insurace

I talked to the insurance lady today.  She said that I must complete the 6 tests in order to be considered for surgery.  If I should not be approved then I am responsible to pay for the tests they ordered.  Yuck!  She also said that the approval process will take 1-3 more months.  It has been 3 weeks so far.  In my heart I don't think they would have me do all of this if they weren't considering me for surgery.  I will be patiet and wait.  My husband says to keep my head up and push forward.  That is what I will do.

I'm sorry your insurance company is being a pain! Just wanted to tell you I understand how the waiting is I'm doing it myself. Feels like forever, harder then waiting to deliever my son LOL. Well GL and keep us posted when you get approved! Rebecca

It sounds to me that you talked to the "insurance lady" at your doctor's office, but she's not your insurance company.  She's just the coordinator dealing with your insurance company.  If I were you, I would contact my insurance company myself to find out your level of coverage for weight-loss surgery.  For a lot of insurance companies, patients will not be responsible for non-covered tests that are run on them; the providers have to eat those charges, which is why the provider is responsible for knowing your coverage beforehand. For determinations of suitability for weight-loss surgery, your insurance company and plan documents should be able to tell you that up front.  Oftentimes, a medically supervised weight-management plan will be required as well as documented co-morbidities (e.g. diabetes, hypertension).  The doctor's office would have to run lab tests on you for the latter requirements, but even if your results came back negative for those co-morbidities, you usually would have coverage for lab work (perhaps a co-pay or some small amount).  You usually would not be responsible for the full price for those tests. What you are being told does not sound correct to me, so I would talk with your health insurance company and consult with your plan documents.