Medicare/Medicaid guidelines....HELP!!

I don't know what to do or where to start. The guidelines I was given say that I have to have 'A BMI equal to or greater than 35, with diagnosis of diabetes mellitus, or DJD of a major weight-bearing joint(s) AND the client is a candidate for joint replacement surgery if weight loss is achieved, or other rare co-morbidities (e.g. pseudo tumor cerebri) in which there is medical evidence that surgery is medically necessary and there is medical evidence that the benefits of surgery outweigh the risk of surgical mortality.' Okay...what exactly does that mean? I have several co-morbidities, but none as serious as a tumor or DJD. That is the part I am having trouble understanding. I need to talk with someone who has had the surgery with Medicare/Medicaid who is in the same medical boat as me. Someone who got through this without diabetes or tumors or DJD. Anyone out there?? Thanks~ Cindy

They word it that way to BE discouraging. Basically though they have to follow the NIH guidelines for comorbidities. Other comorbids that are considered for medical necessity are: 2 diabetes, heart disease, sleep apnea and cirrhosis of the liver, uncontrollable or difficult to control high blood pressure and other life threatening conditions that can be 'fixed' or remedied by a drastic reduction in weight. A surgeon would know if your conditions qualify. At the moment I only see two doctors on the list for the centers of excellence, but I know others are working on getting this status. Currently they show Dr. Ki H. Oh in Federal Way and Dr. Myur Srinivasan Srikanth in Tacoma. Hope this helped!