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My company was bought and our insurance will change to Anthem Blue Cross in January. The plan is called Prudent Buyer. My new employer is California based however I live in Texas. We haven’t enrolled in our selected plans yet however my HR person gave me the EOC for this year explaining all the coverage and stated nothing will change. Bariatric is covered and the only stipulation is that it must be deemed medically necessary and performed at a BDCSC facility. There are absolutely no other requirements listed like wait times, nutrition visits, etc. Anyone else have experience with this plan?

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So when I had my band placed in 2009 I had to prove what diets I had already been on, a psychological evaluation and all the physical stuff. Then In 2016 when I had my gastric bypass done I just had the doctor handle things. They wanted to make sure it was medically necessary for the revision. They paid all but 20 percent or up to my out of pocket max which I believe is $2800. Hope this helped!

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1 minute ago, lisamaemac said:

I just had my surgery on Monday. My insurance told who to see as a surgeon. 6 mo appt with a nutritionist, a psych evaluation, gastrointestinal evaluation

Sent from my SM-G960U using BariatricPal mobile app

Interesting...and you have Anthem BC non-CA resident PPO in Texas?

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Hi Kimmie K,

I believe this link to Anthem's updated bariatric surgery medical policy is exactly what you are looking for: CG-SURG-83 Bariatric Surgery I'm also attaching it as a PDF. This contains all the Anthem req'ments as of their October 31, 2018 update. Hope this helps!

CG-SURG-83 Bariatric Surgery and Other Treatments for Clinically Severe Obesity.pdf

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1 hour ago, Walter Lindstrom said:

Hi Kimmie K,

I believe this link to Anthem's updated bariatric surgery medical policy is exactly what you are looking for: CG-SURG-83 Bariatric Surgery I'm also attaching it as a PDF. This contains all the Anthem req'ments as of their October 31, 2018 update. Hope this helps!

CG-SURG-83 Bariatric Surgery and Other Treatments for Clinically Severe Obesity.pdf

This is exactly what I have not seen yet. Thank you so much!!!

Edit: When you posted this https://wlsappeals.com/2792/walters_bariatric_surgery_blog/supervised_diet_requirement_eliminated/ ...do you think my plan falls under that? I won't have Anthem until January so I don't have the ability to call on the plan and my new HR lady is a tad not up to speed with the particulars of the plan...

Edited by Kimmie K

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4 minutes ago, Walter Lindstrom said:

I wouldn’t expect changes when 2019 rolls in since this is a recent update, but make sure you keep tabs on it just to be sure! 👍🏻

Awesome! Thanks a ton

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    • Alisa_S

      On day 4 of the 2 week liquid pre-op diet. Surgery scheduled for June 11th.
      Soooo I am coming to a realization
      of something and I'm not sure what to do about it. For years the only thing I've enjoyed is eating. We rarely do anything or go anywhere and if we do it always includes food. Family comes over? Big family dinner! Go camping? Food! Take a short ride or trip? Food! Holiday? Food! Go out of town for a Dr appointment? Food! When we go to a new town we don't look for any attractions, we look for restaurants we haven't been to. Heck, I look forward to getting off work because that means it's almost supper time. Now that I'm drinking these pre-op shakes for breakfast, lunch, and supper I have nothing to look forward to.  And once I have surgery on June 11th it'll be more of the same shakes. Even after pureed stage, soft food stage, and finally regular food stage, it's going to be a drastic change for the rest of my life. I'm giving up the one thing that really brings me joy. Eating. How do you cope with that? What do you do to fill that void? Wow. Now I'm sad.
      · 1 reply
      1. LeighaTR

        I hope your surgery on Wednesday goes well. You will be able to do all sorts of new things as you find your new normal after surgery. I don't know this from experience yet, but I am seeing a lot of positive things from people who have had it done. Best of luck!

    • Alisa_S

      On day 4 of the 2 week liquid pre-op diet. Surgery scheduled for June 11th.
      Soooo I am coming to a realization
      of something and I'm not sure what to do about it. For years the only thing I've enjoyed is eating. We rarely do anything or go anywhere and if we do it always includes food. Family comes over? Big family dinner! Go camping? Food! Take a short ride or trip? Food! Holiday? Food! Go out of town for a Dr appointment? Food! When we go to a new town we don't look for any attractions, we look for restaurants we haven't been to. Heck, I look forward to getting off work because that means it's almost supper time. Now that I'm drinking these pre-op shakes for breakfast, lunch, and supper I have nothing to look forward to.  And once I have surgery on June 11th it'll be more of the same shakes. Even after pureed stage, soft food stage, and finally regular food stage, it's going to be a drastic change for the rest of my life. I'm giving up the one thing that really brings me joy. Eating. How do you cope with that? What do you do to fill that void? Wow. Now I'm sad.
      · 1 reply
      1. summerseeker

        Life as a big person had limited my life to what I knew I could manage to do each day. That was eat. I hadn't anything else to look forward to. So my eating choices were the best I could dream up. I planned the cooking in managable lots in my head and filled my day with and around it.

        Now I have a whole new big, bigger, biggest, best days ever. I am out there with those skinny people doing stuff i could never have dreamt of. Food is now an after thought. It doesn't consume my day. I still enjoy the good home cooked food but I eat smaller portions. I leave food on my plate when I am full. I can no longer hear my mother's voice saying eat it all up, ther are starving children in Africa who would want that!

        I still cook for family feasts, I love cooking. I still do holidays but I have changed from the All inclusive drinking and eating everything everyday kind to Self catering accommodation. This gives me the choice of cooking or eating out as I choose. I rarely drink anymore as I usually travel alone now and I feel I need to keep aware of my surroundings.

        I don't know at what point my life expanded, was it when I lost 100 pounds? Was it when I left my walking stick at home ? Was it when I said yes to an outing instead of finding an excuse to stay home ? i look back at my last five years and wonder how loosing weight has made such a difference. Be ready to amaze yourself.

        BTW, the liquid diet sucks, one more day and you are over the worst. You can do it.

    • CaseyP1011

      Officially here for a long time, not just a good time💪
      · 0 replies
      1. This update has no replies.
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