I appealed my insurance company's BRCA policy and won!

I wanted to share some good news: my insurance company refused to pay for my BRCA test but I appealed their policy and won! I wanted to share this in case it helps anyone else.

Summary: my insurance (Blue Shield) refused to consider my family history of pancreatic cancer when assessing my risk for the BRCA gene. Their policy has not been updated in at least two years. I asked them to update their policy to include the latest medical information. In my appeal, I included the risk criteria from this website (the one my genetic counselor uses when calculating risk):

https://www.afcri.upenn.edu:8022/itacc/penn2/index.asp

I also included the criteria from a competing insurance company whose policy is to cover the test for anyone Dx'd under the age of 50. It took two rounds of appeals but somehow, magically, now they will pay. Yay! 

Details of my case from an earlier thread, if it helps anyone:

As someone else mentioned, today scientists believe there is a link between the BRCA gene and pancreatic cancer and some types of prostate cancer. This is new information compared to two years ago. In my case, the fact that my grandmother died of pancreatic cancer raised my risk of having the BRCA gene from 5% to 13-16%.  My genetic counselor thought this was high enough that my insurance company would now pay. (he's seen that most companies pay when the risk of the gene is >10%). My company still refused. I saw that their policy hasn't changed in two years, so I'm appealing, and will appeal to my state's oversight board, in the hopes of getting them to update their policy so it's consistent with the current science. 

These insurance companies' policies are not always inconsistent with medical recommendations. In my case, my company would pay if anyone was Dx'd at age 45 or younger. (no other risk factors needed). However, a cancer organization (I forget which one) recommends the tests for all patients Dx'd at the age of 50 or younger. I was Dx'd 3 months after I turned 46 and didn't have enough additional risk factors to meet the criteria set by the pencil pushers at the insurance company.