Going to Mayo Clinic EDS Florida

No. It would be a private plane. In some cases the pilots have access to larger private or corporate jets (or prop planes) but most often they are the smaller 4 seater planes. I totally understand, hope you find something that works for your travel, and wish you great success with your treatment.

Oh, I’m sorry. I misunderstood since the topic of your post mentioned going to the EDS Clinic.

Were you able to get on the waiting list or call them to see if they’re scheduling, or are you trying to sort out insurance and travel first?

Unless they’ve changed things, the phone number on their website goes direct to the reception desk, so you can call to ask if they’re scheduling or have a wait list. I got on the wait list in May 2022 and had my appointment in April 2023. They asked me a few screening questions and were able to put me on the waiting list without me having to provide any other documentation, but I already had diagnoses of co-occurring conditions.

A year I can’t wait a year I’m really sick losing weight and other symptom

I understand… The wait time may be shorter now. Last May, they added a new provider so they could see additional patients.

Unfortunately, at least in my experience (and I tried for years to get evaluated), to get specifically into an EDS Clinic if that’s you goal, the wait time is at least a year and usually more. When they told me the average wait was a year, that actually sounded great to me because I met encountering closed wait lists or wait times if 18 months and more.

I live in Illinois, and closest EDS Clinic to me is at Indiana University and the wait list was two years, but then they stopped accepting patients suspected of hyper mobile EDS (the most common version).

If you suspect you have an autoimmune condition and not EDS or hypermobility specifically, have you thought about self-referring to Mayo or asking your doctor to submit a referral? Or depending on where you live, you may be able to get in sooner at an academic medical center close to you, so that you can get things started before you’re seen at Mayo, if you haven’t done so yet.

Was so disappointed to find out Mayo will not a cept ATENA Medicare Adv yet accepts Medicare. I live in FL and have several issues. Very sad abt this, you are excluding a huge group of people.

@rola. The issues with insurance acceptance usually are because the “advantage “ plans limit where a patient can be seen and by whom. They have control of if they will pay the bill or not and often they will only cover providers on their list. Often they limit patients to care in the state where they live.

The advantage of real Medicare is that it can be used anywhere in the country with providers who accept Medicare. If you can only see one doctor approved by the Advantage plan and many other patients are in line waiting it can be bad if you have an urgent situation and cannot go anywhere else. My physical therapist told me about a case where a diabetic patient needed wound care and ended up waiting 3 weeks to be seen because they would only cover one doctor. He lost his leg because the infection spread.

My PT also says that advantage plans can review a case a couple years later, and reverse the decision to cover the service and take the payment back from the provider. She will not accept Advantage plans for that reason. You can always ask your insurance provider if you have questions.

Jennifer

I thank you for your reply.
Each and every plan may vary what insurance may or may not cover. My plan allows for out-of-network care, so, Mayo clinic refuses to accept me even though I have coverage. Idk...love the Mayo connect thou, has been very helpful. I will be traveling to Moffit, they actually speak with your insurance company to validate coverage. They are truly a class act for cancer patients.

I’m glad you’ve found a place that’s a good fit.

I find that for large academic (and therefore expensive) medical centers, and even some smaller clinics, they can be very hesitant to accept patients out of network, even if the plan allows for it. Whenever this has happened to me, I suspect they’re leery of whether or not the patient will pay. Or maybe it has something to do with the additional administrative hoops to jump in the case of the smaller clinic where my dad has been turned away.

@rola, I'll give you an example. A patient I know who needed spine surgery wanted to go to Mayo. She was able to get an appointment as out of network at the Mayo Clinic Health System which is a local rural hospital in Minnesota (or Wisconsin). The wait to get into the main Mayo Clinic was long, so she called the Health System instead. She was scheduled for surgery, and the insurance played games and wouldn't authorize surgery, so with only 2 days left, the patient had to cancel all the reservations for airfare and accommodations she had made. The insurance then picked out a different surgeon (who she did not want) and told her they would only cover that surgeon, so she was forced to have surgery with a surgeon she didn't trust because she was in so much pain.

That should not happen. They were covering the appointments, but then refused to pay for the surgery which of course is a huge expense. They are probably price shopping for a facility that will do it for a lesser fee. Care at Mayo is good and thorough, and there is a cost involved.

It sounds to me like the insurance is making this more difficult that necessary and it just wastes time for all the people at a medical center behind the scenes who are working to try to get authorization. The insurance company of course holds all the control for what they will or won't pay for and they are in this game to make a profit.

I made my insurance choices (real Medicare and a Medigap plan) according to what Mayo accepts because I wanted to be able to have care there if needed in the future since I have already had spine surgery there.

I am glad you have another option now for your care, and I certainly wish you the best. If you wanted to change at the next enrollment period, you would have that opportunity.

Jennifer

@rola. I would like to point out that what Mayo (or other clinics and medical practices) can and cannot accept for medical insurance is based on state regulations. So, for instance, it is my understanding that Mayo Clinic in Florida does not accept some Medicare Advantage Plans because of Florida state regulations. Since you are in Florida you might like to check with your Office of Insurance Regulation for clarification on this.

Florida Office of Insurance Regulation:

-- https://oppaga.fl.gov/ProgramSummary/ProgramDetail?programNumber=4102#:~:text=The%20Office%20of%20Insurance%20Regulation,financing%2C%20and%20administrative%20supervision%2C%20as

So, this is not due to the fault of Mayo. It is how the state of Florida regulates medical insurance in Florida.

These regulations do vary from state to state.