Hello,

With your first consultation with the surgeon, did they do their own exams or did they just go through your charts from your doctor? Just in case that does not make sense, did they get your BMI themselves or off of your chart? Did they do their own blood test or just look at your chart notes?

Thanks,

OldskoolHeart

Welcome!

I happened to have a physical/bloodwork done earlier that week, so I grabbed a copy of the results and brought them with me.....otherwise they would have sent me to have it done.....may depend on how recent your blood was drawn, too....

They figured my BMI while I was there......however, in the letter of necessity from my physician (for the insurance company), he put down my height and weight.....which is what I'm guessing they'll use for approval.

Your insurance required a letter of necessity or do all physician's need to give one to the surgeon to perform the surgery? Or is this based on insurance?

Your insurance required a letter of necessity or do all physician's need to give one to the surgeon to perform the surgery? Or is this based on insurance?

When I had my initial consultation with my surgeon, they did bloodwork right there in the office. I am lucky in that my PCP is in the same network and that my insurance only needed one weight record in the past year. I already knew that my BMI would technically qualify me for the surgery. I am going to a weight management center that is part of a hospital network, and they could see the records from my PCP on their computer system. Where I am going is "one-stop shopping" for the most part......fitness, dietary, psych, metabolic breath test, home sleep study...they were all at the same facility, and I "stacked" many of my appointments so that I sometimes had 2 or even 3 appointments in a given day. That's how I got through some of this process quickly, plus my insurance only took 10 days to approve the surgery from the date the center mailed everything to the insurance until the day they called me to schedule my surgery.

Everything will definitely vary by doctor and by insurance requirements.

Thanks for the reply. My insuance doesn't require all that since I have BCBS-IL. So I will only have to do the endoscopy, meet with the surgeon, psych, and they don't even have a nutritionist as one of the requirements. I got a little nervous about that. I am scheduled for a physical and pap one week after the sleeve informational. Should I just do bloodwork that day too?

I would see what happens when you meet the surgeon. The nurse will either do it there, or give you a lab slip to have it done elsewhere.

Thank you so much, you guys are full of info :-)