Going to the Mayo- insurance

[tmkendra]

Hey everyone. . . TJ got an appt with the Mayo and he has to be there on May 29th. We dont know yet what their plan of action is or if they are just running their own tests or not. . . He should be getting more information in the mail.

Does anyone know what the next step is for getting it approved by insurance?

Thank you!

[ptrefam]

I am so glad he is going!! Keep us posted. I just called the insurance for Dustin and told of his Mayo visit. I explained that we had to go out of plan as there were no Drs that specialize in this area in plan. They requested we have his neurosurgeon from here send them a revferral. They gave him a gap coverage and agreed to pay at our plan rate. His first visit he had an intake evaluation with Dr. Daube, then an EMG that lasted about 2 hours(very thourough). Then he had an MRI. The next day we met with the team and had another evaluation of the arm and they gave their opions and suggestions for treatment and surgery.
Sue

[srhykerd]

I don't know what insurance TJ has but we had an HMO. We had to get our neurosurgeon here to write a letter of medical neccesity to the insurance company and then we had to have our PCP get authorization also. At first the authorization was for the EMG, CT,s, and the evaluation by the doctors. After that, when she needed surgery we had to keep calling our PCP to get the authorizations for the other tests and her surgery. It's alot of red tape and phone calls but it's worth it!

[tmkendra]

Sue, How long we is from the time they decided to operate, and they actually did ? They told TJ that he should plan to be there for 4-6 days. I don't know if he rec'd his packet in the mail yet, probably this week and hopefully that will outline things better.

I'll keep you posted.
Tiffany

[ptrefam]

For Dustin his first appt was about 4 mos post injury. They decided to wait a bit and see what would improve before his next appt. The next appt was for 6 mos post injury and they also scheduled a tenative surgery date with that appt. They did this as they didn't really feel they would operate but on the chance they did they wanted the room available. When we returned for this appt 2 of the drs felt they should go in and take a look as he was at the 6 mo time frame and the last chance for a nerve graph. He was prepped to have a nerve graph. However when they got in they discovered all nerves were firing so just cleaned out scar tissue. I think if they have said you could expect to be there 4-6 days you may already have a sugical time set up. Hopefully when you receive the appt cards it will have this info too. I am so excited for you and your brother. What a blessing you are to him.
Sue

[srhykerd]

Tiffany,
In Melanie's case, she had her accident 11/13/05, we went to Mayo on April 25th, 2006. They did 2 days of their own tests and then decided surgery was best for her. She had her surgery May 3rd. They like to operate on the nerves within 6 months of the injury so we just made the cut off. They do outline the tests very well when you get the appointment card, but Mel had additional tests done after that and then of course the surgery itself. We were there for a little less than 3 weeks. It was well worth it. The only scheduling hassle was getting our return plane tickets changed. But we dealt with it like everything else. Sue (Mel's Mom)

[tmkendra]

Thank you both! TJ can be somewhat of a secretive person and I know he has the packet but hasn't said anything about it. I'll have to dig around and see what his appointment cards say.

Again, thank you!