Insurance company denied the PET scan

[cyclonefence]

so now my doctor is seeking authorization for CAT and bone scans. She wanted the PET because it would tell us everything in one scan; there may be other scans besides CAT and bone I'm going to have to have to get the same information.

So another frustrating wait. And I repeat: BUT I HAVE THE GOLD PLAN!!!

This was especially frustrating because my surgeon's practice has a patient portal online where I can get messages and see test results, etc., and I had a message that the PET had been OK'd and here was my authorization number. But when I called to make the appointment, the scheduler said there was something wrong with the number--wrong prefix or something--and she needed to call my doctor, which she did. The nurse called me with the bad news, and then I called the insurance company to find out why.

Unfortunately, their explanation made sense. They said they would authorize a PET scan after my surgery, if the lymph nodes showed spread. Well, OK. It's just that I've had cancer in my kidney, too, and was told that that was a type of cancer that was likely to pop up elsewhere. I get kidney scans every years, and chest x-rays (the lungs are the favorite spot for the kidney cancer to recur in), so I guess I'm covered.

It just would have been nice to get it all checked at the same time. So I could know.