Green Light

Today was pretty stressful with the whole insurance go-ahead. The U of MN hospital only submitted the request for transplant yesterday. (It was supposed to be submitted last Friday, and then Monday at the latest). To proceed with Chemo, as Oliver is slated for on Sunday, the doctors must have secured the cord blood unit. But the cord blood unit cannot be ordered without an authorization from insurance. Cords can be overnighted or placed on same-day delivery M-F, so they were cutting it close, even if we got the green light from insurance. Today I learned that an insurance ruling (even when expedited) usually takes 48hrs. This meant that the OR visit would be cancelled, (no need for a line when transplant would be bumped back a whole week!) and we would be waiting around for an answer that would also need to be worked around a rescheduling of the OR, Sunday admission, and Transplant ( at least a weeks delay, maybe more). Between an awesome case manager at BCBS, my own persistence, and a receptive billing/insurance worker at the hospital, I am happy to say we got the insurance pushed though!  GREEN LIGHT!!! A 24 hour approval is unheard of!  I had just come to terms with the delay when the good news came. The authorization couldn’t have cut it closer, since we have to be at the OR at 6:30am, but made it nonetheless!  We are more than ready to get transplant underway so Oliver can move forward to the healthier days ahead, especially after the grueling process of “work-up.” I am so glad to be on track.