Chronic pain versus life threatening?

Slevmeds, I just saw your message and I do apologise.  Yes my Dr ticked chronic pain on the form plus I had co-morbs that was listed.  They also had to include a reference letter and in the letter it had to say life threatening because of my co-morbs I would end up wit this/that etc and I have been taking this/that for the past few years.  My Dr was uncomfortable with it too, but I basically wrote the letter up for him and he signed it as it was only going to the super fund - not to another medical specialist.  He WAS surprised I had been given the go ahead for surgery - but that was after me being on Duromine for 4years too (that sh*t is baaad).  Plus I was very persistent and refused to give up.

Hello, both my surgeon and GP have ticked the "acute or chronic pain" box.. so worried I won't be approved becasue of this!

Thanks for all the tips everyone. To be safe I think I'm going to shop around for a GP this week who is willing to match my surgeon's letter. Hopefully I'll find a kindly doctor in one of the bulk billing clinics in Sydney CBD who doesn't think it through to much and just types out what I ask of him!

Thanks again!

Hi Coco80,

Just wanted to give you the heads up have just been through the super process and they are really coming down on this..When you apply to the Dept of Human services they need two letters one from the surgeon and one from your GP make sure the Gp letter states that it is a life threating illness that is not readily available in the public system..my application was sent back because it didnt have this also they wanted to know why i couldnt use some of my savings to put towards the operation and if i had been to the bank to get a loan..i had to fill out a stat dec to say i had tried this avenue..It is an extremely frustrating process..also i emailed all my documents and found this a little quicker for them to receive..keeping in mind once they give the ok you then apply to your super fund who releases the money...Hope this didnt confuse you anymore....... :)

my GP was also wary but I told him that I had been advised that in order to get my super released the surgeons letter and his had to be the same. He was ok with that



Good luck with your journey

G

My surgeon wrote Chronic Pain and I trusted him as he has gone through the Super release process many times before, so I got my GP to copy exactly what the surgeon wrote. They didn't notice the difference in referral dates that GP was after surgeon ;-)
Check with your surgeon if he has had issues with Super not being released before because of the wording as he could simply change it to Chronic Pain...

I emailed mine through then called them in 10days, got the reference number for my application, found out I hadn't dated next to my signature, so just filled in my original and emailed back (glad I did as I got the application back with the note two weeks after telling I hadn't dated!). Called again in 10days to be told it was approved. Took them 2wks to send out the approval letter. Their mail system is very slow considering within Australia.

Good luck

Hi Coco,

The surgeon saying that obesity is a life threatening condition is the worst possible scenario, and just using the working that will be most acceptable to release your super. Don't be alarmed. I was also told to get the GP to use those words, so not sure if they would not accept the GP wording of Chronic pain. Hopefully someone else on here may have first hand knowledge. Do you know another doctor who may be more willing to use the suggested wording?

I do have one tip for you though, send your application in a next day delivery envelope. I sent mine in an ordinary envelope on the 27th of April, I phoned today to see how it was going and they said it was received on the 7th of May, so I won't have an answer until 22nd of May, and then it'll take another 4 weeks to process it, assuming that it is accepted. i can only assume that the received date is the date that they actually opened it, but if you use an express post service they will probably open yours quickly.

Hi everyone,

I would love your advice on wording on my letters for my super application. I was given a standard form letter from my surgeon that stated that I needed the surgery to treat a life-threatening condition. I went to see my GP today, and he was uncomfortable saying the condition was life-threatening, but was comfortable saying the surgery was required to relieve chronic pain. So now I have two different letters saying two different things....do you think this will cause issues with my application and I therefore need to find a GP who will say it's life threatening?

I'm also a bit concerned that the surgeon's letter refers to obesity as being a life-threatening "condition". My understanding was that it needed to be referred to as a "disease". I was just given his standard letter so I would be surprised if his letter wasn't accepted, but trying to ward off any issues upfront where I can!

Thanks so much for your help!