Liposuction for Lipedema – Commercial and Individual Exchange Medical Policyopen_in_new

UnitedHealthcare covers liposuction for lipedema only as reconstructive/medically necessary to treat documented functional impairment and excludes cosmetic procedures, treatment of regions previously treated in their entirety, or cases that do not meet required diagnostic/conservative‑therapy/documentation criteria. Coverage requires specific diagnostic findings (bilateral symmetric disease, absence of pitting edema, negative Stemmer sign, disproportionate adipocyte hypertrophy, pressure‑induced pain, and photos), failure of ≥3 months of conservative treatment (and failure of bariatric/medically supervised weight loss if Class II/III obesity), confirmation by a non‑operating PCP or vascular specialist that lipedema is the cause and surgery will improve function, documentation that the full region will be treated within 12 months (or total aspirate >5000 cc to justify staged procedures), and a postoperative plan to continue compression and conservative therapy.