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Possibly Changing Surgeons in DFW



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I am so aggravated with my surgeon's office that I'm thinking of changing surgeons. I've done my initial consult, dietician and psych eval but I'm getting the run-around with insurance verification even though I wa approved 6 weeks ago! I'm at my wit's end trying to figure out how to prove to the surgeon's office that I am approved because I've done everything I can think of and am getting no suggestions from the. I can sign on to Tricare and see the approval, I've done so several times in the last 6 weeks. But they say they don't have it (which I just found out this week after having called 4 times to find out what the delay in scheduling was and was never told about the insurance thing). I had Tricare refax the approval and they still didn't get it. Tricare suggested the office log in and then can see it online but they won't do that. I'm just fed up and feel like I'm doing all the legwork. Aren't they supposed to be there to help with this?

Has anyone here switched surgeons? Is it allowed or will insurance make me stick to the surgeon I'm already approved with?

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I was having the same kind of issues and it turned out to be one of the office workers. They fired her and my surgery was scheduled immediately following that.

You didn't say who your surgeon was was but I am fairly sure it wasn't Dr. David Kim.

If you do decide to change surgeons, I suggest going with him.

Good luck and try not to get too down about it. You have a whole lifetime ahead of you.

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Lucy, I would either have them fax the approval to you or if you can see it online, print it out and then ask to speak to an office manager at your doctor's office and find out what the issue is. I believe in being very proactive in following up on stuff like that otherwise sometimes things can sit around for a while. There's absolutely no reason it should take that long. Then try the I'll take my business elsewhere routine and see how that goes over..but just out of curiosity how comfortable do you feel with your surgeon and how quickly do they do their fills? I would also ask what their procedure is for fills. Because if this is even a problem for scheduling the surgery I would want to know how long it takes to get appts for fills. I have Geisinger Ins here in PA and I knew the day after submittal it was approved and then was told to wait a week to hear from surgeon. I gave em two days.

So stay on em and talk to the office manager or billing manager, whoever will answer questions.

Good luck

trisha

p.s. unfortunately my band has slipped so I have to sort of go through the whole procedure again. Except the revision surgery is included as part of the original surgery...it should, they charged enough :thumbup::)

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      On day 4 of the 2 week liquid pre-op diet. Surgery scheduled for June 11th.
      Soooo I am coming to a realization
      of something and I'm not sure what to do about it. For years the only thing I've enjoyed is eating. We rarely do anything or go anywhere and if we do it always includes food. Family comes over? Big family dinner! Go camping? Food! Take a short ride or trip? Food! Holiday? Food! Go out of town for a Dr appointment? Food! When we go to a new town we don't look for any attractions, we look for restaurants we haven't been to. Heck, I look forward to getting off work because that means it's almost supper time. Now that I'm drinking these pre-op shakes for breakfast, lunch, and supper I have nothing to look forward to.  And once I have surgery on June 11th it'll be more of the same shakes. Even after pureed stage, soft food stage, and finally regular food stage, it's going to be a drastic change for the rest of my life. I'm giving up the one thing that really brings me joy. Eating. How do you cope with that? What do you do to fill that void? Wow. Now I'm sad.
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    • CaseyP1011

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