Medicare for Multi-listing

My dialysis continues nightly. Here's the latest update on my search for a kidney transplant:

After starting the process of looking into being living donors, a couple of possible donors in my family have had to drop out, unfortunately, for different reasons.

In lieu of a living donor - it's incredibly hard to ask my friends and family to donate a kidney - I've sought to multi-list at different hospitals that perform kidney transplants from deceased donors. I'm currently listed at Stanford, which has a very long waiting list, about 8-12 years. Compare this to places like Omaha's University of Nebraska Medical Center, which has a waiting list of 1-2 years. The sooner I get a new kidney, even if it's a deceased one, the better my chances of doing better.

Dialysis, on average, keeps you healthy for 4-5 years. I've been on it for almost a year now.

But Cigna, my group health insurance through my employer, as a policy will not pay for more testing at other facilities, as I discovered after being turned down from the University of Washington's kidney program.

My nephrologist was surprised to find this out. He mentioned that they would probably save more money in the long run. The costs of additional tests and a kidney transplant would be probably less than the costs of ongoing dialysis over the years. I guess their calculus involves more short-term considerations. 

The funny thing is, since discovering that Cigna won't pay for additional testing, I've had trouble reaching my case worker at Cigna. I've left messages, and have had no luck getting my phone calls returned. Usually we speak every month. It's perplexing and annoying. But I am going forward with applying for Medicare, which will pay for multi-listing and the fees associated with running the tests at a different hospital.

However! to get Medicare, I first need to change the spelling of my name on my social security card, so that my middle name isn't first, as it was incorrectly entered into the system years ago when I first got my SS card. I need to go into a Social Security office to take care of that, or else my application for Medicare probably won't go through.

There are so many hoops to go through.