Friday, February 12, 2010

+1296 No Second Opinion from Seattle

Our insurance denied a second opinion from the children's hospital in Seattle. I have a couple more options but I don't have the energy right now to pursue them.

4 comments:

Peter Olson said...

Keep fighting! We will keep praying that David gets better and does a lot more of that fun boy stuff in the future. ;-)
Praying for strength for you too!

Sumathi said...

Hang in there Aimee. Glad that David is a bit better. Hope that you can get the coverage for the second opinion.

With Best Wishes,

Sumathi

ZENMama said...

Aimee, I haven't checked your blog in awhile--and this post is so disturbing to me. I've been thinking for awhile that David might benefit from the Fred Hutch people here since they are on the cutting edge of GVHD research. If *I'm* frustrated by the news that your insurance company rejected the idea of a Fred Hutch second opinion, I can only imagine your own head space about it.

I had a thought that might be worth looking into: Seattle Children's does not turn people away for their inability to pay. I have no idea what your financial situation is, but their threshold for financial aid is for families netting less than $70k/year. If you access Seattle Cancer Care Alliance (the treatment arm of Fred Hutch) through Seattle Children's, meaning, do all your lab draws and treatments at the SCCA unit of Children's, you might just be able to get by without having to use your insurance.

But, I don't know if that approach is even possible--SCCA might demand that chronic GVHD patients get their consults and treatments at SCCA proper (which does not have very good financial assistance). It doesn't hurt to ask what the possibilities are without insurance--and even see if he could be considered for a study and maybe offset some costs. You could likely stay at the Ronald McDonald House here.

(When we started our own process it seemed very wrong to be told that our insurance had a $250k cap for a BMT that would cost upwards of $600k--and to be handed flyers on how to hold a fundraiser. The insurance madness has got to stop!)

I live here in Seattle--my own 2 year old daughter is now one year post BMT. We used the financial aid through Children's ourselves, so feel free to ask me any questions if you think I could help. We know the name and number of the financial services person you'd need to talk to.

So, so sorry little David --and his family--is suffering so. All the best from Seattle.

Kathi Lipp said...

Praying for you.