Scooterbug

Thanks for the reply and heads up. When you got your policy was it during open enrollment? I am going to school full time for Medical Billing and Coding. This semester we started on our Insurance part of the class. From what I understand (and also clarified with my instructor) during open enrollment an insurance company is not "supposed to" use the pre-existing condition against someone. If you did start your insurance during open enrollment, make sure you fight them tooth and nail. "Regulations about pre-existing condition exclusions may vary from state to state, but generally speaking the following applies: If you are enrolling in a health plan on an approriate eligibility date (such as open enrollment, taking a new job, becoming newly eligible due to marriage, etc.) pre-existing condition exclusions do not apply" My wife just signed up during open enrollment...so going by what I have read and researched, pre-exisiting condition should not be a problem. Keeping my fingers crossed.

Hey Ella, I live in Jacksonville Fl as well. My wife and I are attending a seminar with Dr Cywes on Nov 16th, and if all goes well...we are hoping to both be banded early next year (new insurance kicks in Jan 1st so we have to wait until then to get officially satrted). How was your experience with Dr Cywes so far? My wifes biggest fear is that she will not do good on her Pre-Op diet when the time comes...how long did Dr Cywes have you on it? PS: Love the New York Mets logo as your profile pic!!! Thats my favorite team!!

Sorry to hear about that..... Back in 2009 I was very excited to learn that the insurance company I had covered Lapband, so I went to a seminar and was about to set up an appointment to meet with a surgeon when I discovered my EMPLOYER (Verizon Wireless) did not cover it. Needless to say I was peeved. Now in 2011 my wife is about to get insurance through her new job. It took alot of digging and calling different people (her HR department, UHC, UMR, etc) but we did verify that both the insurance and company cover Lapband. As far as our requirments my wife was told they would be the UHC requirments, so we have someone in her HR department trying to get us the EXACT information we need. I want to have every peice of info I can get involving requirments before I attend another seminar on the 16th. In a case like yours I personally think the surgeon/doctor SHOULD refund all or at least 1/2 of what you paid them.

Thanks Melinda, My biggest peeve at the moment comes from lack of information from my wifes HR department and UMR. Her HR simply sent there employees a short email alerting them of open enrollment. My wife had search for a couple hours on there internal website and she found only a small bit of information (printed out it came to 5 pages..just saying what was covered, co-pay, coinsurance %, etc). My wife contacted her HR person and they refered my wife to call the 1-800 number for there main HR person..since she didn't have any information on the insurance. The main 1-800 told her the same thing, that they didn't have any information...and they refered my wife to call UMR. Well upon calling UMR my wife was told they couldn't help her unless she was ALREADY enrolled in the insurance plan..then they told her to call her HR department. So far from what we DID find..some type of bariactric surgery is covered. As far as the requirments we are still in the dark. Was trying to get as much information as possible before we got our hopes up.

I am from Jacksonville as well. My wife just signed up for open enrollment with her new job, and we were thrilled to find out Lap Band was covered!! We are both going to attend a seminar from Dr. Cywes on the 16th.