Where's Red Wine Lover??

Shesha · February 15, 2007

Hey, haven't heard from you in a while. Do you have a band date yet? How is the preop diet going?

Red wine lover · February 23, 2007

Hey, haven't heard from you in a while. Do you have a band date yet? How is the preop diet going?

Hi Shesha!

Latest in the saga is this; After insurance turned me down (no obesity or morbid obesity surgery for personal appearance sake, their only out), I went to my HR rep. She sounded very positive that, because of our company's reputation for wellness programs, that she might be able to get lap-band surgery added to our insurance coverage.

Long story, short; the company insurance consultant told HR that lap-band surgery, at $60,000 to $70,000, was too expensive and the complications too great. Where in the world they got their facts and figures, I have no idea!

I sent a (semi) scathing reply to HR's email to me, stating the real costs and much lower rate of complications, remembering that I still want to A) continue to work here! and She's still my best hope of getting this added to the insurance. I also re-iterated my offer to have one of the hospital's coordinators come speak to HR personally. I ran into this HR lady last week and she said the head of HR would be emailing me more about this. I'm still waiting....

Pre-op diet has slowed down, I'm at 21 pounds lost since Jan 11. I know I need to add exercise. I could do so much better with a concrete goal date.

Bill

Shesha · February 24, 2007

Glad to hear from you!!

Wow! What a bummer. So, you're just overwieght, no co-morbidities? (personal appearance)

Well, our insurance specifically exclude weight loss surgery, so I was self pay. I went to Dr. K in Denver. $9,950.00 for everything!! He's really great and growing quite the (good) reputation.

It might be worth it to just say "screw you" to insurance, warm up that credit card and call Dr. K. By the time you MIGHT get insurance to approve it, you could be banded and down 80 lbs by going to Dr. K.

His website address is in my signature. See the "considering Dr. Kirshenbaum" thread under Dr's and Hospitals for a ton more infomation. Let me know if you have any quesitons!