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Who writes the letter???



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I am going to a seminar on the 10th but I have so many questions right now!

I was just wondering, who writes your pre-auth letter to the ins. co.? Is it your primary care doctor or the surgeon?

Also, I have a history of hypertension, I developed it when I was 18 yrs old - I was 235 lbs - I lost weight (at one point I was down to 180) and was able to come off my medication at the time, but I've been gaining weight back for awhile and I'm worried my hypertension will come back - right now I weigh 212 lbs and my BP is running normal. My question - do you think the doctor will be able to put "hypertension" or "history of hypertension" as a diagnosis even though it's currently not running high? My BMI is 37 so I really need a co-morbidity to get approved w/ my ins. co. and I don't have any other problems currently besides back pain and a history of thyroid cancer as well as only 1 function kidney that does all the work (the other was damaged when I was a newborn).

Any advice you can provide would be great!

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Your MD is who writes the preauth letter. // I'm certainly no expert, and haven't been approved 100% yet (I'm still in my 3 month pre-op), but I would think your having a history of high blood pressure would count. Have you talked to your dr. yet? good luck!

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I had a history of Gestational Diabetes (only during my pregnancies) and that counted because it will more than likely come back at some point if I don't lose weight.

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My surgeon was the one that wrote my letter to the insurance company.

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      Soooo I am coming to a realization
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      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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