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I go for my consultation tomorrow was wondering who has used united health care and what i can expect my doctors office said they would take care of the insurance dealings. just wondering if united health care is going to make things harder than need be.

thanks

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I had no problem with UHC. They will require you to complete 6 months of medically supervised weight loss from your primary care doctor, after which he or she will prepare a letter to them. After that, my lap band doctor required both a nutritional and psychological consultation, both of which were not covered by UHC. These set me back about $400 out of pocket, but overall worth it considering UHC covered pretty much everything else. Good luck.

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I have United Health Care, and their only requirement of me was a five year record from my pcp showing that I had been overweight and had sleep apnea. My doctor faxed that info to them and I was approved a week later. The whole process of being approved was 3 - 4 weeks. Maybe it depends on the state you live in. Good Luck

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I also have UHC, they also required the 6 month diet thing, however I had that in my medical records. I had a $100 copayment and the Dr. office and $100 copayment @ the surgery center. Thank goodness my husband has such good insurance.

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I also had no problem with them. I didn't have to go through a 6 month supervised diet #1. Not sure if it was my doctor or them that needed an appointment with a nutritionist, psych eval, EKG and blood work. They approved me pretty quickly. I was out of network so that did take a little bit longer. Also, because he wasn't in network I had to pay for my fills the last 18 months because I didn't know there was an exclusion I could have fought out of network for fills. I think my copay was around $2k. Good luck.

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united healthcare seems to be God-sent insurance where bariatric surgery is concerned. That's what we have & so far everything has gone smoothly. All the nurses & docs throughout this process have told me how blessed I am. One of many blessings to think God for. My surgery is scheduled for April 23. I'll let you know.

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Unfortunately my united health care does not cover anything for baritatrics. I think is just what your employer contracts for.

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uhc was awesome to me...my only requirement was a psych eval and a bmi over 40 i think...the process from first appt to surgery took me 6 weeks...once my preop appts were done and the doctors office submitted my paper work to them i was approved in 3 days and scheduled for surgery.

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I have UHC choice plus and all it requires is that you have a bmi over a certain limit, I think 40 with no co morbidities and 30 with 2 morbidities and a five year history of obesity.

The whole thing took two weeks.

It depends on what your employer has chosen in their contract.

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I am thinking about switching from Aetna (WLS not covered by my company) to UCH (WLS covered if you have co-morbidities) and from what I can tell, the requirements really seem to differ depending on which UHC policy you have. Which makes me nervous. :D

I think I am going to call and ask for their policy in writing before I definitely switch at Open Enrollment. But if they don't require the 6 month diet, that would be great since I can't switch until Aug and I want to have surgery in Oct.

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i just started to really dig into getting the surgery so i haven't had allot of exposure to UHC but they did tell me that i have to have a DR statement saying that i qualify. so i have scheduled that for may 3rd. after the DR eval. he has to send it to UHC so they can evaluate it and approve it or not. i hope they do. they did say that they cover WLS and the web site said that out patient surgery is covered 80% after the deductible. so i hope that helps some. ill tell you more when i know more.

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I have UHC and the process was surprisingly easy and fast. I was told that since my BMI was over 40, I did not have to show proof of any co-morbidities. My doctor's office submitted the cliam and in about 3 weeks I was told that the procedure was approved and fully covered! I'm scheduled May 14th.

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I have UHC and did not have to do the 6 mos dr supervised diet. My bmi is over 40 and I do have co-morbidities. My surgeon's office said I would need to provide medical history for the past 5 yrs to show that I have been overweight and mine only went back 3 yrs because I went for a long period of time with no pcp.....I was worried that it would either delay my approval or require me to jump thru some other hoop, but they approved me in less than a week. I work with several people that are either going to have wls or already have had wls....our company offers both uhc and bcbs....the people w/uhc are having a much easier time getting approved. My surgery is not until Monday the 21st but from what I understand I will be paying $1000-$1500 out of pocket total. I'm sure it will be the best money I've ever spent.

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I agree with going with UHC. I tried getting approved 2years ago through BCBS and did not get approved. They wanted 5 yr history and 1 yr working with a nutritionist. UHC approved me within a week & I am now scheduled for surgery 4/24/....good luck

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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.
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      1. LeighaTR

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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. 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.

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        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.

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