They're not paying $1,600.00 of my doctor bills, even though we had absolutely no choice but to use the surgeon who was on-call at the time of my accident. Can you believe it? Not only do the Firstcare reps not know the difference between a pediatric ophthalmologist and a retinal specialist, they don't know the difference between a corneal specialist and an optometrist! Firstcare is, of course in the business of making money, but they should switch fields of operation if they are not going to avail themselves of knowledge of the terms for the field in which they concern themselves. Firstcare Insurance is a bunch of moronic bozos. I swear that the only times my wife has shed tears is because of having to deal with them!

UPDATE: 22 MAR 08
I was quite surprised to open today's mail and learn that FirstCare has decided to pay the nearly $3,000.00 of emergency care bills that they had been refusing to pay. I must thank my sis-in-law for the advice to go through the appeals process. I had plenty of time to write out the gory details of the morning on which I ruined my eye, and why I could not wait 36-hours for an approval from the insurance company. Evidently, the appeals process is the first opportunity that a medical professional who is employed by FirstCare has to look over the situation. Up until that point, it's all accountants and bureaucrats that answer the phones. So, I am thankful that they have come around. I dearly hope that they will continue to approve the much-needed procedures that the surgeons are planning that will restore some of my vision. I've stopped wearing my pirate patch full-time, now that the redness, swelling, and sagging of my eyelid are passed. I've grown accustomed to the giant pupil that I am now sporting. I would like it even more if it worked, but I've written that enough times, already.

We've been very fortunate in all of this. The very biggest problem is with insurance. Firstcare allowed me to be admitted into Providence Hospital, but are refusing to pay for the doc's visits while I was in, to the amount of $1,200.00. Also, Fistcare tried to get me to go to a pediatric opthamologist for my second procedure. It's as if the bean-counters at Firstcare don't know any medical terms, and only have a stamp that says 'approved' or 'denied'. While we were driving up to the emergency room, my wife called Firstcare, and they wanted to know if we had called in advance of the emergency to get approval to go to Providence. There I am, bleeding out of my eye, going into shock, and Firstcare wants to know if we'd gotten approval for the emergency visit. I swear. I wish someone would give everyone at Firstcare a bad case of explosive diarrhea, lock them in the building and turn off the water! Please! Someone do this!

We just returned from visit #6 with my retinal surgeon. Got a good report. Pain is so low that I have actually forgotten to take pain pills for a couple of days. I have a green light to return to normal activities, such as exercise. In six weeks, I have another visit with him and a new guy on the scene -- a corneal specialist. The thought is that I'll be going back under the knife sometime in April for what we think will be a corneal transplant.