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Opinon about neurosurgeon or back surgeon

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Chronic Pain
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Posted 7/5/2013 6:55 PM (GMT 0)
Hi everyone.

I posted before I am going to get an ACDF and lumbar surgery.

I was going to use a back surgeon who is board certified, is one of the hospital surgeons, and is pretty well known around here. Nothing amiss about him and he has an excellent beside manner. Until I went to him, I felt no one understand how much pain I am in.

But just to do my research, I also went to a nuerosurgeon, also very good rating. He works with a very well respected nuerosurgeon in our community. Affliated also with 2 very good hospitals. Is also teaching faculty at Mt Sinai in NY. Also good manners, very matter of act and upfront which is fine with me.

He wants to do the surgery right away for me as I need about 6 week sot recover and I'm on summer vacation from teaching.

The back surgeron will take a few weeks to schedule.

The back surgeon is an expert witness for car accident cases and works with my lawyer. He is not a quack though. i went to one of those who workd for a lawyer and he is not one of those. He and his partners run a very high end orthopedic business, they don't accept insurance.

So which should I use?
Posted 7/6/2013 3:36 AM (GMT 0)
Of course this is your decision, but a dr that does not accept insurance sounds a little hinkey to me and I would have no part of him. Matter of fact, I would run as fast as I could from him and I certainly would not let him do surgery on me. Don't you find this alarming a dr that does not accept insurance? I worked in the legal field over 20 yrs and we dealt with many different types of specialist and every single one them accepted insurance. I am assuming the surgeon that does not accept insurance is either expecting your lawyer to pay his medical bill off the top of your settlement or you are going to have to come up with a ton of money. Not a good thing in my opinion. There is no guidelines for this dr to go by for his bill. This is bad business in my opinion. I am also betting this dr has been red flagged by defense insurance companies too and that's bad. Someone like that the defense insurance companies view them as the type that operate on people that do not even need surgery because there is no insurance involved saying get a 2nd opinion, or someone to say we will not pay your bill dr. This just stinks to me. I would run especially if the atty says this dr testifies all the time on his cases where surgery is involved, big red flag. Talk about a bit of conflict of interest between the lawyer & this dr, who is being care of here you or the dr? Scary.

When an atty needs an expert to testify on behalf of his client, you hire an expert in that field that has no interest on the claim, meaning someone unabiased, this dr is not that, he is looking to get his bill paid.

Since this is your neck and again, my preference, neurosurgeons are much more qualified when it comes to neck because that is their specialty working with the nerves and the brain. This is what they are trained for. An orthopedic is more schooled with dealing with your bones & such. I always saw our clients have better outcomes from their neck surgeries when they used a neurosurgeon and their recovery was much better. And above all d not let the atty push you into using his buddy for surgery. This whole thing just stinks and I would want no part of it.

Good luck........Susie
Posted 7/6/2013 4:38 AM (GMT 0)
Have you checked with your state medical board to see if there has been any disciplinary action ? You might also want to check and see the number of lawsuits this surgeon has had filed against him and the outcome of them. And look at the dates on everything, a dr may have been at the top of his field several yrs ago, but that doesn't mean he still is.

I wouldn't even give the surgeon that doesn't accept insurance another thought. Susie is right.
Posted 7/7/2013 2:48 AM (GMT 0)
Thanks Susie,

What you say makes sense. I can see what you are saying. However in the NY/NJ tri-state area where I live, many top orthopedists and doctors don't take insurance. In part because in this area the amount an ins. company pays them barely pays overhead. Doctors who take insurance have to see over 6 patients an hour to make a decent living. So as far as the back surgeon not taking insurance, I don't think it's because he's a quack. He is 1 of 5 authorized to do surgery at a university Hospital.

i am close enought to get srugery at the Hospital for Special Surgery, rated #1 in US, for hospital and orthopedic surgery. When i wanted to get my carpal tunnell surgery, i tried to get an apt there with the #1 surgeon in US. He doesn't take insurance and he charges 300 to 600 per visit. i went to a local one, wo also doesn't take insurance. i took him because he came highly recommened from my community, he had good reviews online, he is on the hospital team. He wasn't sure in the car insurance was going to pay for it because he knew how they work. But he said he would put in the pre cert anyway. Well my primary approved it right away. and the car ins turned it down. I was hysterical because i was in so much pain and just wanted the surgery. I had no clue how much the surgery was going to be. i called my lawyer and thank G-d, the doc was a personal friend of the head partner. only in that, he would do the surgery for me and not nag me about the payments. He didn'take a lien of protection, he was just going to let me pay as i could. my husaband and I decided that surgery was absolutely needed and we would pay for what the ins didn't cover. It was all good. i owe him about 1,000 after insurance, but will pay slowly.

I am very lucky I live in an area with highly qualified doc both who take insurance. But there is a sort of reputation that when you reach a certain level you don't take insurance around here because there are people in this area that have money to pay for the best service possible.

i am very thankful that I can selectively choose my surgeon too.
Posted 7/7/2013 2:21 PM (GMT 0)
Rachel, I am assuming you have health insurance and like most of us we pay an unbelievable amount each month to have it. My secondary to my Medicare thru the my husbands employer is $830 a month for me only. If you do have insurance I would go online and look for some specialist even if you have to go out of your city or even state. It is a waste of money to have the insurance if you cannot use it. I have a friend that needed a new intrathecal pain pump implanted, she lives in New York but had to go to New Jersey to find a dr that was on her insurance.

As far as the dr willing to testify that just means if your case goes to trial he is willing to testify in court. A lot of drs do not want to get involved in legal proceedings and will tell a patient up front I do not go court so tell your atty I will not get involved. It costs a lot of money upfront to get a dr to give his deposition or to testify in court. That cost comes right out of the client's settlement as an expense, they do not do either of these for free.

Good luck with whatever you decide......Susie
Posted 7/7/2013 7:36 PM (GMT 0)
From what you wrote and all, I tend to agree with Straydog/Susie...The out of pocket costs might come to more than you think, there is Hospital Charges, pharmacy charges (medications), physican charges, nurse charges, anesthesia charges and all these add up very fast, and your Insurance might not cover them all or might not cover any if you use an uninsure doctor, you need to call and ask your insurance if they'll cover medical if an uninsurance doctor works on you. You'll also need physical therapy after surgery, not right away but about 8 or weeks out and as late as it is in the year and your not even scheduled for surgery yet.
I do wish you the best but you do have a lot to consider before surgery, and just consider what Straydog/Susie said, she only means the best for you, as do I...
Many many well wishes in what you do choose to do and many prayers to you as well.
Posted 7/9/2013 12:36 AM (GMT 0)
Thanks. The first few months after the MVA, I was very cautious about going to see doctors and getting tests. But luckily, I have good employer insurance and I don't pay any premiums. My employer is my primary on my car insurance, so I made sure I stayed in netwrok. Even though the car insurance would pick up the rest, I had a deductible of up to 1500. At first, I wasn't at all interested in paying beyong my regular co-pays. But then when I stopped physical therapy and I was in such severe pain, what was 1,500 compared to the tremendous pain that I was in. Since then I have already paid that deductible.

And it's not just the medical costs. We have had to pay for take out, childcare, and cleaning help when the pain was so bad. Then there were days absent from work. I missed 14 days this year. I kept pushing myself to try and do what I use to because of the costs but I just kept hurting myself form.

Everyone kept saying why don't your kids do this or your husband do that. First of all my 2 older kids already help tons with my younger one. Thank G-d for them. My husband was away at work most of the year I have been in pain. He could really only help me on Sundays. Plus my kids don't drive , so who was going to do the shopping and errands.

And I am so resentful that the insurance company keeps saying oh why don't your kids or your husband do this. It wasn't their fault I got hit by a car. Their lives too have been diminished because of the accident, they help a lot, but it is very unfair to expect them to drop everything to take care of what their driver did to me.

I will not let that happen again. When I had my first daughter and I had to have an emergency cesarian that their doctor botched up, which my doctor had to fix 7 days later, the insurance said they wouldn't give me any home help with the new baby because my husband was a teacher and he could stay home and take care of me. But he was registered for 2 graduate courses, paid and everything, and he had to drop them because I couldn't walk for a month after the corrective surgery.

I was young and didn't know anything about fighting insurance companies and we just lied down and took whatever they gave us. A nurse came by for 2 weeks to help me bath and change my dressings.

But I'm not doing that again. All these extra expenses because of the accident, I intend to get back from the driver who hit me. I know it's hard, but I hope we will have some relief from our hell of a year.
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