Most of headache surgeries Dr. Ducic performed were covered by insurance, as we have obtained pre-certification for surgery on behalf of you. Our office will still pursue every appropriate avenue to have your surgery approved, as your condition is not a cosmetic problem, rather is socially, personally and professionally debilitating. It is rather unfortunate and scientifically unacceptable that some insurance plans deny surgery considering it experimental and investigational. Evidence based scientific data available for over a decade now, point to benefits of surgical treatment for properly selected patients whom available medical treatment did not help. Considering that nearly ten percent of US population suffers from migraines or headaches, it is clear that medical treatment has significant limitations, with patient’s condition too often persisting despite the best medical care provided. Thus, insurance carriers and all others should start realizing that surgical treatment is focused on the cause of malfunctioning peripheral nerve, and might be the only hope for those who continue to suffer despite medical care. Once our office obtains pre-certificatin and pre-determination from your insurance carrier, we will set up your surgery date, at what point, if out of town you can start planning your travel. Potential insurance problems can occur for those plans that do not require pre-certificatin and pre-determination, as will be discussed with you by our executive administrative assistant. In such cases we will provide you diagnosis and procedure codes, so you can also check with your insurance carrier for coverage.
Considering aforementioned, some patients may be denied, primarily as their respective insurance companies consider surgery experimental. If that scenario would be faced, self-pay avenue is the only remaining path, in which case we will do our best to assist you. In such cases, considering that hospital fees might be much higher, Dr. Ducic would perform your surgery at a new certified surgery center, and thus help you to significantly offset the facility/surgery cost.