I appreciate hearing your point-of-view. My husband's experience has been different so far. He was out-of-network with Mayo when we first went last year and they told us it didn't matter where we got the requested diagnostics as long as they were done. His Mayo doc even wrote external referrals to help us get the requested tests done at in-network hospitals.

Mayo is asking my husband to repeat the heart cath he had done, but they've explained why — the local doctor didn't take enough images or certain standard measurements, and they don't feel comfortable endorsing a treatment plan with the limited info it gave them. And we know this isn't Mayo being picky as even the surgeon at our local hospital where the cath was done told us the images didn't fully show the blockages in his LAD... and she was expected to operate on it! Yikes.

On the flip side, Mayo *has* been satisfied with the MRI he had done locally last year and they've accepted CT scans, lung tests, etc. done locally over the past eight months with no request to repeat them.

It does make me wonder how Medicare and insurers feel about the duplication, though. Mayo must have some stellar medical billers and coders to get all the diagnostics and procedures they order approved, especially if they're repeating something another doc has done recently.