Meet Trailblazer And Advocate Walter Lindstrom, ESQ
August 26, 2013Walter Lindstrom, ESQ once weighed 405 pounds and faced personal and professional discrimination. Before he became an advocate and trailblazer in patient advocacy, he had to take his own case on in his quest to have weight loss surgery. He won his appeals and underwent RNY gastric bypass in 1994. A complication (gastrogastric fistula) led him to a Lap-Band revision in 2003 and he has since maintained a 175 pound weight loss. Click here to read more of Walter's story.
Paving The Way And Making A Difference
In 1996, Walter Lindstrom became the first person to establish a national advocacy practice devoted to helping patients and health care providers fight for access to all forms of bariatric surgery denied by insurance payers payers and has handled over 5000 appeals. He is internationally recognized as an expert in patient advocacy, bariatric insurance coverage, healthcare reimbursement and professional liability. Mr. Lindstrom has been an Associate Member of the American Society for Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery since 1996, and is active in its Insurance and Access To Care Committees. He is published in several medical journals and is widely quoted by media ranging from “Good Morning America” and the Wall Street Journal to People Magazine and McCall’s on issues ranging from obesity discrimination to bariatric surgery reimbursement, malpractice, and practice management.
Walter presently serves on the National Board of Directors for the Obesity Action Coalition and is active on its Weight Bias and Advocacy Committees. He served on the ASMBS Foundation Board of Directors and in 2003 was recognized with the prestigious ASMBS Integrated Health section’s “Circle Of Excellence” award.To learn more about Walter Lindstrom, his team and work, visit WLS Appeals & stay in touch on Facebook!
WALTER LINDSTROM JOINS THE OBESITYHELP NATIONAL CONFERENCE IN ANAHEIM, CA ON OCTOBER 5th
Fireside Chat with Walter Lindstrom, to Discuss Getting Bariatric, Revision or Reconstructive Surgery Approved and How to Deal with Denials
Saturday, October 5th 1:30 pm – 2:20 pm, Location: Mazatlan AIII
In our first ever Fireside Chat, we’ll be talking with trailblazer, Walter Lindstrom. You’ll be able to ask for his thoughts on tough insurance issues such as getting approval for a revision or reconstructive surgery and how the whole insurance process can be improved for patients and providers alike.
We’ll ask questions such as:
1. Does “one surgery per lifetime” mean I can’t get a necessary revision covered?
2. I paid cash for my surgery after my insurance plan denied my surgery. I’ve been told that I could appeal for reimbursement. Is this even possible and if so, is there a time frame that I would have to try to do this in?
3. After being sick every day, my insurance company approved a band removal but denied a revision to another surgery saying there is no technical failure. I don’t understand how I can be sick every day, they agree to remove it but say there is no failure. Do I have a chance at all to win an appeal of this nature?
If you will be attending this breakout session and have a question that you’d like considered for the Fireside Chat, please submit it below. Note, not all questions may be selected due to the limited time frame of the breakout session. We will ask as many we can adequately address in the session time frame.
