North Dakota Blue Cross/Blue Shield
                                Insurance Requirements

#1  The patient must be 100 pounds overweight.

#2  Medical records for the past five years need to be released to our office.  The insurance company will need to see a weight for the patient once a year for the past five years.

#3  Presence of a significant disease/condition due to obesity under current medical treatment.  Conditions such as high blood pressure, diabetes mellitus, sleep apnea, joint pain, high cholesterol are just a sample of a few things.

#4  The insurance company will want to see that the patient has participated in a supervised weight loss program for three consecutive months done within the past year.  Examples:  Weight Watchers, Jenny Craig, Optifast, Dietician, or Physician Supervised.

#5  The patient will have to have an independent psychiatric evaluation with a MMPI.

#6  It is very important that you contact your insurance company to find out if your policy has a specific exclusion to weight reduction surgery . . . Some policies will not consider this procedure for any reason.  Please check for your own protection.