POLL: How Many helped by DianaCox & Larra, etc?

I was doing OH searches and came across one of Diana's posts about insurance appeals, but it was specifically geared towards the DS; that got me curious and I decided to take a trip over to the DS board. 

I've been on OH off and on since 2003 when I had my lap band placed (had my band removed last year - hated it!).  I've spent time on the Lap Band, VSG, and Revisions boards, and most recently the DS forum.  What's really interesting about DS'ers is they seem to be highly informed patients who have a real knowledge about the intricacies of their surgery.  Another observation is that DS'ers seem to have more of a collaborative relationship with their surgeons; they don't treat their surgeons like all-knowing gods and I like that. 

I've always been a "just the fact ma'am" personality, so the straight shooter style of many of the DS'ers is awesome.  Keep doing what you do!

Rockne introduced me to some of DC's informative posts.

Honestly, I was initially rubbed the wrong way by the vibe and reacted with annoyance.  This led me to get more info about these new-to-me "DSers."  Looking back, I can't fathom what I was thinking that I could live with that so-called "gold standard,"  no drinking with food, no nsaids?  What was I thinking??? The rest is history.

So, I definitely benefitted from the the provocative titles and straight shooter DS advocacy.  It helped me break out of my WLS sheeple mentality of just get the RNY, work that tool, the consequences are worth it.  Maybe for some.  Not for me.  Thank you Diana for not just posting the bland facts but for doing it in a way that challenged me to question the lies I had been told by the local RNY.Band mill.  My migraines and I are deeply in your debt. 

Larra kindly answered all of my questions and shared her experience in several lengthy PM.

Lucky me gets the benefit of monthly support meetings with these two gems.  How cool is that? 

I met Diana at a support group meeting last week and I almost felt like asking for her autograph!!!  She is a true crusader for obese people and does this out of the goodness of her heart.  If anyone on this board ever has questions about anything legal, she is replying.  I found out so much about MY RIGHTS thru Diana.  If it wasn't for her and this board I would have NEVER considered or even known about DS.  THANK YOU ALL FROM THE BOTTOM OF MY HEART!!!

Cathy

Count me in. Diana's and Dr. Larra's tireless dedication has saved countless people from untold misery. I am forever grateful to LeaAnn,  the Renegade Angel who showed me the light, and held my hand through those first steps, literally taking time out of her day to go to the surgeon's office with me, and who put me on the track to insurance approval.

I have to admit that I cringe at some of Diana's post titles, but I always have to remind myself that it's the inflammatory titles that garner the hits, and I admire her for being willing to be perceived any old way people want to see her, as long as the good word gets to the ears of the pre-ops. She's not here to be popular. She's here to save lives and I adore her for it!!

The bottom line is that there are so many veterans Diana, Elizabeth, Larra, AA who have saved a many of us. And quite frankly, they do the **** that some of us really truly wouldn't do. It isn't necessarily recruiting ANYONE to DS it is saving lives. There's power in information and they take such insane amounts of time (that they truly don't have) to give back in ways that I'm serious when I say, don't know if half of us on the board would even do. ALWAYS educating. There isn't a week that goes by and there aren't posts about insurance companies, research trials and reports anything and everything that aids us on this pathway called DS. I think we're all grateful and if there are some who can't deal with it, then **** it and **** you. It is what it is. It is because of people like them why DS is getting more and more recognized by the medical field as legitimate and more importantly why the doors are being broken down by our insurance companies and finally covering our asses financially, when otherwise we'd be ass out of luck. Kudos to them!

    They are truly the trailblazers! Thanks so much, I know for a fact that I would have not had the DS so easily if it were not for their past battles with Aetna.  I am SO grateful. I have been around the DS board for about four years and seen many many surgery wars, but their intentions are well meaning.
      I loved the comparison Diana posted with the story, "Flowers For Algernon". I remember reading many many profiles the six years  was on OH that were so heart breaking, to be freed from obesity just to have it slowly creep back again. So many are desperate for anything to work that they do not take the time to see what really works long term. That's why these ladies are out there some have to be louder to be heard. I am so glad that they are there to do it. I am not very good at confrontations and wish I could be more outspoken (hey, everyone says the DS turns you into a ***** what happened?LOL) but I try to pay it forward in my own way, the DS is REALLY the best option we have to escape obesity. 

Me! Me!  In the early days I got so much help learning from Larra, Bev, Bigeekgirl, AA, Stephanie, Maria, Red, Kerry, Val, Diana, Leeann, Nicolle, Elizabeth N, GoodKel, Lori, Julie, so many more to name I know I'm leaving some out here!!!

Diana held my hand, and provided all the peer-published studies to me that i used to whoop ass on my stupid insurance company that used BPD statistics to deny me the DS.  My insurance company used statistics from the OLD BPD surgery, which is no longer performed, to deny my DS.  It's NOT because they had my best interest at heart that it was denied.   I live in a state with no consumer protection laws (i.e. an Insurance Commission with no authority to intervene in cases of insurance denials).  There are only 7 states in the U.S. with no laws to protect consumers.  Most other states have review laws which allow people to have insurance denials appealed and overseen by an outside source.  Persons in most states can get a denial on their DS overruled if they fight hard enough.  I appealed and appealed, but to no avail.  My only recourse was to file an ERISA lawsuit against BC/BS of AL in federal court.

Ultimately, i did get a judgment in my favor, but it took so long I had already gone to Mexico and self-paid.

Here's an excerpt from my court case where I defeated my insurance company in a COURT OF LAW and forced them to reimburse me for my DS.  Diana Cox is to thank for this outcome!!

As recounted exhaustively above, virtually every publication on file wholeheartedly
vouches for the efficacy of the BPD/DS procedure. One article notes that “[t]he
[BPD/DS] procedure results in a 70% to 80% excess weight loss, with 93% good or
excellent results.”167 Another study reveals that, five years after undergoing the
BPD/DS, 97% of patients observed had lost greater than 50% of their excess
weight.168 In the face of these numbers, defendant rightly concedes that the BPD/DS
yields superior weight loss when compared with the RNY.169 At the same time,
however, defendant adds the caveat that the attainment of weight loss alone is not
enough to call an operation successful. Indeed, one insurance article aptly observes
that “[t]he underlying medical rationale for the surgery, and thus the basis for its
coverage eligibility, is not the degree of weight loss, but the decreased risk of the
morbid complications of obesity, i.e. a decreasing incidence of diabetes and cardiac
risk factors, among others.”170 Fair enough, but even viewing the studies in the light
most favorable to defendant, they reveal that Type II diabetes is cured in around 98%
of BPD/DS patients,171 sleep apnea disappears,172 and the reduction in cardiac riskfactors is “excellent.”173
Although it might seem that this evidence alone is sufficient to support a
finding of improved health, the benefits must still be reconciled with the
complications in order to arrive at a “net” outcome. The most serious complication
of the BPD/DS — and the one principally, if not exclusively, relied upon in
defendant’s briefs — is protein malnutrition. If protein malnutrition actually occurred
more often than not in BPD/DS patients, the question whether BPD/DS “improves
health outcomes” would be a difficult one. The court would probably be obliged to
conclude that net health outcome was not improved, because, while the weight loss
would ameliorate or eliminate certain morbidities, the life-threatening protein
malnutrition would fill their void.
But protein malnutrition is not common by any means. In fact, the evidence
in the Administrative Record shows that, even in those who undergo BPD without
DS, protein malnutrition occurs in only 11.9%.174 This is a significant percentage, no
doubt, but still not sufficient to establish that net health outcome is not improved in
most patients.175 More importantly, studies verify that this complication is even more rare in BPD/DS patients. Cf. Heasley v. Belden & Blake Corp., 2 F.3d 1249, 1259 (3d
Cir. 1993) (holding that “the term ‘experimental procedure’ must be defined in terms
of its particular application, i.e., whether it is an experimental procedure for the type
of tumors involved here”) (emphasis supplied). Indeed, “[t]he yearly hospitalization
rate for protein deficiency is about 1% after BPD-DS.”176 The Medical Policy
Reference Manual upon which defendant relies notes that, “in the duodenal switch
group [of one study], there was a lower incidence of metabolic abnormalities such as
protein malnutrition, which prompted reversal of the procedure in 1.7% of those
undergoing biliopancreatic bypass versus only 0.1% after the duodenal switch
procedure.”177 As for the other potential complications and side effects of the
BPD/DS, the evidence relayed in the Summary of Relevant Facts, supra, amply
demonstrates that they are negligible, at best. In any case, they are comparable or
identical to those that are considered by defendant to be accepted risks of the
approved RNY operation.

I'm not a newbie, but learned the DS existed in part from some of those terrible mean renegades, lol.

I'm annoyed when they get criticized over being so uncaring or insensitive (and many worse adjectives) because I think putting up with the flaming and personal attacks in order to help others is incredibly selfless.