Anyone had the surgery on Cobra?

[jencys 2]

I recently accepted a new job, my current insurance covers the surgery and the papers were just sent in for approval. I'm covered through the end of March, however if the surgery is not done in March I'd have to sign up for Cobra. I'm wondering if anyone else has done this or if I should really push to have the surgery in March. My new company does not have insurance the covers the lap band

[LynneB 0]

I ran into this problem w/ my ins. I was on cobra when I started the process for surgery. However, in the middle of the process cobra switched to an individual conversion plan since I exhausted the 18 months. Had I not done my research I would have ended up on a cobra conversion plan that totally excluded banding. Make sure the cobra plan you switch to does not have an exclusion in the policy, if your ins knows you are running out of time and trying to get the surgery, they will deliberately try to switch your regular plan to a bariatric exclusion plan on cobra without even telling you. Make sure you read your cobra contract really well before you accept it, there are cobra plans that cover it but not as easily as a group plan will. Dont fall for the "Cobra is just an extended version of your group plan with all the same benefits" Cuz, I can assure you IT ISNT!!