Why have you been succesful; I try to get my costs with BCBS in Hawaii;
any other aspects to consider there ??

I did a lot of research and first of all was lucky enough to find a progressive radiologist who has treated other benign diseases in the past. Getting your doctor on board is the first step, but be prepared to sell your case to most doctors. I took a file with me at least 50 pages of tests and data, he asked if he could copy my stuff, I said no, I brought it for him to keep. Letting a radiologist know which of his peers are doing this in the states is very important. BCBS immediately denied our request for treatment and my doctor appealed on my behalf. He skipped the phone call with a doctor on staff at BCBS, not sure that was wise, and went right to written appeal. I don't know what he put in the appeal, but that would be medical data etc. I wrote two long letters of complaints to the Iowa Insurance Commission and had by then compiled a list of the states that I know BCBS had paid for RT for DD and other insurance companies in the US that I discovered. That is why I started that thread and bugged everyone to tell me about their state and carrier. My doctor requested an immediate response, 72 hours, and they kicked me into the 30 pile. That made me mad. So I wrote another letter yesterday, much stronger, and copied the Iowa Insurance Commission, my lawyer and the president of BCBS of Iowa. I made it clear that I would not go away. Sure enough, I got my approval today, get my CAT Scan tomorrow and am sure that I will start treatment next week or the following. You can't take no for an answer, get the insurance commission involved, you don't threaten a law suit unitl you are out of appeals with the insurance carrier or they will throw you to legal and that will slow things down.
Am happy to give more info to anyone that needs it, so feel free to ask.
LauriW

Does anyone have the diagnostic codes and procedural codes for RT for their Dupuytren's? The codes change frequently, so older codes are probably not valid.

I am interested since the nodule on my hand has become active within the last month. I have contacted insurance and our oncology dept at local hospital to see if this is doable. Any thoughts? Am I wasting my time going to our local oncology department?

Callie,

the codes do not change that often. I work in a field that uses CPT codes and they rarely change. They are published in a CPT code book every year and are accessble online. If use use the search function, you will see several of us have posted the CPT codes. You can check online by googling CPT and the code number to see if a change has been made.

Lori

Why not a needle release at 20 degrees they r only 800 bucks?