I just called the tricare lady who approves all the surgeries overseas, and she said that at the time, they are not covering the VSG. however, she did say that she had someone else call recently and ask about them, and sent an e:mail up to find out about them (the answer was still not at the time). now i'm just feeling a little bit discouraged, because it's going to be a bit harder to find out information. i know of a hospital where my friend got surgery, so i am going to contact them to find out if they perform (and have done it before) the procedure. Still it's a little discouraging when you are dealing with a language barrier and don't want to put all of your buisness out in the open. does that make sense? i mean, i definatley want to find out the information, but it sure would be a lot easier if i could make the calls myself! *sigh* wish me luck!

I am new to the Military world as well as this site and I am in the beginning process of my amazing journey with weight loss. I am the mother of three and am very over-weight and unhealthy. I am trying to have all of my information and ducks in a row before I go to my first appt on Wednesday 06/23/10. I really want the VSG as I hear that it has better recovery times as well as it's just healthier for you all together. Any help from all of you would be greatly appreciated. Thank you in advance.

Amanda

Not sure if this will help anyone else but...

I am a Tricare Prime Beneficiary. I live in the DC area. The DC Bariatric program(NNMC, Walter Reed and Belvior) is full and not accepting patients (you can't even get on the wait list.) However the Portsmouth/VAB/Norfolk area program IS accepting patients. After my referral was rejected by the DC area program I called down to NMCP confirmed they were accepting patients and called the referral management center at NNMC and they faxed my referral to NMCP. (Yay)

Do not call Tricare or Healthnet... they can not/will not help.

I found out when I was going through the process of seeing if I wanted to have it done in a Civilian hospital or the military hospital. Tricare(Standard) will not pay for the Sleeve in a Civilian hospital because they consider it experimental. But they will pay for it when I go to a Army Hospital.