AlaskaCare Insurance Problems

Has anyone else had a recent problem obtaining approval ffrom the State of Alaska's AlaskaCare insurance program for their gastric bypass surgery? I discovered earlier this week that the state's administrator for the AlaskaCare program, Aetna HealthCare of Washing, may have been using the wrong criteria to adjudicate claims since January. On January 17, Aetna issued a Coverage Policy Bulletin which cited an expanded set of requirements that had to be met before the surgery would be approved. However, that Coverage Policy Bulletin applies only to people covered by an insurance policy purchased from Aetna. The State of Alaska is self insured and has its own, unique selection criteria for the surgery. Only the requirements listed in the State of Alaska Group Insurance Information Booklet should be used to adjudicate a claim for AlaskaCare participants -- including retirees! If you and your surgeon have been forced by the Aetna claims people to jump through a lot of needess hoops recently to gain approval for your surgery and you are insured through the State of Alaska AlaskaCare program, you may want to contact Retirement and Benefits ASAP. I'd like to hear about the experiences of others. I suspect I will still have to file one or more appeals before my surgery is approved even thought I have a 20 year medically documented struggle with weight. Good luck to you all. LeRoyAK