Insurer delays and denials hamper patients seeking at-home breathing machines
Doctors around the country say insurers are making it harder to get coverage for home ventilators that patients with serious illnesses need as their lungs fail
Lou Gehrig’s disease took away Grace Armant’s ability to speak, but the 84-year-old still has plenty to say about her insurance.
UnitedHealthcare has rejected several requests from her doctors for coverage of a machine Armant needs to breathe as she deals with the fatal illness.
“They are no good,” Armant said, typing slowly into a device that speaks for her. “I can’t do without the machine.”
Doctors around the country say UnitedHealthcare and other insurers have made it harder to get coverage for certain home ventilators that patients like Armant need as their lungs fail. They say patients often must struggle first with less effective — and cheaper — devices before some insurers will pay. In other cases, insurers balk at paying for a second machine needed when patients transfer from their bed to a wheelchair.
