scheduled for sleeve surgery....many unanswered questions help!!!

Hi I am a 34 yrs old female, I am 5'3 and weight 228lbs. This is my highest weight thus far. Over the last 2-3 yrs I have been on medically prescribed diet medications. .....they were working then stopped. I was taken off....n have gained all the weight back plus some me....my lowest weight during that phase was 189lbs. I been off pills since 3/15....been seeing bariatric dr for last 6 or more months....i am scheduled to have sleeve done...my concerns n questions are this...i have anthem bcbs of South carolina ppo/hra I wanna know how much out of my pocket do I pay for surgery. N how long does it take to get an approved from my insurance type. Any help is greatly appreciated.  Thank you in advance

Every insurance company and policy is different. Some policies do not cover weight loss surgery. Call the number on the back of your insurance card and ask them the questions you posed here. No one here can give you a definitive answer.

What GeekMonster said 

Generally speaking, if you have major unanswered questions like this, you need to talk to your specific surgeon and your specific insurance company.

Just wanted to throw my 2 cents in because I too have anthem blue cross/blue shield.

I was required to do a 6 month pre-op supervised diet. This meant going to see the surgeon once a month every month for 6 full months before I could even schedule surgery. Each time my co-pay was 15 dollars, so that added up to about 90 dollars.

I was also required a psychological assessment. My insurance didn't cover that. 260 dollars out of pocket. I'm in the horrific process of trying to get that reimbursed.

So, it took me about 8 months from my first information seminar to actually going under the knife for surgery. The actual approval only took a week after I had completed everything. Again, like others have said, I would actually call the number on the back of your card. They gave me a detailed list of everything I needed to accomplish before they would approve me.

Finally, my co-pay for surgery was 250 dollars. 

Best of luck to you!

$250 is a drop in the bucket compared to what many here pay out-of-pocket for surgery.