EXPERT OPINION
A “priceless” trend in health insurance protection.
Some International Health Insurance Companies are offering EXPERT OPINION service, “a second medical opinion from internationally renowned doctors”. To what length will you go to save your loved one or your life when something serious goes wrong and you are not sure of the diagnosis?
With millions of customers around the world, Health Insurance giants deal and relate with top Hospitals and famous medical specialist in every Continent. Companies can offer this network of medical connections to their customers, free of charge. I encourage you to find out if your policy offers this valuable service!
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Take a recent case of a 14 year old girl (identity not revealed in compliance of confidentiality) who lives in a Central American country. After episodes of back pain in January 2012, Pediatrician carried out x-rays of spine which showed an obvious scoliosis. Subsequently the patient had a full spine CT scan and was referred to an internal medicine specialist for evaluation.
Disturbed with the diagnosis, the parents consulted several local doctors. “Since our daughter is still growing, we were concerned that the problem would get worse, maybe because we wouldn’t follow the best treatment for her condition”. Doctors seemed to agree with the initial treatment of 25 physiotherapy sessions, daily swimming and postural exercises with stretching. When parents called their insurance agent to notify him of the situation, the agent suggested they should use the “EXPERT OPINION” service in their policy and explained the benefits.
They sent an email to their Health Insurance Company, requesting an EXPERT OPINION. “What an impression, within 30 minutes we received and email acknowledging our request and asking us to start compiling the medical information”. Phone calls follow and within the next 3 days the parents sent via courier a package containing all the medical records, tests, and X-rays, to their “assigned specialists” in Chile.
Within two weeks, they received a 28 page Case Report. It included a complete summary of the case written by the Physician assigned to manage the case, a review of the diagnosis and treatment plan, assessment of the medical case, suggestions for further treatments, a bibliography of the most recent medical journal articles on Scoliosis and of top of that, ANSWERS to a set of specific questions posed by the concerned parents: ”Is the diagnosis correct”? Do you agree with the treatment prescribed: four hours of swimming and physical therapy exercises? Will this therapy stop further deformity? Could our daughter possibly suffer from thoracic scoliosis or is it only lumbar scoliosis? Is her spinal damage irreversible? How will this affect her quality of life? How about physical exercises? fertility? back pains? use of special shoes? sleeping and reading postures? … All questions were answered, independently, by both experts.
Who participated in her Case Report? the head of the Column Surgery Unit at one the best hospital in Spain, and a Column Surgeon Specialist from the UK, advisor to Hospitals in Cambridge, London and Northampton.
“This EXPERT OPINION is just wonderful. To do it ourselves, we would have had to travel to another country, and start from scratch, finding expensive specialists to give us their opinion. On top of a very expensive trip, think of the time lost, school time for my daughter and time for both of us (we both work). And I think of the stress on my daughter, hours upon hours in a foreign hospital, and more tests, and more X-Rays. With EXPERT OPINION we were able to access world class medical opinions from the comfort of our home. That is “Priceless”.
If you or someone in your family is diagnosed with serious, complex, or chronic diseases EXPERT OPINION can give you access to the world’s leading independent medical experts to review your case, confirm or revise diagnosis, and recommend the best steps for treatment.
Following are two more other examples of how a second medical opinion has helped patients make informed decisions about treatment.
Colon Cancer
A patient diagnosed with colon cancer with liver metastases had been treated with surgery and chemotherapy. Two international oncology and digestive tract specialists were consulted, the first from Boston (USA), and the second from Paris (France). After reviewing the case, both experts suggested the patient receive a new, recently discovered treatment that had yielded higher survival rates for this type of tumor. The patient’s treating physician was receptive to the information and administered the new treatment to the patient, achieving optimum results.
Chronic Lumbosciatalgia
A 46 year-old female patient was suffering from lumbago complicated by sciatica. She had already had two operations, and the neurosurgeon was advising her to undergo a third. The patient decided to ask for a second opinion before agreeing to the third operation. Two international orthopedic experts were consulted, one of them resident in California (USA), and the other in Paris (France). After reviewing the case, both experts concluded that the patient should not go ahead with the operation. Instead, both recommended that she lose weight and engage in exercise under the supervision of a physiotherapist and that she take specific medication when in pain. By taking these measures, the patient was able to go back to work and resume her daily life with no restrictions.
If your policy provides EXPERT OPINION and you want to use the service:
1- Call and discuss with your health insurance agent. Send an email to your insurance company requesting a specific EXPERT OPINION.
2- A Case Manager Physician will contact you to explain the service and help you gather all of the necessary medical documentation.
3- The EXPERT OPINION Clinical Committee will study your case and select the best independent international specialists most suited to your condition.
4- Expert physicians will review your case and make the treatment recommendations.
5- Upon completion of the process, a complete Case Report will be provided, including the patient’s medical history, the opinions of the medical specialists, pertinent medical journal references, answer to your questions, and a brief profile of each of the specialists involved in your case.
To find and consult these experts on your own, could cost a fortune…….you may not have the time or $$$ to obtain this life saving service!
For more information……
Gonzalo de la Guardia – gdelaguardia@gmail.com
Panasurance, Inc.