 Hello, I'm Gina Grover and I'm one of the administrative assistants for MidMichigan Health Surgical Weight Management Program. My primary responsibility is scheduling bariatric surgeries and working with insurance companies to obtain prior approval. Most insurances require a BMI or body mass index of 35 or greater with another comorbidity. So as I mentioned before, diabetes, high blood pressure, sleep apnea, high cholesterol. There's a lot of them out there that insurances will use to justify surgery. Or if patients have a BMI of 40 or greater alone without any health problems, insurances will often cover surgery as well. Often many insurances want documentation of failed non-surgical approaches to weight loss. And patients have to be prepared to attend both pre- and post-surgery follow-up sessions in order to be successful. You have to be prepared to make these lifestyle changes and hopefully be a permanent change for you. Many insurances will require that patients undergo mental health stability as well. So I tell patients, well just like we're going through a process of making sure your heart and your lungs are ready to tolerate surgery, we want to make sure that your mind is ready to tolerate the stresses that come after surgery as well. Once you've determined if you qualify for bariatric surgery, we recommend that you watch the procedure videos to find out which surgery might be the best fit for you.