Help with private health insurance?

[louisemarie]

Hi all,

Sorry if this is on the wrong board, I wasn't quite sure where exactly to put this thread.

I'm posting on behalf of my mother. She is receiving ongoing Herceptin treatment as a result of cancer. She will have to have the Herceptin at the hospital every three weeks for the rest of her life, or until a pill version is released.

She has private health insurance through her job, and it covered all her chemo etc...However, when she went for her most recent Herceptin treatment, she was told the company was pulling her insurance. They claimed they had sent her a letter on 5th February (never received) to inform her of this. They say they only cover Herceptin treatment for 12 months, after which she needs to go for NHS treatment. Upon looking at her policy documents, it does indeed say this, but I don't think she was aware of this because it's a policy provided by her company through their financial services section.

The problem we have is that my mother had to have a port fitted - basically an access point for bloods and treatment, installed on her chest, as her veins are really bad and would not have withstood the treatment. In the NHS hospitals, there are very few people trained in accessing this port and this creates a problem for her. (She had to undergo a small operation through NHS last year and they couldn't access her port and put her through absolute torture trying to get a vein) She will also have to travel to a hospital that's quite far from us, apparently she cannot have her treatment at any of our local hospitals. Again, this creates more of a problem. My mother works full time and is a carer for my grandfather, so this is going to cause great difficulties for her.

We don't really know what to do as the private health insurance have sort of turfed her out and are refusing to help. The Financial services section of her work have been no use and just backed off. I can tell it is causing her a great deal of stress and I just wanted to try and get some advice on the matter from the forum. I want to help her as much as possible, so any advice would be a huge help.

Thanks for reading

[wales01man]

Re: Help with private health insurance?

Have to say sorry for your mothers problem but The NHS is as likely to have people trained in access to this Port if the Insurance company has refused to pay for further treatment it might be the NHS from now on or the family pay for it privately .
Sorry if you think im being hard or rude but we have a very good NHS in this country which most likely trained all the staff you have dealt with privately

[louisemarie]

Re: Help with private health insurance?

Hey thanks for the reply no worries about being harsh, I fully understand where you are coming from. We've been told they will need to co-ordinate members of staff who can actually use the port to be there when my mum is there, whereas everyone of the nurses she's seen for her Herceptin at private hospital is fully trained in using it. I dont think her experience with NHS trying to use port last year helped at all. I think she just feels let down by the whole situation. Thanks for reply

[enquirer]

Re: Help with private health insurance?

If it's clearly stated in the policy, I fear that route is now closed. They have honoured their obligation.

On the upside, you can exercise your right to be treated at the hospital of your choice. That would include going somewhere competent to utilise the port. They are obliged to provide transport.

As veins are unavailable, the port is a necessary part of to her treatment. Refusing to use it will cause harm and might even be tantamount to a death sentence. You might point this out to them, should they become difficult.

[louisemarie]

Re: Help with private health insurance?

Thanks enquirer I really appreciate your response and will keep that in mind!