Which insurance offers this surgery easily?

[dyingbreed 1]

The nurse called me back...we talked...she asked me what i weighed..how tall...what i've done in the past...really easy questions like that and she was really nice. all that they required was a certain bmi...which i think was 40 and up...but i'm not sure on that...a psych eval and for you to use a center of excellence. if you have to travel over 50 miles they reimburse you for your expenses. so she gave me a list of doctors and i picked the office that i knew where it was...like i said before i'm in des moines, iowa and need to travel for a center of excellence so i chose minneapolis because we have family there. so she said for me to call them and make an appt and she would contact united behavioral health and another nurse would call me to set up an appt for my pysch eval. i had an appt with a different doc here but had to cancel. you will probably run into more hurdles from your docs office than with the WF uhc plan. my first doctors appt was on jan 14th...i got in for my pysch eval on the 17th. i had to go back to the docs office maybe 2 more times...one was to meet with the surgeon and the other i can't remember what i did. i then had to go up for a preop class and my surgery was on feb 28th...so about 6 weeks in all. the united behavioral health person calls like every 4 weeks to check on you and to set "goals"...it's kinda annoying that's kind of a run down...i can answer more specifically if you want to know anything in detail...just let me know!

No that was great. I checked on the web site and it shows the closest one is three hours away... so I don't know how thats going to work... but I'll figure it out.

Here's a question for you, did the nurse ask why you were interested in the procedure, or how did you hear about it, or why your choosing this over the bypass?

I'm just curious as to what their looking for in that department.

[AAA022414 13]

yean mnpls is about 3.5 hours away but they do reimburse you so that's nice...it's 50.5 cent a mile which comes out to more i paid in gas and then they pay $100 a day for food and lodging...they also pay for drinks and Snacks when you stop at a gas station and that money doesn't actually go into your $100...so pretty much i've been reimbursed more than what it cost me to travel which then took care of pretty much the whole cost of the surgery so really i will end up paying just a couple hundred dollars for the surgery so in a way it's kind of a blessing that it's further away.

i don't know that she asked me why lap band over the bypass but if she had i would have told her my reasoning...so whatever your reasoning just be honest. they ask you why weight loss surgery and you just say you've tried other things...dieting...exercise...and you just need an extra tool to push you along and give you some guidance. same thing with the pysch eval...be vague but honest...you'll need to take the mmpi and another short pysch test...they're not bad...just tedious...again answer honestly...it's a statistically based test that compares you to other people just like you. mine came out that i have an addictive personality and that i don't like taking the advise of medical personel...which i found quite interesting and not exactly true but whatever...apparently i passed.

[Texas_Mom_5573 0]

U can call each insurance company that offers the coverage and make sure they don't exclude it. Just because the insurance company covers it the company you work for may choose to exclude it.

[dyingbreed 1]

yean mnpls is about 3.5 hours away but they do reimburse you so that's nice...it's 50.5 cent a mile which comes out to more i paid in gas and then they pay $100 a day for food and lodging...they also pay for drinks and Snacks when you stop at a gas station and that money doesn't actually go into your $100...so pretty much i've been reimbursed more than what it cost me to travel which then took care of pretty much the whole cost of the surgery so really i will end up paying just a couple hundred dollars for the surgery so in a way it's kind of a blessing that it's further away.

i don't know that she asked me why lap band over the bypass but if she had i would have told her my reasoning...so whatever your reasoning just be honest. they ask you why weight loss surgery and you just say you've tried other things...dieting...exercise...and you just need an extra tool to push you along and give you some guidance. same thing with the pysch eval...be vague but honest...you'll need to take the mmpi and another short pysch test...they're not bad...just tedious...again answer honestly...it's a statistically based test that compares you to other people just like you. mine came out that i have an addictive personality and that i don't like taking the advise of medical personel...which i found quite interesting and not exactly true but whatever...apparently i passed.

Gota love working for a big company...ha-ha... getting paid to lose weight..ha-ha..

Wow so I have to do psych tests...? oh no, they might figure out I'm a mess... ha-ha...

[AAA022414 13]

Gota love working for a big company...ha-ha... getting paid to lose weight..ha-ha..

Wow so I have to do psych tests...? oh no, they might figure out I'm a mess... ha-ha...

haha i know! my doctor allowed me to take however much time i needed as well so i took just under 3 weeks...i used short term disability...so i only had to use 5 days of pto...wells fargo has pretty good benefits...

[dyingbreed 1]

haha i know! my doctor allowed me to take however much time i needed as well so i took just under 3 weeks...i used short term disability...so i only had to use 5 days of pto...wells fargo has pretty good benefits...

Yeah I'm starting to see that.

But I'm on the mortgage sales side, so 100% commission isn't the easiest to take time off. But I hear you, I'll probably have to work from home for a week or so.

I'm getting all excited.....ha-ha...:huh2:

[kozlosap 0]

Lindabear, please don't feel alone! I'm just starting this process and reading the posts on LBT daily has really helped me to have hope and to not expect things to happen quickly, but to take it day by day. Have you talked to another surgeon at Kaiser about your surgery? I know that they do surgeries at the Oakland and Redwood City facilities too. There should be a Kaiser support group for lapbanders in the bay area and I'm sure they could give you the name of another physician you could contact. I'll keep you in my prayers!

[dyingbreed 1]

I finally spoke to someone at United Resource, and they declined me for the band. She said I was "only" at a BMI of 37, and it has to be above 40.

I told the lady, so what I have to gain more weight and have more problems for them to cover it... and she said "basically".

GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR.......................

[AAA022414 13]

I finally spoke to someone at United Resource, and they declined me for the band. She said I was "only" at a BMI of 37, and it has to be above 40.

I told the lady, so what I have to gain more weight and have more problems for them to cover it... and she said "basically".

GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR.......................

I'm sorry!

[dyingbreed 1]

I'm sorry!

Yeah she wasn't very nice... I'm like I'm trying to get this weight under control before I have more problems.. she wasn't hearing it. :tt1:

:tt2:

[AAA022414 13]

do you have any co-morbities...i wonder if that would make a difference?

[dyingbreed 1]

do you have any co-morbities...i wonder if that would make a difference?

Well I guess there wasn't enough proof for them.

I explained that my family has great history of heart disease, and that my father had his first quadruple bypass when he was 42, and then had his first heart attack at 48.

So I expressed that I did not want to get to that point, thats why I wanted to stop it here.

I mean my BMI is 38... ah duh... heart disease, high blood pressure, and BMI of 38... starting to see a problem..

[AAA022414 13]

did you tell them you have high blood pressure? you should ask them how many comorbities they need to lower the bmi...have your doctor diagnose you with something else quick =) my pcp was super supportive of the operation...i have/had high blood pressure so he said i would probably need to so since my cholesterol was on the high normal so he diagnosed me with elevated lipids and since my blood sugar was on high normal so he then diagnosed with me elevated blood sugars too...so maybe that's an option

[dyingbreed 1]

did you tell them you have high blood pressure? you should ask them how many comorbities they need to lower the bmi...have your doctor diagnose you with something else quick =) my pcp was super supportive of the operation...i have/had high blood pressure so he said i would probably need to so since my cholesterol was on the high normal so he diagnosed me with elevated lipids and since my blood sugar was on high normal so he then diagnosed with me elevated blood sugars too...so maybe that's an option

Nice.... Ok off to my doctor I go then... :tt1:

[AAA022414 13]

good luck! keep me posted...make sure you call united behavioral health back to see if it would make a difference before you go through all the trouble...ask them if you have comorbities if it would lower the bmi requirement and how many you need to have to qualify for them. some plans require 2 some only require 1 other's may need like 15 knowing these ins companies =)