Five year history

Why do the insurance companies need a 5 year history?  Do they want to know about failed weight loss attempts?  No matter what weight you were?   I know myself i am a 35 BMI person with co-morbidities, but my weight for the last five years has been up and down.  

I believe most insurance companies require the 5 year history of your weight.  I would get the doctor to put your highest weight down for each year.  I would say with a BMI of 35 you may need 2 co-morbidities.  Good Luck!

Depending on your insurance, you may only need one comorbidity-- but it usually has to be from a short list of the more serious illness (HBP, congestive heart failure/heart disease, diabetes, obstructive sleep apnea). And some don't consider high BP if it is being controlled through medicine, so check your policy. Although they want to see your diet history, it's not the reason for the 5 yr history. An overweight person, or just "regular" obese person (not MORBIDLY obese, I mean) can have decades of diet history. They may have even been in and out of the MO category, but they still won't qualify. The reason for the 5 yr history is to show that you didn't just happen to get morbidly obese, and want surgery. Research has shown that "newly" Morb obese people have a much better chance of losing the wt and keeping it off through diet/exercise because their body hasn't "settled in" to that new high wt. The longer a person is obese, the harder it is for that person to lose--and especially, keep it off. So it is really more about whether you are appropriate for surgery in terms of it being your last ditch effort. They need to see that it is not just a temporary wt gain that put you into that Morb Obese category, but rather a real, serious disease that has been persitant, and the more persistant, the harder it is to treat without surgery. Now, here's where is gets tricky and you have to look at your insurance company's wording and perhaps seek legal advice. My insurance, for instance, just requires a 5 yr hx of MO, but it DOESN"T say it has to be the LAST 5 years (or even 5 yrs in a row, but that may be a stretch). I think they expect us to have tried to get our wts down below the MO mark, and they know it's the keeping it off that is so hard. So, for me I had 5 yrs of MO (1996-2001****il I had a spinal injury, several surgeries, and was bedridden for over 6 months. During that time (2002), I lost a lot of wt becasue of the pain, loss of appet, and b/c traumas/surgeries alone lead to wt loss. I got all the way down to "overweight" but not normal. Then dispite being on constant diets since then (and not being able to excerise much due to chronic pain), the weight has all come back. I fought like heck, but my body wouldn't listen. Now does that mean that I should be penalized and have to start 5 yrs all over again. I already have the history of 5 years (actually more, but I couldn't get med documentaion).  Likewise, why should someone be penalized for making efforts to lose wt during that 5 year period. It's not about the losing of the wt, but demonstrating that you can't keep it off without surgery. Do you have any documentation of other years where you were MO before the last 5 years? Perhaps they will see that you have yo-yo'd for many years, with 5 years of MO Cummulatively? What sucks is that the insurances can hold to their policies and not budge if they don't want to. But they also chose how to interpret their own policies. My point is, if it doesn't EXPLICITLY say 5 consequetive years or the 5 years just preceeding the request, you might have an arguement that you still meet their criteria, AS IT IS WRITTEN. That's what I intend to do if I have to appeal, and I will file a complaint with the State Commission of Insurance for disrimination, or breach of contract or something. Even if I still don't have a leg to stand on, sometimes when insurances hear thet are being investigated, it's just easier to grant approval. But that means you would have to have other yrs of MO as well. Without it, I would have to say that, although you may find a doc to self pay and perform the surgery without the 5 year history, insurance isn't very keen on approving without it unless there are compelling health reasons. Good luck to you, Kahlua