Back~To~Amy

Thinking of you today and hoping day 1 goes good!

http://www.stampoutfraud.com/ The above link is for reporting insurance fraud in Virginia. Y'all might want to go that route.

Tahnee----thinking of you and sending good vibes your way as you start your preop diet today! I hope all goes well.

Hi Tex411. What's your name? Send me your e-mail to amyh@tx.rr.com and I will add you to our group. Tahnee is scheduled too with Dr. Smith on 04/02. Maybe y'all could hold each other's hands!

Duh! That's one of the more obvious things I didnt think about. Thanks for the reminder Wendy. Small bites, chewing my food thoroughly and not drinking with meals aren't my strong points. Probably none of ours or we wouldnt be here. :-)

Tahnee, I'm nervous for you. The whole preop and postop diet scares me to death. Good luck to you. I'm sending good vibes your way.

I have an idea and I'm willing to volunteer to do it. How about everyone email me ( or whoever ends up in charge of this) your first name, where you live and/or work, your banding status and whatever else about yourself you'd like the group to know about you. We can make a master list including our email addresses to distribute to each existing member and anyone new to the group. Like I said, I will volunteer to do this. However, I didn't start the group and don't wanna step on toes so to speak. Thoughts????

Welcome Trina! I hope your journey is progressing well. I look forward to getting to know you and the others.

Welcome Airam. I'm Amy and I work in Plano, live in Coppell. The more to our group, the merrier! Best of luck to you on your journey.

That's is awesome! I love what B-52 said.

In all my research and reading about complications and such, it never occurred to me until today if the band is supposed to last for forever. I understand things can happen requiring removal of it but under normal circumstances, is the band designed to last for forever if you have no complications? What did your surgeon tell you?

Good luck to you and congrats to finally getting to this point!

A big congrats to you yaya! Onederland, no matter where you are in it, is something to celebrate!

I work for an insurance company and actually investigate suspected insurance fraud. What you describe is insurance fraud. You need to notify your insurance company. You should also contact the Department of Insurance and report his activites! Sorry you are going through this.

Good for you and good luck! I hope they are all very supportive of your decision.

I called my insurance company (Anthem BCBS) yesteday and was told I had coverage for LB surgery. The guy told me that once my deductible and copays are met (which they will be because of another surgery), the LB would be covered at 100% by them and I'd owe nothing. Well, I called back today because I was trying to get additional information and now am being told they will only pay 50% of it and it isn't subject to my deductible and out of pocket maximum. I told the girl of my conversation yesterday and she is going to check further and call me back but she is pretty sure I was given wrong information yesterday. If I have to pay half, there is no way I can afford this surgery now with what I'm going to have to pay out of pocket for my other surgery. Yeah, I might could finanace, but I doubt I could afford that monthly payment so that would nix that! Ugh!

Yeah, I didn't think it was right how Angela from the Bariatrics line talked to me. I mean saying things like " I'm not going to tell you that" because this is a process and I have to go through it. I did get a call from a girl in the general customer service area. She was super sweet and told me she talked to the supervisor over the insurance for my company. She is the one who told me I only have 50% coverage and the surgery had to be done in a center of excellence. Centers of excellence are all hospitals. When I called the doctors office they told me 50% of the charges done in a hospital would exceed their cash price so I was better off to go that route. I'm still gonna see what the Bariatrics group sends me to see if it will be any different. I'm not holding out much hope of that though. I'm prepared to do the cash option if I have to though. I don't want to but it may be that or no surgery.

That is great to hear! After being told I had great coverage for WLS, I found out that is not the case. I have coverage, but the coverage is so bad it would cost me more to use it then to pay the self-pay prices. I've pretty much convinced myself to do it, but darn it is so hard to spend that much money!

I can see very limited coverage on line. Apparently, the lack of insurance coverage is because my employer. They are basically in charge of setting what the coverage is.

Thanks Ken for shaing your story with us. It's nice to read success stories such as yours.

That's great cocamokis! You have been through a lot to get this far. I'm sending good vibes your way that all goes well and you get to have your surgery this time!

Well, my insurance originally and incorrectly told me they would cover 100% of WLS after my deductible and maxiums. I found out oficially, that is not the case. They only cover 50% and that is after my deductible with no maxium out of pocket. The WLS center told me I'm better off going with the cash price than the insurance price as it would be cheaper. There is just no way in heck I can pay 10,000 or even make the monthyly payments if I were to finance it, so I guess that means I'm done! :-(

Bev---Yeah, I made the post right after the news from my insurance company. I regrouped and that, along with some time, gave me a new perspective. I am worth this and it is worth spending my money on! I do have credit cards in the event something major comes up while I rebuild my savings. And, I have family I could borrow from if need be. One has already told me so! Actually, she told me I could borrow from her and my brother-in-law if I needed/wanted to for the actual procedure. Love my sister! She and my mother are my two biggest supporters in life and are both always there for me. LadyFromIrvine--thats a great price for fills. For me, it is the airfare that would add up. It isn't cheap to fly out there! Thanks for the info. though. Ya never know when I need to pass it on to someone else.

I understand how hard it is to tell them. I've wanted to have this surgery for years, but telling people stopped me. I am the only one in my family who is really overweight. I am very successful in all aspects of my life except my weight and it was embarrasing to admit that by admitting I wanted WLS. However, I will be meeting my deductible and annual out of pocket because of another surgery. I called my insurance company and told WLS would be free once I met my out of pocket so I felt I had no choice but to mention it to my BFF, Mom and Sister who are all skinny. I mean who would be stupid enough to pass it up if it were free, right? They were all SOOOO supportive of me. What a relief! I did find out though it won't be free. I was given wrong information but I'm still leaning toward doing it. Best of luck to you!