Anyone Familiar with PCIP or GEHA Insurance and DS

[reinventingangela]

Hi all, just wondering if any of you DS'ers have used or plan to use PCIP insurance which I believe in FL is underwritten by GEHA and hoping you could give me some details as to whether out of state surgery is acceptable, whether the DS is covered, how difficult the pre-surgery requirements are etc.

Im trying to decide if it would be better to obtain the insurance and go through the process than it would be to self pay since the cost of the DS is an issue for me along with the fact that I will most likely have to travel since there are no vetted DS surgeons here in FL anymore from what I can tell.

Any help would be appreciated. Thanks!

[reinventingangela]

Bumping this since I found out who the underwriter was....maybe SOMEONE will know something??

[shrinkingruthie]

Angela, your best bet is to call member services if you already have the insurance. If you don't, then ask them for the big benefit document, not the summary, and see if the have any wls exclusions. Another thing you could do is call the insurance broker and ask, they should be able to get you the information. I am not all that familiar with insurances, but every time I asked for the benefits packet, they have always sent it or told me where I can find it on line. Once I read it and had questions, i would call for clarification.

Good luck.

[reinventingangela]

I guess its just so unfamiliar to me, Ive been self employed and therefore self insured for the past 15 years and before that, even when I had insurance, I was so young, I rarely used it so Im not too familiar with how it works or how this whole medically supervised weight loss thing is supposed to go etc etc. Someone from Over There told me her policy book showed that there had to be 6mos of medically supervised WL efforts in the past 12 mos but that it didnt state anything about type of surgery or whether it had to be in state or what. So I will follow your advice and ask for a booklet or online document. Thanks!