DeAnn has been an oncology nurse for over 20 years and she says she has spent a lot of that time waiting. Most recently she was waiting to hear back from an insurance company to authorize a PET scan for one of her patients. “She is supposed to come in tomorrow for her scan and we still haven’t heard back. I will need to call her and reschedule, but she is desperate to get her scan. She wants to know if her cancer has spread.”
DeAnn and her colleagues deal with these authorizations and delays on a daily basis. The approval process for scans can sometimes take up to 15 days or more, and when denied, her office has to appeal through the insurance, which causes more delay for a patient who may need the scan in order to see if their treatment is working or needs to be changed.
As an example, the PET scan DeAnn was waiting to hear back about has been denied and she will need to call her patient to cancel her appointment, schedule an appeal with insurance, and start working on another plan should the appeal be denied.
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