Trick the Trickster

 Scooby and the gang are going to have to unmask it. What haunts isn't costumed, other than the lies which it wears for flesh. Maybe it's a zombie whose equivalent of brains is profits. Maybe a vampire whose equivalent of blood is dollar bills and coins. Trillium is unlike the trill of a feline, more like a thorn to the back of the needy. While it's amazing what they do cover, what's even less amazing is what they don't.   

 Behavioral Mental Health, as the plan is literally called, entails Peer Support by clandestine definition. Ask any Behavioral Mental Health professional, and if they're worth the grade they'll agree. “Behavioral” means social cues and a group, peer context. Behavioral Mental Health includes Peer Support by necessity. For that to be in good “mental health,” the behavioral aspect must be supported; not just supported, but also continuous. Breaks in continuity of care can cause those with mental ails to become the monster, ushered into existence thanks to the monster master.

   It was during Nixon's tenure as President that his adviser took him to the side and parroted the idea of a for-profit healthcare system modeled and foundationed in the HMO, with Kaiser Permanente as the ready example. His adviser mentioned that it would be the least care that could be gotten away with, to make the most money, though it would overtly appear to grant the best healthcare a nation could muster.   

It has been many decades since Nixon's noxiousness, but still we have the most expensive Healthcare in the world but not the best outcomes nor the best model as to how to run it. Kaiser could not be found to be Impermanete. Perhaps the Purple People Eater would do well to become the Purple HMO Eater to stop the cannibalistic zombie-vampire monster master? Easier said than done, isn't it?  

 This is to ask for a treat but to get a trick and for Trillium to try to convince you it's actually a treat. I've ushered innumerable appeals on account of all these denied Peer Support rides, but Trillium hasn't shown any inkling of budging. I present the best, most pointed arguments I could muster. That Peer Support has to be covered by legal definition of “Behavioral” Mental Health. That the cited Oregon administrative rule mentioned absolutely nothing about whether or not Peer Support was or wasn't covered. Oregon has flooded the mental health support services in the state with ample funding for programs just such as peer support, despite the budget shortfalls thanks to the Orange Sewer Monster. If only it were just Swamp Thing!   
 

 Trillium simply sent back about all, claiming that the appeal had been resolved and that it was denied. Never, not once, did they actually try to counter-argue against the argument of my appeal. What's an appeal without an actual counter-argument to my own? The only way it was worthwhile was that it created a paper trail and another mark on the monster master's record like a scar to the face. Otherwise, why even file an appeal when it's not even treated as an appeal? Just some slight to the record? So now I had to request a hearing since they refuse to budge or even adequately argue against my appeal.   Nor was any rebuttal made to the fact that I wasn't even given forewarning about this. 

If I hadn't been paying attention, it would have impacted rides and visits that were covered on those days. Trillium would expect us to get back to them by the legal standard, yet somehow finds itself obliged to have a leg up on those who are already leg down. I didn't even receive a lot of the appeal paperwork until the day after the decision had been made. Trillium is legally liable to give adequate forewarning when it's cutting off service coverage. They apparently feel they don't. I can't stand that a company would purposefully give itself a higher vantage to someone who is disabled like I am.   I considered how I could trick the treat trickster and monster master. 

I need a monster master bash, maybe beat on it like a pinata but still no candy would fall out. It never had any real treats to offer. It would not even allow that a ride pick me up 2 hours later at Live Grow Share and then take me home. Insurance had already billed for Neurofeedback—Ridesource would have had the same amount of rides. Even then they said no. The only difference would have been that I stayed for 2 hours of Peer Support. It was then that I began sharpening the scorpion sting. 

  I have severe physical and mental issues and I often have to use my wheelchair when I go out. I often am just stuck at home and my only connection to the outside world is a smart phone and the computer and the internet. It can be quite a lonely existence, and trying one, especially given my severe mental issues and how my environment rubs them raw. Just as soon as I'd gotten peer support in place, it was taken away from me without adequate warning and with no truly justifiable reason.   

  The worst monsters aren't supernatural but are right here and now, feeding on our lives, limiting what we can or cannot do. It is absurd that someone who doesn't live my life, hasn't experienced my many decades of trauma, didn't serve on a COVID Pandemic front line, doesn't have a pinched nerve in their back—who doesn't sometimes wake up shaking uncontrollably or at the drop of a hat—gets to decide if I can have more human contact or not. Instead we have to play the game of the monstrous trickster. Is it really “medically necessary” to have an insurance company stand between my healthcare, aside of peer support “medical necessity” interrogation? If the able-bodied people had to deal with disabled people making all the choices for them, it would never be allowed and people would take endless issue. But just so long as it's the able-bodied deciding what happens for crippled and disabled, the disenfranchised and handicap, then it's apparently OK.   
 

As a disabled person you pick and choose your fights, and you have to realize that it's amazing what Trillium makes you fight them over to cover. I have to pick and choose my battles as a disabled person with limited spoons; but if everyday is Halloween then I'm going to grin like a jack o'lantern and take the trick right back to the trickster!