I'm going in for my consult tomorrow and after reading up I see that a lot of people are doing 6 to 9 month weight loss programs. Is this required by the insurance company or recommended my your doctor pre surgery. My insurance is not covering any of the surgery and we are paying out of pocket for it. Info is appriciated. Thank you

Most doctors have some testing and pre-op requirements, but it's nothing like what the insurance companies require. (They are mostly hoping you'll give up before surgery and they won't have to pay)

I'm sure the Surgeon you choose will be able to schedule your surgery very quickly.

That is usually a requirement of insurance companies. Your surgeon may or may not require a small amount of weight loss prior to surgery. Mine required a 10# loss.

I don't know if this is usual of all Dr's but as part of my first consult meeting (Feb 6th 2014) I met with the Program Coordinator at my Dr's office, she reviewed my insurance and knew exactly what the requirements would be based on the Insurance Company needs as well as the doctors requirements.

She laid out a time line of all of the appointments and consultations I needed as well as scheduling them for me. I needed three Dietician appointments, a Psych consult, a sleep consult, a Physical and a Gasto consult and Endoscopy. I left with all of these appointments scheduled as well as a tentative surgery date of May 27th 2014.

I have since found I need to add a few other appointments for Blood work and a hospital intake meeting but these can not be scheduled before the last 4 weeks before my surgery

I've been working my way through the process and moving towards my May surgery date,

Edited March 23, 201412 yr by ready2getgoing