chicakms

Hi, I'm new. I've been thinking of getting banded I went to the information session and today I met with the doctor. I'm feeling very discouraged :smile2: When I talked with the PA he made it seem like I was a good candidate and would be able to have the surgery. Then when I met with the doctor he didn't seem as optimistic. I am 5'3" and 210 lbs and my BMI is 37. I have high cholesterol and triglycerides that are treated with medication and thought those were on the co-morbidities list but the doc didn't think they were so serious...he said had I had high blood pressure or diabetes then we would more than likely get approved. After meeting with the doctor we met with the insurance coordinator. She also didn't seem as optimistic. She said United Health Care is one of the tougher companies to get approved by. She told me to go to my doctor and try and get a 5 year weight history showing how much my weight has increased in the last 5 years. Then she would submit with a bogus tentative surgery date to see if they would approve. Did anyone else have these problems?

I live in NJ. I've been to so many different doctors I don't think getting my weight history should be much of a problem. How long did the whole process take you from beginning to end?

Thanks Melinda:smile2: I don't have high blood pressure...but I'm sure it's in my future because both my parents and older brother take medicine for it. I do have anxiety/depression and I'm currently seeing a psychiatrist and psychologist. I think most of the anxiety/depression is related to the weight issues. I just feel so discouraged. My PCP doctors office is staffed by morons they're always losing things and messing things up. I've been in the room with my doctor more than once when she was reading my chart and she finds papers that don't belong to me in my chart..there is a patient with a similar name to mine. They also mess up my dad and brothers charts up because they are a jr. and sr. I don't think my PCP will be supportive of this- she has known for years the weight has bothered me and she always pushes the South Beach Diet and exercise on me or pills. She's put me on numerous ADD medications because their side effect is weight loss. Antidepressants are what caused this stupid weight gain in the first place. :smile2: I'm gonna call and see what the PCP can do for me. They also gave me a prescription to have blood tests and xrays done but they said wait until we know if I get approved. I just read you self paid and it was $12,000....We did discuss self pay but the coordinator said the hospital alone would be at least 10,000 and that doesn't even take into account the other fees like anesthesiologist and other costs. I'm collecting unemployment right now so thought it would be a good time to get it done but the unemployment runs out in a few more weeks. I wish I had thought of this earlier when I was first laid off last Oct.

Hi, I just went to the doctor today and he said we could try to get insurance approval but he didn't seem optimistic. I'm 5'3" and 210 lbs and my BMI was 37. I have United Health Care for insurance and the coordinator said they're a tough company. She told me go to my doctor/s and get a 5 year documentation or the weight gain. From what I read on many websites the comorbidities that I had were depression and high cholesterol but I guess they're not that serious because the doctor told me if I had high blood pressure or diabetes I'd get approved with that BMI. This is very frustrating.