We all have been there: Sick, in need of a specific treatment for ourselves or a family member, and placed in limbo by the insurance company due to an “internal review process.”

As a physician, I have spent countless hours on the phone conducting a “peer to peer” review with an insurance company employee who has never even treated a patient with cardiovascular disease. Many of the reviewers are foreign medical graduates based overseas or retired physicians. Most are not specialists. Yet in the case of my patients, they are sometimes charged with reviewing complex treatments for cardiovascular disease.