Insurance company comes between cancer patient and her doctor. She may die.

[w¡n9Nµ7 §£@¥€r 123]

Will your insurance company pay for the treatment your doctors recommend? They may not. That's what a single mother from Chico said she found out.

In late April, Shelly Andrews-Buta was scheduled to undergo treatment for breast cancer that had spread to her brain, threatening her life.

...

But instead of having doctors working to remove her brain tumors on the day the surgery was scheduled, she sat in a San Francisco hotel room. Why? Because at the last minute, her insurance company, Blue Shield, decided it wasn't going to pay for the treatment her doctors at UCSF Medical Center had recommended.

...

Without treatment, her doctor told her she in fact would die: tumors had invaded 15 separate areas in her brain.

"I wanted to rapidly get control of these lesions," said UCSF radiation oncologist Dr. Penny Sneed. "I felt there was a great time urgency, and we couldn't wait."

Just two weeks prior to the scheduled date for surgery, Andrews-Buta could still walk. Now she's almost paralyzed and unable to walk without assistance.

Dr. Sneed told her that her best chance of survival lay with a high-tech machine called a "gamma knife."

There's no actual cutting with the knife. Instead, the beams of radiation called gamma rays target a tumor from multiple angles.

The radiation can shrink and even kill a tumor without harming surrounding brain tissue.

Dr. Sneed, who is co-director of UCSF's Gamma Knife Radiosurgery Program, described it as an amazing machine and the most appropriate treatment for Andrews-Buta.

But the doctor said when it came to getting Blue Shield's approval for the procedure; she was surprised to learn that the company's policy lays out that a patient who has more than three brain tumors, what doctors call lesions, would not be covered for the gamma knife procedure.

Dr. Sneed felt the policy was unreasonable. "What I was up against was just a rule: 'Well, if it's more than three lesions, that's too many,'" Sneed said.

Blue Shield said it would pay instead for a less expensive treatment called whole-brain radiation, in which doctors try to kill tumors by exposing the entire brain to radiation. But Dr. Sneed said that wasn't the best option for Andrews-Buta.

"Gamma knife treatment works faster than whole-brain radiation in shrinking lesions," Sneed said. She believes Andrews-Buta's tumors are growing too quickly to be halted by the whole brain radiation.

Sneed is considered an expert on both procedures but said Blue Shield representatives didn't seem to want to listen to her opinion.

...

UCSF doctors say whole brain radiation has serious side effects as well.

"When the whole brain is irradiated, it suffers some form of injury," according to UCSF neurosurgeon Michael McDermott, also a co-director of the gamma knife program.

"What we're looking at is permanent or irreversible changes in the brain", said McDermott.

...

Courtney LeBoeuf also suffers from breast cancer that metastasized to the brain and she, too, has multiple tumors exceeding Blue Shield's guidelines; in her case there are 10 tumors in her brain.

"I've heard wonderful things about this procedure," said LeBoeuf shortly before undergoing treatment. "And many women and men who have gone before me have had tremendous results with very little side effects."

They're results Shelly Andrews-Buta wanted her to be able to get as well. So a group of her friends got together and raised more than $30,000 to put toward paying for her treatment. Andrews-Buta still owes about $12,000 but her friends will hold a fundraiser at the end of June to cover the remainder of the cost.

http://cbs5.com/local/cancer.treatment.denied.2.1007394.html

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

Lovely.

[w¡n9Nµ7 §£@¥€r 123]

Lovely.

At least it's not a government bureaucrat

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

That's exactly the thing that happened to my FIL - in his case it wasn't cancer but angina - he almost had a heart attack because his insurer decided that he didn't need to see a cardiologist on a regular basis.

[w¡n9Nµ7 §£@¥€r 123]

Considering the hard-on Rethugs have for tort reform and the reflexive opposition to any form of regulation of insurance companies, you gotta wonder who's side they're on. Certainly not on our side.

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

Considering the hard-on Rethugs have for tort reform and the reflexive opposition to any form of regulation of insurance companies, you gotta wonder who's side they're on. Certainly not on our side.

Seems to me that this sort of thing is exactly why there are so many lawsuits.

[dalegg 143]

Gamma rays caused the hulk. We don't want that, especially if he has a knife.

[w¡n9Nµ7 §£@¥€r 123]

Gamma rays caused the hulk. We don't want that, especially if he has a knife.

[Chica Yeyé 41]

Welcome to America, have a nice day tumor, kthxbai

[Mr. Big Dog 10,747]

Lovely.

At least it's not a government bureaucrat

Exactly. It's acceptable if a profit oriented insurance bureaucrat gets between the doctor and the patient denying care that is available and recommended. Notice the silence from the free market and private health insurance fetishists.

[w¡n9Nµ7 §£@¥€r 123]

Notice the silence from the free market and private health insurance fetishists.

I am sure they will respond to this thread as soon as Obama provides his really real as in totally fer real birf certificate.

[Chica Yeyé 41]

Notice the silence from the free market and private health insurance fetishists.

I am sure they will respond to this thread as soon as Obama provides his really real as in totally fer real birf certificate.

They don't care. This lazy azz b1tch surely brought brain cancer on herself. God only knows what she does behind close doors.

[w¡n9Nµ7 §£@¥€r 123]

Notice the silence from the free market and private health insurance fetishists.

I am sure they will respond to this thread as soon as Obama provides his really real as in totally fer real birf certificate.

They don't care. This lazy azz b1tch surely brought brain cancer on herself. God only knows what she does behind close doors.

I bet she had a Whopper once and smoked a few cigarettes too.

[The_Dude 1,142]

Real Americans have good health insurance kkthxbbai

[w¡n9Nµ7 §£@¥€r 123]

Real Americans have good health insurance kkthxbbai

Maybe we should limit voting rights to those who have health insurance. Why let fake Americans vote?