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Cooperstreaming ♿️

@cooperstreaming.bsky.social

40K followers 680 following 21K posts

♿️ The most overly confident disabled woman in America. Mark Hamill once told me I had pretty eyes and I'll never shut up about it. As seen in Buzzfeed, The BBC, New York Magazine, & most forebodingly, TMZ https://linktr.ee/Cooperstreaming

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Cooperstreaming ♿️ @cooperstreaming.bsky.social · 9h

There are laws about this though. Good Faith Estimate.

It exists for that very reason

Cooperstreaming ♿️ @cooperstreaming.bsky.social · 9h

Yeah there's only two or three people in the entire country who perform this surgery and the other two are extremely far away

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Cooperstreaming ♿️ @cooperstreaming.bsky.social · 1d

Well, since I've already asked for the estimate, I'm supposed to get it within 3 business days. And I asked in writing so... There's kind of no way around that one

Cooperstreaming ♿️ @cooperstreaming.bsky.social · 1d

Yeah. I've done it in the past with other issues, although tbh with no success. The reason I didn't expect to call my rep is because I am in a different state than the surgeon so they don't have any cloud or sway over there and they also don't have any voters to satisfy over there.

Cooperstreaming ♿️ @cooperstreaming.bsky.social · 1d

Oh, and that's still messed up

"The regulation stipulates that any discussion or inquiry about the costs of treatment should be considered a request for a Good Faith Estimate. Clients do not need to use the exact phrase."

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Cooperstreaming ♿️ @cooperstreaming.bsky.social · 1d

Oh, actually it seems like maybe they DO have to provide me with one.

"If an individual requests a Good Faith Estimate, it must be provided within 3 business days."

Maybe they're avoiding it because I didn't ask for this in those specific words?

I'm gonna try that

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Cooperstreaming ♿️ @cooperstreaming.bsky.social · 1d

will be covered out of pocket in cash. So it seems to me like it may apply that I'm entitled to a good faith estimate. Although he might not have to provide one until the last minute

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Cooperstreaming ♿️ @cooperstreaming.bsky.social · 1d

Thank you this is useful information!

It's a bit messy with me, because it says "The Good Faith Estimate provisions do not apply if the client is a participant in Medicare, Medicaid, or other federal healthcare programs." and I have Medicare.

However, he doesn't take Medicare & this procedure

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Cooperstreaming ♿️ @cooperstreaming.bsky.social · 1d

I did bring someone with me! That's the crazy part. I had family standing in the room when that happened.

But the anesthesiologist is a separate person than this guy and I may not see him again. He does the injections, someone else does the surgery

Cooperstreaming ♿️ @cooperstreaming.bsky.social · 1d

Yes. Multiple times. It just gets ignored, which is easy to do via email and that's the only way I have access to communicate with him

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Cooperstreaming ♿️ @cooperstreaming.bsky.social · 1d

Right.

If they feel there are too many variables to estimate accurately they could just say that?

The whole thing is weird

Cooperstreaming ♿️ @cooperstreaming.bsky.social · 1d

What is the point of them doing this though? Because at some point I'm going to have to pay for it so I'm going to have to find out how much it costs

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Cooperstreaming ♿️ @cooperstreaming.bsky.social · 1d

I mean I can try. My rep wouldn't have anything to do with this because it's an out-of-state procedure. So that's complicated.

Does the BBB have anything to do with medical care?

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Cooperstreaming ♿️ @cooperstreaming.bsky.social · 1d

100.

Cooperstreaming ♿️ @cooperstreaming.bsky.social · 1d

The thing that gets me is that if there is some aspect of "hey we can give you an approximation but if it takes more hours or more labor or more materials, etc etc" then it just costs more AT LEAST THEY'D BE EXPLAINING THAT TO ME.

😭😭😭😭😭

Cooperstreaming ♿️ @cooperstreaming.bsky.social · 2d

or was just kind of an asshole. And teaching women to chase after men with these beliefs who will view women as worthless the second they have kids or their bodies change. Just insane.

Very few people like going to work but you know what I like? I am nobody's indentured servant or sex maid.

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Cooperstreaming ♿️ @cooperstreaming.bsky.social · 2d

What's crazy to me is how many women are attempting to repackage are not so distant past with revisionist history.

They act like giving someone complete financial control over your life is all sunshine and rainbows. Like no one has ever married a man who became abusive or descended into addiction,

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Cooperstreaming ♿️ @cooperstreaming.bsky.social · 2d

degenerative disease. So with the surgery considered experimental and me not getting sicker as a result of someone not performing a surgery on me, it feels odd that that would be a reason for him to withhold the financial info.

I just keep thinking "to what end"

Cooperstreaming ♿️ @cooperstreaming.bsky.social · 2d

But considering that you have to suffer an injury or damages of some sort in order to see someone for that kind of malpractice feels like the nail in the coffin to that idea. Because I am considered at the end of medical intervention and while CRPS ebbs & flows with how horrible it is, it is not a

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Cooperstreaming ♿️ @cooperstreaming.bsky.social · 2d

that I might not have anywhere else to go for that specific procedure, But seeing as it's considered experimental I feel like legally it would be really hard for someone to argue that this experimental procedure was necessary... Right?

Idk, the law never functions like what we consider common sense

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Cooperstreaming ♿️ @cooperstreaming.bsky.social · 2d

to explore if the surgery made sense.

I guess it's a bit of a weird situation because if he doesn't want to operate on me I don't have other options for this procedure, but legally doctors can't be forced to perform any procedure, right?

And if he only takes cash and I can't pay... then it's true

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Cooperstreaming ♿️ @cooperstreaming.bsky.social · 2d

I didn't even know this existed. So he can get in trouble for not doing surgery on me when I can't afford it? That is really confusing considering that feels like the basis of all American healthcare 😄

I mean I've only seen him the one time and it was explicitly to get permission for inejctions

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Cooperstreaming ♿️ @cooperstreaming.bsky.social · 2d

Sure. But also the women who make careers telling other women to be in their "feminine energy" when what they mean by that is to let the patriarchy step on your neck and say thank you for the fantasy of a man paying for your life.

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Cooperstreaming ♿️ @cooperstreaming.bsky.social · 2d

If I were physically able to get on an international flight, I would be trying to find someone overseas to do the procedure. Because I know that the cost of round trip tickets and a week in a hotel would still be less than whatever this guy is gonna charge me

Cooperstreaming ♿️ @cooperstreaming.bsky.social · 2d

just crazy to me that I have to deal with this. And it's so infuriating that I really don't have other options so I'm stuck with in any other situation I would go somewhere that didn't give me such a bad vibe.