Insurance News...Listen up!

blossom · January 14, 2005

Went to a support group meeting last night and one of the 2 local lapband drs showed up. Among other things, he informed us that Cigna is in the process of putting into place a NATIONWIDE policy that excludes lapband surgery. He also said that Aetna will mostly likely do the same. On a local level, Blue Cross/Blue Shield with the Texas Teacher Retirement System (TRS) will continue to pay for the surgery for now, however, all other BC/BS policies in Texas will exclude lapband surgery. He did not say when all of these changes will go into effect.

Whats up with all these exclusions, all of a sudden???

Iluvharleys · January 14, 2005

I have heard that a lot of the insurance companies are going to start excluding the surgery. One of the biggest reasons is because of the price of it. There are a lot more people going to surgery for weight loss and it is costing the insurance companies a lot of money. Maybe it is time for the Doctors to start lowering some prices now.

leatha_g · January 14, 2005

That's really a shame. I'd say maybe us (the consumers) should start an email/letter campaign to tell them how we feel about that/what it's done for us in the way of improved health vs the bad health we started out with. Such a shame...