mochamommy727

@@deerjay I was just wondering ... after you took your tests and fulfilled all your requirements, how long did it take you to get approved? I have two more diet visits remaining, which means Dr. Weiss will submit my info for insurance approval in mid-March. I was told that BCBS could take as long as 30 days to approve my surgery, and then it could take an additional 60 days for me to get a surgery date from Dr. Weiss. I was so surprised to hear this! Does that sound right to you?

In my opinion, the questions were pretty standard: Why do you want to lose weight? Why do you think you've been unable to lose weight thus far? Have you ever had any suicidal thoughts? Have you ever thought about hurting yourself or others? Why do you want to have the surgery? Why do you think it will be successful for you? etc.

Yeah, that's pretty crummy -- to basically have the six monthly visits in your pocket but not having them count because the months weren't consecutive.

I just keep telling myself, "This will be my last November at this weight," "The next time I Celebrate Christmas, I will be at a healthier weight," "This will be my last January at this weight," and so on. It has helped me to stay motivated the these last few months.

Per my insurance company's policy, I had to schedule six monthly diet visits with my doc as well. I thought it would take FOREVER but I'm already on month four, hoping my surgery will be scheduled in April. Yes, it's pretty frustrating but we'll get there!

I'm so excited for you! We have similar stats (height and weight), and I can't wait until I get my surgery date. I have three more monthly nutritional visits and am hoping my surgery date will be in April.

On my third diet visit, I gained about 4 pounds and totally freaked out, worried that it would affect my final approval. The nurse told me that the 6 months are to discuss and evaluate my eating habits and not focus so much on losing weight. Talk about relief! Of course I'll eventually have to get approved by my insurance company (Anthem BCBS), but it seems like my surgeon's office processes so many of these bariatric requests every year that they have to know what they're talking about.

Congratulations! That's so exciting that you'll have the surgery right before the new year. What a blessing! I'm going through the process and hope to have my surgery in March or April.

I've only told three people: my husband, mother and a good friend. Of course they're worried about the surgery; there's a risk with any type of surgery and this procedure is no exception. So I'm sure your mother and grandmother will be concerned as well. Just assure them that you've done your research, have spoken with your doctors, and that you feel this will be, in the long run, a great benefit to your health and improvement to your life. They'll probably have a lot of questions, so be prepared to answer them, tell them approximately how many bariatric surgeries are performed every year and the average success rate, etc.

In the end, you have to do what's best for you and your quality of life. And if you are content and excited about your decision, I think they'll be on board, too!

I was told by the surgeon's office that they just want to make sure I don't have sleep apnea, which apparently comes in different forms, not just where you stop breathing. They said a home study would probably suffice and as long as my PCP approves, it'll be fine.

I'm meeting with my PCP this week so we'll see how it goes.

Thanks for the helpful feedback, everyone!

Great suggestion. Thank you so much!

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I went to my initial appointment last week and it went well. I passed the psych eval, and will schedule my next 5 nutrition / diet visits with the surgeon's office. One thing that bothered me though is that the PA requested that I participate in a sleep study (mainly, I assume, because I wrote on my new patient information form that I occasionally snore).

After checking my insurance info, it appears it will cost me over $600 for the study! Now I'm wondering if I should discuss this with the surgeon's office. I rarely snore, do not have sleep apnea, plus I had a surgery about 3 years ago and had no problems during surgery or with the anesthesia.

Should I discuss this with the surgeon's office, or is it fairly common for patients to participate in the sleep study as required by the insurance company (I have Anthem BCBS/Kentucky).

Thanks!

Hi! I'm a newbie from Lexington and submitted all of my paperwork to Dr. Weiss' office about two weeks ago. I hope their offices call next week for my initial appointment. I'm so anxious to get the ball rolling!

Thankfully my insurance (Anthem BCBS) will cover 80% of the surgery so, if I'm approved, will only have to come out of pocket for a few thousand dollars. I'm just worried that I'll have to wait 6 or 7 months to find out if I can have the surgery.

Did Dr. Weiss' office provide a lot of information when they first called you or did you have to wait until your first appointment to have all of your questions answered?

{Sorry, I meant to directly reply to Audrey's post!}

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