Their daughter needed reconstructive surgery. They got an insurance fight.

Minutes before a 10-hour surgical procedure, 8-year-old Olivia Olson sat on a hospital bed grinning.

Minutes before a 10-hour surgical procedure, 8-year-old Olivia Olson sat on a hospital bed grinning. With quiet confidence she explained why the operation was so important to her.

“I think I look beautiful, and I don’t really care what other people think of me,” Olivia said. “I just want to get a big ear so people don’t bully me in the future.”

Olivia was born with a rare congenital condition, microtia, that prevents the development of the outer ear. Fewer than 200,000 people in the U.S. have microtia, according to the National Institutes of Health. Olivia’s right ear developed normally, but her left was never fully formed.

Her parents, Annie and Dave Olson, of Oro Valley, Arizona, knew from birth she would need surgery to reconstruct her ear. But up until the day of the operation last month, their insurance provider, Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield, had repeatedly refused to approve coverage for the procedure with the surgeon the Olsons wanted to use.

Dr. Sheryl Lewin holds up the 3D-printed ear implant to Olivia's right ear. The implant would become her left ear.Courtesy David OlsonOnly a handful of doctors in the U.S. regularly perform the operation Olivia needed. Most of them — including Dr. Sheryl Lewin, a pediatric craniofacial plastic surgeon in private practice based in Torrance, California — were out of network for the Olsons.