When I was told by our agent, while we were in the process of purchasing a new health insurance plan (8 yrs. ago), that my pre-existing condition (a fibroid) would prohibit me from being reimbursed for a hysterectomy, I laughed and assured him that in NO way would I ever ever consider giving up my beloved uterus! A hysterectomy (in my view) meant hospitals, and anesthesia, and tubes ‘n needles, and blood loss galore, and 6 weeks to 2 years of recuperation, and a lifetime of adverse side-effects after a uterus extraction…don’t worry I was not going through all of THAT for a benign condition! Heck no!
What I did not know at the time was, that this fibroid would grow and grow and grow to the size of a 5-6 month fetus. And since the hysterectomy was out-of-the-question, after years of suffering, I found a non-invasive (uterus-sparing) treatment choice that could rid me of this awful horrible fibroid. Focused ultrasound would/could be the perfect treatment~~ a non-invasive option. Yes!
Focused Ultrasound was approved in 2004 for the treatment of fibroids and I am here to tell ya that it works! It works beautifully! But, it is not yet insured! You can have a perfectly safe, effective, non-invase treatment to zap a fibroid (focused ultrasound) but it is not insured…does this make any sense!? NO!!
I was very fortunate, as I was able to extend my payments with a Care Credit credit card, so that over the course of a year I payed the $10,000 to “get my life back!” And of course it was worth it… but that is not the point!!
Why is this procedure NOT covered by insurance? Why, if given the choice of non-invasive (focused ultrasound) versus invasive (hysterectomy), do women only get to “pick” the invasive procedure? It absolutely makes no sense to me, or to the thousands of women that would opt for this procedure as a fibroid treatment over the (invasive) other choices. AND focused ultrasound is less expensive (both pain-’n-suffering and money-wise) than a hysterectomy or the difficult myomectomy. I just don’t understand the reasoning!
I scream loudly about this (insurance) inconsistancy not only because I never want another woman to suffer (like I did), but because focused ultrasound is not getting it’s due “attention”!! I truly believe that if it (focused ultrasound) was covered by insurance, it would be the number one option (if all other patient criterias were met) chosen by women to treat a fibroid.
Focused ultrasound also has other exciting treatment applications for: breast cancer, prostate cancer, brain cancer, lung cancer liver and kidney cancer…all being used right now! But in order for focused ultrasound to become “mainstream” it must become coverable by these (darn) insurance companies…it has to happen!
I believe that it will take both the doctor AND the patient to demand that the insurance companies begin to cover focused ultrasound. Focused ultrasound is here…it is here to stay…it is here to save lives (from suffering)…INSURE IT ALREADY!!!!!
Amen, sister.
Here here!!! I too paid for my own treatment (or rather, I was lucky enough to have my dad pay for it). I fought with my insurance (Anthem Blue Cross) and was denied, twice, and then it went to a third party appeal, and all three doctors said not enough research had been done on the long term effectiveness of the treatment. I think it is disgusting that Insightec has not already done a long term study. DUH! That should have been something they were working on years ago! And most doctors are NOT on board yet, and many do not even know about the treatment. I also can’t help but feel like if we were talking about a non-invasive procedure to preserve mens’ testicles, insurance companies and doctors would be clamboring to get on board. Sadly, men have been telling women what we are allowed to do with our bodies for far too long. It should be up to US!
For the past two years I’ve been trying to get BCBS to cover this procedure. I honestly believe it is the concerted efforts of GYNs behind this problem. There are too many half-baked procedures and drugs approved for insurance coverage for this procedure not to be accepted. Doctors are not willing to give up the money being made performing hysterectomies considering their expertise (or lack thereof) is not needed for MFUS. Many used the same “too experimental” crap argument for artery embolization as well.