info meeting
Well, I attended the info meeting last night. I didn't learn much more than I had discovered through my own research, but it was good to meet surgeon and nutritionist and find out what the next steps are. I called this am for an appointment with Dr., waiting to hear back from them. My one concern is about insurance. I had called last week and was told lap band would be covered with a diagnosis of morbid obesity (BMI 40), or BMI over 35 with co-morbidities. I am at 39 with severe sleep apnea, hypercholeteremia, and painful arthritis. Today when I called just to double check, I was told the diagnosis had to be morbid obesity no matter what other problems were involved! Hopefully that will get straightend out. I did think it was interesting that there were many more men than women att the meeting, although 1 man left when he was told he would not be able to eat steak and cheeseburgers like he can now!
Hi Susan,
Congrats on taking that first BIG step. Don't know if this will help but you may need to look for two things - 1) your insurances policy on bariatric surgery (I was able to go to the Anthem site and look at their general policy on this (what surgeries are covered and under what qualifying conditions), and 2) whether your particular coverage includes this benefit. Some people find their employer hasn't paid for this so even though the carrier has a policy - you don't have the option. Something like that. So, I printed out the Anthem policy and then I called Anthem to verify that I was personally and specifically eligible (so long as I met all of the conditions set out). Good luck and let us know what you find out. Treading
Congrats on taking that first BIG step. Don't know if this will help but you may need to look for two things - 1) your insurances policy on bariatric surgery (I was able to go to the Anthem site and look at their general policy on this (what surgeries are covered and under what qualifying conditions), and 2) whether your particular coverage includes this benefit. Some people find their employer hasn't paid for this so even though the carrier has a policy - you don't have the option. Something like that. So, I printed out the Anthem policy and then I called Anthem to verify that I was personally and specifically eligible (so long as I met all of the conditions set out). Good luck and let us know what you find out. Treading
I have Anthem also, and found out that the policy our business had did not cover the surgery at all. I had to change the policy to have the bariatric rider. With the rider, they would cover the surgery if the diagnosis was morbid obesity. My BMI qualified me for that, as well as medical conditions. If you do not meet the qualifications it will probably not be covered. I know that if they put anything but morbid obesity on the diagnosis, it would not have been covered with my old policy. They also require it to be "medically necessary", even under the rider.
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