Insurance Company Denies Prosthetic Hand for Triple Amputee

 Posted on October 18, 2013 in General

By: Robert F. Geimer

As reported by nbcchicago.com, 56 year-old Kent Carson was completely healthy until he developed an infection that resulted in the loss of an arm and both legs.  He learned to walk on prosthetic legs and now would like to replace the hook where his left hand used to be with a prosthetic hand in order to go back to work.  His insurance company, however, has refused, saying that “a prosthesis with individually powered digits … is considered investigative due to a lack of clinical evidence demonstrating its impact on improved health outcomes.”

It is exactly this kind of nonsense that has fueled the need for insurance reform.  Let’s hope that implementation of The Affordable Care Act will avoid situations like this and provide important patient safeguards to prevent insurance companies from profiting by denying essential treatment and services to patients.