Want A Second Opinion?

So, you applied for life insurance and have been postponed or declined because you didn’t complete some, for instance a sleep study test your doctor recommended! Want a second opinion?

Don’t waste your time. You’ll get the same answer at the next insurance company. They want to know if you have sleep apnea also and until you either follow through with that recommended test or change doctors and actually have your new doctor provide reasons why the test wasn’t necessary in your new medical records, you’re stuck.

There is a lot being made these days about unnecessary testing. There’s plenty of it happening and a person should be able to put their foot down and say they aren’t going to take a test…..if they know that medically it is unnecessary. That’s the problem with most of us. We don’t want to take a test, usually because of cost, but we’re not doctors and we can’t factually justify why we shouldn’t take that test. It takes a doctor’s opinion to undo a doctor’s recommendation.

You can go back to the original doctor and just have a frank discussion, which you probably should have done to start with, and say, “Hey, tell me why I have to do this and what benefit I will get from me and is it really necessary, or put in my records that it isn’t necessary”. Tell them right up front that your decision not to do the recommended testing is wrecking your chances of getting life insurance so you need to know if it’s just the doctor’s want or is it really the doctor’s need.

You can also go to a new doctor, but weigh that can of worms before you open it. Starting with a new doctor isn’t cheap and it may take the new doctor a lot of testing just to bring him up to speed on where you were when the first doctor made their recommendation. And then they may recommend the same test.

Bottom line. Any time your doctor recommends anything, whether a test or a medication, if you have an issue with it, take it up with them right then and there. Don’t wait until you forget they ever said it. It’s going to be in your medical records and it will come back to bite you.