Does anyone have DakotaCare insurance?

Hello, I have DakotaCare and I'm a state employee. According to my insurance policy, I have to go through 12 months of their weight management program before they will approve surgery and 12 months of  it after I have the surgery. Have you had to deal with this too?

I also have DakotaCare, I think each policy is different though.  My DakotaCare only pays for 50% of weight loss surgery,  to pay this amount they request that you have a BMI over 40 and 6 months of doctor supervised diet.  Have you talked with a surgeon yet?  I went to a class this week and it sounds like they can work around alot of the insurance requirements, the insurance just wants to try to discourage people from having the surgery (my opinion). 

I have DakotaCare PPO and all it took was a letter from my doctor and I was approved.   They're paying 80% of my surgery as well.