New here, need advice, support

Hello, I am a 42 year old male who has been overweight my whole life and obese since my early to mid 20's...it never really slowed me down much though till around 30 or so. Anyways, I have BCN as insurance and applied and was denied about 3 years ago.I did a written appeal but I also was denied .It was due to a rule that was new then, I need a supervised diet or weight loss regimin of 3 years to qualify for surgery. I know I did not follow up on my denial as I should have ....afterall, here I am 3 years later..no documented program that I followed and I am certainly in no better shape. I feel like I have spent the last 3 years working way too hard on all the wrong things,and now I am ready to focus a bit more on me. I know I have to or I am only shorting my family as well as myself. I have 4 sons, so I am sure you can all relate to what I am saying. I would really like to hear from some of you who have had to go through the documented 3 years that BCN requires now .I need some pointers and direction on how to start.Also, if anyone knows of a support group in downriver Michigan, I would be intersted in hearing about that as well.Thanks for your time.

I attend my surgeon's support group on the 4th Tuesday of every month, 6:30pm-8pm at Henry Ford Bariatrics with Dr. Steven Hendrick. Their website is www.thebariatricsurgerycenter.com I had my surgery with him almost 2 years ago and I love him and his staff alot. I would highly recommend them. Their support group consists of people that are still in the process, just had surgery or have had the surgery. Feel free to drop in at any time. Suzanne

HI Ed and welcome to the Michigan board. Looks like you are familiar with the insurance criteria for WLS and they do insist on the Supervised diet which are different time frames for different insurance companies. You will need to have a primary care physician (PCP) which is WLS friendly. What I did was collected all my information from any and all doctors that I went to in the past 5 years and gave that information to my pcp and they took the information and wrote a letter to the insurance company. These were records from any counseling or doctors that I went to for diet pills. I even got records from my Gynecologist. Because I had prescriptions for various diet pills through the years, I went and got a five year print out at my pharmacy. I am sure you will get more helpful information from this great site. Good luck. Take care, Janice

Welcome Ed! I too have bcn, and had a hell of a time getting approved. It actually took me a year, but i fought it and won with the in person appeal. When i had mine they wanted a year of documentation, i had none on record and still fought. You should start right now and in the mean time start doing the diets they require. Have you found a surgeon you like ? Make sure to get one who will fight for you, mine done all of my appeals except the last in person one . What co morbidities do you have? Lately i've noticed bcn has been easier to get approved. If you call bcn there is a nurse on staff that will help you find a surgeon and help with your approval. If you need any help let me know. Hugs Linda

Thanks to each of you for helping point me in the right direction and offering to help out as needed.This means so much to me. Linda, I ma wondering if I can get the name of your primary care Dr from you.Mine is only borderline supportive and I would be willing to switch to someone like you described in a heartbeat. As far as co morbidities, I have high blood pressure that I have been on meds for over the past 11 years and I have a cpap machine for my sleep apnea that I was diagnosed with approximately 5 years ago. Thanks again everyone for the information!