The Lap-Band is a medical device that is inserted into your body and tightened around your stomach. This reduces the size of your stomach and reduces the amount of food required to make you full, allowing you to lose weight faster than most other medical procedures. However, a Lap-Band can be expensive if paid out of pocket in full, so it is important to determine if and how much your health insurance company covers.
Instructions
1. Open the policy package you received when you made your initial health insurance payment. If you do not currently have the policy package, you need to call the human resources department of your health care provider.
2. Turn to the section "covered expenses." Look for the term "weight control" or any other subject related to weight. Companies such as Aetna, American Family Insurance, Blue Cross, Cigna, Health Net, Humana, One Health and United Healthcare are all companies known to offer either partial or full coverage (often times it depends on what kind of plan you have).
3. Look in the "what is not covered" section if you could not find any information regarding weight control.
4. Determine what kind of plan you currently have if the Lap-Band is covered by your medical insurance. As of November 2009, the average cost for Lap-Band surgery is between $15,000 and $20,000. So, if you have an 80/20 plan, where you pay 20 percent of all medical bills, you can expect to pay between $3,000 and $4,000.
