State of Montana employees who want WLS!!

Hi All! I am a state employee with BCBS and have been attempting to get the State to approve surgery for a year now, I was denied in Sept of '05 because of the exclusion (self-funded) and I have been sending emails to the union and SEGBAC since then. Right after my denial I talked with the head honcho of employee benefits (I don't know if I should name names) and I was told the state used to have this procedure approved, but when they had two people die out of 13 or 15 total that had it over a two year period they decided the risk was too great. Therefore the exclusion. I was told they were looking into other options. Well I just found out that our union was also working on an additional benefit plan with the state that would provide some coverage. I have to find out what this is and so should you!!! I am sure I am not the only state employee who wants to have WLS! Where are you all????? I will attempt to find out what the union is doing about this and post it here when I find this out. In the mean time any state employees who would like to get together on this should contact me....dbrittain...you know the rest of the email....

Hi Leslie, So good to hear from you!! Woohoo!! You have a date!!! I am so happy for you!!!! Congratulations!! Is Dr. Rohrer now a Center of Excellence?? That's another amazing accomplishment! I'm sure you had something to do with that! How's your back? Do you have to lose any weight before surgery? Go on a liquid diet? Did you already do your pysch eval? As you can see I'm full of questions, I'll be thinking and praying for you, 12/04 is only a couple weeks away!!

 Hi- this is an UPDATE for all State Employees !!!! Just in case you haven't seen or heard about this lately!!  The SEGBAC is looking to APPROVE adding back a surgical option for the treatment of obesity for the year 2008!! I know it's about time, look for info in the MINE website under Employee Self Service and the health and wellness area, go to SEGBAC in the left hand column and look on the page that comes up for the BARIATRIC BENEFIT ANALYSIS. I am so happy that they have heard us and they are doing something about it!   It state on the analysis that they have had numerous requests for this....WHERE ARE ALL YOU PEOPLE??????  Sure would be nice to hear from you! Let's get together and talk! Diane