To Terry and Shirley re Amy

[Guest guest]

Having a physician as an advocate it often difficult, but very important.

I don't know if my HMO would have given in as easily to my going to CC if not

for a call from my then GI specialist who has a lot of clout in his

profession.

My input really helped when I quoted them the fee schedules at CC versus

those here in the Greater New York area.

New York, especially in Manhattan, may have some of the " best " around, but

the costs are outrageous.

Ed and I look back at all that we've had to spend and are shocked.

-E

[Guest guest]

Hi , I will try to do what I can to help with Amy's situation. I don't

think that I am the " expert " on getting Ins Co approvals though. I've

only done it once ( for Cindi ) and I might have been just lucky. I did

do a lot of phone calling and verbal ( but nicely ! ) butt kicking. The

biggest help fo me was to get our family Dr to admit that he did not

know what to do for Cindi anymore. Then I printed out info from the web

detailing the proceedure and made an appt for Cindi. The appt was not

because she needed anything done just then; it was so we could go and

have the Drs attention for 20+ minutes. I made him sit and read all the

info right in the exam room. Then we talked about all the possibilities.

We walked out that day with a letter from our Dr to Dr Sutherland that

said he thought Cindi was a candidate for Pancreatectomy/ Islet Cell

transplant. Yes , I had to tell our Dr all about it and educate HIM! He

had never heard of the proceedure. Of course , he has not had very many

patients with CP either. Once we had that letter I sent it to our Ins

Co, and followed up with phone calls. They approved it!!

So, maybe I just got lucky, but we had made up our mind that Cindi was

going to have this done. I think the letter from our Dr was the biggest

help re the ins co. Ann Marie ( Dr Sutherland's secratarry) also sent a

very well worded letter to our ins co.

Getting records sent to Minn was another whole issue!! To sum that up

all I can say is that if you want it done promptly, get them yourself,

make coppies, and send them yourself. Yes that costs more than letting

the normal channels do it, but you know it gets DONE.

Please send me Amy's E-mail. I dont want to just call out of the blue

and tell her that others told me to. Nobody in our situations

appreciates getting strange phone calls, right? Never know who it could

be, ya know?

Regards, Larry

[Guest guest]

It does not take long to get to that $250,000.00 mark. Not with is disease!!

gail

esquare726@... wrote:

> Having a physician as an advocate it often difficult, but very important.

>

> I don't know if my HMO would have given in as easily to my going to CC if not

> for a call from my then GI specialist who has a lot of clout in his

> profession.

>

> My input really helped when I quoted them the fee schedules at CC versus

> those here in the Greater New York area.

>

> New York, especially in Manhattan, may have some of the " best " around, but

> the costs are outrageous.

>

> Ed and I look back at all that we've had to spend and are shocked.

>

> -E

>

> PANCREATITIS Association, Intl.

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