FEB 2021: Looking at our checklist it is important to know what research to reference if the insurance account representative states that “we don’t cover liposuction because it is cosmetic.” There are dozens of research studies outlining the benefits and safety of liposuction for lipedema, both long and short-term.
If you are new to the world of peer-reviewed research and proving that a medical procedure is reconstructive, medically necessary and not experimental, investigational, or unproven, then a lot of this will be daunting. If you are denied, they may provide either a general reason (medically unnecessary) or more specific reasons (not safe, no long-term studies). Either way it is then your job to provide the very best research as a rebuttal. I can help with this task. I have a Google Drive set up with over 160 complete research papers. If you send me your e-mail via the contact form or call me I can set you up to access it.
We will be posting research links related to lymph-saving, tumescent liposuction for lipedema here. The two-page document below is an excerpt from Lipedema: A Call to Action! (Buso G et al., 2019). Note how it includes 8 other research papers and then breaks them out by the issue addressed.
Research Review Spreadsheet below
Attached is a list of 25 research papers listed in the Cigna liposuction for lipedema denial policy.
I highly recommend looking at the Top Denial Reason Spreadsheet.