15 yr old girl w/bunions

DISCLAIMER:
THE FOLLOWING IS OFFERED GRATIS AS GENERAL INFORMATION ONLY, AND, AS SUCH, MAY NOT BE APPLICABLE TO THE SPECIFIC QUESTIONER AND/OR HIS/HER PROBLEM. IT IS CLEARLY NOT BASED ON ACTUAL KNOWLEDGE AND/OR EXAMINATION OF THE QUESTIONER OR HIS/HER MEDICAL HISTORY, AND IT CAN NOT AND SHOULD NOT BE RELIED UPON AS DEFINITIVE MEDICAL OPINION OR ADVICE. ONLY THROUGH HANDS- ON PHYSICAL CONTACT WITH THE ACTUAL PATIENT CAN ACCURATE MEDICAL DIAGNOSIS BE ESTABLISHED AND SPECIFIC ADVICE BE GIVEN. NO DOCTOR/PATIENT RELATIONSHIP IS CREATED OR ESTABLISHED OR MAY BE INFERRED. THE QUESTIONER AND/OR READER IS INSTRUCTED TO CONSULT HIS OR HER OWN DOCTOR BEFORE PROCEEDING WITH ANY SUGGESTIONS CONTAINED HEREIN, AND TO ACT ONLY UPON HIS/HER OWN DOCTOR’S ORDERS AND RECOMMENDATIONS. BY THE READING OF MY POSTING WHICH FOLLOWS, THE READER STIPULATES AND CONFIRMS THAT HE/SHE FULLY UNDERSTANDS THIS DISCLAIMER AND HOLDS HARMLESS THIS WRITER. IF THIS IS NOT FULLY AGREEABLE TO YOU, THE READER, AND/OR YOU HAVE NOT ATTAINED THE AGE OF 18 YEARS, YOU HEREBY ARE ADMONISHED TO READ NO FURTHER.
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Assuming that she is a medically acceptable candidate for bunion surgery, and that the decision to not consider the surgery is not medically based, this is a business rather than a medical matter. It is often the case that insurers which offer a plan where a PE is the gatekeeper to specialty care that these gatekeepers are encouraged, sometimes by intimidation and threat of losing their positions and sometimes by financial incentives to limit their referrals. When one signs up for such insurance, one subjects him/herself to the rules of the insurer. It is contractual. That being said, insurance carriers are under the supervision and their practices reviewed by your State's insurance commission, and if you cannot get satisfaction through direct pleas to your insurer, you might try the route of such governmental oversight. Unless you have poorly stated the facts of the case and/or her condition, it would seem to me that you have every reason to complain. Whether or not that complaint will be heard and appropriately acted upon is, as I stated, not a medical matter. But the reality is that most of the costs of the necessities of living are not covered by insurance, and in the end, one makes decisions as to the expenditures which he/she will and will not under-right with whatever personal funds are available. It may come to either paying for it yourself or allowing the patient to continue to suffer. The cost involved are not menial, but neither are they in the catastrophic range.