CMMC's WLS sale

Do any of you out there know how much longer the half price WLS is going to go on at CMMC? I'm making alternate plans so if my insurance company decides to blackball me I can get my surgery done. Thanks much, Megs

Macy, you rule! That really takes the heat off me. My mom said yesterday she was going to refinance her house to get me the money if insurance won't cover it. I hate for her to do that but I'll take it and of course, pay for it in the long run. Thank you again for the information! Megs

Hi Meg, Have you not heard anything from Anthem yet? I am fighting my denial. They told me basically all the based were not covered. So I called the Pshyc yesterday and told them I was denied because she would not say one way or the other that I was a good candidate for surgery. And I am updating my nutrition evaluation today, it appears she also left out the magic words "Good Candidate" and I am going to go ahead and see the surgeon as soon as they can get me an appointment. Anthem nurse told me on the phone they have to have a letter from the surgeon in hand that states he explained everything blah blah blah and I understood risks blah blah blah before they would even consider any kind of WLS. The surgeons office in Oxford, Ms wants approval from insurance before you get an appointment to see them. So they are going to have to do it differently for me if I get WLS. Since I am new to all of this I thought I had everything under control. Boy was I wrong. Don't give up on Anthem. Just make sure you have covered everything they need. You may have to call yourself and ask what they require so you can have it all in order. Good Luck and let me know!! Cindi

Good for you!!! Fight it, fight it, fight it! I have yet to hear back from the Anthem nurse about anything. I've left 3 voice mails. Nothing. If I haven't heard back by Thursday, I'm calling again and asking for a supervisor. I hate to go that route but if I don't know what they need, I can't get it for them. I am assuming (you know what that means!!!) that CMMC will work with me on anything needed to get approval. *heavy sigh* Make you a deal, you keep fighting, I'll keep fighting. Megs

O.K. You may have already done this. Call the Customer Service number on the back of your ins card. Mine is 866-350-7591. When you get through the English/Spanish thing and say Subscriber it will ask for the first 3 letters of your ID number and then the last (mine has 9) letters/numbers or your ID you will be transfered to a recording that says select form the following blah, blah, blah. You press 5 and the the next promt is 1. this will give you a live person. Ask her if youv'e been approved for surgery and if she says still in review ask for that toll free number. Mine is 866-776-4793. Ask them what you need and it not satisfied ask to speak to the nurse in charge of your file. I had to wait on hold 10 minutes and was asked to leave a message but I choose to hold and finally I spoke with a nurse. She was very nice but I did have to pressure her for all the info. Like I said she was nice and told me what was going on. She really told me what I needed to get to them to be approved. I still don't have my denial letter and it has been a week. I just called anyway, got the info and while I am waiting on the letter I can be getting this stuff done. I agree with you!! I won't give up if you don't. CALL CALL CALL Cindi

Oh h*ll yeah!!! I am so calling tomorrow! I didn't know you could speak to an actual person when you got to the voicemail part. Teach me to get all tense and hang up. Oh I can pressure, trust me. If that doesn't work, I'll put my son on the line. He's 4 and doesn't take no for an answer. That ought to teach them. I've already fought with my mortgage company today so I'm spoiling for another fight. *cackle* It is a goooood thing I'm one tough ol' bird. Meghan

Hang in there and be patient with the phone thing. If I can get through to them so can you! I'll be rootin' for you!! Let me know. O.K. Cindi

I called Anthem again. Talked to voicemail again. Waited all morning...again. Believe it or not, someone actually called me back! After I woke out of the faint, the person from Anthem told me that they had not received any further paperwork from CMMC since April 16th. I got pretty stinkin' angry at this point. Got the lady's name and fax number. I called CMMC....again. Got the answering service...again. Pitched a right royal b*tch and asked for a human being in the WLS clinic. Got nowhere. Called CMMC's main switchboard. Got someone's voice mail....again. Hit 0 and got an operator. Had yet another hissy fit and she tried 5 different numbers, finally getting me in touch with...you guessed it! THE ANSWERING SERVICE AGAIN!!! I blew a gasket. "I WANT to talk to a HUMAN in Bariatric Surgery NOW!!!" The girl on the other end of the line apparently had the wherewithall to realize I was not to be messed with at this point and transfered me (I had been told they could NOT do this) directly to someone in the WLS unit. Well, Jeanie answered, god love her. After I unleashed my pent up angst in her direction she very calmly told me that the aforementioned information had been faxed back to Anthem on May 16th. I almost cried. I said I was sorry for barking at her. She took it in stride and then said she would fax the information back to Anthem to the attention of the last supervisor to whom I spoke. So now I wait. Again. Anybody got a martini? I need a drink. Meghan not so

At least you talked to somebody human somewhere. Now it will take Anthen 10 days to scan your information into there system. So they may have actually gotten it May 16th and it's just not showing up yet. Hang in there Meg!! We will get together and have a party when all this is over and laugh about it. And we will look so good when we do. Cindi M