In between scrubbing in for surgeries, Dr. Elisabeth Potter, a Texas-based plastic surgeon who works with breast cancer patients, is fighting to pull back the curtain on the pitfalls of the health insurance industry.
Potter specializes in a procedure that involves using fat and tissue from a patient’s lower abdomen to rebuild breasts after a mastectomy or lumpectomy. Potter has performed the surgery, called a deep inferior epigastric perforator (DIEP) flap procedure, more than 1,000 times, and said she treats about 40% of women with breast cancer in central Texas.
On social media, Potter shares videos that show the frustrating reality of navigating insurance coverage on behalf of her patients.
“We’ve behaved too predictably for a long time, and the fact that it’s not normal for doctors and patients to get on social media and talk about the difficulties of health care says a lot,” she told HuffPost. “We need to start speaking out so that there’s 100 doctors like me or 1,000 doctors like me saying enough is enough.” (For the full story, watch the video above.)
In 2024, Potter opened RedBud Surgery Center in Austin in an effort to make breast reconstruction more accessible and affordable. She said surgeries can typically cost a patient anywhere from $60,000 to $200,000 out of pocket.
