Hospital not accepting UHC for wls

Hey guys, just wondering if anyone has ever heard of this. I went for my consult yesterday for information on the lapband procedure....I was informed that although United Healthcare covers the lap band there are no hospitals in Alabama that will take UHC for the lapband because they are not being paid. I changed from BlueCross of Alabama specifically because they did not cover lapband. I am not giving up but, this is a major setback.

Who informed you that 'no' hospitals in the entire state of Alabama perform Lapbands. That seems odd.  Try the UHC provider look up at https://www.geoaccess.com/uhc/po/Default.asp and search within 100 miles of your city. Then call around to all the hospitals to see which ones have a Lap Band Program. or go to www.myuhc.com and search from there. Or call your Customer Service # and ask them to look for In-network hospitals. Or better yet, find a list of doctors who perform LapBand surgery in AL.... go to the ASBS site...  http://www.asbs.org/ and do an MD search. Best of Luck! 

Hi. If you do find that this is indeed true it might be worth considering driving a bit to make a visit with Dr. Jeffrey Lord in Pensacola. I know it is a few hours, but I have a friend (who I met through this board) who drove 6 hours from Mississippi to have surgery with him. He is awesome and I am very impressed with his entire program. You can check him out through the sacred-heart.org website. I truly believe everything happens for a reason, don't give up. Jenifer