Need some bunny brainstorming.... →[More:] I've complained before about
my mother's travails with the medical establishment. The short version -- she's got a really rare and serious condition that her doctors don't know how to treat (though they've been trying ineffectively for 8 months). Last month they
finally referred her to a specialty clinic in Denver, but she couldn't get an appointment until October.
Okay. So, today she found out that her insurance company -- Blue Cross/Blue Shield won't approve the referral because the clinic is out of state.
This clinic treats people from all over the country, so it doesn't seem all that unusual to me for the doctors to send her there.
BC/BS told her that there was no appeals process, that there simply was no way in hell they were going to let her go to a clinic outside of Texas.
This seems like bullshit to me. Does anyone know of any way to appeal the decision, or to get an exception granted for the referral?
Only thing I can think of is going all Michael Moore on them, like he did with the guy who couldn't get an organ transplant approved. He paraded the guy in front of the insurance CEO's office with a sign saying "I'm going to die" or something like that, then held a mock funeral.
But I don't think my mom would go for that.