Being Proactive When It Comes To HealthCare

In the fall of 2015, I was diagnosed with SI Joint Dysfunction. I had been through all the conservative treatments. I went to my neurosurgeon and he was doing a new procedure at the time for SI Joints. We decided to go for surgery. The insurance company denied it. They said it was "not medically necessary" "Experimental" and "Investigational". My surgeon did the peer to peer review and the necessary appeals. I was upset, and in alot of pain. I was on a facebook group of people with the same problems. The insurance company was doing this all across the country. So, I started an online petition through moveon.org. The company who makes the fusion implants nor the surgeon or any employee at the hospital asked me to do this. I wanted the insurance company to stop denying the procedure. At least they would hear what patients had to say. I went ahead with surgery without using insurance, I found another way to have it. But I kept the petition going. I had the other side done a few months later in 2016 and still didn't take the petition down. In November 2017 I heard from the company that makes the implants, I heard from the president of the company. He had heard about my petition and wanted me to go ahead and send it to the insurance company to see what would happen. The insurance company was going to have a meeting the next month about this procedure. I sent it, not sure if it did go to the right people, but let's hope it did. January 2018 the president of the company that makes the implants emailed me. The insurance company is now looking at this surgery in a positive manner. He thanked me and he is thinking the petition may have helped. I hope it did. It had 883 signatures on it. Now I hope people with SI Joint Dysfunction who really need the surgery can have it without the insurance company stopping them. When it comes to healthcare, patients sure do need to take a proactive approach in their own care. (I don't know if this is newsworthy or not, but, my neurosurgeon was happy) You can interview me in person if needed and you can also contact my neurosurgeon and his staff if needed for more on this story) This is just a brief summary). My neurosurgeon is in Cape.