Hey there Jersey gang!

I'm a patient of Dr. Alexander Abkin and will be operated on at Morristown Memorial hospital at the end of this month (providence willing). I'd love to connect with other NJ people from north of the border.

I live in Middlesex County. Hopefully I will have my surgery in February at Somerset Medical Center. I've had my initial consult and the doc tried to persuade me against the band. I have my appt with nutritionist and psych eval this week. Hopefully everything will go ok.. Nice hearing from you.

Originally posted by Mahoney

They are a small plan administrator, but she verified for me that they don't consider the lap-band experimental/ investigational and that they cover it. I've been optimistic before , but I found 2 people on www.obesityhelp.com that said the new company covered the band. I don't know what they'll require, but I'm going to hold off on the self-pay surgery for now and try again in January.

Bob,

I don't believe that insurance companies are legally empowered to arbitrarily call a procedure "investigational or experimental" when it is neither. There is an attorney named Walter Lindsttom who writes reasonably-priced, ugly letters to remind them of where the line is drawn. AND, Don Mills at Inamed has written several friendly letters reminding insurance companies that the investigation is over, the experiment is over...it is an FDA-approved procedure. Period.

Give Inamed a try and then consider Lindstrom. They've worked for others. (I think the insurance comapnies backed down and said something like, "Oh! THAT LapBand. There was a misunderstanding.")

Sue

*whose daughter's PS said that the appeal letter I wrote was so good that I should start a business doing just that.