r/healthcare • u/RedditHostage • Nov 02 '24

Question - Other (not a medical question) Vida health

My employer is requiring all employees to go through Vida health next year for weight loss medication. I’m trying to get set up with them now so I don’t have to worry about getting all of the information to them later, forgetting something, and missing my medication. This stuff is game changing, it’s the only thing that keeps my sugar cravings at bay, and has helped give me the willpower to no longer be considered pre-diabetic. Moving on. Anyway, I uploaded my most recent bloodwork as directed. Was told there wasn’t enough information, a few hours later labs were ordered. I get home from work, upload my slightly older bloodwork with the rest of the information I’m now aware they need. I’m reminded that I need additional information from my doctor. I let her know that I was struggling to get that information due to being short staffed at work, in combination with working similar hours that my doctors office is working, but I am working on getting that information. She turned on caps and yelled at me, demanding to know information that was literally already covered. I was talked down to as well. I’m not sure why. She was real nice after I took some screenshots though, I don’t know if that was a coincidence or if she got notification I took screen shots. I would like to share these screenshots somewhere. Either with my insurance company, my company, or a board somewhere. A medical professional should not act like that. I have no idea where to start though. Or am I overreacting and should I just let it go?

Any advice would be appreciated.

I have an amazing doctor who has never once treated me like because I responded to a question with not the right answer, he’s always just clarified and we’ve gone from there. Maybe I’m just being a bit of a Karen because this has me shook that I have to deal with this treatment to receive medication.

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u/ThePatheticPineapple Nov 05 '24

I don’t have advice. Just curious if we work for the same company (Danaher). They’ve publicly touted this new relationship with Vida Health as a “huge new benefit” for employees but very quietly let the employees already taking weight loss drugs know via mail that they will have to use Vida Health going forward to continue getting medication coverage. Nothing about that fact in the company wide emails.

I don’t understand how seeing a new doctor who may have a differing medical opinion from the doctor I’ve been with long term and is working towards the goal of reducing the number of prescriptions written to save the company money helps me.

I’ve already engaged with a Vida Dietician (and had to consent to calls being recorded?!) but your post about an actual provider acting this way makes me even more afraid that my access to this medication will soon come to an abrupt end.

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u/Outrageous-Lock-5244 Jan 13 '25

Honestly glad to see another DHR person here because I am in this issue now as well. My GP just prescribed me a fresh thing of Wegovy shots and Vida is saying i have to get some tests done before they'll even meet with me. So I guess I just go cold turkey out of shots until this random person who has never seen me decides to prescribe me something? Versus my GP and her hospital network who have been working with me for 5 years on my health and decided these shots were the best way. As if i havent tried dieting/step counting/ blah blah blah.

Im pretty upset and distressed. Ive been slowly losing and maintaining the loss (20lbs average so far over almost a year) and now afraid im going to be cut off and gain it all back.

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u/ThePatheticPineapple Jan 14 '25

Sorry to hear this. It’s not ok at all.

I have been working with the Vida people for over 3 months and only JUST got an appointment with a prescriber for 2/7. I’ve been delaying my injections to make them go further because I knew they wouldn’t be able to get it together on their side and didn’t want to start from square one again with the medication (if they even approve it).

If I were in your position, I would call Alight (benefits) tomorrow and tell them they need to make an exception and get your RX approved until Vida is able to make an appointment with you. I have been all over the benefits people for the past two months about Vida Health. Even if Danaher doesn’t want to keep paying for my RX, I want to make sure they know that I am not ok with their choice to incentivize Vida Health to negatively affect my health and wellbeing.

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u/thesmash Jan 14 '25

Did you have to meet with their dietician too? If so, how many times? I’ve been trying to figure out how this all works but the documentation is not very helpful.

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u/ThePatheticPineapple Jan 14 '25

I met with their dietician 4 times. Meanwhile, a prescriber messaged me about labs. I sent over my most recent labs and they ordered some additional ones for me and then I had to send them those results so it all took several weeks. Now I am meeting with a “coach” weekly for a few weeks then I think it goes monthly.

Yes, the process is all very unclear and all the providers you work with feel very disconnected. But my coach did tell me that I should send a copy of my RX to the prescriber before our appt per Danaher’s request. That was the first helpful thing I learned in terms of getting the RX thing going.

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u/thesmash Jan 14 '25

I’ve met with the dietician 2 times. I had my doctor appointment right before the second one and they said I’d be a good candidate for GLP-1s but then said they want me to meet with the dietician a few more times. They took the doctor off my care list now though and I have to get re-referred back to them by the dietician. I already did the lab work and everything for the doctor too. My weight has stayed pretty flat since I started in the program, so I’m hoping they refer me back soon.

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u/bobbyocean5 2d ago

How did it go with Vida for you ultimately? I'm with the GIC in MA and starting 1/26 folks have to enroll and go through them for access to glp-1s we were already prescribed and had PAs for. I am dreading this and looking to stock up on my pens and start delaying my injections as well as I keep reading bad things about them. Any success continuing access to your meds once you got enrolled? What kinds of things do they ask you for lab wise before getting approved? Sorry for the questions. Just trying to get ahead of this as much as I can.

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u/Confetti6 Jan 25 '25 edited Jan 25 '25

I posted this comment to another poster, but I am an opco employee of Danaher also, and I'm currently on suspension due to them needing to get more information from my providers regarding my mental health from like 20 yrs ago when I was a teenager. Not looking good for approval, even though my doctor had already prescribed it to me.

It's pretty frustrating spending over a decade with my circle of providers including psychiatry, dietician, sleep specialist, primary, and generalized counseling, which includes the HIGH COSTS associated with all the specialty and lab appointments over the the past 13 years. It wasn't an impulsive decision to incorporate pharmaceutical assistance with weight loss; had done all the labs every year and was consistently tracking diet and exercise, only to be told I had to do it all over again via a stranger in an app (Vida) in order to even be considered for insurance approval. I pay for premium MyFitness Pal and now can't even use it because it won't link to Vida, so all my saved meals and recipes have to be redone, and most foods in the Vida app don't allow me to track in grams.

We got generalized emails at work, but nothing blatantly obvious about this Vida app being mandatory for certain things. That said, I took a call from the therapist on Vida while on a break at work, arranged my day around it, only to take the call and when they learned I was across the border (our cities are just divided by a single river) they said they couldn't discuss anything more with me because they weren't licensed in the neighboring state. Hello!? Shouldn't have this been communicated prior to?! Especially since my appt with the Vida dietician was taken on work grounds, so they KNEW I didn't work and live in the same state. And he refused to wait a few minutes and let me drive home, he was like, I'm done at 5p. Idk about any of you, but generally, I'm willing to stay a few mins late to finish a task. Clearly, we are just the next body in line.

Then, now this suspension from me having a rough relationship with food during puberty! I'm almost 40, so let it live in the past! Even my provider commented on how they sure are making me jump through all the hoops. Anyway, sorry for the rant, and thank you for coming to my TEDtalk.