So after long and hard consideration I have decided that I wanted to have weight loss surgery and that the vertical sleeve is the option best suited for me. I started my journey at 377 and through diet and exercise I currently weigh 338. I spoke to my primary care physician about being referred to their Options program and she flat out told me no. I get the impression that her refusal was based more on personal and not medical opinion since she had nothing positive to say about any type of WLS and essentially was not truthful about the type of surgeries offered to Kaiser patients.

I am in the Downey/Bellflower area and do not know what to do. Does anyone know of a PCP in the area who has a more favorable outlook on the subject of WLS? Can I join the Options program without the referral from my PCP? Either way it goes I believe I will need to be changing my PCP.

Thanks in advance for any help and support!

Call Kaiser and find out about the bariatric program and find out who you can talk to about the refusal, they should know how to handle this and get you a new pcp to take care of the referral. Good luck to you!

Absolutely! You have the right to choose a PCP who will support your decision. I'm extremely fortunate because mine had the procedure done last year and is a big advocate of it. Good luck and let us know how it goes.

I have Kaiser and am attending the class on July 13. My doctor was the one who told me about the class. I'm hoping that she will refer me to the program once I reach that point being that she is the one who told me about it! Good luck

I'm from that area also....My PCP was Dr. Kalman, she referred me twice, because the first time I just was not ready. All I did was asked. However, after finding out there is a doctor who actually sees bariatric patients after surgery, and he also signs off your packet for approval once you've finished Options, his name is Dr. Chiu....I changed over right before my VSG. He is awesome and very informative. Most of he is patient, listens to you and do not talk at you, but with you. What I did is signed on to KP.org and clicked on member services, sent an email to change PCPs and the reason. Within 2-3 days, I was approved for the PCP change. You can also look up Dr. Chiu and read his Bio. It will also tell you if he's accepting new patients. I'm sure he is. He is in the Downey Orchard bldg. Good luck...Any other questions feel free to PM me.

Krys

I'm not sure if you need a referral or not. Can't remember. Call the Kaiser satellite office and ask when is the next seminar mtg for bariatric surgery and go from there. The bldg is on Bellflower Blvd. (right side) north of the Downey facility. There are two Kaiser facilities on that side, but you want the second one before the traffic light.

Call 562-622-4106 .... ask for the receptionist...Opens at 9am.

I had to change my PCP but I finally got the referral I needed. I start class in August! Yay!