What INSURANCE approves?!?!!

[Guest guest]

I have United Healthcare and they are not trying to approve me for my

lower advancement surgery. Can anyone please tell me what insurance

they have that approved their surgery? My surgery isn't until next

year so I'll try to switch to one of those. Thanks,

Kiya

[Guest guest]

I have delta dental and cigna health which is a very diffucult

insurance to get to approve anything but my OS, his secretary and I

all made many phone calls to them telling them that it is not

comestic it is a health issue. Well when my OS threatend to take

them to court about the issue is when they finally approved it. You

just have to put your foot down with these people and they will get

the point sooner or later.

> I have United Healthcare and they are not trying to approve me for

my

> lower advancement surgery. Can anyone please tell me what

insurance

> they have that approved their surgery? My surgery isn't until

next

> year so I'll try to switch to one of those. Thanks,

> Kiya

[Guest guest]

> I have delta dental and cigna health which is a very diffucult

> insurance to get to approve anything but my OS, his secretary and I

> all made many phone calls to them telling them that it is not

> comestic it is a health issue. Well when my OS threatend to take

> them to court about the issue is when they finally approved it. You

> just have to put your foot down with these people and they will get

> the point sooner or later.

>

It's certainly the case that success or failure in pressuring

insurance companies depends more on the quality of the paper trail

than the fairness of the need. And that telephone calls, while

sometimes or even often, can be useful should ALWAYS be followed up

with a letter confirming the substance of the phone call so as to

create a paper trail.

But, nonetheless, sometimes switching insurer may be more successful

than building a case with one's present insurer. This will rarely be

the case for those with private insurance policies or the self-

employed, but for those who have employment based medical insurance

which typically has an annual " open enrollment " period it would be

valuable to know which insurers have been good at providing relevant

benefits. Everyone is warned however not to extrapolate too far. For

example " Blue Shield " is not one homgeneous thing but separate

companies in each state offering widely varying policies even within

a state. So useful information would include the EXACT name of the

insurance company and the type of policy, together with lead time,

benefit amount etc.

All in all, I'm glad in a way I don't have to battle this as I have

money but not insurance. It would have been nice for someone else to

pay but I sure can do without the emotional drain of the usual fight

that apparently ensues.

[Guest guest]

I have Kaiser and I didn't have an ounce of trouble.-- In

orthognathicsurgerysupport , " da1kiwi "

wrote:

> I have United Healthcare and they are not trying to approve me for

my

> lower advancement surgery. Can anyone please tell me what

insurance

> they have that approved their surgery? My surgery isn't until

next

> year so I'll try to switch to one of those. Thanks,

> Kiya

[Guest guest]

Hi Kiya,

I don't know if this is an option for you, but I'm in California and

have Kaiser insurance. Kaiser covers the entire surgery! When my

ortho told me I needed the surgery and that it would cost around

$20,000, I didn't know what I was going to do. After some research, I

discovered Kaiser (already my insurer) covered orthognathic, so I

made an appointment with my primary care doctor, who referred me to

head and neck surgery, who then referred me to oral and maxillofacial

surgery. Quite a few hoops to jump through, but nothing compared to

what most folks deal with.

Maddie