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CONGRATS Special K! I am thrilled for you!

Hello everyone. New to this message board but have read through all the posts. I became a bandit on Dec 26, 2007 with the assistance of Dr. Choban. I can relate to alot of things that are being said about Charlene, but I also stayed in touch with my insurance company on an every-other-day basis. Checking in with them to get the latest instead of relying on over-worked (and probably under-paid) Charlene. There were times I had a more up to date response than she did and would call her to tell her. Anyhow ~ I started my journey in June 2006! I was looking into having it completed at the Barix in Groveport but quickly found out they weren't a covered provider on my insurance plan and Mt Carmel West was. So I contacted them, signed up for the seminar and got the ball rolling with them. One of my biggest snags was with my (old) PCP and I had to switch insurance companies. (The surgery wasn't going to be a covered benefit under my old plan, Aetna, but it would be a covered benefit under the other plan my employer covered, BC/BS of Illinois). So I switched insurance plans and submitted everything to them that they requested. By Jan 2007, I had finished my 6 months requirement of meeting with my PCP to discuss diet & exercise and had my pysch evulation. I submitted everything to BC/BS along with a few additional small documentation ( 5 yr weight history, etc) and was quickly denied. They said my PCP didn't put much in his notes and they needed to be more detailed. Whatever. BC/BS suggested I start over with another 6 months worth of PCP visits. So I switched PCP's and went to one that has helped other patients get approved for the surgery. Met with him once a month, discussed what I was doing and I would hear him dictating a letter after the visit ~ he was very detailed in his reports. At the end of my 6 months, it became a waiting game for the insurance to approve it. From Sept 7th (my last dr visit) through late Oct - early Nov was tough. Insurance denied my request (I had to be grandfathered in for this to be a covered benefit and the people who approves the pre-determinations didn't know that. They just knew it wasn't a covered benefit for 2007.) So after MANY phone calls to BC/BS and an appeal to them, outlining how I specifically met their requirements, I was approved! I cried! And then I called everyone I knew to tell them My surgery went off without a hitch (in fact, Dr. Choban told my family the surgery was a boring one. And in the field of medicine, a boring surgery is a good thing!) Recovery went well and I have lost 16 pounds so far. Not as much as others have lost for having their surgery on the same date as mine, but I also don't exercise like I should be and they are. So it's my own fault. I had my first fill yesterday and it wasn't as bad as I was expecting. I have band that will hold 10 cc's and they filled it to 4 cc's. I go back on April 17th unless they call and say I need to be seen before that for whatever reason. Okay ~ now that I've told my life story (at least the last year and a half of it), I should get off here and get some things done. :biggrin2: Thanks for listening, Becky Newark, Oh