COBRA

The company I work for is spinning off from their parent company and it will be official on January 1, 2008. Currently, our insurance is through BCBS of Texas and they cover WLS. Although, once we spin off we will still have BCBS of Texas but there is an exclusion for WLS and my company will not add it on. However, I do have the opportunity to utilize COBRA through the parent company. I am currently on Month 3 of my 6 Month insurance required diet. I just want to make sure that I will not have to start the diet over once the new year gets here. Has anybody gone through a similar situation? Thank you for any responses!

The diet is part of your medical history and you can use it for any insurance. If you are going through Cobra for the surgery, you will have to submit (or your PCP will) the records of that 6 month diet, no matter what insurance was paying for those sessions at the time. It doesn't change the fact that you met the requirement. Good luck, Kahlua

Hi, I just saw your post as I was coming here to ask my own insurance question. Don't know if you've already resolved your situation but I was on Cobra when I was approved for RNY surgery. I had the insurance through my dad (Cigna POS no less). When I turned 23 I became independent and my insurance went to Cobra. For the next 3 years, i dabbled in trying to get approved but didn't give it much effort because I wasn't sure I wanted the surgery and I knew it wouldn't be likely with Cigna POS anyway (they are the worst for WSL, it's the HMO). Anyway, I finally got serious and got approved after the 1st appeal. Cobra wasn't a problem at all. Everything was just like the insurance always was. Nothing changed in my benefits except that I had to pay for it. Actually, Cobra is probably the reason I got approved because my insurance would alway read that my coverage would expire by the end of each month. That was because I paid monthly. After receiving payment, the expiration date would change. So what likely happened was, after jumping through all the hoops, Cigna approved on September 24, 2007 because their computer read that my coverage expired Sept 30! I got the surgery this past October 17th, which is great because my Cobra insurance ended for good on Nov 1st. I am having a problem finding insurance now that I've had the surgery. I'm going to ask a question on this forum about that now. Best of luck!