Sep 28, 2026 · 15 min · 12 segments
This time on Code WACK! We're revisiting part 2 of a powerful 2024 series in honor of Childhood Cancer Awareness Month this September. What justification did a major insurance company give to…
Anything else you wanted to say about having to fight your insurance company to get coverage for Zoe when this was the recommended treatment for her? What bothers you the most about your experience?
Yeah, I think what bothers me the most is that her doctors have experience and they've had years and years of training and decades of experience and they know how to treat patients.
And so for her doctors and multiple doctors across multiple tumor boards to say this is the right course of treatment for Zoe, for that to happen and then simultaneously for someone or some groups of people who don't have nearly as much experience in treating patients and treating Zoe's tumor to have the power to say, oh, that's not needed, or that's not necessary, or it's not urgent enough.
It should be that people who have experience can, you know, review that and say, okay, yes, or maybe try this, but there was no other knowledge.
And so then when we asked them to speak to, well, what is needed, what is your recommendation as an alternative? What we got back was, well, go talk to your doctor about that.
You can't have the power to deny your doctor's treatment recommendation and then also defer back to the doctor saying, well, they know best.
It's so scary to know that our health lies not in our doctor's hands, but oftentimes in our insurance company's hands.
And you hear so often of people having devastating side effects from those repercussions where they deteriorate to a point where they can't get better or they pass away.
Anything else you wanted to say about having to fight your insurance company to get coverage for Zoe when this was the recommended treatment for her? What bothers you the most about your experience?
Yeah, I think what bothers me the most is that her doctors have experience and they've had years and years of training and decades of experience and they know how to treat patients.
And so for her doctors and multiple doctors across multiple tumor boards to say this is the right course of treatment for Zoe, for that to happen and then simultaneously for someone or some groups of people who don't have nearly as much experience in treating patients and treating Zoe's tumor to have the power to say, oh, that's not needed, or that's not necessary, or it's not urgent enough.
It should be that people who have experience can, you know, review that and say, okay, yes, or maybe try this, but there was no other knowledge.
And so then when we asked them to speak to, well, what is needed, what is your recommendation as an alternative? What we got back was, well, go talk to your doctor about that.
You can't have the power to deny your doctor's treatment recommendation and then also defer back to the doctor saying, well, they know best.
It's so scary to know that our health lies not in our doctor's hands, but oftentimes in our insurance company's hands.
And you hear so often of people having devastating side effects from those repercussions where they deteriorate to a point where they can't get better or they pass away.
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