I absolutely love the doctors and health care workers that know exactly how to get around the insurance bullshit. The LGBT center I went to for all my recommendations for top surgery (letters, minimum amount of therapy, blah blah) knew the exact guidelines to get coverage and had extreme malicious compliance.
I’m not sure if this is still the case, but at the time I got surgery you needed a minimum of 2 letters from different mental health professionals and a letter from your doctor all confirming that yes, you have the trans, and surgery is both a good idea and medically necessary for you (you can see how this can be a bitch to get done if you don’t do it through an LGBT center). But the guidelines don’t say that you can’t see both of those mental health professionals at the same time with a bunch of other trans people, so that’s what they do. At the end of the 6 or so group sessions you’ve spent a lot of time talking about what to expect with surgery and talking with other trans people.
And honestly the group therapy format was probably WAY more helpful than wasting time/money with two therapists on a one-on-one basis while trying to figure out if they’re actually going to give a letter for surgery or not.
Now this actually is a heartwarming story, setting aside the need to do all these things in the first place. Congrats on your gender-affirming care!
My wife at one time worked as a sort of–well you’d call her a malicious compliance specialist. Her fulltime RN job at the care center where she worked was to write plans of care. Basically the doctors would tell her what they intended to do, and she’d write up documentation phrased in the precise way that would get an insurer to approve it. That was her job. Just the phrasing. Occasionally she’d have to go back to a doctor and say “Hey, they won’t approve this unless X condition is also true, can you please write down that X condition is also true,” and then they did that. (This wasn’t frequently necessary, because the doctors were also very well-versed in working around the insurance system.)
I absolutely love the doctors and health care workers that know exactly how to get around the insurance bullshit. The LGBT center I went to for all my recommendations for top surgery (letters, minimum amount of therapy, blah blah) knew the exact guidelines to get coverage and had extreme malicious compliance.
I’m not sure if this is still the case, but at the time I got surgery you needed a minimum of 2 letters from different mental health professionals and a letter from your doctor all confirming that yes, you have the trans, and surgery is both a good idea and medically necessary for you (you can see how this can be a bitch to get done if you don’t do it through an LGBT center). But the guidelines don’t say that you can’t see both of those mental health professionals at the same time with a bunch of other trans people, so that’s what they do. At the end of the 6 or so group sessions you’ve spent a lot of time talking about what to expect with surgery and talking with other trans people.
And honestly the group therapy format was probably WAY more helpful than wasting time/money with two therapists on a one-on-one basis while trying to figure out if they’re actually going to give a letter for surgery or not.
This made me consider exhaling gently through my nose.
Now this actually is a heartwarming story, setting aside the need to do all these things in the first place. Congrats on your gender-affirming care!
My wife at one time worked as a sort of–well you’d call her a malicious compliance specialist. Her fulltime RN job at the care center where she worked was to write plans of care. Basically the doctors would tell her what they intended to do, and she’d write up documentation phrased in the precise way that would get an insurer to approve it. That was her job. Just the phrasing. Occasionally she’d have to go back to a doctor and say “Hey, they won’t approve this unless X condition is also true, can you please write down that X condition is also true,” and then they did that. (This wasn’t frequently necessary, because the doctors were also very well-versed in working around the insurance system.)