Posts made in October, 2014

How Stigma Keeps Us Sick

Posted by on Oct 30, 2014 in Insurance Issues, Published Writings | 0 comments

How Stigma Keeps Us Sick

Stigma. It exists and it impacts all of us who are affected by mental illness. I’m sure this isn’t new information, but a reminder now and then about the dangers of stigma doesn’t hurt. Plus, I’m feeling rather irate after the week I’ve just had. As you might know from reading my last few posts, my battle against Blue Cross Blue Shield, thankfully, ended well. Ultimately, I got (mostly) what I needed: I was granted 10 more days in treatment. But it came at a cost. During my week without treatment, my eating disorder was constantly at my heels. In order to build my case...

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A New Look for The Middle Ground!

Posted by on Oct 27, 2014 in Uncategorized | 0 comments

Hello all — The Middle Ground is getting a new look! The good news is I had some very helpful tech people assist me with the set up. The also-good-but-mildly-panic-inducing news is that it happened way faster than I anticipated!! So stay patient with me as I clean the page up a bit…. <3 Joanna Share this:Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)Click to share on Google+ (Opens in new window)Click to share on Tumblr (Opens in new window)Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window)Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new...

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Patient Advocacy: Winning the Battle Against Blue Cross Blue Shield

Posted by on Oct 24, 2014 in Insurance Issues, My Story | 7 comments

Patient Advocacy: Winning the Battle Against Blue Cross Blue Shield

As much as I don’t want to spend another minute on this topic, I think it’s necessary to talk about this last week and what has happened with Blue Cross Blue Shield. Let’s put the happy ending of the story first: I won my battle with Blue Cross Blue Shield and was able to return to treatment as of last night. I have learned two things from the experience of successfully going up against my insurance company on my own: It is possible to reverse an insurance company’s decision. They bank on most people giving up after the first few “no’s,” so you just have to make sure to push them far enough....

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An Eater’s Agreement

Posted by on Oct 19, 2014 in Ins and Outs of Eating Disorders, Insurance Issues, My Story, Therapeutic Letters | 2 comments

An Eater’s Agreement

Yesterday I turned 26. Being a pretty sentimental person, birthdays for me are always cause for reflection — I take stock of the last year, of the last decade, and of my life up to this point. I thought about where I was and what I was doing one year ago on my 25th birthday, just two months away from starting down the road to recovery (although I didn’t know that yet). I remember being on the train to Pennsylvania to visit my mother. I was reading the final pages of Carolyn Costin’s book 8 Keys to Recovery from an Eating Disorder. At the end of the book were examples from something Carolyn...

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Blue Cross Blue Shield Violates Mental Health Parity… Again

Posted by on Oct 17, 2014 in Ins and Outs of Eating Disorders, Insurance Issues, My Story | 3 comments

Blue Cross Blue Shield Violates Mental Health Parity… Again

This week and yesterday in particular, I experienced a sudden upsurge in eating disorder thoughts. Their abrupt appearance frightened me — why, if I am doing well, is this terrible illness still a part of me? I made a plan to talk to my therapist later that night at treatment. Unfortunately, that never happened. Halfway through the day, my therapist called me to inform me that my insurance company, Empire Blue Cross Blue Shield, had denied any further treatment in the intensive outpatient program (IOP). The decision was going to a “doc to doc” session, in which the consulting...

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