Ally, As far as I know, Tricare does not cover gastic banding (the Lap Band). Tricare does cover three types of WLS: gastric bypass, gastric stapling, and gastroplasty, including "vertical banded" gastroplasty. Also, what I've seen from Tricare is either 100lbs over your ideal body weight with a co-morbidity or over 200% of your ideal body weight with no co-morbidity. They go by the Metropolitan Life Table to find your ideal body weight. See Chapter 8 of the hand book (what is covered). If you signed up with Tricare when you signed up with DEERS then they should be sending you a letter in the mail telling you who your PCM (Primary Care Manager) is. If you don't want to wait for the letter, you can call Tricare and find out who it is. Get an appointment with your PCM and ask for the surgery. Do you live near a post? Some post hospitals have a baratric program in the MTF, so you won't need Tricare approval. The surgeon in the MTF would approve you (though the wait time, I've seen, can be long). If you don't live near a post then Tricare will assign you a civilian PCM and you can also find a civilian surgeon that is in network ahead of time. (go to your regions website to search for in network providers). Your PCM will do a referral for a consult to a bariatric surgeon. If you've already searched out a surgeon and have confirmed they are a Tricare participating provider, tell your PCM you want to be referred to that surgeon. Hope this helped some. Good luck!

I'm interested in finding out info on who performs the lap band procedure in the Cincinnati, OH area. I'm wondering if either Wright Patt or Ft. Knox have military hospitals? Can anyone steer me in the right direction?

Hello, I am interested in finding out if Tricare will pay for the cost of lap band surgery. My hubby is in the Reserves but is about to be mobilized for deployment in less than 2 weeks :( We were just enrolled into DEERS and I am interested in lap band. From what I'm finding while researching, they will pay for it if it's medically necessary and your BMI is above 40 w/ no other medical conditions. Does this sound right? Also, if they do pay for your surgery, do you have to go to a certain provider/base for the surgery? Lastly, is it done as an outpt or inpt procedure? Thanks so much for any advice. I'm new to this but would like to take advantage of the military benefits that are available to us while my hubby is away. Ally

Hi, Amy! I had my surgery September 21, 2006, so I'm almost 8 months post op. I've lost 102 lbs so far. I'm 5'5" and my starting weight was 286 lbs. I have about 39-44 lbs more to lose. I haven't decided whether my goal weight is 140 or 145 lbs. Maybe I should just make it 142.5 lbs. I've gone from a tight 22 pants and 22/24 shirt to a size 12 pants and an L shirt.

I posted this on the main board a few weeks back but curious to see if any of you can help. I am a Marine wife with tricare prime. I live in Hawaii (oahu). Our MTF is Tripler Army Center. Tricare told me over the phone that I was qualified for gastric. I talked to many dr's before (when I was tricare standard), most here won't take tricare and the one that I found that does requires you to pay up front. Everyone (dr's) told me my best bet was to go back on prime and go to tripler. So I went back on prime, called Tripler's bariatric center and was told everything that I would need to do/go through and then told the process would take 9 months-2 years. I am so discouraged. We will only be here till next year (May or October), most likely be getting out due to high tenor (sp). Has anyone dealt with tripler, are there any other routes to go, any suggestions greatly appreciated. thanks, Shel