Friday 23rd January 2009

Not very happy at the moment. I have this scan booked in for Monday, but BUPA are refusing to cover me for it and insisting I have it at a different hospital.

Apparently the difference is that the Bradford scanner is new, and the images are generally better quality because of this. According to BUPA, this is not a valid medical reason to have it at Bradford as the specification of the scanners at the two hospitals is the same, although it is recognised that the images are better from the newer unit. If they were different specifications that would be ok, but as they are not, the fact that one works better than the other is not relevant in their minds.

This leaves me with two options:

1) If they can get an appointment at the other hospital quickly enough, do I take it and accept that the scan may not be as detailed as the Bradford scan would have been (I'll speak to my consultant about this)

2) Or do I pay for this myself - I don't know how much yet, but apparently it is a detailed scan so will be very expensive. Of course when it is your health, money becomes no object, but it makes a mockery of health insurance in the first place and is a matter of principle.

I can understand insurance companies haggling over minor details when we're talking about car insurance, but when it is a matter as critical as this, I hate the fact that some guy at BUPA is weighing up numbers. How do these people sleep at night?

So this is going to go down to the wire - last minute phone calls on Monday morning to see where we end up. Man this is frustrating, and exactly what I don't need!

Sorry, will hopefully be a bit more cheerful tomorrow - last gig with the band til after surgery, so i'm looking forward to that.

C