[gt_]

Does American insurance cover this? I have inquired about something like this before when I was getting conflicting diagnoses and treatment plans. Everyone I asked (at my insurance company) acted like they didn’t know what I was talking about. I did not size the phrase “patient advocate” but if one were available, I think my need for them would have been clear.

[ceejayoz]

The patient advocates employed by insurers are primarily there to try and reduce your medical needs, so they can save money.

They're not going to reconcile differing diagnoses, they're going to ask if you've gotten your flu shot yet.

[pc86]

If insurance denies claims for life-saving medical procedures because they happened out of network, I have a hard time believing they'd pay for someone to give you advice.

[lukeschlather]

The article gives a good example of why it's in the insurance companies' interest to pay people to give you advice. It was obvious to everyone on the ground that the insurer would save money if they just sent the author's mother to an out-of-network physical therapist rather than keeping her in the hospital. But the insurer didn't have anyone who could quickly make that cost-saving judgment call.

Really, the biggest problem in a lot of cases is not that insurers deny claims for life-saving procedures, it's that they prioritize expensive and ineffective treatments over inexpensive and effective treatments.