Time From Surgery to Radiation

I didn't have to wait that long for rads after surgery. I had surgery on May 4th and started radiation on June 14th. I did have an issue with authorization for one of my MRI's in December 2016. I ended up calling my insurance carrier to get to the bottom of it. Turns out and incorrect DOB was put on the pre-authorization request and it was just sitting in limbo at the insurance carrier just waiting on someone there to take action. Luckily after the phone call to clear things up I was approved/authorized within 24 hours. Not sure where you a located or who your insurance carrier is, but you may want to give them a call if possible. I was able to ask them to expedite my request since I had already been waiting a few weeks.

~Dee

Did your hospital assign you a nurse-navigator? If not, call their social worker pronto and explain that the delay in scheduling radiation is unacceptable, given that you’ve contacted your MO, RO and surgeon multiple times and that you should have gotten an answer from your insurance company. If your providers are out of network, you might have to pay a bit more but it should still be at a discount from the uninsured-patient “rack rate.” If that’s not possible, explain that time is of the essence, and no offense but you really need to start rads yesterday and could they please refer you to an in-network RO. And if your insurance company hasn’t said diddly-squat, call them and don’t hang up till you get a straight answer, an authorization number, and the auth. faxed or e-mailed. Keep going up their chain of command if you have to. “Let me speak to your supervisor” (notice I didn’t say “may I?”) can work wonders. (Go online and find out the names of their execs, too. Once, in dealing with a fraudulent car rental made in my name, I ended up dealing with the rental car company’s VP and General Counsel and not only cleared my name but got the perp successfully prosecuted).

Hi Hippiegirl. I had my surgery April 22 and was going to start radiation in June but I decided to participate in a study being done by a very experienced and well known research/clinical radiation oncologist here in Canada. This extra testing confirmed for me that I did need radiation and I started August 9th. My doctors are not at all concerned about time (though under 3 months is ideal) so don't worry too much about this. I hope everything goes well for you.