Anthem says no coverage

I'm scheduled to go to a consultation tomorrow.  I had to call our insurance company, Anthem PPO (Indiana), about something else this morning so while I had them on the phone I asked about WLS.  They said no coverage for anything weight loss related, bariatric surgeries or anything, even if the doctor said it was medically necessary.  I can't self pay, so should I cancel my appointment or go anyway and hope for a miracle?

I'm certainly not an expert, just read here a lot, but it seems that I've read if WLS is specifically excluded, there may not be much you can do with the insurance company, but you could write to or meet with your HR department and see if you can get it covered. It's your company that decides what their insurance will cover, I think. Maybe someone with more experience will chime in! Good luck!

I have Anthem and they told me they cover bariatric surgery. I would call insurance again and look in your subscriber handbook.  *Waiting on insurance decision* Liz

Update:  Our insurance is through my husband's work.  He said when they switched to Anthem the Anthem rep was there to explain the policy and said bariatric surgery was included.  I went to the consultation and while I was there I talked to the lady who handles their insurance and she said Anthem normally covers it.  She won't be there today but said she'll call them Monday and see what's going on.  It could be that either I got someone who just didn't care or they've got a policy of saying no without looking it up and hoping you let it go at that....it took all of about 5 seconds for the Anthem lady to answer my question.  They never gave us handbooks so whenever we have a question we have to call.  Thank you Pinkone and Liz for your replies.  I'm keeping my fingers crossed and planning to charge ahead.  :-) 

I have Anthem BC/ BS PPO, but its through my husbands employer  it has a exclusion, you can call the Inc Co they will send you a book on benifits, You may want to talk to your husbands place of employment  in HR they should be able to answer some of your questions. Hope everything works out to your advantage. Best of Luck Delilah

Medicaid/ Anthem for Indiana  

To obtain coverage for WLS patients needs referral from PCP to surgeon for consult and surgery( out of network) things to include from surgeon's office psych eval 3 consecutive months of PCP supervised weight loss,including dietary and behavioral modification and exercise Dietary eval Cardiac clearance pt must be 18 years or older post-op treatment plan bmi must be under 50 for lapband this is current info on Medicaid/ Anthem for Indiana hope this helps..some of you out there...