[Lillyth]

Originally Posted by NJ Gene

Hi Brittney, I can't help with your insurance question, other than to say that I've read posts by many people on this forum that BCBS will usually not cover any type of surgery out of the country. However, there are a few who have been lucky exceptions. Don't expect them to pre-approve this under any circumstances. They won't. You've got to go in this with the expectation that you won't get anything from insurance.

I was going to get surgery by Dr. Ritter-Lang myself until I read posts on this thread: http://www.adrsupport.org/forums/f58...y-april-12014/

Just to summarize, it appears that a lot of bad things have happened with patients at Stenum. You only see testimonials of the patients who've done well. Honestly, 90% of his patients have gotten better because bad disc is taken out and new M6 artificial discs are put in. It's the other 10% that you need to be concerned about. It is my understanding that Dr Ritter-Lang and his team do 6 to 7 surgeries a day and run things like an assembly-line. Most other surgeons do 2 to 3 surgeries a day. I recommend you check out Dr. Clavel in Spain (not on the website with Dr Ritter-Lang though), Dr. Bierstedt in Germany, Mr. Dare in the U.K., and finally AIMIS Spine in Cyprus. It's good you're on here, because you can get the informed opinions of patients who have already undergone ADR.

What Gene said.

Also, do not forget that once you spend more than 10% of your income on medical bills, the rest is tax deductible! Uncle Sam is paying for most of my surgery! We just have the outlay of cash up front. But a year from now we will get most of it back.