Steve Granitz/WireImage
- Comedian Sandy Honig recorded a video of herself vomiting around an Anthem Insurance office park.
- The video was intended to raise awareness of the denial and appeals process in the insurance industry.
- Honig, who suffers from gastroparesis, was denied coverage for a procedure that could alleviate her symptoms.
In a now viral video, comedian Sandy Honig recorded herself uncontrollably vomiting around an Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield office park after the insurance company denied coverage for a procedure that would help alleviate her stomach-churning symptoms.
Honig, who suffers from partial paralysis of her stomach due to a condition called gastroparesis, cannot normally digest food and has been near-constantly nausated for the past three years since the onset of her symptoms. Almost anything she eats, she throws up.
"It's hard to get up in the morning when the first thing you have to do is drink a cup of water, and that makes you sick," Honig told Vice News.
A common treatment for the condition are Botox injections, which help patients more easily digest food by relaxing the part of the stomach connected to the small intestine. The $3,000 treatment provides relief for several months at a time.
After being denied coverage for the injections in January — Honig told NBC News Anthem determined they were "medically unnecessary" — Honig, who is a writer for Three Busy Debras on Adult Swim and HBO Max, found herself angry enough to act against the health insurance giant in the nearly 3-minute video.
"I mean, this video was just made from complete rage," she told Teen Vogue.
The clip shows Honig at an office park where she repeatedly vomits while discussing her plight and the insurance appeals process with passers-by. She attempted to show up directly to the Anthem offices, but was denied entry without an employee badge: "Even if I'm a member of the Anthem family?" Honig asks an employee in the video.
On camera in front of the Anthem office, Honig vomits into an envelope she joked contained her appeals letter to the insurance company — "relevant documentation," she called it — and seals it up. She told Vice News she did not actually send the envelope and her doctor mailed her real appeal letter.
In addition to denying her procedure, the company allegedly also called the police on Honig following the stunt.
"It was such a lovely surprise to get a visit from two men armed with guns and batons in my own home," Honig says in the video, showing two Los Angeles Police Department officers who arrived at her home to perform a wellness check on her.
Honig told Teen Vogue she originally thought the officers were there to ticket her for trespassing, but actually were called to perform the check to ensure she was not a danger to herself or others.
"It was very interesting," Honig told Teen Vogue. "I was playing with putting this in the video, but it's actually way too complicated — I don't have a concise way of explaining it, but what the cop was telling me was that if I were to harm myself, [the insurance company] could be liable because they had evidence that I was, you know, acting erratically. They were basically covering their own ass by calling the cops on me. It was just insane."
Representatives for Anthem did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment, but told NBC News the insurance company denied the Botox injections to "ensure Ms. Honig gets the right treatment for her particular condition."
"Our clinical team has carefully reviewed her case and our medical policies, and the existing medical evidence does not support the treatment she is requesting for her condition," Anthem told NBC News. "Therefore, it is not a covered benefit under the family's health plan."
"Health insurance is fucking made-up," Honig told Vice News.
A representative for Honig did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.
from Business Insider https://ift.tt/L4EjqkV
via IFTTT https://href.li/?https://bit.ly/smartgadgets- https://href.li/?https://bit.ly/smart_gadgets https://href.li/?https://bit.ly/modern_gadgets https://href.li/?https://bit.ly/kitchen_toods
No comments:
Post a Comment