Hi- I'm not really thinking about getting wls, but I was curious- what are the weights you have to be within to get wls?
Do you have to be above a certain weight? 200, 250?
Below a certain weight? What would that be? I know a lot of people are put on diets before they go in for surgery.
Is it different for every surgeon? What do you think? Thanks.
It goes by bmi. My sugeon for the lapband said 35. I think it has alot to do with insurance. I know of someone on another message board who was 30 so it all depends.
It's based on your BMI. Your BMI has to be above 35 with two major comorbitities or 40 without them. Your actual weight has nothing to do with it. Insurance gets to make a lot of those rules, most require a 6 month physician supervised diet before they will pay for it. I work in a surgeon's office that does the Lap-Band and the Gastric Bypass. Hope this helps!!!
I live in Canada and from what i`ve been told , you must be atleast 100 pounds overweight to qualify for the government to pay for the surgery.
okay, thanks! That clears that up. My BMI is still 40, but I guess I would qualify until I was like 205 pounds with all my health problems. I felt so healthy at 200 pounds, so maybe not.
In the US. it goes by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) guidelines, which are BMI of 35 with a weight-related comorbidity or a BMI of 40 or higher regardless of comorbidities. Some insurance companies try to stipulate otherwise (for example, some say you have to have a BMI of 50 of greater for the DS), but they can usually be beaten by appeals since their guidelines don't follow the national standard.
My surgeon said the same...BMI of 40 unless you have comorbidities then 35.
If you go to mexico the bmi is not really an issue. Someone from another board had a bmi of 30 and got the band.
