Unlurking.... and an insurance ?

Hi, I have been reading and lurking here since the summer, and have gotten lots of great information. Dr. Aranow is my physician. As of two weeks ago, I am 1 lb. away from the 10 he wants me to lose prior to surgery.Unfortunately due to having 3 sick 8yr. old triplets at home, and now school vacation, I have not been able to get there to get weighed again. I will go on Monday or Tuesday, depending on the weather. Anyway, insurance was never a problem, as mine covered it, as long as it was medically necessary. Unfortunately, for me, my husband was offered a new job today with a new company, and Anthem will be our new insurance.Am I remembering correctly that they are no longer covering weight loss surgery? If this is the case, we may just have to buy cobra until I have the surgery.Even if we have to buy it for 2 or 3 months, it will certainly be less expensive than paying for surgery out of pocket. By the way, did anybody here have to pay for lap band out of pocket?If so , how much did it run? Thanks in advance for all your help, and hopefully now that I have come out of lurkdom, I will stay that way. Marcia

Marcia, I have Anthem and had my surgery a week ago and it was covered in full. Whether or not your company (or hubby's) includes a rider for weight loss surgery is the question. I work for the State of CT. and they covered it with no issue through Anthem Bc/BS...it is employer specific. You can simply call Anthem and ask if your hubby's new employer has an exclusion or not. Best of luck with your situation and your sugery! Kristin

Marcia- Check with your husbands new plan. Each ins rider is different. If the company he has the new job with..has the rider there should be no problem. Just make sure you get it in writing somewhere. Good luck on your weight loss journey. You are in great hands with Dr Aranow! Joanie

Welcome and glad you have come out of hiding! Good luck with the insurance. I have had insurance issues and had I known what a pain in the butt my new insurance would be, I would have done COBRA when I switched jobs last year!! Good Luck, Phyllis

Hi Marcia, I would definately keep the coverage no matter how outrageous the amount is. I didn't have to pay out of pocket for my band but the bills totalled about $35,000! good luck when you go to weigh in!

Hi, Marcia! It's nice to see that you've come out of hiding! Sorry to hear that all 3 of the younger ones were sick at the same time...of all times for them to finally decide to pay attention to the things you've been saying to them about sharing with each other. In a couple of former jobs, one of my duties was insurance administrator. Generally COBRA is only available for the period of time until you become eligible for other insurance, so if the insurance that comes with your husband's new job doesn't have a waiting period until it kicks in, and if he goes right from one job to the other, you wouldn't be eligible for COBRA. And if he doesn't opt for the insurance coverage as soon as he's eligible, you might have problems choosing it later re preexisting conditions. Make sure you know exactly when he's eligible for the insurance and when the coverage begins before he makes any decisions re COBRA. That said, I hope this is the job you were telling me about that has the better hours so you'll be more easily able to come to support group meetings in the future. Of course the next 2 meetings are for pre-ops only, but I'm planning to go to the one on 3/14. Maybe by then we can stop saying "weather permitting." Hopefully you'll be able to go to that one. Good luck getting to Dr. A's office soon. By now you must have lost that last lb. along with a few of its friends! Hugs, Debby