You will want to obtain a copy of your current insurance policy to determine if these procedures are covered. Insurance details can be difficult to navigate, and our insurance specialists will gladly assist you in determining if these procedures are a covered benefit in your plan.

If you're lucky, the weight loss institution you choose will handle insurance matters for you. In any event, you might be surprised to learn that many insurance companies will cover the treatment of health problems caused by obesity but not obesity itself. So it is a good idea to have a basic understanding of what your insurance will cover prior to setting up a meeting with a bariatric surgeon.

Answer: It depends completely on your insurance company, and on your particular plan. Things also change with time. We try to maximize your chances of being approved the first time we submit. The BPD/DS is somewhat more difficult to gain approval for than the RNY, although more and more companies are covering the DS, including Medicare.

Most insurance carriers will cover weight loss surgery with proof of medical necessity. Each candidate will need to check with his or her benefits representative or read their medical insurance policy, as some contracts are written with exclusions for weight loss surgery.

Many insurance companies now recognize obesity as a substantial health risk and are paying for bariatric surgery.

Answer: If you are considering Weight Loss Surgery, we recommend that one of the first things you do is to contact your insurance company and speak to a customer service agent. Ask if you have benefits for WLS. If you do not, an available option is self-pay. If you do have coverage, most of the insurance companies are requesting evidence of a medically-supervised weight loss attempt over a six-month period of time.

Most insurance companies provide benefits for weight loss surgery. The courts have ruled that being severely overweight is a disability under the Americans with Disabilities Act. They have further ruled that health insurance plans cannot discriminate against the severely overweight in providing health insurance benefits. This means that your insurance carrier is required to provide health insurance benefits for the severely overweight on a non-discriminatory basis.

Most patients lose weight rapidly for 18 to 24 months after surgery. Some patients may then regain some of their lost weight, although few will regain it all. Surgery also improves most obesity related health problems, such as diabetes.

Surgery is sometimes the best option for severely obese people who cannot lose weight by traditional means or who suffer from serious obesity-related health problems. The surgery promotes weight loss by restricting food intake and, in some operations, interrupting the digestive process. As in other treatments for obesity, the best results are achieved with healthy eating behaviors and regular physical activity.

The lap band procedure is reversible and does not modify your internal anatomy. Stomach stapling is designed to be permanent, but in general gastric bypass procedures are reversible. But ask your doctor about your specific procedure.

There are several different kinds of surgical procedures to help people who are significantly overweight. By reducing the size of the stomach, these procedures restrict the amount of food you can consume. Long-term success depends in large part on permanently following a restricted diet and making major lifestyle changes.

This really depends on the type of weight loss surgery you have and the type of job you do. For lap band surgery the procedures are usually done laparoscopically and don't require stapling or rearranging of your stomach anatomy, thus your hospitalization is usually less than 24 hours. And your recovery can be as little as a few days. For gastric bypass surgery, most patients can proceed with a regular activities after 6 weeks.

The answer to this is very complex. Many insurers do not want to cover weight loss surgery because of the significant costs involved. Most people are with an insurer for a short period of time so that there is very little incentive for many insurers to care about preventative medicine. In short, the gastric bypass is covered by most insurance companies. However, some have placed a number of difficult roadblocks to surgery. The LAP-BAND® is covered by only a few insurance companies.

Most insurance companies cover it, and now HMO's are referring patients for surgery or providing the services themselves. Many insurance companies are becoming more strict in their preoperative requirements, often requiring that a patient have had physician-supervised weight loss program.

Insurance coverage for liver transplant surgery differs, depending on your insurance carrier and your specific health plan. Please refer to the "Financing Your Transplant" section of our site or contact financial coordinator Pat Hogan at 781-744-2500 with any insurance-related questions.

There are many preoperative insurance requirements prior to weight loss surgery, many specific to each individual plan. Each candidate must meet basic medical requirements as outlined by the NIH (LINK). In addition, there may be further dietary and exercise requirements necessary prior to surgical intervention. Many insurance companies require a period of a physician-supervised weight loss. Depending on your insurance plan, this will be explained to you individually.

It depends. Some health insurance plans specifically exclude coverage for WLS. You can begin the process by calling your insurance carrier's 800 number and asking if "Weight Loss Surgery is covered for the morbidly obese?" Surgeons send each insurance carrier a comprehensive evaluation of the patient's health. The insurance company may approve appropriate candidates for the surgery on a case-by-case basis.

A3. Patients undergo a thorough screening process at the Weight loss institute of Arizona to identify whether they are appropriate candidates for surgery. Surgical candidates need to be at least 100 pounds overweight. A more accurate measurement is the Body Mass Index or BMI. Surgical candidates need to have a BMI above 30 or a BMI above 30 with other obesity-related conditions such as heart disease and diabetes.

Weight loss surgery is considered successful when 50% of excess weight is lost and the loss is sustained up to five years. For example, a patient who is 100 pounds overweight should lose at least 50 pounds; a patient who is 200 pounds overweight should lose at least 100 pounds. And they should be able to maintain loss successfully for the following five years. Ninety-five percent of patients reach that goal after gastric bypass surgery.

Your personal surgical history and the technique to be used are discussed at your surgical consultation.

Most insurance companies will cover this surgery. Some will fight coverage, but we have had great success in getting insurers to realize that this is necessary. We give the insurance providers the information they need to understand why the surgery is necessary and what it involves. These operations are not being done for cosmetic purposes; they are being done to improve overall health and take the morbidity out of morbid obesity.

Most insurance companies cover endoscopic discectomies and other procedures. Dr. Schiffer is not a contracted provider for any insurance company. Most PPO and POS plans would allow you to be treated by Dr. Schiffer as an out-of-network or non-contracted provider. Our office staff will be pleased to help you with the process of getting the surgery authorized by your insurance company. Unfortunately, HMO plans usually do not allow patients to be treated by a non-contracted provider.

Weight-loss surgery alters the body's digestive process by limiting the amount of food the stomach can hold and/or by limiting the absorption of nutrients. The most common procedures are restrictive, malabsorptive or a combination of both procedures. Restrictive procedures reduce the amount of food the stomach can hold, but don't interfere with the body's normal digestion of food and nutrients.

The most common operations are adjustable open Gastric Bypass and Laparoscopic Gastric Bypass. With both procedures, the size of the area in stomach where food collects is reduced and a portion of the small intestine is bypassed limiting absorbtion. During (Roux-en-Y) Gastric Bypass, a surgeon creates a small pouch at the top of the stomach using staples. The small intestine is then rearranged and connected directly to the pouch, creating a bypass of the small intestine.