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Old 08-13-2007, 06:46 AM
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Harrison Harrison is offline
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Posted for our friend, the author, Laurie Todd.
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The Insurance Intelligencer
8/12/07

Precedent: Proof that Packs a Punch

Your health insurer says, “We will not pay.”

What facts do you have to prove, in order to make them pay?

You will prove many facts in your written appeal:

The insurance-contracted doctors have made numerous mistakes.
Purpose: Intimidation ... you hold the “malpractice cards.”

The mistakes that your insurance doctors made could lead to very expensive bad outcomes. Purpose: To show that you understand that this is all about money.

Your treatment-of-choice produces proven good outcomes.
Purpose: To compare and contrast with the treatments you have already undergone, which have no chance of a good outcome for you.

What you are proposing will cost less than what they are proposing.
Purpose: To overcome the underlying objection, which is all about money.

You must include as many types of proof as you can, if you expect to win your appeal. However, the most powerful, unassailable, intimidating type of proof which you can provide is PRECEDENT.

What is precedent? Proof that they have paid for this before.

How do I know that precedent is the most powerful type of proof? Because I can already see health insurers trying to fight back against our predecent. Fortunately, I know how to lob those shells right back over the wall.

Where do we find precedent?

Let’s say that you have melanoma, you have Acme Insurance, and they won’t pay for an expensive medication. They state that the medicine is “experimental/investigational.” Many patients would stop right there, “Oh well, it’s experimental.”

They tell me that it is experimental, but they have already paid for it? How could this be?

Remember the Insurance Warrior battle cry: “They aren’t saying that it is experimental because it IS experimental. They are saying that it is experimental because THEY DON’T WANT TO PAY FOR IT.”

Because you are an Insurance Warrior, you will leap over this objection. Not only will you find all sorts of peer-reviewed articles and published studies to support your request for this medication, but you will find cases where they have paid for this before.

You are not privy to medical records ... how will you find this proof?

Simplest way is to join an online support group for melanoma. Join two or three. Find the groups by Googling “melanoma support” ... that you get you started. Also, search through Yahoo Groups ... they probably have a dozen groups for any disease or condition.

Get on the groups, introduce yourself, and put out the call: “My name is Mary Smith. My story is such-and-such. I have Acme Insurance, and they don’t want to pay for my Erbitux. Does anyone here have Acme Insurance, and have they paid for Erbitux? Who is your doctor? When did they pay?”

Within hours, you should have some precedent.

Does the precedent have to be from my insurer?

It is best if it is your insurer who has paid for this before. However, the Insurance Warrior always takes whatever she has, and makes it fit.

Let’s say you have Acme Insurance, and all you can find is proof that six other insurance companies have paid. Or, you belong to “California TrueHealth.” Truehealth is a giant health insurer, with separate companies in every state of the union. You have been able to find precedent for TrueHealth in eight of these companies, but not for yours in California.

Go ahead and use your proof. Hopefully, those six other insurers where huge, nationwide companies. After your list of precedent, you state: “I understand that these are all different insurance entities. However, it simply adds to the mountain of proof that this treatment is now STANDARD OF CARE for this disease.”

What does a precedent list look like?

I’ll tell you what it DOESN’T look like – a list of insurance companies who paid.

A precedent list is a scary, personal, intimidating list of individuals who have already had this paid for:

1. Mary Jones
Acme Insurance/Dr. Bill Smith
Erbitux paid for 6/15/07



2. Jim Johnson
Acme Insurance/Dr. Ricard Peterson
Erbitux paid for 7/8/07



... and so on. Your list should include at least a dozen cases.

In the past, there was no Internet. There was no way for patients to discover that, even though their insurer was denying them a treatment, that same insurer had paid for it, for someone else, the week before. Now, the Internet helps to level the playing field.

Of course, we do not have access to medical records. I was able to find a dozen cases of my so-called rare cancer at my small local HMO. If I could open up the official database of patients, I would probably have found fifty.

Fortunately, we do not need a hundred cases to win ... a dozen will do quite nicely.

How are the insurers fighting precedent?

Health insurers are very unhappy that we are suddenly able to find out that they have already paid for the medication/treatment/surgery that they have denied to us. This is a real problem, how are they going to overcome it?

Just lately, I have noticed two tactics employed to try to avoid paying for you, even though they have already paid for someone else ...

Tactic #1: Insurer states: “Yes, we did pay for that before. However, we paid by mistake. We paid by mistake because your doctor gave us the wrong codes (thus inferring that your doctor either made a mistake himself, or is unethical).

Pretty lackluster attempt to get out of paying, in my estimation. You go ahead and provide your list of a dozen times your insurer has already paid, and a dozen times the three largest health insurers in the country have paid – over a ten-year period. So .... two dozen different doctors, and all of these insurance companies, have made the same mistake over and over for many years. Not bloody likely.

Tactic #2: When appeal succeeds, insurer states: “This is a one-time exception only. We will never pay for this again.”

Sorry, Acme Insurance ... you don’t get to do that. We all have the same contract with you. If you provide a service to one contract-holder, you must give the same service to all. You will pay again, that objection is not gonna fly.

Find your precedent, compile a long list with names and dates. After you win your own appeal, share this list with all of your friends with the same condition. This is how we become Insurance Warriors ... by winning the battle, then sharing our victories.

How to Buy the Book

No chain bookstores, none of that. You may order the book by ...

Go to www.theinsurancewarrior.com and use the Buy Now button.
Call me at 425 497-1858, and I will take your order by phone.
Send me a check for $19.95 if you are outside of the state of Washington, and $21.32 if you are in Washington:

Healthwise Publications
P.O. Box 2045
Woodinville, WA 98072

Good health, and happy Insurance Warrioring!

Laurie Todd
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"Harrison" - info (at) adrsupport.org
Fell on my ***winter 2003, Canceled fusion April 6 2004
Reborn June 25th, 2004, L5-S1 ADR Charite in Boston
Founder & moderator of ADRSupport - 2004
Founder Arthroplasty Patient Foundation a 501(c)(3) - 2006
Creator & producer, Why Am I Still Sick? - 2012
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