HEALTHEASE anyone????

hello to all i'm new at this and i've been trying to get my doctor to help me with getting approved for a lapband here in the panhandle or in florida. My doctor is clueless and insists that Healthease does not approve it and that no doctor accepts this insurance. I've attended the seminar, tried all the diets and meet all the requirements andam morbidily obese. Can anyone help with information please Thank you kindly Luci

Luci, Have you taken a look at the bariatric surgeons in Florida listed on this site? (it is on the left). It lists whether they do rny, lapband, etc. I would think you'd need to contact the dr office directly to see if they accept your insurance. More importantly, I suggest you get your insurance policy and see if there are any exclusions for weight loss surgery, specifically the lapband. My insurance considers lapband investigational and does not cover lapband, although it does cover rny (this was in my policy that I never had read). Good luck!

Thank you so much Lucky domino and Donna for your reply. I will research it further. :-)

Hi Luci, I am in the Pensacola area as well. I am sure Dr. Pete Lord at Sacred Heart Hospital would know if Healthease covers the surgery or not. He does lap-band and RNY. I know Baptist and Sacred Heart have support groups and so does Santa Rosa Medical Center. Dr. Althar at Santa Rosa does RNY. I dont know about West Florida Hospital. I talked to the staff at Sacred Heart before Dr. Lord got to town. they are very nice. Good luck donna

hello Donna thanks so much for the reply i attended a seminar at sacred heart with Dr. Lord, and yes they are very nice. I did call and they said they did not know who accepted Healthease. :-( I'll keep trying i suppose, it's so frustrating.

Luci- I would get a list of surgeons and start calling to see if any do take your insurance. I think a better source of information on surgeons is the American Society of Bariatric Surgery website. (ASBS). I know everyone gets tired of seeing me post this but any surgeon that is well trained as a bariatric surgeon is going to be a member of the ASBS, while on the other hand, this website is a commercial website and frankly not all surgeons participate on the internet. Consequently there are some good surgeons that are not listed on this site. Red