So I am 75% sure I want to get banded, I have an information session this Thursday. I have been doing lots of information otherwise. I have a question in terms of getting the process started. I know it seems to vary how soon you actually get the surgery once you started the process with your doctor. I know that my insurance covers the surgery with some requirements me but how long should I expect to have the surgery once I have met with my doctor/surgeon?

One other thing I am an occupational therapy assistant and it seems to really vary from what I have read in the forums how much time of work people had to take. Any thoughts on this? Getting excited and gearing up for this life challenging amazing experience!

Jess

I had to go through all the pre-op appointments with the psychologist, cardiologist, and pcp who had to document three months of supervised visits related to weight loss. I went to the information session a year ago, saw the surgeon in August and had a tentative surgery date in late October or early November. So, it would have been about a four month process but then Hurricane Sandy showed up and the hospital was severely flooded and was closed until early January. I had the surgery on January 14th...and was on sick leave at work for one week, and worked from home the second week.

Good luck to you on your weight loss journey.

I had to go through all the pre-op appointments with the psychologist, cardiologist, and pcp who had to document three months of supervised visits related to weight loss. I went to the information session a year ago, saw the surgeon in August and had a tentative surgery date in late October or early November. So, it would have been about a four month process but then Hurricane Sandy showed up and the hospital was severely flooded and was closed until early January. I had the surgery on January 14th...and was on sick leave at work for one week, and worked from home the second week.

Good luck to you on your weight loss journey.

Did your insurance require the documentation for those 3 months? Did you ask your insurance prior or did you find this out once you started the process?

Hello! I also went through my insurance, my requirements were 6 moths of supervised visits with a nutritionist and nurse along with a Psyc evaluation. After I finished all my requirements they put in my paperwork for approval, they told me it would take 30-60days to hear back from the insurance, it only took 9 days. So about 9 months from my first real visit with the Doc. Every insurance is different so requirements may vary. Best of Wishes to you!

Did your insurance require the documentation for those 3 months? Did you ask your insurance prior or did you find this out once you started the process?

Yes. This was an insurance requirement and had nothing to do with anything from a medical perspective. And once I went to the informational session, I contacted my insurance company per their instructions and found out at that time about the three month documentation requirement.

For me, I met with my surgeon on 4/18/13. On that date I knew I wanted this surgery. So I made my appointments for the nutritionist, psychologist, cardiologist (EKG, Ecocardiogram), palmonologist, sleep study, endoscopy, chest xrays, sonograms n finally my weight ins with my PCP 3 months. Seems like a whole lot but the time flew by. Surgery date is 7/10/13

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Everyone is different because we all have different insurance, which has different requirements. Some ins. companies require a period of time of supervised weight loss the traditional method (mine did not), some require extensive tests ranging from pscyh tests to an EKG. Than there's nutrition meetings/classes, consults etc. And these are scheduled first come first serve, or they are offered on a set time frame (ie classes once a month for instance). So it's a matter of what your insurance co. requires (check with them) and how soon you get orders to get these tests completed. If you were like me, you'd try to get more than one done at a time to expedite the time