SilverWedding wrote:Thank you all - this is encouraging and informative. I will get my questions ready for this week’s meeting with the surgeon! Cynthia
For your meeting with the surgeon, I would suggest that you treat this meeting mainly an opportunity for obtaining "informational support", not so much for "emotional support." Just focus on the FACTS.
There are two areas of factual concern to focus on.
1. The FACTS about the
diagnosis and staging. In other words, what were the scan reports, bio-marker tests, lab tests, etc., all saying about your husband's cancer?. What tests/procedures did they do, and what tests/procedures did they not bother doing at all for whatever reason? What was the full set of factual data points and results that they had at their disposal before they started any treatment procedure? For example did they do the highly recommended "MRI with contrast" procedure, or did they just decide to forget about it? You need to know all of the FACTS.
2. The FACTS about the full range of
treatments and procedures available to treat such a cancer, and the FACTS about which surgical procedures the surgeon finally decided on doing, and why.
One way to approach the latter issue is to focus on the Medicare CPT billing codes for the various kinds of colorectal surgeries available. When a surgeon files his official report about the surgery, he must surely be required, for billing purposes, to list each and every surgical procedure that he performed. The insurance company will require this for sure. The surgeon has this information, so you can ask for the information, and ask for explanations as well. And be sure to pay attention and write down
everything, because you might not get another chance to get this information.
Here is a link to download a PDF with the different codes for various types of available surgeries.
2019 COLORECTAL SURGERY MEDICARE REIMBURSEMENT CODING GUIDEhttps://www.medtronic.com/content/dam/covidien/library/us/en/services-support/reimbursement/reimbursement-coding-guide-medicare-colorectal-surgery.pdfCPT CODES FOR VARIOUS APPENDECTOMIEShttps://www.aapc.com/blog/36081-reporting-appendix-procedures/