New Member
 

Hello everyone,

My name is Izzy and I recently underwent two level ADR surgery at Stenum Hospital in Germany. I had an auto accident in 1998 and had been suffering with four-level degenerative disc disease for over thirteen years. In March 2011 I decided to go Germany and I'm happy to report, my surgery was a total success.

Unfortunately, I am currently fighting Anthem Blue Cross for reimbursement of my medical expenses. I'm in the process of appealing their denial and I was wondering if anyone has been successful in getting ADR surgery approved that could assist me with some basic information. I would greatly appreciate the help.

Izzy

Hi Izzy, Just wanted to say hi and welcome you. So glad to hear that your adr surgery was a success. I am having a one level at L5/S1 early February. What levels did you have done?

Sorry can't help you with your insurance issues, but hopefully some will chime in with their thoughts. Wishing you all the best!

Karen

Izzy welcome. Glad everything went well! Have you checked out the Insurance thread on this site? Lots of info...

Welcome to the forum! I echo the others in being glad to hear your surgery was successful.

As for insurance, definitely check the insurance forum to see if there's anything useful there. I can't really assist on that end as I was very fortunate to have insurance with a company that seems to support ADR over fusion, so the process went smoothly with them. Well... minus some goofiness when I was in PT but that was less an insurance issue and more a billing and practice merger issue.

Hope you find the info you need or someone familiar with your particular insurance sees your thread!

~Sara

Thanks for the warm welcome!
 

Thanks to all of you for the warm welcome and support.

To answer some of your questions, my ADR surgery was to cervical levels C4-5 and C6-7. I also had a fusion to level C5-6 back in 2001 but it only alleviated some of my symptoms for a little over three years.

Best regards,

IZZY

Izzy,

Congratulations on your successful ADR at Stenum, and welcome.

Getting reimbursed AFTER surgery is much more difficult than getting your carrier to agree to cover the surgery before hand. I say that because I've seen the latter happen, but never the former.

I worked for over a year for reimbursement before capitulating to a bad-faithed BCBS-TX. I've PM'd you my failed third appeal. It s a beautiful work of art, but in the end did me no good. Hopefully you'll be able to glean something useful from it.

Good luck, Jeff

i decided that it would cost me more to fight Aetna ahead of time and wait/argue, then to just pay and get on with my life... ie, be able to return to work. that is not everyone's situation, but it was mine and it has turned out exactly how i thought it would... returning to work 2/15!