When did you find out??

I have a question for you, how far had you gotten in your WLS Journey before being told you had to do a 6 or 3 month diet??? I'm soo concerned that my insurance will throw that at me (and I've been preparing for since august but not doing a monitored diet). I've seen all the preop appointments that are required and then my surgeons office contacted the insurance to get a reference number (I believe that is what it's called) but they had to have that number before scheduling me an appointment with surgeon and an EGD then pre registration with the hospital....I don't know if that means my insurance is agreeing to pay (which I don't think it does)..so i'm on the edge of my seat that after I have my EGD the insurance will then say...not approved until after 6 or 3 month diet...that would be so heart breakin after having been given a date by my surgeon... If I'm understanding from reading, people get approval from their insurance and later told they have to do a monitored diet??? or your approval is pending the diet...I"m soooo concerned I really want everything to go smoothly... I've kinda gotten excited that the 16th of January is my big day...but now i'm nervous that they could still tell me I have to do a monitored diet......

Hi Sonya. My insurance will not approve you until you have completed a 6 month supervised diet. I don't think that any of the ones that require a supervised diet will approve prior to that. Your doctor's office should be able to answer that question, their insurance person probably can find that out. If not, there should be a number on the back of your insurance card. There is nothing stopping you from calling them directly and asking what the requirements are yourself. That's what I did, they were happy to help me. The more information you can know yourself, the better equipped you are to deal with all the red tape. Good luck and keep us posted. ~Ellen

The insurance will not throw that at you. Either they require it or they dont - what insurance do you have? You can request in writing what criteria you need to meet for WLS. Also check when your benefit year runs - not everybody runs the same as the calander year. When the benefit year starts over your company can change their benefits (i.e. covering WLS). Also the insurance company can make changes to their requirements so if you have a long process (Mine took from 8 months) its a good idea to check up and see if the requirements have changed. You will receive an approval letter from your insurance company if they have approved you for the surgery. For whatever reason some surgeons choose to give surgery dates prior to getting the insurance approval. In my opinion that is only setting up one for disappointment if you do receive a renial. A referral number is for a REFERRAL only... meaning for office visits, testing etc... not for the WLS itself. For the major carriers I know Cigna requires 6 months, I dont believe BCBS does but I know they were making some changes and I think UHC requires 3-6 months... dont quote me on that! I would call your insurance company ASAP and find out. If they tell you they do not require - call back again and get another rep and make sure. There have been instances were somebody was misquoted and its you that loses out... not the insurance company!