Re:Insurance appeals process

[Guest guest]

Judy,

That would be great to list the web sites or other references to use

for appeals to insurance companies to try and get them to cover the

UFE procedure. I have Blue Cross & Blue Shield and they said they

would not cover UFE's " yet " because it is considered experimental,

but may cover it in the future. I think maybe they just need to be

educated more about it. Possibly the IR's could help with an

information letter for us to present to the insur. co.'s as well...it

would certainly be to their advantage. I plan to make an appt. with

Dr. Spies this week and I will discuss this with him. I will watch

for Carla to hopefully post your suggestions on the NUFF website.

Connie

> For your info, preliminary results of a study at town

> University

> Medical Center indicate that UAE should not affect the fertility of

> women under 45. These results were presented at the annual meeting

of

> the SCVIR (Society of Cardiovascular and Interventional Radiology)

> last March in San Diego, CA by B. Spies, MD (chief of

> interventional radiology and vice chairman of radiology at

town

> University Medical Center in Washington DC). WebMDHealth ran a

story

> on his research on March 27, 2000 (see

> http://my.webmd.com/content/article/1728.56006). In the article,

Dr.

> Spies is quoted as saying " Preliminary data [on 66 patients] show

> that

> there is no statistically significant change between levels of

> follicle-stimulating hormone before beginning the treatment and six

> months afterward. " Follicle-stimulating hormone is important for

> regulating ovarian function. Of course, this study will still need

to

> go through the peer-review process when Dr. Spies gets ready to

> publish his teams' results in a medical journal--it's encouraging

> news

> though.

>

> I ran across this article while putting together my appeal to

> HealthPartners (St. , MN) for denying me coverage of UAE for

> treatment of a 7 cm fibroid (they said it was too experimental). A

> hysterectomy was given as my other choice (which I didn't find

> acceptable--I'm 40 and don't want to undergo major surgery when

there

> is another option I can try first). As a Ph.D.-level

> Environmental Research Scientist, I've done a lot of my own

research

> into fibroids and treatment options. For my particular case, I

think

> UAE is the way to go. I have assembled a lot of Web-related

> references for my appeal. I will forward this list to Carla Dionne

> for use on the National Uterine Fibroids Foundation Web site.

>

> Judy