I am beginning my journey tonight. I feel physically lousy all the time! At this moment my ankles and knees hurt so bad I want to scream. I have type II diabetes, high blood pressure, high choleterol and arthritis in my knees and probably ankles. I take meds for all of these conditions.I carry a great deal of weight around my midsection and have lower back trouble. My mobility is decreasing with each passing day. I have difficulty finding a comfortable position that enables me to fall asleep and stay asleep. I was always an athletic tomboy, but still fat. I have tried liquid diets, Quick Weightloss, Nutrisystem, Jenny Craig, Weight Watchers, and low carb/high protein diets. I used to walk regulary, but am unable to now because of the pain in my knee and ankle joints. I believe that if my entire way of life has changed, it is time to do something radical.

My insurance carrier is United Healthcare and I am unsure if lapband surgery is covered. I am currently 258 pounds and 5 foot seven. I am a teacher in the Houston area and wondered if any other Houston teacher has had this procedure and whether it was covered by healthcare provider. If not, how do people afford the $15000?!!? If it is financed, what are the interest rates like?:help:

Hi and welcome to LBT. I can't really answer the financing problem. I just wanted to say Hi from another Houstonian. I am with BCBS and they will pay for mine if I do a 6 month pre-op diet. So that is where I am at right now. Some people that I have read about put it on their credit cards probably depending on how good your credit is. Or others take out a loan. I hope this helps. Sorry don't know too much about all this. Good luck to you with your journey :huggie:

Melissa,

Welcome to LBT(LAP BAND TALK)..I was denied by my insurance company and I was a self pay....contact Capitol One....they have a cosmetic surgery loan that is low interest...and lapband is considered cosmetic surgery....or least for the loan it is considered cosmetic surgery..you can be pre-approved within one hour....then you are good to go...my payments are not that bad...it is so worth it....once I decided to self pay , two weeks and four days , I had the surgery...

I have a friend that was a teacher that I took to my doctor at the end of May to have Lap Band surgery. She was with the Cyfair school district. She needed to loose 60 lbs. and her insurance turned her down. She went to my doctor in TJ to have the procedure done for half of the price that the doctors charge here. You can also get financing with him for year interest free. I had United Health care and they turned me down. However my daughter had United Health care and it paid all but 2500.00 of hers. So it depends on what United Health Care policy you have.

My insurance covered both bandings completely as well as most of my nutritionalist, and my doctors staff handled ALL the insurance issues and kept me posted. Best staff in the world. best surgeon too, in my humble opinion....

contact journeylite or dr st laurent at willowbrook methodist hospital.

i first contacted them in January 2007, by feb 13 i was banded the first time. I had an extensive documented (over six months with a dr) weight loss attempt with medication which counted as the six months dr supervised diet, there was some jumping through hoops, had to get a psych eval, sleep study and ekg, but all in all it wasnt a big deal and i just paid copay on those.

I had anthem bcbs, out of state, out of network referral from my PCP.

GOOD LUCK! your going to love this.