Private Health Insurance

sumisuz

I have had some test carried out via the NHS. The consultant has found a very specific problem and has suggested I go privately to have more choice of surgeons. I have Health Insurance, but was wondering will they still cover me as I have started the process with the NHS? I know its usually the other way round! If anyone has any answers or could tell me how to approach this. Thank you

kuratowski

I would suggest calling the insurer and asking them whether you are covered?  You would have to speak to them anyway, in order to get an approval code, if my (somewhat hazy) memory serves.

Sandtree

You mean you have private medical insurance?

For almost all conditions PMI requires a referral from another doctor and whilst that is most commonly an NHS GP it can be a NHS Consultant or a self funded private doctor. The NHS isnt always the best at sharing and dont always use the most expensive investigation techniques and so the PMI will have no issues that investigation was done by the NHS but they may want to repeat some of it for themselves.

Brie

When I had problems I initially went through the NHS until it was apparent that I might need surgery.  I asked the doctor to send a letter through to whomever in the NHS to get things started and their side and also asked that they provide me with a referral letter I could present to my private insurance company.  The PMI was happy to proceed and had me to the consultant within a few days.  When I eventually got a reply a couple of months later with an offer of an initial consultation with an NHS practitioner it was going to be about 3 months after the already scheduled private surgery.  I think they are all very used to having this sort of thing happen and the NHS is very happy to push things along to the private side to make their waiting lists more manageable.