Major port problems and new insurance don't want to pay for removal

My and my daughter both have the lap-band. We have had them for 4 years. Her's was done by Dr Duncan's office in Atlanta. She has had problems with her band leaking, had her port replaced and other problems.
For some reson they placed her port below her stomach area on the right side. It looks like she has 2 belly buttons.
Her skin has become discolored redish/dark brown color. The Dr group she know works for thought at first the band might have eroded into her stomach. And the this past week her skin blistered over at the site. So now he is thinking that the port is trying to work its was back through the skin.
Her new insurance that just went into effect in Janurary does not cover any weight lost surgery until after 1 year.
My daughter just wants to have the band removed completely.
They have been trying all week to find a diagonis that will work for getting the band removed but it all still considered in with a weight loss surgery since the lap band has to be included in the wording.
The Dr she works for suggested removal of a foriegn body  but that must not be going to work because they are still looking for a diagnosis that will work.
I worry about her keeping the band and all in her if there is infection. She just had a baby and she needs to be healthy for him.

I know someone that has what sounds like a very similar problem. She doesn't have an infection, she just doesn't tolerate ports.

She still has her band but she is portless. She's tried a couple of ports and pretty much the same thing happens as your daughter. If you want I can put you in touch with her. She is wanting to have her band removed for other reasons but she's still portless. I don't suggest that, she can only have fills and unfills via surgery.

Ins co's often times will remove a band, they just won't pay to have it repositioned or replaced. Or, what about exploratory surgery to diagnose abdominal pain and then they find the problem and remove the band? Or... remove the port until her 1 year is up. That can be done in the office under a local anesthetic.

Nikki is just so discouraged she wants the complete band taken out and have the gastric by-pass done.  I really worry about her having the bypass done. But she has made her mind up.
She was only 18 when she got the band done.
Nikki may have the same problem as your friend. It is always something with the port. She got a fill about 6 months ago when her baby was 2 months old. She had restriction for a few weeks but after it went away.
The Dr she works for now said she should of had the bypass done to start with. But I am so scared of it.
He has been trying to help her and correct all the problems that the Dr that did her surgery has created.
There has to be some kind of complication code that they could use to get the surgery covered with her insurance just to get the band out if it has eroded into her stomach or get the the port out. There is diently something going on with the blistering and skin changes around the port area.
The Dr did mention doing the exploratory surgery like you suggested he suggested something like "removing a foriegn body" but he would have to note anything removed and for some reason if the lap-band is mentioned the surgery won't be covered.
Nikki said all the girls in the insurance don't understand why they would include removal in with weight loss surgery.

Mid western girl offers a great option of having the dr do exploratory surgery to "locate the pain" and he just remove the band while he is in there. Your daughter is young, tell her to look into VSG before she decides on gastric bypass. Good Luck

I emailed Jenni asking her to come here and respond. Let's see if she is picking up her email.

I don't blame you for fearing bypass, I do too.

Good ol' port issues, huh?  Ports are such a nuisance.  However,  I would be willing to bet that Nikki's band is perfectly fine and her body is simply rejecting her port.  I had my original port a little over a year before it began giving me problems.  It started with soreness at the original port incision site.  I was exercising like crazy.  My choice of exercise was high impact running so I assumed that was the reason for my difficulty.  The soreness continued even though I laid off of running for a while.  It got worse and worse and eventually it began to blister as you said and then I had to deal with constant leaking from the port site.  I had to keep gauze pads taped over it all the time.  Only clear fluid was coming out so it appeard to not have any infection.  Needless to say, I had to have my port removed very soon after it started leaking.  I was portless for three months.  We decided (my doctor and I) that we would put in a newer, low profile port at the end of those three months.  That gave my body time to heal from the soreness but that actually disappeared as soon as I got the port removed.  I had a new port put in and went on my merry way.  This time, it took my body about 9 months before the same issue started.  This time, however, it was in a totally different place on my belly and the original incision wasn't anywhere near it.  A red indention started and the soreness returned.  I knew, this time, what was happening.  It didn't seem to take as long this go around for the blister to develop and then the leakage started again.  I headed back to the operating table to have this port removed.   Since that time, I have remained portless.  My band is in place and still works fine.  Sure, I would love to have a tiny bit of more saline put in but it isn't worth going through surgery to do so at this point.  I have recently put on some weight due to some other medical problems and medication that makes one gain weight but it is coming back off now that my meds have changed and I am really working on it.  If I don't ignore my band, it still works fine. 
Since I have been in your daughter's position before (twice), I will say that I am SO thankful that I didn't have my band removed.  There really was no reason to remove it once the port problem was taken care of.  I have never regretted having my port removed and am SO thankful that my doctor didn't jump to remove my band when I started having problems.  If your daughter (or you) would like to talk with me, email me at [email protected] and I will give you my phone number to call.