AXA cover and allergies/intolerance

Impatient6227 · 2025-04-22T03:57:42+00:00

Hi all, DD, 7 months has had some of reaction to eggs (not sure if it's allergy or intolerance). I got her an appt with dr care anywhere via private healthcare (via work) and the Dr referred her to an allergy specialist. AXA have rejected claim as they say part of the usual treatment is performed by a GP and DD's membership doesn't cover GP's treatment. Has anyone got experience of allergy/intolerance and what GP treatment they are referring to? I'm pretty naive as DS sailed through weaning without any issues. The reason I went through private was NHS wait times only, I've never been through a private referral before for anything so this is new territory! Thanks

BunnyRuddington · 03/05/2025 11:32

Do the Insurance Company mean that you could have gone to your GP and discussed their symptoms, ie first stage appointment and that’s why they don’t cover it?

As for the Egg allergy, I’d have a read of this from Allergy UK.

Also it’s not really called an intolerance anymore. It’s still and allergy, there are just 2 types, IGE which can give immediate and and more severe symptoms and non-Ige which can have more delayed symptoms, usually up to 72 hours.

Egg Allergy

Most children with an egg allergy will start to outgrow it by the time they go to school but in some it will persist into later childhood or in rare cases, adulthood.

https://www.allergyuk.org/resources/egg-allergy-factsheet/

ChaiLovingMama · 05/05/2025 21:51

@Impatient6227 we had an almost identical situation last year after my DC reacted to both eggs and dairy. GP referred DC and AXA refused the claim saying the GP should provide diagnosis and treatment as ‘primary care’. I’d not previously used my private medical despite having it for over 10 years through work.

I called the GP back and advised the claim had been rejected for this reason, and he added on a letter to our insurers explaining why a diagnosis by a specialist was necessary, in particular for a baby (how it would be a risk to their nutrition to unnecessarily exclude foods if there isn’t actually an allergy, and that a proper diagnosis would clarify the severity of such an allergy / if an EpiPen was needed).

It took several hours of back and forth with the insurers, but - after the GP adding this letter where he stated allergy testing is not part of a GP’s primary treatment, and that the testing was vital - they accepted the claim. They ended up covering my DC’s initial consultation, which included skin prick and blood tests, plus a follow up to go through the results and an action plan (however they would not cover any further supervised feeds etc once we had the results and the allergy was confirmed).

Sorry for such a long message but to summarise, do keep pushing AXA as it should be covered, and I’d advise getting a note from your GP to explain that allergy testing is not part of their primary care. Hope this helps in some small way, and that all is ok with your DD!

Original poster

Impatient6227 · 07/05/2025 02:11

ChaiLovingMama · 05/05/2025 21:51

@Impatient6227 we had an almost identical situation last year after my DC reacted to both eggs and dairy. GP referred DC and AXA refused the claim saying the GP should provide diagnosis and treatment as ‘primary care’. I’d not previously used my private medical despite having it for over 10 years through work.

I called the GP back and advised the claim had been rejected for this reason, and he added on a letter to our insurers explaining why a diagnosis by a specialist was necessary, in particular for a baby (how it would be a risk to their nutrition to unnecessarily exclude foods if there isn’t actually an allergy, and that a proper diagnosis would clarify the severity of such an allergy / if an EpiPen was needed).

It took several hours of back and forth with the insurers, but - after the GP adding this letter where he stated allergy testing is not part of a GP’s primary treatment, and that the testing was vital - they accepted the claim. They ended up covering my DC’s initial consultation, which included skin prick and blood tests, plus a follow up to go through the results and an action plan (however they would not cover any further supervised feeds etc once we had the results and the allergy was confirmed).

Sorry for such a long message but to summarise, do keep pushing AXA as it should be covered, and I’d advise getting a note from your GP to explain that allergy testing is not part of their primary care. Hope this helps in some small way, and that all is ok with your DD!

Edited

Thank you so much, this has been really helpful! X

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