united health care

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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

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.

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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Banded 3/31/2008 By Dr. Brad Watkins, Synchrony Health, Oakbrook Il.

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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Banded 03/28/08
Dr. Keilin/Texarkana, TX

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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Julie
banded 6/6/06
Dr. McKeen, San Jose CA

320/213/goal 199. Almost there!

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.

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

We live in Ky & UNITED HEALTHCARE did NOT require me to do a 6 mos weight management. PRAISE GOD. Hope it is the same for you.

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.

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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Every little step takes me farther. Every small right decision takes me down the road I want to be on. And if there are small detours on my way, those same small steps will take me thru them.

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.

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.

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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Lisa
Banded 4/21/08
H265/S259/C235/G155

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