I am telling you now that they told me the same thing but as I talking with  Dr. Glas****'s Insurance ClerK, Kim, she can tell you how to get around it and have your surgery closer to home where it should be done.  I had my surgery at Satori with Dr. Glas**** and she got it approved.  So if you are still interested in having somewhere closer to your home it can be done.  Call Dr. Glas****'s office and ask for Kim and she will explain to you what needs to be done to get you approved to have it done somewhere that is not a provider.  I don't know what type of surgery you are wanting but you can go to their page and take a look at what they do http://www.wheatoniowa.org/programs-services/weight-loss-sur gery/about/default.aspx. 

I had a more involved surgery as I had a previous VBG done in 1999 so I had a revision from a VBG to an RNY and I had many medical problems and my surgery was tough and lasted close to 5 hours give or take a fewe minutes from what I am told.  I was in the hospital 10 days and back to the ER twice with another admision for acute renal failure which means I got very dehydrated because my feeding tube plugged up for the second time.  I hope you all the luck in the world but if I had to do it over again I woldn't have changed a thing.  I still have my feeding tube in till 9-11-12, at my next appointment and then I will be worried about getting in the liquid and protein after that.  I have found a couple items I should never have eaten and will never eat again.  I have different forms of the dumping symdrome depending on what I've done wrong and I'm learned fast as it is no fun. 

Good Luck!

Now that is some good news! Thanks for sharing.

BCBS FL State has changed the policy!! They REMOVED the time requirement for prior weightloss trials. It is no longer six months!!  Joy!

 I'm in the finally stages of meeting my requirments for my insurance company so I can have the Lap-Band surgery performed. The question I have is insurance will only cover 50% and I know that is great being that some people have no coverage but can I request that they cover more? Can I give them a Letter of Necessity from a family doctor? Any advice is grealty appreciated.

Thanks

Hello, new OH member here. I finally feel I am ready to start the process of weight loss surgery and had gone to a local meeting here at the hospital where I live in Florida with my husband, they had me give them my insurance information and sign some papers, I got a call a few days ago that they had contacted my insurance about all of my costs and what I need to do before I send out the request for surgery.

The secretary over the phone mentioned a letter from my PCP, nutritionist, psych evaluation, and medical records as the requirements. I have Blue Cross Blue Shield of Illinois PPO. My question is about the medical records she mentioned, when I contacted the person who handles all of my employer health insurance stuff just to make sure that the company covered the surgery and when they told me they did and they broke down the costs for me they were on par with what the secretary from the surgeon told me. When they told me about the requirements they did not (forgot I guess?)  mention the 5 year medical records from my doctors that includes height, weight, and co-morbid conditions.

I have five years of records of being obese that is not a problem, my problem is back in 07-08 I was not considered morbidly obese, my BMI was 36 with no sleep apnea at the time or hypertension or anything just GERD. I see alot of people on here when I did a search saying they needed records for five years of being morbidly obese (I have not seen any from my insurance company though) so I am wondering if I would still qualify with a bmi of 36 from five years ago? I didn't reach a bmi of over 40 until I was halfway through my pregnancy in 2009 and after that the weight never came off and I kept gaining.

I hope this will not be a problem to where I will have to wait 2 more years being as miserable as I am now, anyone who has gone through BCBS IL who could shed some light on this would be greatly appreciated as I don't feel like trying to get through on the phone with my company again, it was a looooong que to get a real person to talk to. By the way this is for the RNY Bypass as none of the doctors anywhere remotely close to me will do the DS (my bmi is 51).

Thank you for your time!