Quoting: NickC1988
I'm sure they did, but we're certainly getting close to a gray area. Prevention from playing because a disagreement in medical opinions should be sent to some type of arbitration/final opinion from a non-involved party (the NHL perhaps).
I would imagine there is an inclusion list of approved treatments between NHL medical advisors, NHLPA medical advisors, and their insurance providers.
The adoption rate of this procedure has been slow.
Most insurers stopped covering it around 2013, leading to fewer procedures and essentially killing the market for it (when it was a lumbar procedure). Cervical procedures are newer.
Before you get to the CBA and teams "protecting their investment", you have back room deals with providers to keep premiums down.
I would say players should be able to get non-approved procedures on the recommendation of their own medical consultant and cover it out-of-pocket.
Even if it means they are no longer covered under the collective plan and must provide their own insurance from that point on. At least they have some sort of choice then.
If teams don't like it, they can absolve the contract while retaining control of the player's rights for the remaining term. They can then choose to move that player for assets and the new team could negotiate a contract which takes his current status into account.