TCI procedural question(s)

[Guest guest]

Hi, everyone!

I hope you all had a lovely weekend. I am writing

with a question for those of you who have been to the

Chiari Institute in Great Neck, NY for an assessment.

(as a total aside, have I mentioned that I think it's

*hilarious* that the Chiari Institute is located in a

city called " GREAT NECK " ?! Just a thought...)

Anyway, as I've mentioned in previoius posts, last

week I scheduled my assessment with them for early

October, but the thing is, when they called me to

schedule the appointment, it was very early in the

morning for me (since I'm in California)--7am--and I

had had a terrible night of pain the night before and

I had taken a LOT of pain meds during the night just

to catch a precious few hours of sleep...so when the

phone rang at 7am and it was the Chiari Institute, I

guess I answered the phone in my sleep. (whoops!)

When I woke up a few hours later, I found a note I had

written to myself with a few detals about my

appointment, but for the most part, I can't make sense

of it. I've emailed them and also called and left a

message on the medical secretary's voice mail, but

haven't heard back, but I'm sure you guys can

understand--I'm anxious to submit my request for

authorization to my insurance company, and also just

to know what the next step is with TCI. And the

sooner I buy my plane ticket, the cheaper it is.

So, here are my questions for those of you who have

been there: I have written down that I am seeing Dr.

Pinkhasova at 9am, and I looked him up on the TCI

website and see that he's a neurologist. I also see

that I wrote the word " neurosurgeon " down, but I don't

know WHY I wrote it (since I didn't write a name or a

time down next to it). Is it normal for you to see

*both* a neurologist AND a neurosurgeon for your first

assessment, and if so, do they schedule them

separately? Or, do you just see the neurologist, and

then see the neurosurgeon only if it seems necessary

after that? (in other words, is it possible that I

may have to unexpectedly stay for another day or two

if they find something that needs to be checked out

during my neurologist appointment?)

Another thing that I wrote down that didn't make sense

is: " 4MRI's, 2 CAT Scans, 2 Xrays " , yet I didn't make

any note of having *scheduled* any such tests. If I

am going to have these tests done while I am there, I

will of course have to know ahead of time so I can get

authorization from my insurance company, so I am

wondering--does anyone remember how that worked for

them? How did they get their MRI's, etc, done? Did

they schedule them with TCI? Does TCI call them back

to tell them about the dates/times of those tests or

something?

Also, has anyone ever gotten from TCI a packet or

something in writing that describes their assessment

program that made it easier/more efficient to apply

for insurance authorization? I'm just imagining how

complicated it's going to be for me to go through the

process with my insurance company...they told me they

will almost certainly approve it, but I'm still going

to have to submit a written description of each

procedure I need and why I need it, and if TCI already

has something like that, it would make it SO much

easier for me. The less *I* have to write, the

better, since being in pain is about ALL I'm doing

these days, sadly.

Ok, once again, thanks for everything!!! Hanna, I

think I may be at TCI when you're there--although I'm

not positive yet, since I'm a little fuzzy on the

details of my appointment at this point. But I'm

definitely going to be there during the first week of

October. So once I finalize things with them, I'll

email you and see if we'll be there at the same time!

Ginger

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