Hi All,

I have Kaiser through my employer. I will be a lap-band revision. I am curious if anyone has experience with Kaiser in Southern California - specifically San Diego? I have thought that I would be self pay, but I have an appointment to explore my options with Kaiser. Any Kaiser approvals out there that can give me an idea what I am in for?

Thanks!

Lara

I have Kaiser in Orange County. They have you go through the Options program which is the medically supervised diet. Then, once you meet their criteria and do lots of tests, etc. they give you a list of surgery centers that you can go to. I'm having my surgery at Pacific Bariatric in San Diego. Once you select your surgery center you have to go for an orientation with the center and then you have your pre-op appointments and then you get your surgery date. It has taken me over a year to get through the entire process, I know for some it's shorter and others it's longer. Because yours is a revision you might get approved and through the process much faster than that.

You need patience with Kaiser. You will be well educated, but it is a long process. It's about a 8 to 12 month time frame from approval to surgery.

Good luck.

Thank you so much for the information! Honestly, it didn't even occur to me that they would cover anything because I was banded elsewhere. But, I would like to have access to the support services post-op when I have the revision. Either way, I have an appointment next week to check out my options. It would be worth the wait to save the money, but I am not a very patient person :-)

Thanks again!

I did my Options classes in Corona. They were 12 weeks long. and extremely informative. The whole process for me will be 10 months from the beginning of Option classes to my surgery date which is April 18th with Pacific Bariatric.