I'm getting sleeved next week by Dr. Yu at TLC. He came highly recommended by a friend. It's been a really quick process (8 weeks from initial appointment to surgery date) but I'm self-pay. I've been really pleased with him and most (not all...) of his staff.
Are you in Houston? Your "Dr. A" sounds very much like my surgeon's program. I chose him based on a friend's rave reviews, and I'm really impressed with his program and his team's efforts to help me reduce costs wherever possible since I'm cash pay. I haven't had surgery yet, but so far I'm really happy with my choice. If you don't want names posted here, you can PM me.
I have insurance, but I had applied $0 to my OOP, so I had to pay 100% of my EGD.
Surgeon's fee - $175
Hospital fee - $150*
Anesthesologist - ~$600 (waiting for the bill)
The first hospital they scheduled me at was in-network with my insurance, so they were going to have to charge me the contracted rate of ~$600. My surgeon's office moved me over to an out out of network hospital so they could give me a "prompt pay discount" and only charged me $150.