Nervous. I was given my appointment to meet with the surgeon October 30 and then the dietitian the 31st. How long do I typically have to wait to even get the surgery? How long has everyone been waiting? I with kaiser.

Honestly, it all depends on the following:

1) Your Insurance guidelines to have it covered

2) Your surgeon guidelines to feel comfortable performing the surgery

For example: Myself

I had to do 6 months worth of appointments and testing. I had to do a EKG, Pysch Eval, stress test, visit the dietitian and nutrition. While doing this, I had to keep track of my food intake and lose some weight. After that I had to wait for the insurance to approve me and then wait for my surgeon to schedule a date. All and all my process took close to 7 1/2 months.

Now, every surgeon and insurance company is different. It even varies by state as a well.

2 hours ago, doingitformydaughter said:

Nervous. I was given my appointment to meet with the surgeon October 30 and then the dietitian the 31st. How long do I typically have to wait to even get the surgery? How long has everyone been waiting? I with kaiser.

You can call your insurance company and find out if it is even covered and if so, what are the requirements. Also, your surgeon's office might have an insurance person that will find out for you or probably already knows.

Mine was long too. Almost a year by the time everything was done and approved and all hoops jumped.

On 10/19/2017 at 7:02 AM, doingitformydaughter said:

Nervous. I was given my appointment to meet with the surgeon October 30 and then the dietitian the 31st. How long do I typically have to wait to even get the surgery? How long has everyone been waiting? I with kaiser.

I have aetna I had 4 nutritional meeting 1 meeting once a month for 4 months. It took another 10 days to approval my surgery is next month nov14. So when it's all said and done about 6 months

BCBS of Maryland requirements:
BMI over 40 or 35 with a co-morbidity

Psych eval and proof of 6 month structured dieting.

My surgeon also required:

attend a lecture

attend at least 2 support groups

meet with their NUT at least 3 times (more if needed for the 6 month diet requirement)

lab/blood work

a personal letter (to him) requesting the surgery and why

upper endoscopy

Sleep study

Chest x-ray

ultrasound of lower legs

Pulmonary clearance (PFT)

Cardiology Clearance to include EKG

Pre-op blood work

Still working on these. I started Sept 28, I have almost all done and all scheduled.

My insurance had no appointment requirements. Just a BMI requirement and other conditions (high cholesterol, blood pressure, A1C etc). I have not had my surgery yet but it has gone like this:

July 11th : Bariatric Seminar

Beginning of August: Surgical consultation appointment with Dr. Joseph who will be performing my surgery. HE had appointments for me that HE required. Somehow the referrals got lost (later found the phone number for me had a typo!!) so the only Appointment I got by the end of August was the psychologist.

Psychological approval beginning of September.

First nutritionist appointment mid-September.

Appointment for gastroenterologist consult and to schedule EGD: Mid October.

Second and final nutritionist appointment: October 18.

EGD done last Friday the 20th of October.

Cardiologist appointment on November 1st.

Travel out of town for pulmonologist since the one here in Tallahassee is scheduling for March! Appointment November 3.

As soon as those last two are done, my surgeon's office will schedule me for December. Most likely the week of the 20th.

Relatively quick I guess after reading here. I think it's really different insurance to insurance.

I have Medicare they don’t require a diet before. I had to do Psych psych eval, dietitian, endoscope, I had in the last 6 months a ekg so that was accepted by my doctor. I started in late July with my first visit and getting sleeved November 7th.

I have Medicare they don’t require a diet before. I had to do Psych psych eval, dietitian, endoscope, I had in the last 6 months a ekg so that was accepted by my doctor. I started in late July with my first visit and getting sleeved November 7th.

Same day as me! Yay for us [emoji16]