Blue Cross Complete of Michigan

[JulieC85 0]

Anyone else get approved with this insurance?? I know they pay for it, but need information on the requirements and time length and such for “this” insurance specifically please!!! I hear a lot of different things from different people.

[Heather E 68]

According to the website- BCBS Complete requires - Hope this helps!

6 Months

Medically Supervised Diet and Current Diet History

(Greater than or equal to 6 months)

[S@ssen@ch 745]

I have BCBS of Michigan and my recent sleeve surgery was my 2nd bariatric procedure under the same insurance plan. The first being lap band in 2005.

I haven't read the actual language of the policy, but when I went for my initial consult the doctor's staff came in prepared with it all printed out. They told me that the insurance required a 6 month medically supervised diet. It's also possible that there were BMI requirements. What I've seen is that they set a threshold for minimum BMI with and without co-morbid conditions.

All other pre-operative tests seemed very routine to prove medical necessity and/or to make sure you were healthy enough to go through surgery: blood work, upper GI, psych testing, sleep study, chest x-ray, cardiac clearance, etc.

both times the doctor's insurance staff asked me to write a letter about why I needed the surgery. Basically, I just explained my struggles with weight loss and tried to show that without it I would have more health problems. By the way, doing this really helped me put things into perspective and I learned that I seem to have a "set point" where my weight keeps landing.

Both times, I got approved right away. Honestly, I had more trouble with insurance when I had the lap band removed in 2009. They denied and I had to go through a really messy appeals process that took so long the doctor/hospital started threatening me with collection.