Health Insurance declining to pay bill from Dermatologist due to "no referral"

Hello —

Aetna is my provider and I’m being stuck with nearly $2k in bills from a much needed dermatologist procedure, which I cannot afford.

Initially I used Teladoc, a provided service/partnership with my Aetna plan. I sent them pictures and the certified Dermatologist from Teladoc stated I need to see a Dermo in person for further analysis.

A week later I had my assessment done and a month after that I had my follow up procedure.

A few months later I am now being told because I didn’t have a referral, they will not cover anything.

I’ve tried getting a back dated referral from my new PCP but they were not my PCP before this scenario so they declined to do so.

I’ve reached out to Teladoc to try and get the manuscript/conversation that I had with the Teladoc Dr Rep, however, Teladoc CONTINUALLY cancels my accounts even though I’ve had nonstop coverage. They will make me new accounts each time but cannot access or enable said accounts and have no reason as to why these are being cancelled.

I don’t have the Dermo information that I spoke to through Teladoc, and Aetna isn’t even bothering to try and leaning on “needed a referall” for their argument.

At this point I feel I have no choice but to try and haggle or slowly pay off this bill.

Is there anything else I should consider looking into/trying?