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by danachow
1438 days ago
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As to the original question, unfortunately I don't know where you got the idea that all possible preventative healthcare interventions are covered under the "free" rule - ie no out of pocket - but in the US that just isn't a thing - the free coverage applies to the list I posted prior (ie ACA Preventive Care) - its a bunch of consensus primary and secondary preventative primarily screenings and medications that are thought to have the greatest impact on public health. > It's fully preventative in my case. Fully preventative is not a term of art either for delivery or billing - but there is a difference in categorization between screening tests given to the entire population (ie colon, mammo) and screening given to those with personal risk factors or family history (LD chest CT, echo for congenital HD), and then further on surveillance for personal history of a pre-disposing condition (ie surveillance echo for prior potential fatal arrhythmia). This is where it starts to get complicated - but the need for an echo every 2 years is not normal. I can't really divine your specific history from the information given - and it isn't necessary - but a history of cardiac arrest alone is not an indication for serial echocardiography. There are numerous specific circumstances where it is recommended, and then there are the cases where it is not consensus recommended but there is controversy. I assume because your insurance company is willing to touch it at all it falls in the former - but we are way off the ranch here in terms of the scope of routine preventative care/health maintenance. As to whether it should be this way, probably not. If a surveillance echo is clearly indicated to prevent costly sequelae (unfortunately answering this question isn't nearly cut and dry as most think), then it makes sense that an insurance or public health agency would want to do this.
Curious if you know if your indication for serial echocardiography falls under the European guidelines? Maybe move there /s. Is Stanford your only reasonable place to obtain an echo? |
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