Other than actually diagnosing and treating vein disease, my next most important role is serving as a teacher and advisor to my current and potential patients. That’s why I go and give lectures and write blog posts about vein disease as often as my work/home schedule allows.
Of all the interesting vein-knowledge I drop, the most jaw-dropping seems to relate to insurance coverage for treatment. Most potential patients…the people, maybe like you, who’ve been putting off getting evaluated/treated for years…assume t
hat vein treatment is all “cosmetic” and never covered by insurance/Medicare. FALSE!
It turns out that diagnosis and many treatments may be covered by Medicare and most insurance carriers. That’s so important and signficant that I’m going to copy/paste that sentence again for you right now…and put into bigger font, in bold even:
Diagnosis and many vein treatments may be covered by Medicare and most insurance carriers
For patients with varicose veins, the likelihood for coverage is typically higher, actually. What determines eligibility for coverage, other than a patient’s particular policy, generally relates to the following:
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Presence of symptoms. For many of my patients, symptoms include discomfort described as “heaviness”/ache/fatigue; “restless legs”, chronic leg cramps; chronic/intermittent ankle/leg swelling; leg discoloration or poorly-healing ulcers (for those suffering for years without treatment). Symptoms are typically worse in the evening (especially after a long period of standing/sitting in place)
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Demonstrable superficial venous insufficiency by ultrasound examination. You can read more about this on my website by
clicking HERE
, but the quick teaching point is that vein valve failure leads to “pooling” of blood in leg veins. This leads to stretching of veins that leads to symptoms as well as things we can ultimately see at the skin surface (varicose & spider veins).
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Whether or not a patient has tried “conservative management” with compression stockings. Medicare and some commercial carriers (BCBS, for one) require 6 weeks of such a trial before definitive treatments may be covered. Other insurance carriers (Aetna, United Health Care, Humana) may even require 12 weeks or more before they’ll even consider coverage.
So, it’s the last point that makes Summer a fine time to start the process of evaluating your chronic vein issues. If it turns out that you have “coverable” disease, we can document this by doing an ultrasound, get the clock started on your “conservative management” period and eventually submit for approval while its still time to get treatments in during this deductible year.
If you or someone you love waited until now to deal with varicose and spider veins…you’ve actually waited til the right time! Insurance-related issues aside, new state-of-the-art treatments that I offer are minimally-invasive, comfortable, safe and effective. Surgical treatment is pretty much a thing of the past. The treatments that I offer include Endovenous Laser Ablation, Sclerotherapy and Clarivein®…one of the newest, most comfortable treatments that few docs other than me are experienced with in the area.
So…let’s get the ball rolling…and the clock ticking…and the discomfort decreasing…and the veins disappearing!
Click the button below to request a consultation or simply call 847-272-8346.
See you soon!
