Tammy22

Congradulations on your loss. I am happy for you. Keep up the good work.. All of you guys are such and inspiration to me..

Well I thought I would share my inspirations as well.. Jessica (first 2 pics) is 19 months old. Shes just so much fun and I want to be able to do fun things with her later on when shes older. Haley(pics 3 and 4) is my step-daughter but I love her as if she were my own. Same goes with her. She is 5 and is in kindergardin and I want to be able to do the fun things kids her age love to do as well.. Last pic is of me and my husband. That pic we were just being a goof and it makes my face look skinny. I really like that pic even though my husband was pretending that big smile- I hardly have any pics with him showing teeth while smiling So there they are..

Just a little venting and an update.. Well as you all know I managed to get my referral but the nurse is taking her sweet time on sending it to Dr. Smith. So, I took it upon myself to call Dr. Smiths office to let them know that my nurse is suppose to be sending a refferal.. I asked her for the next date for the seminar to attend and that date is Jan. 22nd.. Well after she had told me that, she asked what insurance I had. I was thinking to myself ohhh no not again. I told her TRICARE Prime and she replied TRICARE prime is no longer convering the LAP Band procedure. I was like what and once again begin to get tears in my eyes. I couldnt believe that was possible and told her that I had just recently talked to my insurance and they said it was covered. So, she gave me a # to a lady who deals with patients whos insurance wont cover tha LAP Band. I told her what I was told and she said she has about 30 TRICARE Prime patients whos dealing with the same thing.. Well I took action on it again and was on the phone about an hr with TRICARE and luckly I got a good lady who was a great help and researched everything she could and called all the #s I had to my drs.. I got good news TRICARE PRIME WILL PAY FOR IT!!! I was soooo happy.. After she told me that I had her call Dr. Smiths office personaly and tell them as well. She made a note in my record they have that it is covered so I wont have this problem again. After I got off the phone with her I called Dr. Smiths office again and the same lady answered and she was soo happy that I did all that work and got good news. She said she has to tell everyone about TRICARE not accepting but gets told all the time that they wont cover it. It made no sence to me but as long as nothing else gets in the way with everything else, ill be happy. I now have a new patient app. set up for Jan 26th. then after that I can set up my other 2 appts thata re needed.. WOW this has been a day... I pray that this all works out.. Thanx for reading..

Thanx for the info.. I will call my insurance again tomorrow and continue to til surgery. I was told i only needed the referral to get approved. I will ask Charlie what all his wife needed to do since they have tricare prime and she also went to Dr. Smith..

Thats awesome! I am happy for you

I know it will take some time before everything is set for the surgery but I am just happy that the refferal is being sent. How often do you have to see the psychologist and nutritionist/dietician? Is that something you have to pay for out of pocket since the refferal is only for the surgery or is all of that combined? O have so many questions its not even funny and it seems like I have been researching forever lol.. Thanx to those who read and respond. Your advise is very much appreciated..

I Called TRICARE Prime today and sure enough Dr. J is out of network. So I had them call Dr. Adam Smith to see if he was in network and took TRICARE Prime and he is in network. I was Happy to hear that after all the stuff with Dr. J. I called my primary care dr. and talked to the nurse and she is going to send my referral to him on Monday and give me a call after lunch to let me know when the next seminar is. She said the seminar is requierd so I am slowly getting there. What exactly goes on at the seminar? Does anyone know how fast the process is after the seminar for Dr. Smith is before your able to get the process on the road for the surgery? Tammy

WOW! you look great. I cant wait til I am able to post pics of my own. Kepp up the good work.

Your a great help. I thank you soo much for all the help you have given me..

How do I find him? Thanx so much for your info..

Thanx for the luck. I wish you luck as well. I wished we had it easy like some do with getting it approved. If you find anything out let me know and I will do the same..

Congrats!! Hopefully one day Ill be sharing the great news too! :-) good luck.

Im happy for you. I wish you luck..

Hello everyone.. My name is Tammy. I live close to Ft. Worth Tx. My husband is stationed in Hawaii in the Navy. I was there with him but came back home for school. I recently just started looking into the lap band surgery. I have been over weight since I was around 14 and I am now 22. I am young and dont want to get all the health problems that run in my family. I was looking at getting my surgery at the Texas Lap Band Center in Dallas with Dr. Jayaseelan. I went to the appointment where they show you the band and how it works and to get weighed and get my BMI. They told me I qualify to get the surgery. I was excited to know that I was just a step closer to getting it. Well, we called tricare prime to see if they would cover the surgery and they said all I would need to get it was a referral from my prinary care doctor. I was like okay... I get an appt. with him to see about getting it.. He was asking me all kinds of questions like I was stupid or something. Then was trying to tell me they have doctors who do they same surgery. I was like okay and? I have chosen who I wanted but yet he still gives me the run around.. Well today, I get a phone call from the nurse about my referral trying to say that the lap band center does not take my insurance that they were out of area range for tricare to cover.. I was like okay how are you going to tell me that when i just went to see them and they took my insuarance for it but still had a copay.. Did not make any sence to me. She told me that she will call tricare prime to see if they will cover it or not. I told her i had called and told her what they said to me about only needing the referral and she was like well they tell patients one thing and tell the doctors another. I was tearing up at this point because I have the gut feeling nothing will come about this but my husband told me to stay strong and to keep thinking possitive. It is hard to do when you have your hopes set on something soo band then it falls apart. Does anyone have tricare prime who has had the lap band done and does anyone have any advice at all to what I could possibly do to help get this done? Thanx for taking the time to read my venting..