Who had to do 6 mos Medically Supervised Weight Loss?

 How many of you that have already had the surgery have had to do the 6 mos of medically supervised weight loss?  My insurance has it as one of their criteria.  I did this for over a year, but its now been a year since I was last in the program, so now I may have to do it again.  Really, kind of bothers me, but if I have to I have to.

Thank goodness, I didn't. 

Check with your insurance to see if you have to do it again.  Maybe they'll take the notes on the old one.

My insurance needed 6 nutritionist visits in the previous 24 months and, as I am a diabetic I used my diabetic nutritionist visits.

I Had to, but an exception was made for me since my insurance was changing to a TERRIBLE insurance at the beginning of the year. And my GP knew I did weigh****chers previous so they talked with my insurance and got the ok to document my old Weigh****chers records (Which were less then a year old) and I had 4 months instead of 6 months to do.  I had to weigh in monthly with my GP and do blood work along with seeing a dietitian and a psych.  When my 4 months was up I got the OK to see the Surgeon who gave me his "packet of things to do" and less then 1.5 weeks later I had my surgery date.    But like I said, I had an issue with insurance and the people who all worked with me we WONDERFUL!!! 

 I did check with my insurance and they are saying it needs to be consecutive months before the WLS.  I am hoping that my bariatric doctor office can work some magic.  My BMI is over 50 and they said sometime the insurance will waive the supervised weight loss.

I won't know for sure until my first appointment with the bariatrician, which is not until Feb. 2nd!  :-(  Now that I have made up my mind to do this, I just want to keep the ball rolling.

I had to do it with CIGNA.  It was actually pretty easy and fit into the UMASS program well.  Remeber you can always ask if the previously met 6 month would qualify. 

Good Luck

I had to do 12 mos consecutive dr supervised. And Im not a patient person. I had previous but it wasnt consecutive so I had to start over and just ck in with dr once a month. Document that in the past I had tried various wl options..blah blah..It was a long yr. So be glad it's only 6 mos. But when my last month was documented I was approved within 2 wks and I didnt even know I was sent off for approval.LOL

Okay, call me a debbie downer.. but the 6 mos supervised diet.. helped me lose 60 pounds before surgery..It helped me evaluate the WHY I was obese etc. Actually, the support alone I could use again.. I would do it all over again. If my insurance allowed me, I would enter a program today. I reached my goal weight and have maintained it but there is nothing like reinforcment and peer support.

Michelle

Michelle,

I agree with you whole heartedly!!! When I was told that I had to lose 10% of my body weight (40 lbs) along with several visits to a nutritionist I was so not happy. My thought was why do I have to lose weight to have WLS??!!?? But I am so glad that I had to go thru the process. It totally prepares you for your post surgery journey.

If you can't adhere to a plan pre-op, how you gonna adhere post-op? Just my thought.....

Lori,

Its unfortunate that not everyone gets much out of the 6 mos pre-surgery program. I have Kaiser and the nutritional counseling is still something I refer back to all the time.

Michelle