I want no no, I NEED this surgery and I would like to get it done this summer. My hubby has a full schedule with school and work in the fall. He is going back for his masters in geology and we are having to pay out of pocket for that. Add in that he makes 25k/year as a troubled youth counselor I am finding NO way to pay for this surgery. We have UHC but they don't cover obesity servies. I am thinking of getting a part time job just for the insurance to cover the surgery. Is there any insurance who is excellent about covering VSG? Who has the least amout of hoops to jump through? Thanks for sharing your knowledge

Hard question - one reason is even if ABC Insurance has covered it for one person, another person might get turned down even if they have the same insurance because their specific policy is different.

When I was choosing insurance coverage for our employees, I had the selection of many different programs offering 100 (almost literally) options. It was a huge headache.

You might try finding people locally to you who have had surgery covered by their insurance, and then find out where they work : ) Alot of local surgery providers might have websites with success stories. That might be somewhere to start??

Good luck! Be creative and it will happen!

Honestly I don't know too many part time jobs that offer insurance. Usually full time jobs with bigger companies and a few smaller ones will have insurance to offer employees. Maybe you can save enough to pay out of pocket by working part time? You may want to look for jobs at the local Health and Human Services branch or any other county job, they usually have decent insurance and hire often.

From what I've read Dollar General and Lowes both offer Atena coverage but I'm not sure if that's just for full time. If I did get a part time job it would barely cover my costs for childcare so it would really just be for the insurance portion. Too bad you can't get a loan due only after income tax comes in hehe. I'm determined to get this surgery, oh how my life would change. Just need to think think think. Thanks for responses so far.

I know part timers at Lowes and Starbucks who have insurance

Fewer and fewer companies are offering Major Medical insurance and even then there's no guarantee that you'll qualify. Getting any job right now is difficult and one with great medical is even harder. If you really want the surgery that bad, you may want get ANY job that pays decently (preferably one with tipping) and put aside the money and self pay. Dr. Cottam in Salt Lake is doing the Vertical Sleeve Plication (see it on youtube) for an out the door price of $6900, I know this as I called his office this last week, as my best friend's in your position. The plication has no staples, the stomach is folded in on itself and stitched, really safe and short recovery time. That's not unreasonable, and includes everything. He's one of the only surgeons doing Plication in the US and is a top surgeon to boot, he's trying to get a base of people to help get the plication covered by insurance. He's not charging for his actual surgery services to do this. It's a great opportunity. The actual cost is $6375 but there's a $500 blood work up and Admin costs. so I just rounded up to $6900 with the hotel cost on the front end. But that doesn't include Airfare but you can shop that and get it cheap. Everyone's finances are different but just thought I'd put that out there.

Fewer and fewer companies are offering Major Medical insurance and even then there's no guarantee that you'll qualify. Getting any job right now is difficult and one with great medical is even harder. If you really want the surgery that bad, you may want get ANY job that pays decently (preferably one with tipping) and put aside the money and self pay. Dr. Cottam in Salt Lake is doing the Vertical Sleeve Plication (see it on youtube) for an out the door price of $6900, I know this as I called his office this last week, as my best friend's in your position. The plication has no staples, the stomach is folded in on itself and stitched, really safe and short recovery time. That's not unreasonable, and includes everything. He's one of the only surgeons doing Plication in the US and is a top surgeon to boot, he's trying to get a base of people to help get the plication covered by insurance. He's not charging for his actual surgery services to do this. It's a great opportunity. The actual cost is $6375 but there's a $500 blood work up and Admin costs. so I just rounded up to $6900 with the hotel cost on the front end. But that doesn't include Airfare but you can shop that and get it cheap. Everyone's finances are different but just thought I'd put that out there.

Can you confirm "folds it in on itself"?? Do you mean he tucks the extra inside the stomach?? If so, interesting. And the flap that would then be inside the stomach doesn't cause any issues??

Will try to find it on youtube.

I agree with what everyone else says it really depends on the employer. I have UHC and all WLS are covered. The approval process has been fairly painless for me and I was approved begining to end in about 2 months.

A good place to start is health insurance companies and hospitals and educational institutions.

Can you confirm "folds it in on itself"?? Do you mean he tucks the extra inside the stomach?? If so, interesting. And the flap that would then be inside the stomach doesn't cause any issues??

Will try to find it on youtube.

From the video that I watched of Dr. Daniel Cottam on Youtube ([nomedia=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gpmK8AdJEJU]YouTube- Failed Lap Band to Gastric Imbrication; A New Concept in Bariatric Surgery[/nomedia]) he takes a stitch from below then on from the top and then pulls them together, I think after the first "tuck" is done they do an additional one. You still have a bougee so they don't go too snug. I did see something on a surgery that they go in from the mouth and take little tucks vertically all around the stomach to decrease its size and there's no surgery from outside the body. Many things happening in this field, thank god.