I need some advice. I called my insurance bcbs il and was told they saw no requirement for 6 months of documented diet (my bmi is 45). Has anyone been approved recently(2014) and if so did you have to do the 6 month diet first? Also when you paid your out of pocket did you have to pay the surgeon or physician? Sorry for the questions I'm new to this and anxiously trying to get my doc appointments in ☺

I haven't been approved yet (finishing up requirements), but I have BCBS IL and you're right, no pre op diet requirement. I just have to follow whatever my surgeon requires. Also need nutrition counseling and psych eval. Your BMI is high enough, too. (You need a BMI of 40 or 35 with co-morbidities). I have been paying my co-pays at doctor visits but I don't know how much the surgery out of pocket will be. Sorry if that's not too much help

Thanks so much for your response. I finish up my appointments (psych,dietician, pulmonology and cardiology) the 30th. So glad to hear you didn't have to do the 6 month diet. I was getting worried after reading about other BCBS holders that got denied because of it... Im just so ready to get this done!

My out of pocket portion was met through all the pre-op blood work, x-rays, etc, so I don't think I had to pay anything on surgery day. Now I just pay my office visit copay when I go in for fills and checkups.

I have BCBS and they required 4 months of supervised dieting with doctor. Depends on the employer plan

I have BCBS of IL and they require 6 months of nutritional counseling. I went to my pcp and got documentation, then I went to the surgeon's nutritionist for two months, and not I'm doing my last 4 visit with my PCP. The office is leery about me switching but that doesn't make sense. The visits must be monitored by a physician and a physician is not a nutritionist and vise versa. My last visit is March so we'll see if I get approved, which I doubt. My highest BMI recorded was 40.38 and no medical conditions.

neither me or my wife had to do a supervised diet but they did make us both see a nutrisonist 1 time but let me tell bcbsil was a pain in the butt for me. my wife was denied and the dr was able to get it approved me i had to take it to arbitration before i was aprroved. i met several of the requirements sleep apena high blood pressure ostreo artritis and a bmi or 38.7 and still got denied the nice thing was that my drs office took care of everything i didnt even need to make a phone call

How about horizon bcbs of nj how long is the approval wait?