Debra Bearden
After talking with my PCP on July 8, 2004. He gave me a refferal to Dr. Rex Luttrell My husband and I both saw Dr. Luttrell on the 20th of July and he agreed that we were both excellent candidates for the Surgery. We attended the mandatory meeting at the St. Vincents Bariatric Center that afternoon. Our paperwork was submitted to our insurance companies the very next day. Well by July 29, 2004 I had been denied by Cigna. My husband has BC/BS of Arkansas and He was approved rather quickly. Unfortunately BC will only pay 50% up to $4000.00. so we submitted his information to Cigna since they are his secondary coverage. It took about 2 weeks but they denied him. James has a BMI of 66 and high blood pressure. His primary care insurance had already approved but I think that Cigna must automatically deny everyone on the first attempt. We are currently scheduled for our Pych Evals and I am plan on having every coverage point from the denial letters covered before I submit our appeals. I hope to have all of the information gathered and ready to submit by the Middle of September. Anyway James and I are completely committed to having this surgery for ourselves, each other, and our children. I really enjoy reading everyones profiles and I get lots of great information from this site. Thanks for providing a place for complete acceptance and all of the help and support that we need
12-23-04 - I am approved after my PCP got very involved and called and went over my chart with the reviewers who had denied my 1st level appeal. James is still not approved through CIGNA we are considering trying to pay for his surgery since he has some approval from BC/BS it will still cost us about $6000.00 but we have a 5th wheel camper that we are going to try to sell and that should pay for it. I am scheduled for surgery on 12/30/04. I can't wait.
Hard to believe but it's been 2 years. I had surgery at St Vincent's in Little Rock as scheduled and my experience was just as expected. I lost weight very rapidly and within a year I was at my goal. (actually a little lower than I wanted to be) I have leveled off and I maintain a healthly weight of between 150 and 165. I started at well over 300 and on surgery day my weight was 295.
James had surgery on April 13, 2005. He has done great as well his surgery day weight was 481 and he is now at about 250. He works out almost daily and is the most fit I have ever seen.
Our next step is to start looking into Plastic Surgery. We will begin that investigative process and hopefully within the next year both be able to have the skin removed that we need in order to complete the process.
