I had only been diagnosed two weeks before, yet here I was post-surgery totally stunned and feeling mutilated.

Then to add insult to injury, I learned I didn’t have to lose my breast as there is a new procedure thatzaps the cancer and kills it. When I asked the surgeon why I wasn’t told, he responded, “We don’t do that procedure here.” I said it would be nice if you let a person know before you remove their breast!

I guess it’s all still too new to get over my resentment yet. As the saying goes.. “time heals all wounds”, or maybe not.

Mandrake at 143 — It varies by insurer, not by state — although some states already have legislation addressing this. If you happen to live in a state that does, there may be regs about this that protect people in your area, so it’s conceivable that you might not hear about something like this happening. If however you live in a state with no protective regs or have an insurer that sucks, and you don’t have the personal finances or family support you might need…then you are SOL. What this bill tries to do is make the decision on care a medical decision and not solely the province of financial bean counters at any particular insurance agency — some of whom are crappier than others.

Again, YMMV as to whether you have seen a problem because we all live in different parts of the country with different insurers. But the reason this keeps coming up is because there are people who have had problems — including having had to deal with after0acquired infections that might have been caght earlier had they not been rushed out of the hospital.

Personally, even with my lumpectomy which was an outpatient surgery, I had to deal with an infection issue afterward, even having been very careful and having had Mr. ReddHedd to help me. I was nursing The Peanut at the time and there were complications — and we had to deal with a lot of calls to the insurance company to get them to cover some needed after-care appointments, and we have seemingly decent insurance, we are both well-educated lawyers and we knew how to handle the paperwork.

I can only imagine what people who do not have that background have had to deal with, to be perfectly honest.

Thank you. I had the impression that creating legislation could force insurance companies to pay for such hospitalization and that this was the whole point of the bill, but so many people were weighing saying “no, this did not happen to me in my situation” that I had to ask.

Can I just say one thing and hopefully have Christy weigh in on this cuz I don’t have a clue. Many posters are saying that this “drive-through mastectomy” thing is not a valid concern. However, could it be an issue that may differ from state to state? Again, I’m clueless so I’d like to hear someone with expertise on the subject weigh in on this.

If they weren’t a concern, then the bill would be a no-brainer. I think there’s some confusion over two different issues:

Issue #1. Should insurance companies have to pay for a post-op hospital stay after a mastectomy? I think everyone would say yes.

Issue #2. Should a woman who undergoes an uncomplicated mastectomy be REQUIRED to stay in the hospital, even if she feels well and wants to go home? This is an entirely different issue. I think the answer should be no, but it’s something that should be worked out between the patient and the surgeon on an individual basis prior to the surgery.

jayt @
94

conniptionfit @ 92

OT-
If Feingold is interested in finding anything out about what’s been going on at the FBI re: National Security letters, Why doesn’t he have anybody from the FBI on the witness list?

Sorry – coming in late. Are the Feingold hearings today to be televised?

Here, now.

Help! When I try that link, I get the judic website, but when I click on the button for the webcast, Realplayer can’t find the DNS entry, and Windows Media Player says some “codecs” are missing. What do I need to do?!?!???

Bob in HI

Again, YMMV as to whether you have seen a problem because we all live in different parts of the country with different insurers. But the reason this keeps coming up is because there are people who have had problems — including having had to deal with after0acquired infections that might have been caght earlier had they not been rushed out of the hospital.

Personally, even with my lumpectomy which was an outpatient surgery, I had to deal with an infection issue afterward, even having been very careful and having had Mr. ReddHedd to help me. I was nursing The Peanut at the time and there were complications — and we had to deal with a lot of calls to the insurance company to get them to cover some needed after-care appointments, and we have seemingly decent insurance, we are both well-educated lawyers and we knew how to handle the paperwork.

I can only imagine what people who do not have that background have had to deal with, to be perfectly honest.