www.incontinentsupport.org

Note to Moderator: Not sure where to put this so I posted it here. Please move it to the appropriate place if I was wrong!


I have been struggling for months to find out how to cover the cost of diapers, since life was forcing us to cut back financially. Then a few veteran members here helped me bluntly ask my doctor for a diaper prescription, since the pills had failed me. Great news was he did so without question, I had gotten worked up over nothing and he was supportive. Then we ran into the issue that the diapers they provided were crap. After some more help from veteran ISC members, I asked for them to word the script for a specific brand of diapers. That was about four months ago, and there was a lot of headaches along the way. Yesterday the head pharmacy purchasing agent called me, saying she was just hired and was handed my case. I quickly ran down what had happened, how not having adequate protection had negatively impacted my life and she said she would help me. She asked me to try a few products which she's had great results with, though I was driving so I couldn't write down the names, and that we could do this new round of trial and error with quick turn around time. She went on to assure me that if these didn't work she would order the ConfiDry's at their expense. Apparently these other products are easier to get, so if they work for me the refill time is better. She told me she's seen that be an issue, since sometimes health issues cause you to use more diapers than normal, causing snafu's where you're out of diapers for a few days. I didn't tell her that my wife is way to anal to let that happen and would appropriately plan ahead. Anyway, fingers crossed that she's a woman of her word!!! Sorry, I'm super happy and wanted to share.

THAT'S GREAT NEWS !!!

I too know the headaches of trying to get the VA to help us get our supplies.
I had to go through that when I got my cloth diapers approved back in 1995.
NOT a fun process but well worth the time and effort to get the supplies that help us.

Schoppy

Mike,
That is awesome news, trail and error again but this time you will end up with what you need to be protected and covered so you don't have to pay for them.

That is Great News. It is always great to find that one person who is willing to try to help and come up with the best solution. I realize they have their procedures they have to follow with the VA being a government agency, but sometimes the red tape gets in the way of taking care of people. I too recently was able to get my doctor to increase the frequency so I don't run out between shipping dates. To get them increased I explained to the doctor that my bladder doesn't adhere to 2 accidents a day like y'all think. Sometimes it is 1 a day other days it is more than two. Never thought I would be asking the question at my age "Will I make it to the bathroom this time?"

Yeah, that is awesomely great news for sure. If you don't mind me asking, what is your insurance provider that is giving you the diapers?

I get my care through the military (tricare prime for disabled retirees). I've tried numerous times to get them to give me a prescription for diapers but the military base doctors simply won't. I had once tried getting them from the VA as well, except those too were horrible diapers that never worked right without leaking and never had enough capacity (much like pullups how work on me today). I tried fighting for better diapers but with their administrative and backlog problems this was more of a hassle than I was able to endure. After a year or two I ended up just giving up on those diapers and have had to buy my own ever since. Any yes, they are crazy expensive.

@Schoppy: Wait, you got them to provide cloth diapers? What kind of Jedi Voodoo are you rockin bro? That is an impressive feet!

@MLHJR: I don't mind trying new diapers, now that I'm confident that the end result will be what works.

@Batman: Yeah, my doctor just assumed three diapers a day because that is there standard formula so I hope that I'll be fine for awhile. And yeah, to hear the nice cute lady talk about "my diapers" while I'm the ripe old age of 34 was a bit of a culture shock.

@Brian: I am a disabled veteran, with a 100% P&T rating (Permanent and Total). That means my war (or any service connected issue) injuries were severe enough they decided it was cheaper to grant me 100% and permanently seal my claim. I will never be audited, I can't appeal specific issues to nit pick but everything is covered by my VA providers. I'm sorry to hear that the VA hasn't worked with you, but mine has. I was given a lot of valuable advice from @Schoppy and @JohnStone about the process and then it was just a matter of making them work with me. It was a slow grind, because they want to figure out every variable of your incontinence issue and try every pill, but in the end they seem to be coming through for me. Bare in mind, I still only have her word so until it happens I won't hold my breath... but there is hope.


Anyway, speaking of age.... One of the reason that the pharmacy and doctors wanted to work with me was because I was 'too young' for these problems so they saw them as somehow more life changing. I wonder if they would be as sympathetic if this happened when I was in my 50's? I hope so, but the gist of their concern was because it was happening to me 'so young.' But, as young as the VA sees me, my sons think I'm ancient. My seven year old asked me "Daddy, who did you fight in the war? Was it the monsters, the zombies or the dinosaurs?" I nearly choked on my water, he thought I was old enough to have fought the dinosaurs in my younger days!!! :lol:

Funny about the kids. I'm only 11 years older than you and I can tell you they still want to throw pills at me, but that is another discussion. The last doctor made the comment along the lines of you should be having fun, not worried about where the closest bathroom is or if you are going to make it.

Porkchop wrote:@Schoppy: Wait, you got them to provide cloth diapers? What kind of Jedi Voodoo are you rockin bro? That is an impressive feet!

It was NOT an easy thing to do. I had to have a prescription from my doctor stating that I needed them.
I also showed them the cost savings that they would have. I also had to have the local patient advocate to help fight for me.
They had to have a pharmacy review board to review it and they finally approved it. I know that all sounds easy telling it but in fact it was a lot of paperwork and talking to a lot of people to help get it approved. The pharmacy board even contacted me to answer some questions that they had. The board gets together only a couple times a year so it was a LOT of waiting.
I also had to have 3 copies of the catalog from Angel Fluff Diaper Company http://www.angelfluff.com/ (that's who I was wanting supplies from) and the order that I wanted to have. I only ordered what I thought I needed for about 6 months as that's what the board wanted to know.
That took another 6 months till the board got together again.
The board had to also contact Angelfluff to have them fill out some forms so that they could conduct business with the local VA hospital.
The whole process was over 3 years to complete.

I was the first one to get Angelfluff to work with the VA system. Now other vets can get their orders from them.

If you go to http://www.angelfluff.com/ they have the http://www.angelfluff.com/VA_benefits.htm page that lists information about the process and what the VA will cover.

Be prepared to have the board deny it the first time and for the headaches that you will get.
Talking to the pharmacy office after you get the prescription from the dr helps the process. Just ask them what you will need to do to help the process.
Hopefully you will get someone from the office to help you.

Now all I have to do is go to Angelfluff's homepage, fill out my order as if I was going to send in a check, print it out and take it to the pharmacy office.
It takes a few days to complete but the order is shipped directly to my house.


Schoppy

Schoppy, I could only imagine what you had to go through for this. I have only been seeing the VA for 5 years now and had to make a correction to my medical record since the doctor worded it as me having multiple strokes. I just wanted to make a simple correction and I couldn't believe the paperwork nor the time that took.

@Schoopy: Yikes, that sounds like a LOT of work! And I thought just getting quality diapers was hard! You're right though, a good advocate makes all the difference.

@Batman: The VA system is general is in the business of pushing pills for some reason... they do that to me too, though I gently decline their offers. The side effects of those pills are horrible....