If you cannot tell by now, I use this blog as a way to vent, blow off steam, get things off my chest or to just share my story in general. Well today it is to vent. I have spent the past two days getting the run around trying to get the insurance thing settled, and I haven't even went to my consultation yet!!! Geesh! Ok, let me backtrack a bit. Early in the year I started thinking about WLS and I contacted my then insurance provider to get all the information about coverage. At that time I had to do 12 consecutive months of medically supervised diet /exercise before I would be considered. I started that in March. I went to see my GP to document it. I joined the YMCA to use their pool for exercise. ( as water therapy is my best bet at this time with the weight/ arthritis) Then my leg issues flared up and I was unable to continue. During the time I was dealing with my leg my employer switched insurance providers. As of June 1st I have been on Anthem Blue Cross. So when I got past the hospitals and bed rest and returned to life, I started thinking strongly about the surgery again. ( Given a poor prognosis on my leg with few treatment options, weight loss is one of the few positive things I can do for it.) So I contacted my new insurance carrier to find out IF our plan covered WLS and what the requirements were for it. My company actually added bariatric surgery as a benefit. ( the original Blue Cross package plan did not cover ) When I was quoted the qualifications I was sure to find out about any mandatory time frame of supervised diet, which to my surprise there was not. All I have to do is provide a list of things I have tried and the results. ( Seems obvious to me the results but...lol) Once I had this information I proceeded to get a referral to a bariatric doctor from my GP, went to the mandatory seminar and just started to get my ducks in a row in general. Then Friday I get a message there is a problem with my insurance. I found out yesterday that , when Dayton Bariatrics contacted Anthem about my coverage, they were told my policy excluded WLS. What happened was whoever took the call only looked at the basic policy, they did not check out the non standard benefits clause. So I made a call to my insurance to get it squared away, then called back the doctor's office to let them know. Last night I found a message on my VM saying that the claims rep for the practice was extremely back logged and did not have time to call my insurance back. Therefore they asked ME to get a statement from Anthem saying that WLS was covered for me, and a list of their requirements for approval. Really??? I have to say this left me feeling a little bewildered. Seems like that is not my place to do this, that the office should handle it. But maybe I am being over sensitive. Anyway, I called my provider back today to make the request. I had to sit on hold upwards of 10 minutes as she collected the information. Then the customer service rep comes back on the line to say she cannot find the requirements list, but can verify I am covered. What the heck???? When I had called before the girl had no problem finding and listing the requirements for me. So the rep puts me back on hold as she calls the doctor's office to verify to them I am covered. Another 5-10 minutes pass and she gets back on the line to say the office still needs the requirement listing, but she will have to search for it. She didn't want me to have to be on hold any longer, but she assured me she would get that information over to them today. Now being somewhat pessimistic I have a feeling this is NOT the last time I will be hearing about this!!!! I rather expect she will not provide said list and I will have to jump through hoops yet again. It is a good thing I am a strong believer that this is what I need to do, because this run around would be enough to put anyone off!