Posted by Bob Johnson (208.234.124.40) on December 06, 1999 at 10:03:15:
Several months ago there was a good message about the need to educate HMO/insurance outfits which don't know anything about CH and so deny adequate coverage. The suggestion in that message was to provide material to the medical director of your plan to help remove the scales from their eyes.
Have found a good piece written by Dr. Seymour Diamond, one of the oldest hands in the U.S. on headaches, in which he shows that it's cost saving for HMO/insurance to provide proper treatment. It's worth printing out and giving to your doc to be forwarded or else for you to send directly to the HMO/insurance medical director.
Don't be put off by the title: cluster is included in the the body of the article.
Go to, www.medscape.com Need to sign up; free and easy and will exposure you to a professionally oriented medical site. At the top of the page, select "managed care"; then look for the article entitled, "Clinical and Financial Implications of Migraine in a Managed Care Setting." About 15-pages to print out.
In addition to this article,at the bottom of any page you will find a search box. Enter "headache" and select the "article" box. You'll get some good material.
This site has some links to other good medical sites. Material on headache appears under the "neurology" and "primary care" pages from time to time.