Group Health Cancelling Coverage

I was told by the Case Manager for the Group Health Bariatric Surgery Program that Group Health may be cancelling coverage next year. I wasn't suppose to have mine until March-May 2005 but now they want to get it done before the end of the year. Just thought I would let anyone who has Group Health know this info. However, I also just read the 9/27 "Group Health" message that said starting next year they will no longer have the six-month commercial diet prerequisite, so I'm a little confused. Does anyone know for sure if they are cancelling coverage or not? Thanks.

Harriet at Dr. Bock's office told me that some plans are discontinuing coverage in January. But she told me that since my plan starts in October, that I will be covered. And that the 6-month supervised diet requirement will go away in January. So I guess it depends on what plan you are on. I work for a school district and am going on the Traditional Plan. It is worth checking into if you are on Group Health of any kind. Hope this helps!

I forgot to include that the employer has to stipulate if they want the coverage for WLS to continue.

Thanks for your reply. I wondered if maybe it was somehting like that, that only certain plans were involved. It would have been awful if it applied to all Group Health insureds. That's great that the 6-month prerequisite will be dropped. It didn't help me a bit. I knew I was just doing it for the surgery to be approved and didn't put much effort into it since it didn't matter if I lost weight or not. Thanks again and good luck!

ohhhhhhhhh my I am hoping my plan isn't doing this ugggg I am in process of getting my paper work in. I have all my pre reqs sleep study mri for arthiristis etc and doc support 110% I am just sending in all this junk this week.. I work for a school district also, and am praying there not excluding this too My out of pocket for group health went up so much this month i about had a heart attack-- use to pay out of pocket 520.00 for my family and it went up to 816.00 it is so ridicoulous what a person pays to keep there family healthy ugggggggggggggggg

Hi Red Head. I hope everything works out for you. At those premiums, I would think you are on more than just the "basic" plan, which is the one that will be affected. I'm not sure what we pay, wait let me check my husband's paystub Looks like we pay $314/mo which is probably just for me and my son. His employer must pay for his. I went to the pre-op class on Friday and out of about 10 of us, it appeared only a couple were going to be affected. LOL!