Seeing a specialist

[kgperry]

I know the key to successful surgery is getting to the right doc in the first place. There are no specialists in our area, and the NS here says my neurological symptoms are clearly not Chiari. The specialists I've called have said I need a referral.

How do you go about getting in with a specialist when "it's all in your head" and you don't have a referral?

[lasel22]

With my old HMO insurance, Cigna, when I needed referrals I could only get them from my primary, not a specialist.  So, my neurologist wouldn't be able to give me a referral to a chiari specialist, only my primary.  I eventually switched to a PPO (no referral needed) with out of network benefits in order to see the chiari specialist I wanted to see.  I would call your insurance company and see if your primary is correct in refusing you a referral.  The whole point of a referral is because he can't treat you for this, primary doctors usually don't know anything about chiari, hence the needed referral to a specialist.  Just my opinion, but if you can't get anywhere with your current primary I would try visiting a new one and see what they say.

[kgperry]

My PCP won't do any referrals for my Chiari because he's not treating me for it. Said to ask the NL and NS. NS and NL here say my symptoms are clearly hemispheric and not Chiari, although they did order a spine MRI, so at least I'm getting some more imaging/data.

[lasel22]

Have you tried going to your primary care physician for a referral or were you trying to get a referral from the NS you saw?  I would think your primary would give you one, and if he/she doesn't I would find another primary who might.

[selmaS]

  Hmmm....I did not have to work with getting a referral....my INS allowed me to make the decision...

With the kind of INS where you need a referral, you could try to go directly to your INS company and make an appeal since you have specialists in the field giving advice the local non specialists will and they will not give the necessary referral to go....sometimes you can over ride the Dr with these appeals.