Getting the Royal Runaround from Blue Care Network MI

I'm looking for any advice available to get approval for Lap Band surgery.  I have Blue Care Network of Michigan and have been given such a runaround it's pathetic.   Here is a synposis of my experience trying to get approved.  4/2006 - Record of Dr. Supervised weigh loss begins.  I've had monthly visits every month since with weights and discussion of diet, exercise, etc. 11/2006 - Request submitted by surgeon; BCN denied receiving papers.  Surgeon's office refaxed. 12/2006 - Denial based on lack of 12 months supervised diet. 4/9/2007 - Surgeon's office re-submitted records/approval with updated history showing 12 months of Dr. Supervised Dieting.   (Plus, in this 4 months I ended up getting diagnosed with Sleep Apnea, GERD and Sarcoidosis (it's been a difficult year so far).) 4/17/2007 - BCN shows no record of my request, but says it may just not be in the system yet and can take up to 14 days.  (????) 4/23/2007 - BCN claims they never got the fax.  Surgeon's office refaxed it...again... 4/30/2007 - BCN tells me the referral request is finally in their system with a status of "pending" 5/3/2007 - BCN tells me they've CLOSED my request, but they cannot tell me why. 5/7/2007 - BCN tells me the request is now being treated as an appeal and the 1st level appeal was DENIED (get this) because the appeal was submitted outside of the allowed timeframe.  And now it is at a 2nd level appeal which is scheduled to be reviewed in June. In the mean time, the insurance nurse at the Surgeon's office has left town for two weeks so I can't get any answers.  I'm so insanely frustrated I'm not really sure what to do at this point.   The lady at BCN said I could appeal this myself, but is this pointless given the fact that my provider is already doing this? I more than meet the criteria (BMI 52.7, several comorbidities, 12 months failed dr. diet, Psych eval done, med clearance done, nutrition/exercise consults done, etc.). Does anyone have any advice?

Sounds like my experiance too .. its been a year since i started the process and the last denial was because although i DO have hypertension (the one co-morb requirement is met!) it is controled with medication.  The policy says i need to have a co-morb and i DO .. and of course its under control.. i'd be passing out all the time if it wasn't! i swear they want you half dead before they will aprove and even then im sure they'd take their sweet time... im so frustrated ..but i don't want to give up because i know this could help me so much.

Don't give up...I got my approval today.  :)  I was very persistant and it finally paid off.