--I bet Alan's strategy will work.

It's just annoying, and shameful, that it would have to come to a hearing.

I, too, had not been able to get specialized shoes for the same reason. I am fortunate that my wife participates in a medical savings plan--"flex" plan--and I was able to recoup the expense through there. But I was certainly peeved to find out that the insurance plans only recognize diabetic neuropathy as a reason for such shoes. (My Dad, who is diabetic, DID get them covered.)

And, of course, I sent the obligatory e-mail to the company (United Health Care) with the appropriate embedded references about idiopathic/cryptogenic neuropathy of the feet and lower extremities with demonstrable small-fiber damage. Probably won't do any good, but I feel it needs to be on record, and perhaps, in time, changes might be made. (I do encourage you to do that as well, Mel, contrasting your own situation, and you can find plenty of references in the Useful Web Sites--maybe if enough of us do this, eventually . . .)