Can a herniated disk help get me approved?

Right now, My tentative surgery date is for Feb. 6th, but I am still waiting on my insurance approval from BCBS of MI. I have not fulfilled the required 12 month supervised diet yet, so my surgeons office didn't think it would get approved for Feb. but was going to try anyway. At the latest, my surgery could be in June or July. So here's the new twist. Yesterday I found out that I have a herniated disk in my back. My back doctor seems to think that losing weight with the lap band might help my pain and possibly prevent surgery. If he wrote a referal for me, is it possible that it could help me get approved for Feb.? Back surgery would be costly, so if it can be prevented think BCBD would go for it? Has anybody had any experiance with this situation? Thanks, Amy

You can try it.  Can't tell you if it would work or not.  But that condition and arthritis etc are all caused by obesity and you can argue that.  Whether they'd be smart to let you have one surgery to avoid another, well, that is a good question. I've seen it go both ways.