Insurance approved breast reduction, got surgery, now insurance is saying they will not cover it and I’m stuck with a $16k bill

To preface, my family and I live in West Virginia, but my surgery and facility took place in MD. I am on my dad’s insurance, who is a contract worker in DC and works all over MD and VA as well, but the union he belongs to is based in DC.

I have health insurance through my dad’s employer, so I have United Healthcare Choice Plus EWTF. Anyway I had consultations with 2 different surgeons and both offices submitted my info to my insurance, and I got approved through both doctors, which was told to me by my surgeons, the hospital, and letters I received in the mail. These were from United Healthcare saying they had approved it.

So, had the surgery, and now 1.5 months later have received a explanation of benefits letter showing all the expenses for the consultation and surgery, which add up to $16k. So I owe $16k now and have to pay out of pocket for a surgery that I was told was covered by my insurance. So I did some googling and saw that EWTF does not cover breast reductions even though UH does.

It would’ve been so nice for literally any person in the process to let me know this would not be covered before I got this surgery. I guess all the offices sent the letter to UH instead of EWTF. This has never happened to me before–going to a certain doctor/getting a procedure just to find out it’s covered by UH and not EWTF. I don’t really expect any advice I guess, just take this as a word of warning to quadruple check your eligibility and plan guidelines before getting a $16k procedure.

At least I have nice boobs now.