Any doctor who will accept what insurance pays for bariatric surgery if you are blue cross or blue shield ppo in california ($1000 for lapband which includes 3 months of follow up visits) is doing as many surgeries as he can in a day and will not be following your weight loss closely. they will see you as little as possible because they do not get paid! they will be doing your surgery as fast as possible because they do not get paid! you get what you pay for. any doctor who specializes in this and has built a practice around it will be charging the patient. do your research. ask how much your doctor gets reimbursed by insurance for your surgery and then do the math relative to the work involved to take care of you. funny how people will pay up for the nice car but not their own health.