Question:
Approved for panniculectomy, but I'm reconsidering the surgery.

Aetna US Healthcare has approved my panniculectomy, but I'm now reconsidering the PS at this time for personal reasons, work reasons, and most importantly, because I really don't like this highly recommended plastic surgeon and would like to see someone else. Does anyone know what would happen to this approval if I chose to see another surgeon and postpone the panni until February 2005?    — Yolanda J. (posted on May 3, 2004)

May 3, 2004
Ususally an approval is only good for 90 days so you will have to start the approval process over again if you wait until 2/05. It is always your choice to have or not have the surgery so you will have to decide what is right for you at this time. If it wasn't very difficult to get the approval this time, perhaps it won't be that bad to get it again. I would, however, recommend you get the approve before the end of the year and use it within the 90 days which would be fine to use in 2/05. Ususally insurance companies change their policy info on 1/1/? so if you already have your approval for the end of this year, if they make any changes to the requirements for approval - you will already have your in hand so they can't change it (or I should say they shouldn't be able to change it on you). God bless you and good luck to you.
   — tntwildlife77

May 3, 2004
First, you must do the PS when you are mentally and physically prepared for it. It can be a rough recovery, as I well know, and if I truly wasn't ready for it, it would have been a lot more difficult to deal with 8-1/2 weeks of fluid build up and have multimple drains put back in and a hole in the top of my butt crack where the skin was too tight and ripped open. I'm not trying to scare you, although I may have succeeded. I just know from my experience with my LBL that the surgery and recovery were much worse than my WLS. <p>In answer to your Ps question, it should be no problem to go with another PS. Assuming you have an HMO or PPO and must us an in-network doctor, then as long as you select another doc in-network then it should be no problem to switch. I switched surgeons after I already had my approval and very glad I did. This guy had a lot of confidence that he could do a good job for me. A LBL is no easy surgery and when you have tons of skin to deal with it just complicates things. I really felt the initial surgeon wasn't sure how good a job he could do. <p>My insurance approval was for 6 months. It should have said on your letter how long it was good for. I needed an extension on phase two because of the recovery issues I had. At first BCBS wasn't going to extend it 6 weeks before it expired as it was too early in their minds. I went above their heads to our State Employee Trust Funds, the ones that administer the plans (I'm a State employee) and they made them see that it was needed and to do it. So I got a 2 months extension but it was due to medical complicaitons. They wanted me to just let the end date pass and then request an extension. There was no way I was risking losing my approval. If you have 6 months to get it done then I would find the right surgeon and get scheduled for right before that and you can always back out a month or so before. Like I said, it has to be right for you. Don't let anyone force you into something you are not comfortable with. Good Luck!
   — zoedogcbr

May 3, 2004
I was approved with a plastic surgeon who I didn't like. I changed and all I had to do was call the insurance company and tell them that I had found a new doctor to do the surgery. All they did was change the name in their system to my new doctor's name and that was it. As long as the new doctor is doing the same procedure, that's all it should really require. I'm glad I opted to change to the new PS. He's WONDERFUL and I couldn't be more happy with his work. He's done 3 separate surgeries on me so far with a 4th in 2 weeks. I still have at least 1 more to go but I'm very happy that I didn't go with the first surgeon.
   — Patty H.