The word Aetna used to turn down Ozzie Roberts’ ear surgery was “cosmetic.” His parents, Nadine Friedman and Jared Roberts of Brooklyn, say the pain, redness and growth problems in their 9-year-old son’s right ear were anything but. This fall, after a months-long fight, an outside reviewer agreed with them, and Aetna agreed to cover the roughly $27,000 procedure, CBS New York reported.
Friedman told the station the win took far more than a stack of paperwork. It took a flexible job, time to document every step and what she described as becoming “a part-time insurance lawyer.”
An ear that hurt at night
Ozzie was born with Goldenhar syndrome, a rare condition that, according to the Cleveland Clinic, affects the development of the face and skull and shows up in roughly 1 in 3,500 to 5,000 births. Most affected babies have underdeveloped bones and muscles on one side of the face. Some children have one very small ear, others are missing an ear or have hearing loss, and the exact cause is unknown.
For Ozzie, the trouble centered on his right ear. His medical records link the condition to pain, redness and growth problems there, according to CBS New York. His father, Jared Roberts, described nights when the boy cried and screamed, something the family found hard to watch…