Does Health Insurance Cover Lipo?

You will have to consult your insurance provider to find out if your liposuction is covered. However, in general, the answer would be no.

Thanks for your question -

Generally liposuction is considered a cosmetic operation.  Liposuction may be covered if part of breast reconstruction (donor site or contralateral breast) or to treat lipodystrophy that develops as result of a medical problem.

I hope this helps!

 

I have been doing Liposuction for years. I have never had a health insurance company cover for the procedure. At least for now it is strictly considered cosmetic

Sorry, but liposuction is never covered by any health insurance no matter the diagnosis or condition. Sincerely,

David Hansen,MD

Health insurance companies consider liposuction a cosmetic procedure and will not cover this surgery.

Generally speaking, liposuction is not covered by insurance.  It is usually considered a cosmetic procedure.  The only way to know for sure is to contact your insurance provider and ask about the particulars of your policy.

Don't worry because we get that question a lot!

Insurance considers liposuction to be cosmetic surgery. Were you thinking about weight loss and how that might improve your health so that maybe it would be covered?

Insurance sometimes will cover nutritional counseling and even YMCA memberships, but no insurance that I have come across, will cover liposuction.

Likely not. However, if you are morbidly obese and diabetic on insulin, your carrier may cover in-hospital large volume liposuction. You would need to check with your carrier and you would likely need supporting documentation from your primary care doctor that this would definitely improve your diabetes.

I know of no situation other than when liposuction is performed as part of a covered breast reduction in which liposuction is covered by insurance.  Liposuction is an elective procedure and therefore not a covered procedure.  The costs for the liposuction are therefore the responsibility of the patient.

Sorry, but I don't know of any carriers which cover liposuction regardless of the diagnosis. Today my office is fighting tooth and nail for a patient with a malignancy so you can only imagine how they think about anything remotely cosmetic. The minimum standard is medical necessity.