Great West Healthcare problems....:(

Hello, has anyone ever dealt with Great West and had the many problems I am having? They are driving me absolutely crazy...I couldn't even get my case manager to call me bac****il yesterday when I called and asked to speak with her supervisor. Boy, I got some feedback then. They denied me a month or so ago because they need more info. Well, I had my surgeons office get the info together and mail it out again, (my diet history is 194 pages, couldn't be faxed), they mailed it priority mail and it should have gotten to Great West in 2 days. Two weeks go by and my case manager decides to tell me that it was sent to the wrong address and I need to have them recopy all 194 pages and mail it to a different address. I found out yesterday that they finally got it. She is getting ready to send it back to the dr that denied me for reconsideration of my intial denial. What really bites is this part, they are telling me I don't have enough diet history. I went to my PCP on April 8, 2004 and had her put me on a 1200 cal a day diet. I discussed WLS with her then, we discussed my diet and exercise program, she approved Weigh****chers Smart Ones Meals for my diet. I faxed this to the insurance co out of my medical records along with all the diet history and post op information. They are still saying before they even start reconsideration of my intial denial, that I might still have to wait 12 months to go on a physicans supervised diet. I started that last month seeing as how when I started in April, I didn't know I had to go in once a month. Does anyone here believe I can hire a lawyer and get approved sooner with out waiting another year? I have been morbidly obese since I was 15 years old. I am 27, weigh 326, 5'4' tall, BMI is 56, have high blood pressure, diabetes, sleep apnea, back, feet, knee, and joint pain. I have a 3 yr old baby I can't play with much because I run out of energy. I can't even go up and down our stairs without running out of breath. I also have been diagnosed with preasthma. If anyone has any opinions I would love to hear them. Thanks and God Bless Angela

I did a 6 month diet and then my insurance company threw another loop hole in there and said I must do another 6 months, total of 12 month of dieting as their policy had changed. I went to my PCP every month and had her write down what I was doing as far as dieting goes and my weight. Even went on the diet pill Meridia that did nothing for me. I got ALL my doctors to write letters on my behalf stating that they ALL felt that WLS would benefit me as far as my health goes. In the mean time while I was doing the extra 6 months of dieting I hired Gary Viscio as my lawyer to fight for me as I felt I should have been under the 6 months of dieting but still I had to do the 12 months. They turned my first denial down but approved me after my surgeon send in all my paper work for the 12 months of dieting and BCBS let another review board Doctor look over my medical papers who over turned my appeal. Make sure you get EVERYTHING in writing from the insurance company. Ask what their guide lines are for getting approved for WLS and then ask them to send that in writing. All I can say is don't give up as that's what they want you to do. Fight for what you feel is your right. Donna