kelking

It is something they will check for when you have your surgery. If there is one there, they should/will repair it at the same time as placing your band. From my understanding this became the norm a couple of years ago.

I have found a ton of blogs on blogspace.com. Many people on this site have their blog listed in their signature line. One you find one, there is a whole lap band network that they seem to be connected to.

Lena, welcome to the August Bandsters. Our stats could not be much closer....age, weight, height and I will be banded on the 17th. I looks forward to sharing our experiences.

Did you see a Dr at all during that three years where they would have documented your weight?

Congratulations on your speedy approval. We have the same date, and I also feel that it cannot get here soon enough....

Thanks Tally!!!

I am sooooo irratated!!! I had a date of August 5th, had everything all lined up so that I had someone who could be with me on the day of surgery (they changed some of their plans, by the way) and then the surgeons office calls today and say that the Dr. just decided that he is going to be on vacation that week. WTF!!!! So now I have to push surgery out two weeks to accomodate his schedule and go through the process of making other arrangements for sugery day. How freakin' inconsiderate can a person be, should they get their vacation scheduled before they start booking surgery. :eek::mad::mad::mad:

You will probably have to pay on the date of your surgery or at your last pre-op appointment, since this is an elective surgery and they know where you are at in your deductible.

Thanks for sharing Marissa. Pretty cool perspective!!

That is AWESOME...maybe you will be a August bandster with a bunch of us.

Congratulations Claudean!!! As a soon to be bandster, that makes me even more excited about this journey. Keep up the GREAT work!!

I was approved on the first try. I have BCBS of TN as my insurer. Since I participate in a High Deductible Health plan my out of pocket expenses will be $4500...most of which I paid with the things I needed to do pre-surgery.

As emjay said you will want to either look at your SPD or talk with someone at the insurance company. I have been assigned a Case Worker within my insurance plan and she has been most helpful is managing the obstacle course that is insurance. In my particular case, my deductible is $1500 and my max out of pocket is $4500. So I paid everything to my deductible 100% and then I paid 20% of all additional claims until I paid the additional $3000. From that point on, I will not pay another cent. One other thing you might want to understand is what effect out of network expenses have on all this. I know that I have an in network and out of network deductible. My sleep study ended up being out of network (I could kick myself for that one) so they applied 20% of the allowable amount towards my max out of pocket....even though my expense was much more than that. I can all be so confusing, good luck in figuring it all out. If you have HR person or department you can go to, they might be of some help. You wouldn't even have to tell them what you were having done, just speak in general terms.

I just got my date!!!! August 5th will be the beginning of my new life. So much to do between now and then, but it will help make the time fly by.....

I too hope to be banded in August!! Just got my insurance approval letter the other day and am awaiting a call back from the surgeons office with a date. I hope it can be the first week in August....

Providers (doctors offices, hospitals....) become part of a (many times several) networks. Within these networks there are negotiated prices which they agree to accept for these services. Anything else above and beyond that negotiated price they agree to write off. I believe the reason their 'off the shelf' price is so high is to help accommodate for the number of people that do not have insurance and do not fully pay their bills. (IMHO, one of the major problems with health insurance today.) One thing that many people do not know is that there are companies out there that will help you negotiate a lower bill with or without insurance. In most cases, if they are able to negotiate you a lower bill, they will take a percentage of the savings. Here is one of those companies....INSNET (no I am not affiliated with this company...I work for a company that sells insurance and I used to have an insurance license.)

Spartan, I think the biggest thing to worry about is scaring. Sun or faux sun can cause issues with your scar tissue not healing as well. After both my gallbladder surgery and getting my appendix out, I covered my scars with the towel in order to avoid exposing them to sun.

I can't wait to feel good/better about being in a swimsuit...and then I would really love to scuba. The hard thing about being heavy is that fat floats....makes scuba a little hard.

HAL, I'm not nervous at all....just really really excited. Of course I don't have my date yet so things still have a chance to change... Keep us posted on how things go!!

tigermom, can I ask when you got approval from your insurance company? I too am going to Dr. Malley and just got insurance approval today....was wondering how far out they are booking surgeries at this point. I'm hoping I won't be that far behind you, but was thinking it might be closer to the end of July...hope I'm wrong. Thanks,

I am so excited that I just can't quit grinning:biggrin:...although when the Case Manager called from the insurance company I broke down crying.... now I have to wait for the approval letter to come in the mail before the surgeons office will get me on the schedule...best case it can be 2.5 weeks/ worst case it will be a month. I'm sure this time will seem to go by sooo slow. Thank goodness things at work are crazy busy right now so that should make the time fly by. Just wanted to share my joy :biggrin: thanks for listening!!!

Do you have your gallbladder? That was the same type of pain that I had when I ended up getting my gallbladder out. Just like a hot poker was being stuck in the middle of my back. Nothing made it go away...

I wanna be a July Bandster too!! My insurance was submitted just a week after yours so hopefully I will know something soon. Best of luck to you on your journey!!

One trick for whenever you have to cough is to hold a pillow to your stomach. This helps greatly...not sure why...but I was glad a nurse from a previous surgery had told me this. Hope you feel better soon!!

You really might want to ask this of your insurance company as each one handles this a little bit different. When I had an expense that was out of network, I ended up meeting both my in and out of network deductibles within the same year. Now I am much more careful in ensuring that all of my expenses are in network. As an aside, I too and waiting to have surgery with Dr. Malley and hope to get my BCBS approval soon. Best of luck to you!!