Your insurance company is certainly not your friend in this process. They are more than happy leading you along to a path which will result in a denial - hopefully by tripping you up on some written procedure within their plan document, which you fail to comply with. Your hospital might deal with this insurer on a daily basis - do you really think they would be a strong advocate for you?
It seems like now would be a good time to consult with an insurance attorney. It would only take about one hour and would help you better frame the steps that you may want to consider within the appeals process. Notice the reputation that your insurer has and no doubt will continue enhancing until forced to alter their behavior. Their game is denial! It's all about the money. The brief that the state has filed against the insurance company most likely will have brief discussions of their egregious behavior against certain patients/beneficiaries and sometimes plaintiff's attorneys will be mentioned. This is an excellent source to mine for attorneys because they already know the "deal" and have experience with the insurance company. Typically these attorneys were the catalyst for the state to actually take action.
Even if you don't want the Pro Disc, it seems like it would be prudent to continue with the entire appeals process. You may change your mind regarding the Pro Disc, your back may get worse and necessitate more immediate surgery (which is now approved or near being approved), you will learn a lot from working through the process once and be better prepared for round two (the appeal for the artificial disc that you really want, that is now FDA approved), approval of a Pro Disc ADR may also provide you leverage, in negotiating for the disc, you really want to have implanted (e.g. trading horses with the insurer - Pro Disc is more money than Prestige, so "how about it?").
Anyway just my $.02!
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