routine surveillance MRI is better for insurance and patient

[Olga]

If you were already Dx with the brain metastases that were treated by the radiosurgery or surgery and now you are denied to have a follow up MRI, this article may help you.
BACKGROUND:
Insurers have started to deny reimbursement for routine brain surveillance with magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) after stereotactic radiosurgery (SRS) for brain metastases in favor of symptom-prompted imaging. The authors investigated the clinical and economic impact of symptomatic versus asymptomatic metastases and related these findings to the use of routine brain surveillance.
They studied 442 patients after they had SRS for brain metastases.
Routinely preforming surveillance MRI to detect asymptomatic brain metastases has clinical benefits and reduces the cost of care.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24452675
CONCLUSIONS:
Patients who presented with symptomatic brain metastases had worse clinical outcomes and cost more to manage than asymptomatic patients. The current findings argue that routine brain surveillance after radiosurgery has clinical benefits and reduces the cost of care. Cancer 2014;120:433-441. © 2013 American Cancer Society.

[D.ap]

Olga

Great publication !

It stymies me how some of the medical profession can overlook a patience history and completely and udderly ignore it.
As a rule ,ASPS Is defined as an INDOLENT sarcoma . It's seems to also be an asymptotic sarcoma.
What's the opposit of indolent? Energetic

Patients are able to basically ignore the cancer initially . It has taken some patients over 10 years before doctors and patients say' "I don't think this pulled muscle or shoulder pain is going away. Let's investigate this dull pain further.
Then low and behold ASPS is discovered.

I know we all know this but we must repeat it to EVERY medical professional until they listen .
And for those people that can't fight , the family needs to step in as well and let the professionals know that this person deserves treatments and scans as they are worth it!

Thanks for the podium
Debbie

[Olga]

Deb, what I like about this publication is the fact that medical community acknowledges the need to systematize the data to address the insurance claims that the costs are hiked up without base and that very busy drs from few teams united to write a good quality article that not only going to enable the patient to be more active but also disable the insurance from making the unsubstantiated claims.
The authors of the article are from 3 institutions - we thank them:
- Department of Radiation Oncology, Wake Forest Baptist Health, Winston-Salem, North Carolina
- Departments of Population Health and Medicine, New York University School of Medicine, New York City, New York
- Department of Neurosurgery, Wake Forest Baptist Health, Winston-Salem, North Carolina

[Bonni Hess]

Dear Olga,
Thank you for sharing this very important article which certainly supports what most of us in the ASPS Community have always known and advocated regarding the critical importance/necessity of pro-active scanning rather than waiting for symptoms to appear which is then often too late for a tumor to be successfully treated.
With much gratitude and appreciation for your sharing, and with special caring thoughts and continued Hope,
Bonni

[D.ap]

Olga
I join you in thanking the sponsors !
Debbie