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I have Cigna and once I met the criteria, there were no issues with approval. I had to document three months of 'supervised' weight loss attempts under medical supervision and meet with the psychologist but otherwise, there were no big hoops to jump through. Good luck!

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I have Cigna and am very pleased with my coverage. I was required to have four monthly consecutive visits with my primary care physician during which time I GAINED about five pounds. I had pay $250 out of pocket to both the nutritionist and psychologist. The total cost of my procedure including the surgeon's fee, anesthesiology, and hospital bill was just about $70,000 (yes, that's a seven!). My total cost was six hundred dollars - the $500 previously noted, and my co-pay was $100 for the hospital. I also pay a $30 co-pay with my follow-up surgeon visits. Cigna approved the procedure pretty quickly.

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Wow! I guess that's not tooooo bad. At least it was for something helping you health wise. Thank you for shedding some light on this. I feel pretty confident now.

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I had to do the same...$250 each for the nutritionist and psychologist. My surgery was almost a year ago so I don't remember exactly how much my out of pocket was but I think around $800. Unlike a lot of others, I stayed overnight at the hospital, which might explain the high out of pocket. I don't know how much the total cost was...I never saw bills related to the procedure other than my surgeon's bill which was ten thousand I think.

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oh...and I didn't have to diet. I just had to show that my doctor was aware of my weight loss attempts. She just noted my weight on some form and it went in as part of my submission package for the coverage.

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I had Cigna and I had to do a three month supervised diet and exercise program with my PCP and then had to go see a nutritionist and a psyche eval. Once that was completed they submitted to insurance and was denied for I didn't have a comorbidity. My bmi was 39.6 and my weight was around 239. Then my PCP took blood work found out I had high cholesterol and they approved me. I got banded on 10/9/13 and am down 37 pounds and received my first fill on 12/13/13. Good luck with the insurance and hope all goes well.

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I'm well past that weight and bmi. I suffer from hypertension, high cholesterol and thyroid. So hopefully once I do everything required of me, things will go smoothly.

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Hi all! I also have Cigna and am scheduled for surgery on Monday, how long is the approval good for? I want to reschedule surgery but I'm dreading having to do all the pre reqs all over again. Does anyone happen to know?

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I have Cigna and once I met the criteria, there were no issues with approval. I had to document three months of 'supervised' weight loss attempts under medical supervision and meet with the psychologist but otherwise, there were no big hoops to jump through. Good luck!

That was the same with me. I was right at a 35 BMI (bare minimum) and with a co-morbid condition.

Hi all! I also have Cigna and am scheduled for surgery on Monday, how long is the approval good for? I want to reschedule surgery but I'm dreading having to do all the pre reqs all over again. Does anyone happen to know?

I'm not sure how long the approval is good for, but I think your medical clearance is only good for 30 days. If you delay, you might need the bloodwork, EKG and chest x-ray all over again.

For my Cigna plan - we have a high deductible. Each year, I pay the first $1500 out of my own pocket for any doctor visits, then it's 80%/20% split with insurance (me with the 20%), until I reach $4000 total out of pocket. I had some other surgery earlier in the year, so this hospital fee was really just $450 (my final amount to get me to $4000). If they had delayed my surgery, it would have cost closer to $3.5k out of pocket. The self-pay feature at my surgeon's office is a max of $16k. Their fee included nutritionist and psych eval.

Overall - I had 3 surgeon visits, 4 dietician (with a dr) visits, a psych eval, bloodwork, EKG, x-ray, and the surgery itself. I'm not sure how much all of that totaled up to be offhand... Maybe $600-$700 over the span of 4 months?

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Hi all! I also have Cigna and am scheduled for surgery on Monday, how long is the approval good for? I want to reschedule surgery but I'm dreading having to do all the pre reqs all over again. Does anyone happen to know?

I have cigna too..they told me tge aporoval was goid for 90 days from the date you were approved. .so basically three month span..

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    • BeanitoDiego

      Oh yeah, something I wanted to rant about, a billing dispute that cropped up 3 months ago.
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    • BeanitoDiego

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