Surgery cancelled

I had a similar issue with insurance. When I went for my pre-op appointment, 3 days before surgery, the billing people informed me that I had just been certified about 45 minutes before I walked thru the door. They didn't think I had tried enough options for my heavy bleeding and severe cramping. I had an ablation 7 months before which failed by the 3rd month. They had the nerve to ask if I had tried floor excercise!! LIke excercise will stop major bleeding. I was so happy they hadn't called to tell me they were having problems with the insurance, it would have pushed me and DH over the edge.

I feel really bad for you that you have to postpone and be put through more pain just for the sake of jumping through their ridiculous hoops.

I asked my Dr., how it is more beneficial to them to pay for several procedures instead of just one that will take care of the problem. His response was something to the effect of they are hoping that if they stall you off with smaller procedures you will either get sick of the game and live with it, or you might end up with new insurance and they won't have to pay at all. Nice huh! sending a big ole your way!

I am soooo sorry you were cancelled. I know first hand how dissappointing that can be. After all the mental/physical pre-op preparation you go through. I was scheduled for June 1 and was cancelled May 31st..due to severe anemia. The remedy was a shop of Lupron and Dr's orders of iron 2 to 3 times a day. Lucky for me the iron is agreeing with me..the Lupron however has increased my appetite horribly. Enough about me hang in the Good News is the Dr called today and gave me a new date of Sept 1st. Keep your fingers crossed for me and I will pray the beauracrats work out thier confusion on your behalf.

I'm so so sorry to hear about your cancellation!! It certainly isn't fair and I hope you can lay a complaint! I've been sick for 6months waiting for this surgery and think I'd curl up and die if I had to wait much longer! I wanted my gp to get me a female GYN and would have had to wait til Aug to see one. Thank God my male GYN finally agreed to the surgery( at first he felt I should wait it out til menopause kicked in! )
Good luck with the tests I hope they reschedule for you!

So sorry you were postponed, good luck and try not to worry. I was postponed as well because my dr needed an operation 2 days before my original surgery date! SO 3 weeks of worry! I hope they reschedule you fast!

I am so sorry surgery was post poned. I understand I had to deal with my insurance company also and saying they do not if they will approve it or not. 4 days before my surgery they covered it.

Each insurer has its own guidelines for what is considered medically necessary. It would be wonderful if these things were uniform, but they're not.

FWIW, In my case, when I called to pre-certify my hysterectomy and panniculectomy, they didn't question my hysterectomy at all -- and I had never tried one other treatment. The panniculectomy, however, was not covered, because I didn't meet their strict standards of "requiring" that procedure for my health. (They did the panniculectomy to facilitate healing and to make my abdomen "more accessible".) So I had to pay $7100 in cash before my surgery date, which wasn't fun -- but of course I could have chosen to go without that extra procedure if I wanted.

For every bad story about insurers, there are plenty of good stories, too. FWIW, I don't think that insurance companies are any different than airlines, hotels, restaurants, or retailers -- they are big business, and as such, sometimes their clients (that's us!) get lost in the shuffle and treated poorly. I know that doesn't help you right now, and I hope that you get your surgery situation resolved -- but your frustration is one that is felt by many.

I that you will have a good outcome from all of this. Maybe there's some other treatment which will come forward during this delay that will mean you can forestall (or even avoid) surgery! It has happened.

In the meantime, good luck with the biopsy.

That just beats all i have ever heard.. GRRRRRRR
Good luck hon.. keep us updated.

I'm so terribly sorry about your surgery cancellation. I agree with the posts of previous people---appeal and do whatever you have to in dealing with the ins. company. Knowing about ins. companies, sometimes, a person who is "not all that high up in the ladder"--they may be just one or two people above the first ones you talk to on the phone, will be the one to issue a denial. With some companies (not all, mind you), their standard policy is to initially deny claims, as they figure not everyone will take the trouble and time to appeal. That way, they get out of paying at least some claims. Years ago my DH worked a short time selling for a Health Ins. company and learned this about them, after working for them awhile. Needless to say, he didn't work for them much longer after that---what a horrid way to do business!

Along similar lines, my own insurance company <oops! no insurance company names, please> has been good most of the time through this pre-surgery time. We'll see how it goes through the whole thing. On Monday of this week, I had a momentary panic attack, when I was going over things in my policy and found (deep in the bowels of the policy) that they cover surgery pre-op testing ONLY if it's done within 7 days of surgery. Mine had just been done last Friday, 11 days before surgery. Eeks! I about flipped with worry! Called the surgery scheduler at my GYN's office and she assured me that NEVER has pre-op been denied and she's worked with many pts. with this insurance company. Weird thing is that some pre-op testing I had done on 5/23 (CAT scan---more expensive than my pre-op on the 9th wil be) has already been covered. The surg. scheduler reassured me many times that I am not to worry and IF there is a prob., they will go to bat for me! So good to know! Hang in there and keep being the "Squeaky Wheel" with your ins. company!! I have another ins. story (too long to tell) where being persistent and covering ALL our bases got coverage for gallbladder surgery for DH and we ended up paying just $600 out of pocket for a $19,000 hospital bill! Persistence pays off!!!