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   Jonathan Kamens 86 47 (jik@federate.social)'s status on Saturday, 05-Sep-2026 04:34:02 JST Jonathan Kamens 86 47

   I've got a cardiac test scheduled on Tuesday. The office that does the test just called and told me the insurance company hasn't yet approved it despite the fact that it was ordered and scheduled two months ago.
   Monday is a federal holiday, so if I can't get this straightened out today the test is going to need to be canceled and rescheduled.
   I'm waiting for a call back from the hospital's "authorization department."
   *sigh*
   The #healthCare system in this country is such a joy to deal with!

   • Embed this notice
     Jessamyn (jessamyn@glammr.us)'s status on Saturday, 05-Sep-2026 04:35:00 JST Jessamyn

     in reply to

     • Krzysztof Sakrejda

     @jik @wronglang My sister (also in MA) went through the exact same thing a few weeks ago. In her case, the doctor was able to schedule a specific meeting for an appeal and it was all fine but it meant that her approved leave time at work got cancelled and she had to fill out all new e-paperwork to get it reinstated. And they wound up approving it anyhow, it just amped up the chaos level for everything.

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     Jonathan Kamens 86 47 (jik@federate.social)'s status on Saturday, 05-Sep-2026 04:35:01 JST Jonathan Kamens 86 47

     in reply to

     • Krzysztof Sakrejda

     @wronglang The doctor was unable to expedite the approval so I just told them to cancel and reschedule the procedure.
     I want to be clear here: I'm all up in the grill of health insurance companies all the time here and on my blog, because they really are terrible and horrible and no good and very bad, but in this particular case it's not their fault my procedure needs to be rescheduled, it's the fault of the hospital for not submitting it to them for approval far enough in advance.

     Steve's Place repeated this.
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     Jonathan Kamens 86 47 (jik@federate.social)'s status on Saturday, 05-Sep-2026 04:35:02 JST Jonathan Kamens 86 47

     in reply to

     • Krzysztof Sakrejda

     Ha. The authorization department just called and told me to do what @wronglang suggested in https://bayes.club/@wronglang/117214023356725652: they said I should ask the doctor's office to call the insurance company and try to get the procedure approved since they (the authorization department) can't call again.
     So I just did that. We'll see what happens. 🤷

     Steve's Place repeated this.
   • Embed this notice
     Jonathan Kamens 86 47 (jik@federate.social)'s status on Saturday, 05-Sep-2026 04:35:03 JST Jonathan Kamens 86 47

     in reply to

     (I found all this out because I called the authorization department back a second time when they didn't call me back after my first call as I was told they would.)
     At this point apparently it's "in medical review" at the insurance company and there's nothing that can be done to speed that up.
     Now apparently we're going to wait another couple hours to see what happens, and if still hasn't been approved I'm going to have to cancel and reschedule the procedure.

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     Jonathan Kamens 86 47 (jik@federate.social)'s status on Saturday, 05-Sep-2026 04:35:04 JST Jonathan Kamens 86 47

     in reply to

     According to the authorization department, they tried to submit the procedure to the insurance company for approval on August 31 but couldn't because "there was a problem with the website." They apparently didn't try again until _yesterday_. So the reason why the procedure hasn't been approved yet is because the hospital didn't even _try_ to submit it to the insurance company until eight days before the procedure, and didn't successfully submit until five days before. 🤦