It's so fucked because there's basically no way to tell if something is approved before you try to get reimbursed. Policies change daily and you basically have to rely on algorithms to chew up your claim and spit out an answer that will hopefully be accurate for the next hour.

It's so funny to me when articles are like "shop around to find which hospital will do the procedure for less" when nobody has a clue how much something will cost before they try to submit a claim. Anybody who has ever tried that advice has certainly become frustrated halfway through the second call.