Don't know where the wig discussion started, but here's a take on it:

New Hampshire statue pays up to $350 a year but you have to meet your deductible and there will be co-pays. So without the details you don't know if your plan is reimbursing you for example up to a yearly max of $350 out of pocket or if the value of the payment will be up to $350 based on some reimbursement formula such as a credit to you of 80% of the "approved" cost.....blah blah blah.... Well the point is that $350 is not $350 unless you get the exact particulars from your insurer.

What the state is saying in this statute is that a hair prostheses must be given the same reimbursement as other prosthetics. The devil is in the details and a statute by its nature is not going to define what those are for any individual person's policy.

It doesn't matter as a practical matter, what the state says is required for prosthetics equality. It still boils down to your policy, your out of pocket and the reimbursement formula your policy uses. The insurer is required to try to treat your prosthesis equal to others, but it's not a straight line from A to B.

You might very well decide that filing a claim for a cheap wig is not well spent. And again..it's all in the interpretation of the coverage details as to what kind of wig vendor is considered qualified to provide a medically necessitated hair prosthesis. This is not likely to be your average wig store and probably not your online store. The paperwork has to be correct and the vendor has to be considered authorized by the terms of your coverage.

As a parallel: I'm licensed in a medical professional field in 3 states. There are situations where the service I provide is covered by Medicare or private insurance because I'm state board certified. Another technician, without a professional training and license might overlap with some of my skills, but they don't hold the same state license and their services will never be reimbursable.

The same is true of hair replacement vendors. Most people just get the wig they want from whomever they want. But if you really wanted to know in advance if that vendor would be considered as authorized by your insurance it would take a lot of time and phone calls to sort it out ahead of time..and most people would rather just roll the dice instead.

Remember, the point of insurance premiums is to insure against an unlikely-to-happen event that could have catastrophic consequences like a fire or a very major illness. Insurance was not created for the purpose of a common event of relatively insignificant consequence. If you want to insure against that you can but the premiums will be sky high.

Thea
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