NYU Help

nicole914 · September 30, 2008

Hello.

I went to the meeting at NYU on the recommendation of my doctor. I like NYU and would like to move forward but am concerned that I am not doing the steps in order.

I have received information from my insurance company that they will cover if medically necessary (which I am trying to decipher all parts of that) and am meeting with my primary care doctor tomorrow to get things moving. What next?

Should I get the OK from insurance before I make a psych and nutrition appointments?

Would anyone mind mind please giving me a quick run through of what they did?

THANK YOU!

HAZARD79 · September 30, 2008

Hey i have united and i had to see physc and nutritionist first before it got summited to my insurance hope that helped

sil · September 30, 2008

call your insurance, an see what are their requirements for lapband surgery,i had to go to dietian classes for 6 months. depends on your insurance.my evaluation is oct,6. if i had known i was suppose to schedule it it would have been done early,my pcp just did xray, cardio,stress test, good luck on your journey.

hopelives124 · October 1, 2008

I just got banded on 9/16 at NYU and have united healthcare. The surgeon that you pick to do your consultation with will then have you see their coordinator. She will then tell you what you need for insurance approval. For example my surgeon is Dr. Kurian. I had my consultation and nutitional assessment on the same day in July. Then, I met with Nilsa her surgical co-ordinator who advised me on what I needed to do to get insurance approval. United Healthcare sent me an approval letter in late august. I completed the psych evaluation in June and of course the nutritional assessement you must pay for it is $350.00. This is probably the best thing I ever did for my health. So, good luck to you. It will all fall into place. Let me know if you need further help.

nicole914 · October 1, 2008

Thanks for your help.

The letter from your primary care physical that they require - how extensive was it? Did they need to also outline weight loss attempts or just short and sweet that they agree with my decision?

wsw27 · October 4, 2008

Hi,

Generally, the answer depends on your insurance. I have Cigna. I attended an information session and found out that my insurance requires a 6 month medically supervised diet. So I started that process first. Then I made an appointment for the psych consult. Around the same time I made an appointment with my primary care doctor. She wrote a letter for me on the spot. It was very simple, just identifed multiple attempts at weight loss. I was seeing a different doctor for the supervised diet. I got copies of my records before I went to NYU for the appt with the nutritionist and consult with Dr. Kurian. I saw both on the same day--along with the nurse for an exam. After meeting with Dr. Kurian I met with Nilsa, the surgical coordinator. She suggested getting additional details about the visits for the medically supervised diet, which I did. When I met with Nilsa we set a tentative date for surgery and she took care of getting insurance approval. Here's where it gets ugly. The office is very busy. Nilsa is very very busy. My paperwork was not submitted until three business days before my surgery. I was going nuts. Everytime I asked Nilsa when she was going to submit the paperwork, I got the run around. Finally, I called the office manager (Marianne) and Tammy (who is very helpful). If you read other posts about NYU you will see that many of us are frustrated by the administrative staff. That said, I wouldn't go anywhere else. Dr. Kurian is GREAT. At the end of the day, that was the single most important factor in my decision. Good luck and let us know how you are doing.