Anyway to accelerate the process

I have to do a six month medically supervised diet. Is there anyway to accelerate the process to around three months? I have been on every diet there is but none within the last two years as required by my insurance company. I have BCBS.

I had BCBS also. Consider yourself lucky... I had to do a full 12 month supervised diet and I DID have documentation from weight loss centers. They didn't consider that "medically supervised" so I had to start over with my doctor and a nutritionist. Of course, a nutritionist wasn't covered under my plan, so that was all out of pocket expense. From what I have heard and been thru, BCBS is one of the hardest insurance plans to get to approve this. They will eventually, once all the proper paperwork is in order. I certainly don't want to discourage you, but it took me almost 2 years to get them to ok the surgery. I was 100+ pounds overweight, a BMI of 42, and several of the listed core morbitities, and still had to go thru their hoops. It was a challenge to say the least. They wanted me to take doctor ordered diet pills. I had to get a letter from my doctor and cardiologist that stated a previous heart condition didn't allow me to take diet pills without significant side effects. I had already done the psych eval and meetings with the surgeon, etc. Since they didn't accept the previous diet, and I had to do the 12 months over, the psych eval was then "over a year old" and I had to do that again! Trust me, this is just the beginning of this adventure. The good news is, once they approved it, I had the surgery within a month and they did cover all the bills (other than my deductable). I had my surgery Aug 31st and am doing very well. I have lost almost 50 pounds and feel great. All I can suggest is to be sure to get documentation at least once a month (or find out if they require more visits under your policy) from the doctor or nutritionist, documenting weight gain/loss, what exercise you did AND that it is recommended by your doctor. (They got me on that, too. I had records from the gym I attended and documentation from the nutritionist about the exercise, but they had to see an order "for exercise" from the doctor. Believe it or not!) I finally had to have my doctor call BCBS and do a consult with one of their doctors. I certainly hope your dealings with them goes better. Six months isn't bad. Be sure that's all that they require. You can be doing some of the other requirements during that 6 months to help it go faster. This is a lifetime change. You can use the 6 months to practice eating slower and getting into good eating habits. Hopefully some of this will help you get it approved the first time. I wish you the best.

Thanks a bunch. I am seeing my physician on Saturday to see if he wants to do the medical supervised diet or recommend someplace else. I hope my journey is going to go smoothly and I get an approval the first time. Thanks for you reply.

Joann, Have you been seeing a doctor for the last 2 years? If so has they been talking or documenting your weight and weight issues? If they have that might work for BCBS. I am not sure but it is worth the try. Sorry I couldn't help more. Kathleen G from Missouri

Dear Joann, I really feel for you, facing the approval process, and feeling like it's never going to happen. That's the way I felt, but the nurse involved in bariatric surgery approval for my insurance company was very helpful and supportive. What I would recommend is: 1. Get a written list of what they require for approval. Find out if you need to have all paperwork submitted at the same time. For my insurance company, once they received any part of the paperwork, it started the clock ticking, and they had a certain amount of time to respond. Of course if anything was missing, the request was denied. 2. Find out if the MD visits have to be each month x 6 months, and what happens if you skip a month. 3. Find out if there has to be 30 days between visits. I was able to see my MD a few weeks early in the last month, because they only cared that the visit was once per calendar month, even though there was only 14 days between visits. If that is the case for you, your visit for the first time could be later in the month, and early in the last month. That may cut down the time to wait at least a little. 4. Develop a relationship with someone at the insurance company (or at least get a name and phone number) who knows about bariatric surgery approval. Don't hesitate to call with any questions, to find out the status of your request, or to find out if they even received your request. I made several phone calls at various times, and found out immediately when they were missing certain required papers. Don't worry about being a pest. 5. Remember that time passes whether you are waiting for approval or not. Focus on living your life and having a life. Do as much reading about WLS as possible. Try some protein supplements to find out what you like and dislike. 6. Make sure your doctor writes a note that is very detailed in regards to what kind of diet you are following, where you seem to be having problems, your current weight and weight gained or lost, what kind of exercise you are doing, and how much and how often you are doing it. He should mention that you have been tested for medical causes for obesity. Don't worry if you have problems dieting, because if we could diet, why would we want surgery? 7. Find out if your PCP and/or surgeon would like you to have certain tests or consults for surgical clearance. Use the time you are waiting to have them done. I only needed 3 months of MD supervised diet and exercise, but because the ins. co. didn't inform me that the months needed to be consecutive, and that WW doesn't count, even though I saw my MD during that time period, it took 6 months to get approval. But time passed, and now I am almost 4 weeks post-op and down 28 pounds. From my perspective, it's a journey well worth traveling! Best wishes, Linda