I have a patient and he has a history of a below the arm amputation.
He in a middle eastern native who has been living in the US for about 5 years now. While living there was victim to one of the terrorist groups attacks and lost part of his arm when a bomb detonated near him.
He tells me he was treated by what he reports were US military doctors and after building relationships with them, he then went on to become a translator for the military and was given a pathway to citizenship in the US for his service. He is now a US citizen.
Well, he tells me that the VA does not catorgize him as a vet since he is was not a US citizen during his service and was a contract worker for the US. SO he tells me that every time he calls them he is told that he should seek help with his primary care doc. That is how I got involved.
He established care with me and has a private payer insurance policy.
After multiple calls to the VA and trying to get though to the insurance company, we have basically been told that he does not have these benefits for a prosthesis and that he claims his insurance company is telling him to consider starting up a GoFundMe to cover the cost. We got a quote from one company and it is about $70,000 for the prosthesis.
I've sent some referrals in to several companies but no word yet about special programs or maybe even if they have had luck arguing with insurance companies.
SO my question is, does anyone have any advise on how to help this young man since he lacks his dominant arm? I don't want to just turf him to ortho and I'm basically getting no where reaching out to his insurance company and the VA on his behalf. I do have some calls out to several prosthetic companies but still awaiting replies.
Are we just stuck? Any advise would be greatly appreciated.
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