VHI (Irish insurer) to cover resurfacing abroad

[whyme]

Hi all,

My health insurance company in Ireland is VHI. I plan to do the resurfacing abroad, it would really help to learn from other irish patients who have gone this route recently, particularly on how to get them covering the costs (or some of it anyway).

VHI sent me a form where they specify "... it is essential that the referral is from a consultant recognised by Vhi Healthcare who should complete in full the following questionnaire. In the event that the referring consultant is unable to answer all questions a copy of the questionnaire should be forwarded for completion to the consultant abroad."

Over the last couple of years I've been going to a consultant who has helped me a lot to deal with the osteoarthritis. He tells me that there are only a couple of surgeons still doing resurfacing in Ireland (most have stopped, apparently).

He would fill in the form, but it seems VHI would turn it down straight away as he is not an orthopaedic surgeon (his speciality is sports medicine).

The difficulty then is to find an orthopaedic surgeon in Ireland that believes: 1) resurfacing is the right procedure for me, and 2) the best option is doing it abroad.

I'm planning to get this done with Dr. De Smet in Belgium.

[whyme]

Well, probably there aren't many Irish patients logging on this website after all 
Maybe someone knows of another forum where the chances would be higher?

Thanks!

[hernanu]

Not sure about where you could find that, but could the consultant you're using ask for input from an established HR surgeon?

If you could for example, get an opinion from McMinn, or even DeSmet directly admitted through your consultant as a learned contributor, would that satisfy their requirement?

[whyme]

Thanks for the suggestion, I will explore that option and we'll see what happens...

[hernanu]

Good luck, hope it works.

[whyme]

It's been a while, but I'm glad to say I eventually got approval for surgery abroad from VHI!
First I visited Dr. De Smet who kindly filled in the request form, just in case I couldn't get an irish surgeon to sign it.
Not long after I visited a surgeon in Kilkenny (Ireland) who is trained for resurfacing but doesn't practice it anymore, he was indeed more than helpful and provided a non-biased opinion on the pros and cons of resurfacing vs THR. He thought I was reasonably informed of the risks and very determined to do it, and agreed that if I went for this procedure I would have the best chances with the most experienced surgeons, Dr. De Smet being one of them. So he signed off the form, and after review the insurance company approved a few days later.

I will get the surgery done in 3 weeks...