Called Insurance About Lap Band Surgery…

My insurance company says that they will cover Lap Band Surgery if it is considered medically necessary. Instead of calling the doctor, I just went ahead and called the insurance company. My next move will be to see if any of the doctors listed online for Lap Band Surgery in our area are covered under my insurance plan.

I appreciate the comment I received on my previous post about lap band surgery from Dave.

I agree with a lot of what Dave had to say. Here is his comment and the link to his website:

http://www.eatatease.com/
“Hi
I can see the arguments from both sides, I work with a group of dietitians and together we run our online dietitians clinic www.EatatEase.com, on the other hand I have a family member whos always struggled with their weight and finally had a band fitted just over a year ago.
We advised against the surgery for a number of reasons (which unfortunately I wont be able to talk about), speaking as a relative of someone whos had the procedure, I think its critical that there is the pre-op support and post op support (Including counselling and dietary advice). So many people are trying to go it alone and go on surgery holidays coming back from another country having undergone treatment elsewhere, inevitable without the appropriate counselling and support the surgery will fail to make lifelong changes.
If you lack the strength to moderate your diet pre-op youll probably lack the strength post op, after an initial period of adjustment and weight loss you find so most people find ways around the physical size of their stomach (and I believe studies prove this). My relative has displayed all the classic pitfalls of this procedure, food being held above the stomach (due to over eating), causing reflux and indigestion, grazing (eating constantly rather than regular meals) and theyve started back on the eating patterns that caused the weight problems (eating a box of chocolates in one go is still possible if you want too).
Depression and comfort eating are not addressed by the surgery and I think are only exaggerated if people try to do something like this without appropriate support.
Sorry to rant on about this but I think its pretty disgraceful that private hospitals offer these types of procedures to people who evidently need greater care than they can offer. Surgery sold by salespeople with targets simply cannot be objective advice!
Back on track now, surgery should be the very last option, after all 1 in very 100 die on the operating table (1%), it should definitely only be under strict and appropriate supervision. your own GP, counsellor and dietitian should all be part of your support team (This is my personal opinion from bitter experience also I should point out that Im not a dietitian!).”