NOW WHAT!!!

O.K. you will not believe this after being told in February by BCBS that I will need a six month history of a medically supervised diet, which I started in February. This is now the end of August and my last month or so I thought. On Friday I called BCBS again to make sure that I would be submitting all they require and was told they now require 12 month medically supervised diet. That means six more months... I just scheduled all of my other appointments: psyc,dietician, lung specialist etc. NOW WHAT! DAMM!

I'm so sorry to hear that! I'm in the approval stage right now with BC/BS HMO...just submitted last week. I too only submitted 6 "consecutive" months of structured weight loss...the doctors office told me I didn't even need to submit that - but it was my choice to go ahead and do so. I'd try BC/BS again just to make sure, in the past I've been told different things by different people...I've also heard other WLS patients say the same thing...call again and inquire and ask for the policy in writing...you can also get your human resource department to help you. Good Luck, I'll say a prayer for you!

I have BC/BS of GA PPO, all I provided was a list of all the diets I tried in the past. Put dates on them and gave to my pcp so he could put on his letter head. When BC/bs got all my info, pych, nutri, etc, etc they approved me in two days. So make a list of everything you have done in the past and get your pcp to put on his letter head, and get them to fax it to your surgeon so it can be summited with all your other paperwork. Michelle

I agree with the other posters above. You may want to go over your diet history with your doctor and have them submit this as part of the additional 6 months of diet history. Maybe you just caught the BCBS person on a bad day. I had BCBS and all I did was submit the history. Hang in there and fight girl! It will be worth it. Phyllis