plastic surgeron

Hi im Stephanie I have just recently had my ds 2nd anniversary and my starting weight was 350 before surgery 323 and now I weigh 151 so my ds has been a great life changing experience. Even though it's not by any means been easy I can say I have been blessed. I am looking for some advise for plastic surgery for skin removal if anyone can tell me how to help get approved through my insurance which I have united healthcare and they are not the same insurance I had when I had my surgery also I dont really have any health problems just the occ rash from the heat but nothing bad. Also if so does anyone know any good surgeons I am from the southeast Ky area thx

Hi Stephanie,
I do not know the answer to your question but you may be able to find more answers on the plastic surgery board.  Go up to the Forums tab at the top of the screen it is in the first column.  Good Luck to you.

Kym

Stephanie - from my experience the most important thing is to find a plastic surgery with experience working with WLS patients. I went to two plastic surgeons for consultations. One didn't work very much with WLS patients but had a great reputation. They didn't even want to submit to my insurance company but I insisted. It was immediately rejected. I then went to a plastic surgeon who had worked on many WLS patients (and also had a great reputation). He took lots of pictures and evidently wrote the greatest medical necessity letter because my tummy tuck was approved by my insurance company. So I had a TT and paid his fee for the breast lift done at the same time. Total out of pocket for me for everything was about $4,000.

I lost about the same amount of weight as you (344 down to about 150 pounds) I had an extended tummy tuck (fleur de lis/anchor cut) and a brachioplasty a year ago. I am thrilled with my results.

If you PM me with your email address, I can send you the letter we gave my insurance company. They paid for the tummy in full and I covered the arms myself since the big-ticket items were already being paid for by insurance (hospital, anesthesiology, etc.).

Couple of key things:

--Check your policy carefully for what they require. Start documenting those things with photos and doctors' visits. (Trust me, they have very specific requirements as to how many inches your panni can droop, etc.)
--Call it "reconstructive surgery" not plastics in all of your correspondence.

Nicolle

I used Nicolle's letter and also got approval for the panniculectomy portion of my LBL.

The most important thing is to find out exactly what your insurance company will cover and what criteria must be met in order to cover it.  Then make sure you meet that criteria and document it in your medical records. 

Get several consults with plastic surgeons who have experience with WLS patients.