When Rita Davis discovered a small nodule in her right breast, her middle school teacher and her husband, Britt, said the discovery was a progressive disease involving doctors removing her right breast and giving her chemotherapy and chemotherapy. Little did I know that I would be battling cancer for over a year. radiation. Davis lost her hair, eyebrows, nails, her ego.
“Everything is so out of control for you, the patient,” she said.
So when doctors asked Davis if she wanted reconstructive breast surgery, she agreed.
“At least you get some sort of choice,” she said. “You get a sort of say in what’s going on with you and your body at that point.”
Most women who undergo breast reconstruction get implants made of silicone and filled with silicone gel or saline. However, it involves additional surgery, pain, rupture, and even the associated risk of cancer of the immune system.
Davis knew from her own research that there was another option. It is the tack in women’s tissue to create new breasts. Breast reconstruction surgeries increased 62% from 2009 to Statistics from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality show.
But Davis’ situation highlights some issues breast cancer Survivors who want reconstructive surgery are grappling with issues such as: Changes in the way governments code procedures make it harder to get some types of surgery, and some insurance companies is now significantly reducing refunds. .
Davis liked the idea of using her own skin for surgery, but the few surgeons she could find in San Antonio who offered dip flap surgery didn’t have her insurance.
their cash price? About $50,000.
“I don’t think it’s fair, especially after fighting this kind of journey, this kind of battle, to be told, ‘I don’t have money, so I don’t have the option to do something else,'” she said.
Dr. Elizabeth Potter, who specializes in dip-flap surgery, says part of the problem is that the procedure is lengthy and requires complex microsurgical skills. Additionally, some doctors charge much higher rates and do not accept insurance.
Potter accepts insurance, but now she says changes in the way the government codes procedures are making it even harder to get the surgery. started sending letters saying it was going down too.
However, those who cannot afford surgery may be out of luck.
“Undoubtedly, women who want and have the money to have this surgery can always have it. am.”
The coding change came after a request from the American Medical Association and plastic surgeons, according to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, the government agency that oversees coding. But the group of doctors told CBS News that insurance companies are responsible for deciding to cut premiums.
Florida Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, a breast cancer survivor, is part of a bipartisan effort to undo coding changes.
“You know, at first you think about whether or not you can survive breast cancer, but psychologically, as you go through the process of becoming a survivor, it becomes more about your psychological health and how you feel as a person and as a person. “It changes how I feel. I’m a woman,” she said. “And the disorder has hampered breast cancer survivors.”
Davis, meanwhile, got in touch with Potter, who agreed to perform her surgery regardless of what Davis’ insurance would pay.
