Too good to be true???
My insurance company required:
I get a letter of medical necessity from my PCP
and
a six month supervised weight loss or two three month stretches with Weigh****chers, Jennie Craig or Nutrasystem. I did the PCP weight loss.
My surgeon required a ginormous list of other things, including a host of pre-op tests, a sleep apnea test, a psych eval and a CT scan of my lower extremities - all of which were done during my six months.
And six months seems like forever, but you'll be surprised at how fast it actually goes by.
I get a letter of medical necessity from my PCP
and
a six month supervised weight loss or two three month stretches with Weigh****chers, Jennie Craig or Nutrasystem. I did the PCP weight loss.
My surgeon required a ginormous list of other things, including a host of pre-op tests, a sleep apnea test, a psych eval and a CT scan of my lower extremities - all of which were done during my six months.
And six months seems like forever, but you'll be surprised at how fast it actually goes by.
Visit my blog at I'm Being Bypassed
I had a similar experience. I decided I wanted to use Dr. Averbach and called up his office to set up an appointment and found out that they were "in network" for my insurance which means I would be covered 100%
I had to jump through a few hoops both for insurance approval and the surgeon's office but I am very organized and got as much as I could together before my first consult with Dr. A (1/23/10) and due to having all that taken care of, I was scheduled for surgery less than 2 months later.
So yeah, sometimes it can be "that easy." My best advice is to always cover your bases (several times), have a backup plan or two, and stay on top of everyone you talk to along the way to make sure they are doing what they said they would to move the process along. I might sound like a pain in the ass ***** BUT I'm a PITAB who got her surgery quickly!
I had to jump through a few hoops both for insurance approval and the surgeon's office but I am very organized and got as much as I could together before my first consult with Dr. A (1/23/10) and due to having all that taken care of, I was scheduled for surgery less than 2 months later.
So yeah, sometimes it can be "that easy." My best advice is to always cover your bases (several times), have a backup plan or two, and stay on top of everyone you talk to along the way to make sure they are doing what they said they would to move the process along. I might sound like a pain in the ass ***** BUT I'm a PITAB who got her surgery quickly!
Hey Danni - I'm not sure if you got my other message about insurance but I recommend that you contact Janice Bryant in Dr. Kligman's office. She is the Program Coordinator and she deals with the insurance companies. She's very well versed in what they all require. Apparently our insurance companies tend to give us misinformation on the front end a lot of times but she gets the requirements in writing from them frequently and knows who accepts what. She will make sure you don't have to do anything that's not required for approval. :) If you do have to do the 6 months, make sure your first counted visit with the nutritionist, Mary Beth is April 12th when you see the doctor. Even if you don't know by that point, I'd try and see her because then it will be your first official visit. Then you only have to go one time in May, June, July, August and September...not a full 6 months. Hope that helps!