I had a patient in her late forties who had been a smoker since her early teens. She came in with hemoptysis and shortness of breath. A chest x-ray revealed a single 2 cm nodule in her left upper lung field. I wanted to get a CT of the chest to better characterize this as it was most likely lung cancer. The response from the insurance company was she could not have a CT scan until she had first undergone six weeks of physical therapy. Yes, you read that right. Physical therapy. I told the idiot on the other end of the phone that if 6 weeks of physical therapy could cure lung cancer, we would have a miracle on our hands. It still took three more phone calls and faxing over office notes before I could get the CT scan approved. It took almost 2 weeks.