Approved!

I am very excited. Today I received in the mail the referral from my PCP for RNY surgery. I will be calling my surgeon Monday to schedule the date. To let people know what insurance I use: I have Blue Advantage HMO which is part of BC/BS HMO Illinois. My medical group is Dreyer Medical, part of Advocate. Dreyer is a "full risk" medical group. It's my understanding that means if Dreyer approves it, BC/BS will too. Dreyer takes the risk of covering what BC/BS won't. So, I'm very happy today! I'm having my surgery at UIC (University of Illinois at Chicago) and my surgeon is Dr. Joseph Vitello. Wish me luck!

Good Luck, Ed and CONGRATS!! I was denied for mine but BCBS of Alabama (which is who I have) had cracked down on approvals and now say that no matter what, you have to have physician suppervised weight loss for 6 months before they will approve you , so that is what I am working on now!! So far, I have lost about 5 pounds in a little over a week. It makes me mad because if it were so easy for us to lose weight, we wouldn't need WLS anyways!! But I just wanted to wish you luck!! Lisa