[fortitudine]

Hi Katie,
I live in Alberta. I tried to find out about getting reimbursement for out-of-country surgery for c-spine. I was told I had to have a doctor's letter concurring that the surgery I was going away for was appropriate and not available in Canada.

I was told to get a consult from another doctor, anywhere in Canada. It's called an independent medical exam (IME). I researched my options and found Dr. Neal Duggal, who has co-written papers with Dr. B. who I was planning to go to. For that reason I thoughht he'd probably be responsive. I even got my own family doc to contact Dr. Duggal and he called her and said he'd do an IME on me. So I tried for a year and a half to get through his nurse, and finally gave up. She was extremely difficult to deal with.

I gave up, after my cheque was stale-dated. I have put off the surgery, but I'm thinking that if I do go to Dr. B. I might ask HIM to request that Dr. Duggal see me and get my IME that way.

Don't know if that helps, but I'm pretty sure that you need to go through a doc, not a medical device manufacturer. There's a person who used to be on the forums who lives in Ontario who might be able to help you. Mark helped her get lumbar ADR about 6 or 7 years ago. He or I can probably put you in touch with her if you'd like.

Good luck!