TRICARE for DS?

Finally made the decision to revise my band into a DS only to find out that tricare will NOT cover it?  I have tried to dig around on here and been told by other posters that a few have been successful with a DS at a military facility.  If any of you are here can you please chime in?

thanks
Kristi

Hi there, If you haven't already I would think the best thing to do is to call Tricare and see what they say. 

I'm starting the process to get the RNY done myself and I know here at campbell they only do the band and RNY. 

If I remember right though during the class she said something about possibly getting different surgerys off post but then you have to deal with the insureance your self and co-pays. 

Hopefully someone else comes along and can help you out a little better than I. 

I am retired USAF and I just had RNY.  I think my TRICARE only covered RNY and Lapband - and maybe VSG, but I am not sure about that.

I think the reasoning is a cost benefit from a financial standpoint.  According to my doc after RNY it takes the insurer 5-10 years to break even - i.e. after WLS you need less treatment and meds for other things.  I think there is a significantly higher risk for post-op issues with DS and because of the malabsorbtive mechanism it requires long term monitoring and care - even though it is better for weight loss.  So the insurer doesn't recover the expense.