I'm curious, did anyone have to self pay for their band removal to have insurance cover bypass? My insurance denied me based on the fact my band had no technical failure. The surgeon I was seeing did a peer to peer, which was denied as well. I reached out to a new surgeon! His insurance coordinator suggested I go self pay for the band removal, then ask the insurance to cover bypass. My surgical policy states, repeat surgery will not be covered if patient was non compliant with first surgery. I have over 100 pages of fill documents that span over 6 years. I'm just curious if anyone else has had to go this route?

Sorry that happened to you, I didn’t have to self pay but I did have a second opinion from my original surgeon and was then told my band slipped so I was like that for 2 years. I just got my band taken out on 4/25 and I’m so glad. I hope to be getting a sleeve in July

I have the same insurance (BCBS ANTHEM) and am waiting on insurance approval from band to bypass. Did you ever get them to approve. I haven't had major issues with my band other than Gerd and random tightening over the years so im worried that it won't be enough. I had to go through the 6 month supervised diet, have an EGD, mental check, nut visit, and etc hoping I didn't do all that for a denial. Would love to hear an update on your situation.

On 5/1/2018 at 8:57 PM, mzmcqueen904 said:

Sorry that happened to you, I didn’t have to self pay but I did have a second opinion from my original surgeon and was then told my band slipped so I was like that for 2 years. I just got my band taken out on 4/25 and I’m so glad. I hope to be getting a sleeve in July

I had to do mine self pay, had it removed on May 10th! I got my insurance approval on June 11th for bypass!

On 6/11/2018 at 12:39 AM, swimmer0302 said:

I have the same insurance (BCBS ANTHEM) and am waiting on insurance approval from band to bypass. Did you ever get them to approve. I haven't had major issues with my band other than Gerd and random tightening over the years so im worried that it won't be enough. I had to go through the 6 month supervised diet, have an EGD, mental check, nut visit, and etc hoping I didn't do all that for a denial. Would love to hear an update on your situation.

I had to self pay for the band removal, it was 3500. I had it done on May 10th. they resubmitted back to my insurance company and on June 11th I got a approval for RNY!