UHC/ASU

[Kristi85224]

I'm wondering if anyone has any experience with United Health Care coverage of lapband surgery (specifically if you work for ASU). I have my first appt with Dr. Simpson tomorrow, and I'm nervous about my insurance covering this. My policy doesn't have a blanket exclusion on it, but I have a feeling they'll be picky about covering it. Either way, I'm having it done, but I would sure rather have UHC pick up the tab than taking out a loan!

[admin]

United is either very good about covering the band-- or impossible. It all depends. We have some policies that cover the band but for "life-threatening" conditions. That is more than one of our patients who had: diabetes, high blood pressure, sleep apnea, and high cholesterol -- he could not get the band covered with those conditions because their medical director said that they were not "life threatening." So he paid for his surgery.
Some policies are very easy to get through, they cover it, and require minimal effort on your part to gather material and get a letter from your primary care doctor.
The best way to find out is to go to the Paying for Surgery section of the website and call your insurance person with the list of questions on there.
Remember, it is your body - you ultimately pay for the price of obesity, and part of that price might be an operation to give you the tool to overcome obesity.