Derek McMinn takes U.S. Insurance

[Vicky]

Hi everyone,

I just found out some astonishing news. Derek McMinn does take US insurance and his office has asked me to ask the patients who all the major carriers are so they can approach them to see if they can work with them.  I know that they currently have approved patients on Blue Cross/Blue Shield as well as Aetna and I told them United Healthcare.  This is great news for many patients who might have AVN and need a BMHR which is currently not available in the U.S. or have an extremely complicated case or just would like to go to one of the best of the best surgeons in the world. 

Thanks,

Vicky

[bdoughty]

Our company - 25,000 employees worldwide - uses Cigna.

[ScubaDuck]

Yes, this is the type of thinking we need to increase options and decrease costs.

I have HealthNet.

Dan

[Neild5]

I am glad I decided to go the route I did, my doctor had 600+ resurfacings, the hospital was 3.5 miles from home and I got to go home after 2 nights.  Total cost for left hip was $30K with $1700 out of my pocket.  The bad news is the right one needs to be done and the doctor retired 1 month after having it done.

Neil

[Vicky]

The point here is that not everyone has insurance or good insurance that will cover a good surgeon with a lot of experience or skill, so it is nice to have the option to go overseas to one of the top for patients without insurance or ones that have to pay for an out of network doctor anyway and the cost would end up being the same.  Sure in a perfect world we would all have top doctors living in our own back yard, but not all of us have that luxury.  My choice was to stay local and ONLY get a THR or pay out of pocket to get resurfacing.  Well there was NO way I wanted a THR so I chose to pay for my surgery.  At the time, (5 1/2+ years ago) I flew all the way from CA to INDIA, about the furthest one can travel.  And I was SO happy with my experience that I just did it all over again 7 months ago for my other hip.  :-)

I am glad you were able to find a surgeon so close to home.  What will you do now for your other hip?  It really isn't as bad as it sounds to travel for surgery, MANY patients have done it, because the bottom line is finding the best possible surgeon should be everyone's number one concern instead of convenience, just my .02 cents.    

Anyway, I wanted to let everyone know that this option exists for those that are in a position that they do not have a skilled and experienced surgeon in their network, or they have a complicated case.  It is great info to know that one of THE best of the best in the world, the man that trained most of the top surgeons does accept U.S. insurance.  I was so shocked when I found this out last week and very pleased to know this and just wanted to share it with everyone for those that want to take advantage of it.

Vicky

[Neild5]

I am not knocking anybody for traveling anywhere to get the treatment they want/need.  I am just glad I have decent insurance and live close to a lot of great doctors.  Since my doctor retired the rest of the practice merged with another one and added a couple of doctors.  There now are 2 doctors with something like 1500 re-surfacings between them to chose from.

[Lopsided]

I am glad I did not stay close to home. You cannot do better than getting the best, and traveling is not a disadvantage, the whole process was enjoyable.

D.

[Lori Cee]

Another reason to travel is the BMHR's which are not currently available in the US as they have not yet been FDA approved. Vicky mentioned this and I just wanted to comment as well as these are the devices I have.

BMHR's are available in Australia and are the next step from resurfacing before you get to a total hip.  Basically my bone stock wasn't good enough for resurfacing and I was one of those complicated cases.  Had I not been able to see a top surgeon or been in the US and unable to travel, the only option for me would have been total hip. 

It should be at least considered for people in the same situation as me. Besides, having BMHR's by McMinn is pretty impressive

[Vicky]

That is so awesome Lori that you have BMHR's!  Did you know that he just started implanting ceramic BMHR's now for those patients that have problems with metal allergies? 

Vicky

[Lori Cee]

Did you know that he just started implanting ceramic BMHR's now for those patients that have problems with metal allergies? 

WOW.  That is going to mean so much to so many people.  It's the next step for that small percentage of people whose resurfacings don't work out and end up having high metal readings too.