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Had my "appointment call" initial contact with Mayo Clinic to try and get my father in there to get his mesenteric artery growth looked at and dealt with, and they pretty much shut us down saying that blue cross blue shield isn't contracted with mayo anymore.
Wtf is a person suppose to do when one of the few places who can do anything won't accept medicare insurance and can't pay out of pocket?
Replies to "Had my "appointment call" initial contact with Mayo Clinic to try and get my father in..."
@ihatesnowinindiana, how frustrating and disappointing.
However, Mayo Clinic accepts Medicare patients. This may be an out of state situation. I might suggest that you call Insurance & Billing directly to make sure that all possible avenues have been explored, including financial assistance.
Here's more info about Insurance https://www.mayoclinic.org/patient-visitor-guide/billing-insurance/insurance
Contact info: https://www.mayoclinic.org/patient-visitor-guide/billing-insurance/contact-us
My aunt got turned away from consideration as a patient at Mayo Arizona a few months ago. They told me they couldn't take her on because they were overwhelmed with new patients.
Columbia Presbyterian takes Medicare, and they have an amazing surgical team. Johns Hopkins also takes it. And both of them are excellent institutions with the capacity to handle arterial involvement (although I don't know about mesenteric artery involvement specifically). Memorial Sloan also takes Medicare.
There will be other places as well. Those are just the three I can say with certainty accept medicare and are excellent.
We switched our Medicare advantage plan from blue cross blue shield to Aetna this year for precisely this reason. BCBS (anthem) has always a very small network they will accept for treatment. In short, it is the insurance market that controls access to medical care in the US. No other industrialized country in the world that does this. I don’t know what the solution is except to switch plans. I highly recommend Aetna.
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Complete sympathy:
Yup, "wtf" is right.
Possible course of action:
Call the insurance company and ask them for help. They may have nurse navigators who can steer you to a really good doctor/facility to help your dad. I had Keystone Blue Cross for years and their nurses and customer service staff were really, really helpful. Mayo IS great, but there are other good places, too.
Kudos to you: You must be a wonderful person to help your dad like this! Good for you!!! Keep your chin up 🙂 Good luck. Keep us posted.