My doctor conveyed my situation in his request for the imaging and was denied. I'm basically going to my PT appointments and doing nothing because the treatment is painful, which is wasting their time and resources. It's cheaper to just commit this waste than to talk to a lawyer because the insurance company represents its shareholders, not its clients.

I'm not saying that healthcare is perfect outside of the US, but a common argument for the US system is this idea of "choice", which is ultimately just a set of dark patterns that create the illusion of choice.