want to shoot the insurance company.

[nsalem656]

I finally got a hold of USC with the person who has the paperwork. It seems the insurance changed my referral to USC but wrote UCLA on the paperwork. I really hate any insurance and trust me I've had plenty to say I can hate them. The government one is just the only one you can't pay out of network. :( I tried to make an appointment with a ns that specializes in cm as a cash paying patient but they said they can't take cash from a medi-cal recipient. Basically I'm better off without insurance.

[drewlevas]

Same here! I have no insurance and little money! It seams that I can't even know from month to month how I will pay everything! It seams that for the last year the only thing I'm doing is travel from one place to the other! If it's not for Chiari it's for my heart! I'm so happy that here in Canada we can see most doctors without fee! But to go see a specialist at 15 or 16h drive from home is almost imposible! So I have to settle with a non-specialist that knows about Chiari.

[bledpub]

I hope you get things straightened out soon. I know that the response here a lot is that we might have to travel to see a Chiari specialist but for some of us that is not even possible. I have KY Medicaid and it is not accepted out of state at any of the specialists' offices that I have called. I finally found the Mayfield Clinic and they took mine but I had to change providers within KY Medicaid to get them to accept it. Paying a consult fee with TCI or anywhere else, much less paying the money to travel there, is not feasible for us. We have no idea where our bill money is coming from one month to the next. I pawned my wedding ring a few months back for gas money. So a paid consult, travel, etc is just not in the cards.

If Dr. Tew can't help me then I am going to try Maryland and the clinical trial they have going on right now. My insurance will pay for one second opinion so I will probably try that first and just go to a non-specialist who has Chiari experience and then, if that doesn't work, send everything off to Maryland.

I saw my PCP the other day. She has three Chiari patients. (And I live in a town with a population of  2,000.) She jokingly said that she should go back to school and specialize in Chiari. I told her she should. I'd be her first patient.