Lap band and tricare/also scared.

I am about to see the surgeon for the lap band.  I was just wondering if anyone have it done with triwest as your insurance.  I know they will pay 100% of it, but wondering if they give any problems.  I have debated this for a long time and I am ready for this.  I have lost 100 lbs since I had my son 9 months ago taking me from 396 to 296 lbs.  I need some extra help and I know this is a tool that can help me achieve my goal.  I am scared of the surgery how I will handle it.  But, then again I had an er csection and they cut me vertical.  So I think I can handle just about anything.  What do you guys think?

Hi, I am going thru the process of getting ready to have it done through tricare south and it has been fairly easy so far. Tricare only requires that you be 100 lbs over weight or have a BMI higher than 40. I went to my first surgical consult last week and I was not put on a supervised WLS plan or anything they just told me that what clearance i needed to get. Hope this info helps and good luck with your decision!!

Congratulations on your weight loss!  No advice on Triwest but I just wanted to wish you good luck on your journey.   If you had an open incision before, and they do the band laproscopically I think you will be pleased at the recovery time compared between the two. Not having that big incision would make a huge difference in my opinion.

Trixie

I just had my surgery and I have Tricare North. Tricare is one of the easiest insurances when it comes to WLS. One word of advice, get your PCM to get your thyroid level. Tricare will require this and if you do it now, it will be out of the way. I had this done at my appointment to get my referral to a surgeon and completely forgot to have them fax it over to my surgeon to put in my record to send to Tricare when the time came. So Tricare called my surgeon and they called me to get it and of course I had to call my PCM to get her to fax it. Yes, it was done and all they had to do was fax, but it was a delay. They also require Cardiac or Pulmonary clearance. So if your surgeon doesn't require you to see a specific Cardiologist, get your PCM to do one of those as well. I know the different regions can require different things, but if you can get these done by your PCM or on your base/post, you'll be ahead of the game in case they do. Also, you could call Tricare and ask them if they will require them. My surgeon didn't require an EKG because of my age (31) but Tricare did so again, it was a delay. Feel free to send me a message if you have any questions, everything is pretty fresh in my mind still. lol! Also, all my info went to Tricare on a Wednesday, I was approved by Friday.

First of all CONGRATULATIONS on your weight loss!!

As for Tricare, I cannot speak to the western region. I am in NC and have Tricare north, I had my surgery on June 1st and the insurance process and approval was super easy. As mentioned earlier, Tricare is very easy to work with and the approval was given within 24 hours of submission. You will need the thyroid, pulmonary and cardio work up as noted above. Ask your surgical coordinator or insurance specialist at the surgeons office if he/she is familiar with working with Tricare, if not you may have to be more hands on in the process.

Best of luck and keep us posted
Michele

Thank you guys so much.  They referred me to Balboa hospital which is a MTF.  I heard good things about them, but still scares me.  I do believe I had my thyroid checked back in Dec.  I wonderful if that would count.  I will have to call and ask them. 

Having it done back in December should be fine. Most places will accept results within a year of the testing. So you should be all set.