Insurance and Financing For Weight Loss Surgery

Insurance coverage of weight loss surgery is a controversial and difficult issue in the weigh loss surgery industry. There are inconsistencies throughout the industry not only between different insurance companies, but also within the insurance companies themselves from state to state, and from employer to employer. Insurance companies are constantly changing their coverage of the procedures from year to year. They often change what criteria they require the patients to meet, how they define medical necessity, and some companies even require patients to undergo open procedures instead of laparoscopic due to corporate policy!

It’s not surprising then that obtaining insurance coverage is one step in the weight loss surgery process that patients seem to dread the most. Insurance company personnel can be intimidating and confusing with their complex jargon, contradictory rules and strict guidelines. Our role as a program is to help you each step of the way through the insurance process. You and our insurance personnel work together as a TEAM to find out what coverage is available under your specific plan, what criteria needs to be met for prior approval, what records are needed from your medical doctors to help prove medical necessity, etc. Our goal is to help you move through the insurance approval process as quickly and painlessly as possible. This is not always a simple or easy process, but we’ve worked with many different insurance companies and that experience helps a lot.