Hello! I am 25 with a BMI of over 55. I originally tried to start this process 2 years ago, but my family was on BCBS and they wouldn't even admit to anyone that called (besides me and my mom) that they actually covered the surgery. We got on new insurance, but I was told I couldn't start the process again until we'd been on our United Healthcare plus plan for a year...but I also had to get the surgery before I aged out of my parent's plan at the end of January 2021. That year mark is April 30th... if you do the math, you see I have enough time to do the 6 month supervised weight loss, but only with maybe two months after to get the surgery done before I have no insurance...
So because April's coming up, I've been allowed to set appointments and do paperwork... while doing this, I realized contrary to what I was told, I was actually allowed to start on the 6 month diet any time within the past 2 years.
So now I'm super stressed it won't all be done in time and paranoid that I'll miss something else that's also important. I'm also worried this weight loss program will work temporarily and they won't let me have surgery because it looks like I'm capable of losing weight on my own for about 40 or 50 pounds.... that one probably isn't as likely, but I still worry because the wording of the requirements say the attempt has to fail... I don't want to fail on purpose.
There seems to be so many possible things that could go wrong. I've struggled with mental health issues my entire life. The past 2 or 3 years have been a lot better, but I'm worried because the absolutely worst things I've struggled with will be in my 5 year record. Including a suicide attempt in 2017, PTSD, major depressive disorder, and dropping out of college to try and fail to get my physical health back on track for over 2 years (although I'VW had a little more success with the mental health side). I know I'm mentally healthy now and more resilient, but I worry I'll be denied at first and the hoops theyll want me to jump through to get approved will take too long and I'll lose my insurance.
I've heard United will let you have your psych evaluation 4 months into the process so you can work through things, but I worry I'll say the wrong thing and they'll want me to jump through more time consuming hoops...I also saw some posts about people with United being able to skip the 6 month diet if their BMI was high enough. That sounds like a dream, it certainly would take the time crunch away and let me jump through whatever mental health hoops they throw at me, but I'm not going to get my hopes up about that... however, if anyone has any more info about that, I'd love to hear it. I'd appreciate any advice or personal experience anyone has in similar situations.
