Hello Everyone,

This is a summary for both me and my fiance(we are both under the care of not only Internal med doctors but also we are under the care of Pain doctors as well, meaning yes we take pain pills to help us get through our days at times) that we are paying cash for both Procedures !! i think a total of around $17,000 for two sleeves.

I have been on this journey of weight loss all my life and i am ready to do something about it. I had tried in the past with my insurance and did the jumping through the hoops to try and get qualified for them and they always seemed to find some reason not to cover the procedure. I am 49 years old this February and Me and my fiance are both getting the Gastric sleeve procedure done by CASH means THIS TIME. we are both in the 38-40BMI range.

I must say this has got to be the Worst LIFE experience a Person should ever go through in anyones life time. I will try and keep this as short as possible but wanted your guys input on this subject.

WE took our journey from the center of Texas(where we live) and drove about two and half hours to the Northern part of Texas just above Ft. Worth. Filled out H and P's and then we saw the Doctor who at that time we were thinking of Lap Bands but the Doctor convinced us that the Sleeve was the better option for Both of us. Everything set and ready to go with facility that we were told was a great and awesome place for us to go. I will not list the place because i can't be bothered with the name and the experience they put us through.(if you want to know the name i will gladly give it to you in private message). All we had to do is finish out the day with a Psych eval and wait on the approval or release to go through surgery and we were set. My Psych Eval came Back first(about three days later) and the Surgery Scheduler even called me to see when i wanted it done.

I told the scheduler at that time i would be waiting on my fiance(who was cleared for surgery about 3 days later than me--but was cleared!!!) to clear her psych eval and we are good to go. MIND YOU WE ARE PAYING CASH !!! after saving and working hard for over a month and saving the $$ for the surgery. We finally get the call today from L_ _ _ (what a winner in this one--your local police dog running the front to make sure any unsatisfied customers can't receive the needed information necessary as to what has happened) informing us both that they have decided that (the name of this company) is not the Best Fit for us?? ummmmm..............excuse me??>................wait what??? Wait you must have the wrong people here ?? WE ARE PAYING CASH !!!! I am baffled and befuddled?? What has happened since the surgery scheduler called me with a time to cut till now about 4 days later?? No one at this office wants to say nothing.....It sure is strange that when they are trying to get your business they are immediatley available for phone calls and return emails in a flash, But once you have been released as a patient the office staff becomes rude, no one can pick up a phone anymore, they wont email you back, and what a Bunch of Liers this group has become. Please dont even bother with this company as True Colors will always show through in the END !!!

After making several calls and not getting anywhere i finally got to someone who finally said that WE (their company) was not a good fit for us?? I am still lost here?? Say What? we are PAYING CASH here that you are willing to walk away from!!!! I don't think i have ever in my life experienced anything so disappointing as this experience has become. I asked again for at least a small explaination of what the deciding factors were and i was again told WE(the company) are just not a good fit for us.??????-- i went back and looked through all my paperwork and even the fine print-there is nothing that is stated that we hold a round table meeting and we vote on who gets surgery and who doesn't !!! WTH??

Now i am thinking a few things here--we are being discriminated against(and they don't want to tell us anything that could have their butts in a sling over it) because we are pain patients or we have been somehow shunned by our psych eval even though he cleared the both of us for surgery??

Does anyone have any information on whether a chronic pain patient is somehow looked at in a different light? or is all this the working of the psych eval? or are surgerons not willing to do surgery on pain patients?

I guess in this old world you are suppose to lie to get what you want because i can't think of anything that would have held this process up??

Any help here would be appreciated !

Chronic pain was one of my co-morbidities that helped me qualify for surgery. I receive treatment all year long for chronic pain issues. For your situation....I don't get it either.

Sorry to hear about your BAD experience. How long have you been taking pain meds.? When they send me to do my psych evaluation I told the nurse do I have to go to see if I'm crazy and she laugh and said no it to see if you have problems with drugs or ever been addicted to drugs! Maybe but just maybe your psych doctor said that your taking "drug" ( pain meds )? Can you stop taking pain meds. If you have too?? I'm no trying to say you're addicted or nothing like that, but just trying to see if maybe since your taking pain meds. They think those are DRUG that you can't stop taking?! That's the only thing I can think of! But have you thought about Mexico? There's a lot of people that they have done there surgery in Mexico and there very happy! The only reason I'm saying that if because your paying cash!

Sorry for all that you both are going thru!

Yes that's exactly what I'm thinking is Mexico and Dr. Alvarez actually and right across from Eagle Pass. It's about a 3-4 Hour Drive from where we live to San Antonio and then they take you from San Antonio cross the border into their little town there and it looks to be like a wonderful doctor I researched Dr. Alvarez up-and-down but I just want to make sure that before I go and take my fiancé that we are not going to be rejected from our cash money that we're putting on the table.... Did they also do psych eval's on the Mexican surgeons?

But you know what in all honesty Dr. Alvarez is actually more expensive than a few of the other places that we looked at here in the state

Really?!?!? I have read a lot of good things about this doctor but I don't know if they require psych evaluations? Sorry! You know I was just reading this other tread about doctors in Texas!

Oops!!! Meant to write 'thread'

This sounds so frustrating. I don't believe you will need a psych eval in Mexico. Perhaps the clinic you attended should have given you the valid reasons for being turned away. Keep on going and you will get to the other side.

At HHS.gov (U.S. Dept of Health and Human Services)there is a Health Information Privacy page that outlines your specific rights to examine your medical records. It might be interesting to see if your provider made any notations in your file about refusing service to you.

I was also going to suggest that you request your medical records. It is well within your rights to do so. Best of luck finding a new surgeon and center.