to Sports Bracing. As before, I expected a follow up call from Sports Bracking regarding this incident. Nothing. On Saturday, I receive a bill from Sports Bracing in the mail to pay for the co-payment. I was outraged. No only were the charges way above the cost you can get elsewhere, there was not concern about the equipment they provided. I barely got any sleep Wednesday and Thursday night because I was worrying about getting infected from the broken pain pump. As of this morning, I still have not receive any call from that company.
The whole process I went through is disturbing:
1. The over perscription of equipments for surgical recovery
2. The over percription of medication
3. The over priced equipment and medication
I cannot say if the fault lies with my doctor, the equipment supplier, insurance or our society in general. The surgery was a must as X rays and MRI did not revealed the tear of rotator cuff and labrum. Only through surgery that my physical problems can can corrected. However, if we only provide the bare necessicities instead of the whole elaborate set of recovery equipments, the cost would not be as high as it is.
We live in a society that we are afraid of being wrong. Each person has a different level of pain tolerence. If my doctor did not offer me all the options for pain management, I may fault her for not helping me to manage my pain.By offering all the options, she is playing with 3 devils - the equipment maker, the insurace and the lawyers. The equipment maker needs to make their product necessary to be profitable. More doctors offer the equipment, the the product seems more necessary.insurance companies have to follow suit by making the product 'covered' under their plan to avoid lawyers. Equipment maker have to set a higher pricing to cover potential law suit.
Is the whole ordeal I went through a ripoff? Sure it is. Do I fault anyone in particular? No. We live in a capitalistic society where everyone is looking to make a buck however they can. I don't agree with Sports Bracing's business practice. However, for every complaint, there are at least 8 others who are willing to accept their business. Only hope is voices from usacomplaints.com will force the company to exaime their business practice.
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