It's now April 2026. I've been a patient for several years, initial consult was January 2024. Initial care/relief provided by epidural injections of Dexamethasome bilateral L2-L3, L3-L4 (4 injections) beginning Feb 2024 continuing 3 to 4 month intervals through April 2025. When requesting July relief, the procedure was altered to nerve ablation; requiring two separate 'test' nerve blocks for Medicare approval, leading to December 2025 left side actual ablation L2-L3, L3-L4, L4-L5 treatment & January - April 2026 'test' of the opposite side. Finally, approved for second ablation treatment May 6 2026.
I assert that the lengthy process is primarily attributed to limited nurse staffing. e.g: A 'test' is performed on Wednesday, and the following Wednesday a nurse calls to verify results are 'significant' to approve the next 'test', with another call to schedule the next appointment (eventually, the 'real' treatment),,,, which may be set weeks away. And so on. Rinse and repeat for the other side! There is one approval nurse who only works the same day as the Dr. (different locations can't bill on the same day.)
My recommendations: 1) There needs to be a nurse available to verify results sooner than a week after the treatment, preferably, one to two days following treatment. 2) The whole treatment plan must be scheduled prior to beginning ANY treatment plan.
I couldn't possibly recommend this form of care neglect if you're in pain. The Dr.'s are good, no question. The issue is with an unstructured, mostly random, treatment schedule with a nurse gatekeeper who works the wrong day, which can't mitigate delays and inserts 2 to 4 week intervals between care. read more