I have aetna and just finished my 3 month program on friday. My dr submitting paper work next week. I did the 3 months as I did not want to wait 6. However, I had to see my dr every 2 weeks, nutritionist every 2 weeks, Pysch dr about 4 times, and trainer 6-10 times during the 3 months..it was hard with the holidays and took a lot of co pays. Dr advised that the Aetna would make me start program over if I missed any appts (with the exception of a serious reason). In short, they will cover with 3 month program, just be sure Dr knows thier stuff. My dr works close with the Surgeon and has never had a insruace case rejected...her staffs makes sure everything is in order before submitting...hope this helps and good luck!

I also have Aetna. I went to the seminar in May and had my surgery in October. I had to do a 4 month supervised diet and of course get the required test from the dr. After they submitted my paper work I think Aetna only took a few days to a week to approve me.

i hv aetna and had to do the 3 month requirement. i started on 8/17 and met with the surgeon, nurse practioner and nutrititionist, once a month via telephone i spoke with the nutritionist and Nurse over the phone to discuss diet and excercise, maybe u will get lucky and can do it over the phone too, but thats up to dr office after month 3 11/17 my paper work was submitted and it took about 2 weeks for approval b/c aetna said they were b/up from thanksgiving weekend. i lost 20lbs during the 3 months. i had to do a sleep study, endoscopy, cardiologist, psychologist all required one appt only.

I'm 4 weeks post surgery and have Aetna insurance. With this MD, the approval process was quick and stress free. However, this was the 2nd MD that I was working with for the surgery.

The first one took almost 2 years and they still had not submitted the paperwork to the insurance after 2 years. They did however send me for thousands of $$ in pre-admit tests before even submitting the pre-cert to Aetna. I concluded that because this MD was affiliated with a hospital's weight loss program, they wanted to be able to gouge my insurance for as much as possible. I finally left after 2 years and no pre-cert submission to my insurance.

The second MD's office was able to schedule all my insurance requirements (dietitian, psych, sleep test, etc) and compiled my pre-cert packet in 6 months. Only after Aetna approved and a surgery date was set did they order the pre-admit tests.

I've concluded that the process can be slow or fast depending on the efficiency of your MD office staff and of course the coverage requirements of your specific Aetna plan.

Good Luck

Thank you all for responding to my blog. I really want to get this lapband done, I have been in the program at Children's Medical Hospital for about 2-3 years.. & they still haven't even told me when I could get it done. I was thinking maybe because it's a children's place? I started going there when I was 17. Now that I'm 19 I just decided to go somewhere else. I'm excited and Don't mind waiting 3-6 months. I just don't want to wait years like I did at the Children's place. I thank you all for responding once again and wish you all the best of luck with this journey (: Today I am going to my seminar & will post another blog to keep everyone updated on how that went * (: