I will try and make this short. For those of you have Aetna, how long did you have to do the supervised diet plan with the nutritionist? I made an appt with a doc, went for my first consult and was told that Aetna requires a 3 month course with a nutritionist. I completed all of my requirements including the course with the nut back in Feb. Then my doc ran into a problem with where he could do my surgery, because Aetna now requires the surgery be done at an IOQ, which the hosp. he works out of is not, and he was waiting to get privs at one that was. I got tired of waiting. So, I decided to switch docs. Now I am being told that Aetna requires a 6 month course with a nutritionist. Which means, that I have to start now with the 3 months to fini**** Had I been told this to begin with, I could have been continuing the course and not just sitting here for the past 3 months. I am so frustrated. Why would I be told such wrong info?

So, for those of you who used Aetna for your surgery, was it a 3 month or 6 month diet with a nutr. that you had to follow? Thanks for any info!!

Hi. I have Aetna. I actually got to choose from a 6 month supervised diet with my PCP or 3 months with the surgeon and his dietician and fitness psychologist. I of course went with the three month course. During those three months I had to have an upper gi done, ekg, psych evaluation, attend a support group each month and visit with the surgeon, dietician and fitness psychologist. I also had to have 2 years of documented weight history and a letter of support for my pcp. Then finally a two week pre-op diet. All was very painless, just time consuming. I started my journey May 5, 2010, and I was sleeved September 16, 2010. It took an extra month because I was denied at first because the insurance company didn't have enough weight history, so I appealed it with more information and won.

I hope this helps. Message me if you have any further question!

Hi. I have Aetna in California and am on the 3 month track. I had to meet with my nutritionist once, but choose to meet a second time a month before my surgery in order to be accountable and stay on track.

I have aetna and although it took me 6 months to complete everything, I only needed 3 consecutive months of supervised diet, and one appointment with the nutritionist

hey guys! i am new to the site, i am in the stage of submitting my info to aetna for approval so i can get my surgery date! but i am confused after reading this section, I have 3 nutritionist appointments completed, as per what i thought the requirements were, I have also seen my surgeons nutritionist 2 times on top of that, is this going to be enough nutritional information for approval? i am noticing some people only needed 3 months and others needed 6 months? yikes!

I had to do the 3 month supervised diet for Aetna. I also had to do an extensive amount of tests in order to get approved. However, I found Aetna to be very cooperative and approved me in good time. I even got a phone call from them yesterday asking me if I had any questions about the surgery or what they are covering. He also said that a couple of days after I am home someone from Aetna will be calling me to find out if I was happy with the surgeon, hospital and in general questions about my surgery. I was amazed with this service. I have been very pleased with Aetna.

o thats so good to hear! your surgery is on monday?? how exciting! good luck to you! its nice to see someone with a quick approval, now when you say 3 supervised diet visits, was that with a nutritionist or with your surgeons office? there are so many rules i get confused!

I have Aetna and was placed on a three month supervised diet. My question is: do you have to lose a certain amount of weight to satisfy their requirements? I've read on here where people had to lose 10 percent if their body weight. Is this true? If so, I'm not off to a very good start.

I have Aetna but our insurance is self funded so we had some different guidelines, but per the Aenta website you can go 2 ways-3 months superivised diet with a nutritionist and fitness or 6 months supervised diet. I used my pcp which gave me a diet plan on my first visit then each month documented my weight and we discussed diet and what I was doing with excersising. I had 2 yrs of documentation of being overweight. Once they had all my paperwork, I was approved in 24 hours. After my surgery (done Dec 1, 2010) they added the requirement of being done at one of their center of excellance which my husband had to go 150 miles to have surgery done (his was done on March 30, 2011). Good Luck.

Wow! I'm glad I came to this forum. I asked this question elsewhere and got no replies.

My Aetna had it all in print that I could follow a 6 month weight loss plan that was physician supervised or a 3 month pre-surgical weight loss plan that includes a visit with a nutritionist, frequent face to face visits with my PCP, and an exercise plan that is overseen by a qualified individual. I think those are very vague requirements and plan on calling them during lunch on Monday.

I've seen my doctor twice now (lost 5 lbs in the first two weeks!), am following Medifast, saw the nutritionist the other day, and have signed up with a gym and a personal trainer to stay accountable for my exercise. I plan on seeing my doctor every two weeks and I work out six times a week plus a personal trainer once a week not to mention that my Medifast coach is a personal trainer as well. Everything I do, I document. I forgot to document my meals, bu plan on starting that today.

Can anybody comment on the above and what they used to supply to Aetna for approval of these requirements? I want to make sure that my surgery happens in August because I'm tired of being at this weight despite active exercise and trying to moderate my food intake.

Oh yeah, my Aetna requires a center of excellence for the surgery. Thankfully, I'm close to two of those in my area and chose the closest to home.