<div>For the past three years, I have watched as my wife’s health has deteriorated. She has anemia that is associated with her medical condition and has dropped to a very unsafe weight. Medicare is refusing to pay for a potentially life-saving procedure that is needed to help correct the underlying health problem.
</div>
<div>Sue had major abdominal surgery in July 2019, after which the incision became infected. The infected incision site never healed properly despite treatment and has resulted in a very large abdominal wall hernia, about 10 inches wide. We were sent to a surgical team at ECMC in Buffalo and had our first appointment with them in March of 2020 to talk about fixing the hernia, which at that time was small, probably less than 2 inches. In March of 2020….COVID pandemic lockdowns and shutdowns of surgeries began. So…we were put off many times over the past 3 years. Every time it looked like it was Sue’s turn and surgeries were starting again, things were put back on hold and no surgery could happen. Meanwhile, the hernia just keeps getting larger and larger.
</div>
<div>At this point she can have the surgery, but because the opening is so huge the safest, most effective way to do the surgery is to relax all of the involved muscles with Botox several weeks before the surgery. This will make those muscles very stretchable so that the hole in her abdomen can be safely closed with minimal complications. But Medicare refuses to pay for the Botox procedure. If the surgeons did the traditional method of fixing the hernia there is a very real risk that the abdominal and chest cavity pressure would be too great and she would not be able to breathe on her own after surgery. Botox will make sure that the muscles can stretch enough to give room in her abdominal and chest cavities so that this risk is greatly reduced.
</div>
<div>This is the real problem….Sue is on Medicare and Medicare is refusing to pay the additional cost of the Botox treatment. They will only pay for the old way of hernia repair. We appealed the decision with Independent Health and were rejected. Then we took the appeal to a Federal Administrative Law Judge for the highest level of appeal and were again rejected. We have contacted Senator Gillibrand, as have many friends and family on our behalf, and still have not been able to get Medicare to pay.
</div>
<div>HERE IS THE KICKER: Medicare’s reason for not covering this potentially life-saving procedure is that there is NO CURRENT CODE in their system for billing it! The Federal Judge did not dispute that Botox was effective and safe…just that there is no code.
</div>
<div>At this point, we are trying to find a way to pay out of pocket for the Botox, as well as for all the associated copays for CT scans, hospital stay and all the costs associated with rehab and recovery. We are very strapped at this point as both Sue and myself are on SSD and these costs are breaking us.
</div>
<div>Any help you can give would be greatly appreciated.
</div>
<div>Thank you!
</div>

Anna Schumacher

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Suzanne Welninski (Flynn) Medical Expenses

platform

Platform is iOS

Android

Adyen Google Pay Development Audience

$opt_dummy_attribute

English only

Deprecate Stripe Legacy

dyn_template_ids

Adyen V6 Bene Transfer & MyMoney Campaign Organizers - test01

Bene transfer V6 and AdyenV6MyMoney Campaign Organizers - production

OneTrust next-app audience

fundCountryCode

NextDoor Share Option Users

Fundraisers with Reactions feature capability

fundCurrencyCode

US + Non-charity COs Only

locale

fund country is US and user language is English

personId

comms-internal-person-ids

Enhanced Story Experience Users

Suggested Goal Experience Users

user language is English and fund country: US, AU, DK, FI, IE, NO, SE, CA, GB; 

Poster share - new funds eligible (newest 9/18)

Streaming widgets beta user

paymentProcessor

3DS payment method

user language is English and fundCountry: US, AU, DK, FI, IE, NO, SE, CA, GB; 

currencyCode

Money Box Donation List Prompt Experiment Audience

GoFundMe Employees

ipAddress

Mark Rieth IP Address

Version 9.2.0 and above

Fund is in English speaking country

desktop

Android v12.11.0 and above

Platform is Android

paymentMethodType

checkoutType

Payment method type group to be vaulted on success

admin pr kit prod

EUR Donation Upsell

Share Text generation Skip Fundraiser

(prod) new funds eligible for amp12 (UGC gallery)

fintrac_cad_idv_form_v2 audience

paymentProcessorAccountId

fallback mode accounts

proCampaignId

p2p legacy startfundraising page

AMP24 New Funds Only PROD (DO NOT MODIFY)

Eligible for Profile Share Badge

countryCode

charityId

UKCharities

Federated Search Internal Testing

route.pathname community

US Donation Upsell audience 

Auto Thanks Feature Audience

Supporter Comments Eligible Funds

International Only

fundId

braze fundraiser group 

Payment Identity Transfers ATO Risk Check (Targeted) - Production

Fundraiser Saved Payment Method Rate Limit Bypass (Production)

leaderboard-partner-id-audience-givepanel

Version 9.2.1 and above

AUD Donation Upsell audience

fundraiserCountryCode is US/EN

Active Fundraiser - Smart Default Cadence

DAF Internal

Vault on success card payment method

Platform is iOS v11.0.0 and above

Desktop users

Person ids

United States (US) users

allow yuno fundraisers for test

Mexico country code

Posters INTL

NPO Profile Opted-In

iOS at or above 12.4.0

non-US recurring donors

Canada Campaign Owner Group

Fundraiser Without Meta Link

Scheduler payment tester gorup

charityCommunityId

Charities allow to be claimed unclaimed (PRD)

Canada (CA) users

UC Tipping v20250115 International

pymk_production_xplr_fe_team

Android at or above 12.2.0

Profile photo entry point audience

smart goals (fundraiser/manage) on test01

Activity Tracking v1 Beta Testing

start gfm intl allowed locales

Platform is iOS v11.2.0 and above

NPO upsell education category

unclaimed charities

prod_ach_audience

AI Chatbot Audience

amp13 only new funds (prod) (anyword auto)

UC Flow Enabled (Prod)

Payment Identity Beneficiary Verification - Production

shared notification bell audience

Custom users

ach frontend audience

Android v11.0.0 and above

Users Receiving Payments Paused Notifications

smart goals test01

Manage Coach - US English Organizers Only + new funds only

Team EGG - IP Address list

NPO recommendations prod

Fundraiser Without Instagram Deep Link

Native 11.4.0 and above

UC Tipping v20250107

Users Receiving Braze KYC Validation Failed

ai_title_page

anyword

openai

control

manual_entry

userEmail

template_id

userId

fundUrl

isCharityCo

email

appVersion

shouldBucketIntoExperiment

isEligibleForProfileBadge

partnerId

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npoProfileOptIn

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hasSessionDonation

categoryGroup

isCampaignOwner

fundHasInstagramDeepLink

Native 11.3.0 and above

Native 11.4.0 and higher

New funds eligible - Video Sharing (PROD)

GB Donation Upsell audience 

Auto Thanks V3 Rollout Audience

Thank you V3 testing whitelist

isRecurringFriendly

Is Recurring Friendly

Excluded funds - Video Sharing

NPO upsell animals category

NPO upsell disaster relief category

Logged In Users

CH Donation Upsell audience

Android v10.6.0 and above

NPO upsell essential needs category

NPO upsell medical category

userCurrencyCode

Localized Currency

NPO upsell cancer category

v11.5.0 and above

testAudience

pathname

Survicate

appVersion is at or above 12.8.0

Non-charity fund

isChallengeFundraiser

challenge-fundraisers

Payment Identity Launch Verification - Production

New funds eligible - Posters v2

CAD Donation Upsell Audience

Braze Email Tester

NPO Profile Opted-Out

iOS App Version

hasKnownDonors

PYMK has donors

iOS v12.3.0 and above

Suzanne Welninski (Flynn) Medical Expenses

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