Blue Cross insurance company wants severely injured football player out of hospital

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In a nutshell: High school football player Scott Eveland, 17, of San Marcos, California, was seriously injured in a game on September 14th. In a coma on life support for several weeks requiring major surgery, including the removal of half his skull. He was removed from ventilator in October and was moved to Palomar Medical Center’s acute rehabilitation unit on Oct. 19. This has been an ongoing news story in the San Diego media.

Doctors say he continues to make progress. Insurance carrier (Blue Cross of California) Blue Cross now says they won’t pay for his hospital stay any longer and insists Eveland must either move to a skilled nursing facility or go home. Eveland’s doctors disagree and want him to stay at the hospital. Eveland’s mother says that nobody from Blue Cross has ever visited Eveland.

Video from last night at: http://video.nbcsandiego.com/player/?id=202326

Protest is happening right now as I am typing this, so later today you can probably find newer videos at these sites:

http://www.kusi.com/
http://www.cbs8.com/
http://www.10news.com/
http://www.nbcsandiego.com/

[proud2BlibKansan]

1. They tried to drop his coverage altogether?

:wtf:

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3. Sorry, I have removed that sentence because I can't find another article that corroborates it.

[Horse with no Name]

2. Wait one minute here

Why isn't the school's insurance paying this?
This is outrageous. They have liability insurance on every athlete in that place...this shouldn't even be an issue.

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4. Sorry I don't have the answer to that question yet.

[proud2BlibKansan]

7. Do some schools make kids buy that supplemental coverage?

I know they sure try to scare parents into thinking their kids are in trouble without it.

[Horse with no Name]

8. Yes. The schools here won't let the kids play without it. n/t

[salin]

29. How does that work for low income families?

I have never heard of such a thing - forcing families to pay for insurance in order for their child to participate in sports.

[nadinbrzezinski]

23. This is san diego

old but true story

Over ten years ago I transported a kid from the football field in Tijuana to Childrens... Yes his school team went down there to play a game with their TJ counterparts

We gave very advanced ALS support... it is good when your medical director likes to drive ambulances.

:-)

To make a long story short, the city wanted to sue me for destroying the football protective gear (Yes I cut it off to fully board and c-spine kid)... and were not that concerned about the kid.. protocol said, you either remove all or none... and quite honestly helmet did not give me good airway access... so off it goes, with every other piece of protective crap and unlacing was not in my list of priorities.

On the plus side... I KNOW the kid is now walking... and once I threatened to try the district in the court of public opinion... their threatened suit dropped like a stone... of course there were other jurisdictional issues, such as where the call originated (foreign country) which made me have some serious questions about the lawyer working for school district.

[book_worm]

5. Another reason for National Health Insurance and demolishing the insurance companies.

[roamer65]

21. You got that right.

This wouldn't be happening in Canada or any other country with socialized medicine.

[laconicsax]

6. This is why we need

less regulation and more competition! Blue Cross wouldn't try to drop Eveland's coverage if there was more competition--they'd do whatever it takes to keep customers. If we went to a socialized medicine system like the 'Democrat' party wants, the government would be making all the decisions and ignoring the advice of a patient's doctors. Private insurers don't do this, and never would do this.

:sarcasm:

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

9. Insurance companies have no right to practice medicine

My doc was dropped by Blue Cross because they were telling her what she could and couldn't do in regards to treatment and also prescriptions, and she was bucking them. It is a total disgrace that an insurance company's bean counters can override the opinions of skilled physicians.

[seafan]

10. Similar story in FL: Firefighter's wife in coma, Blue Cross/Blue Shield won't pay for neuro rehab

This firefighter has gone before the city government to try to get help for his wife, who has been in a coma from a head injury 5 months ago, in August, 2007. Both the city and Blue Cross/Blue Shield have refused to help, even though he is a city firefighter with Blue Cross/Blue Shield insurance. Up until now, his wife has been in and out of the hospital and nursing homes, with no serious attempt at rehabilitation provided for her.


He has sold a vehicle, held raffles and cashed in his firefighter's retirement funds to pay for 90 days' evaluation and treatment at the Florida Institute of Neurological Rehabilitation, and was able to move her there last week.


The firefighter's blog about his wife's condition and progress



Rally for Boca Raton coma victim, December 13, 2007



Universal, government-as-payer health care for every American should be at the top of the list for the new administration one year from now. There is no other answer to the health care debacle in this country.

[caligirl]

11. Is there a group leading the fight on this one?

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15. On this particular case,

http://www.pray4scotty.org/

is the only organization I know of.

[jberryhill]

12. This is what gets me about the "I don't want some bureacrat deciding my health treatment"

What do people with medical insurance *think* they already have?

Where do they think the money comes from to build these things:

The Philadelphia Blue Cross tower:



New Jersey Blue Cross:



Chicago:



There are thousands and thousands of highly paid folks in beautiful office towers collecting money for NOT providing health care to anyone.

[fed-up]

13. and which candidates are working for single payer, universal health care???

I am so sick of people bitching and moaning when insurance companies keep pulling the same old crap and then turning around and giving money to candidates that fail to put single payer, universal health care on the table...

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16. Kucinich and

........ I thought I heard "single payer" during the last debate but I can't remember who said it and in what context.

[caligirl]

14. I contacted CNA about this, sent an email, spoke to a person and left

a detailed message on their CheneyCare 1800 phone line.If they become aware of it maybe it can help. I told them about the protest.

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17. Thanks!

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18. More news stories today, at

http://www.kusi.com /
http://www.cbs8.com /
http://www.10news.com /
http://www.nbcsandiego.com/

[Vinca]

19. Amazing. I hope the poor kid has had the other half of his skull replaced.

Blue Cross will deem it just fine for him to wear his football helmet for the rest of his life.

[caligirl]

20. Makes me want to call Blue Cross and ask if thats their plan.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

22. The same thing is happening to a friend of my wifes. Kaiser wants him to go home.

He's out of the coma, sort of. Part of his skull is missing and can't be replaced because of the swelling. They already threw him out of the hospital and are now ready to bounce him from the nursing home. In which he is "declining". His wife is trying to raise $100,000 quickly just to keep him in the nursing home.

Their lives are ruined because they will have to sell everything just to be eligible for MediCaid.

Both are retirees on fixed incomes. And, her father lives with them.

A bicycle accident turned their whole world upside down in a moment.

[nadinbrzezinski]

24. I am thankful my parents could pay for their care

after the fall....

But here is the running tab so far...

90K...

Why we need single payer healthcare... even if they would not fully have been covered since they were here as tourists.

(on the other hand, if this had happened in the UK... even though they ARE tourists, they would have taken care of them... which of the two nations is more civilized?)

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

26. We have long term care insurance...at no small expense.

About $500 per month. But, if one of us requires it, the other won't have to sell everything just to get MediCaid.

It's appalling to think that "the richest country in the world" refuses to provide for it's people.

[malaise]

25. Sadly there's no news outside of primaries

This should be all over the news.

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30. It's a regular topic on the local San Diego channels. If they take him out of the

hospital because of Blue Cross, the video of that will symbolize what's wrong with health care in this country.

[Supersedeas]

27. filthy little greedy bean counters looking at profits and promotions

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28. Update...

...they showed video tonight of his family visiting him in the hospital. This is the first time he has been seen on TV since the injury happened. He was whispering to his mother. I don't see how you could move someone from where he is right now. I can't believe Blue Cross would even suggest it.

[salin]

31. was Blue Cross one of the nonprofit insurers that moved to for profit

in the past decade or so? I thought that was the case of Anthem (which is big in my state) that used to be Blue Cross/Anthem and spun off.

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32. I'm not sure.

I have Blue Shield and I don't like it.

[OhioChick]

33. Bastards. n/t