shellyq

When I initially went to my surgeon, he STRONGLY recommended the Lap Band, like you I had already done a lot of research and knew that wasn't the best choice for me (5'9" and 350'ish) . I too had a problem speaking up and almost walked out agreeing to something that I knew wouldn't work and would be a waste of time and money. Once I explained the pros and cons as they pertained to me and that this is what I wanted to do and it was the DS or nothing, he agreed. I truly believe that it was my determination showing to permanently lose weight and that I had done my research that convinced the doctor because from there on out he was 100% behind my decision. I also had Cigna and had to do a three month supervised diet. My diet was supervised by my primary care and thankfully so. He already knew my weight loss struggles, what had and hadn't worked for me, and as it turned out had already signed off on and getting other patients approved for the surgery so knew exactly what wording needed to be used. The insurance company doesn't care which doctor supervises it as long as it's supervised. My primary care is actually a physicians assistant and Cigna had no problem at all with it. I had constant struggles with my surgeons office turning in the required paperwork to the insurance company, it had even gotten so bad my primary care called the surgeons office and told him what a lousy office staff he had since me and his other patients weren't being helped the way we should and paperwork wasn't being turned in. I really don't know if things would have ever happened if I didn't have my my primary care working as a liaison on my behalf with the surgeons office. Also, when I first inquired into the surgery, Cigna assigned a nurse as my "caseworker" and at first was hesitant thinking that it was me against the insurance company and she was part of "them" but once I realized she was a neutral party she had so many great suggestions and was such a big help I would highly recommend taking full advantage of this if Cigna has assigned you one. Between doctor visits, labs, surgeon, hospital, anesthesiologist, etc. my out of pocket ended up being my max out of pocket on my insurance which was $4500. It was more than I was anticipating and made money tight but I look at it as I have spent at least that on doctors visits for weight related issues and fad diet over the past year or two. I still have a copy of the letter that was sent into Cigna if you would like a copy so you can see exactly what wording they are looking for.

I was in the same exact situation. On the borderline of the BMI so that Cigna would pay surgey, was also required to do a three month supervised diet. During the three months supervised diet I actually gained ten pounds due to having foot surgery and being laid up for over a month and then trying to compensate by not having enough calories. Cigna required me to do an additional three months basically saying that if I couldn't stick to a doctor's diet for three months then I wasn't serious enough about losing weight to have surgery. During those extra three months I lost the ten pounds and an additional seven pounds putting me right at a BMI of 50. I would think that your surgeons office has seen plenty of these scenarios and can guide you on the right path. Personally, I would take the supervised diet seriously and try to lose a few pounds so the insurance company can see how important this is to you but also be careful to not go gung ho. Good luck and I'm hoping all goes well.