Imagine you were diagnosed with a serious illness? How much would you value a free second opinion from one of the world’s leading doctors?
If you have a policy with Aviva, you have access to just that.
This story involves testicles – don’t say I didn’t warn you.
One of our twins, Alfie (4) had a scratch on his testicle that was refusing to heal so I took him to the GP. One look at his misshapen testicle and the GP became concerned, so concerned he referred us to Crumlin Children’s Hospital for an ultrasound.
The worry was that Alfie had a retractile testicle (i.e it had moved back up to the groin).
This was serious.
On the other hand, it may just have been a fluid called hydrocele that was causing the inflammation.
Nothing really to worry about.
They checked him out in Crumlin, confirmed it was just hydrocele (phew) and referred him for surgery to drain it.
We were relieved and thought nothing more of it until Hannah spoke to her brother who is a urologist.
He wanted to see the ultrasound.
But Alfie never had an ultrasound, the doctor in Crumlin used a torch type thing to check everything was OK.
Hannah’s bro wasn’t happy.
You see, he tries to avoid surgery if at all possible, and in Alfie’s case, if the ultrasound showed no damage to the testicle, there was no need for surgery.
Our GP agreed and referred Alfie for an ultrasound. Thankfully the ultrasound was clear, the medical second opinion has avoided the need to put a 4-year-old through scary surgery.
In fairness, we were blessed that we had access to a medical second opinion.
But now you can too.
Best Doctors from Aviva gives you access to a second opinion from the world’s leading medical practitioners. It’s available for free on all Aviva policies and can be used by you, your children and your parents. It can even be used for conditions diagnosed before you took out your Aviva policy.
So if your parents have medical issues, they can get a second opinion immediately.
Our parents are not getting any younger so it’s important we can help them if they do get sick, just like they helped us when we were Alfie’s age.
Best Doctors Ireland is a database of the world’s leading specialists. If you’re diagnosed with a serious illness, Best Doctors can give you specialist medical advice.
You can have your case assessed by a world-class physician who can give you a second opinion based on the most up to date medical knowledge.
When you have an important decision to make about your health, or the health of your family, you will have many questions:
Or you may be undergoing treatment, but your condition is not improving.
Your Best Doctors membership can help you. It provides access to some of the best minds in medicine to help you get the right answers about your medical condition, diagnosis and treatment – so you have the support you need to make good medical decisions.
Best Doctors Ireland will identify a world-leading specialist who will undertake an in-depth review of your original medical documentation, ensuring your diagnosis is accurate and helping you understand the most appropriate treatment options available to you. Your Case Manager will discuss the findings of this review in detail with you and deliver the result in a report direct to your home.
There are a lot of perfectly legitimate reasons to get a second opinion. A medical diagnosis can be overwhelming and lead to sleepless nights. Getting a second opinion can help alleviate some of that uncertainty and make people feel more confident in their healthcare decisions.
A spouse or family member wants to get a second opinion.
Unfortunately not but Aviva has introduced Family Care to help in this area.
Family Care gives free access to a counselling and psychotherapy service from Teladoc Health.
24 hours a day, 24/7, you can call Aviva to make an appointment for you with one their team of Psychologists.
All Clinical, Counselling and Health Psychologists are registered with the Irish Psychological Society.
Best Doctors can end their relationship with Aviva in the future so this benefit is not guaranteed for the life of your policy.
I’ve always liked the added benefit of Best Doctors. They are to be applauded for adding this benefit for free to life and mortgage protection policies. It’s definitely worth taking into consideration when choosing your life insurance provider.
Remember Aviva are the only insurer offering Best Doctors.
If you have any questions on this or anything else life insurance related, please call me on or complete the short form below.
Aviva have created a really useful illustration here
Nick McGowan
lion.ie | making life insurance easier
As Ireland's leading life insurance broker, we specialise in comparing the rates and policies from the top five Irish life insurance providers and offering the very best value quotes to suit the individual needs of our clients. Our expertise lies in finding a suitable insurance plan for those with specific needs, be it a particular illness, occupation or claim history, we've got you covered in every sense!
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