Do most ins companies cover food allery test?

[Jessica mom of 2]

Hello!

I have contacted my ins company, BCBS and they said the food allergy test wouldn't be covered. I have been told most ins. covers them. I called them before my husbands vasectomy and they said they wouldn't cover it and they ended up covering it except for our copay.

We have blue cross blue shield/PPO.

Thanks!
Jessica

 

[OTE]

First of all, what company it is and which plan is going to be different for every employer. Each company offers any number of plans so you can't go by which company is underwriting it.

In my experience the answer depends on the reason for the testing. eg if this were being done by an allergist I'd say it would probably be covered. But if this is being done by an "alternative" doctor you're going to have a much harder time getting it covered. So they're looking at the symptoms of the allergy... if it's hayfever symptoms vs gastric symptoms, etc. If you're doing this to look for ADHD causes it's unlikely. The general philosophy is that ADHD should be treated by medications and the causes of it aren't worth exploring. They would approve testing for common allergens causing hayfever symptoms on the theory that if you know what pollens, dust, animals, etc are causing the symptoms you will avoid those things and thus not have the symptoms anymore. But they're unlikely to approve testing for anything more than the common things that would cause hayfever symptoms. Such testing would be considered not cost effective. So there's no one answer to your question.

A vastectomy could be considered "elective" surgery and thus not covered. Allergy testing wouldn't be comparable.