BIG NEWS! Several insurers are REMOVING supervised diet requirements

[summerset 5,261]

On 1/3/2019 at 7:02 AM, Amanda Dutton LPC said:

The biggest reason I ask is because it seems kind of scary for me because so many folks I work with (and folks here, too) are already saying that they felt so unprepared for life after surgery, I'm afraid that shortening the timeframes even more will make it even worse. So much of the medically supervised time should be for the "pre-work."

Might be, might not be.

I personally think you can't be prepared for "after surgery". There is no realistic simulation of post-op life. And there will always be people who won't feel "prepared". However, I fear a lot of them won't even feel "prepared" after going through supervised diet for 6 years instead of 6 months.

This feeling of "lack of being prepared" reminds me of residents who're diving head first into their first on-duty-night alone. They almost never feel "prepared". I didn't feel prepared for many things on the job as well - and I mastered things anyway. Just like (most of) the residents that are now in fear of their first on-duty-night will master them.

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I just really worry that this is a secret way for insurance to come back later and say "see, this bariatric surgery thing isn't working. All these people are gaining their weight back. We should stop covering it."

Not that unrealistic I fear. However, enough people are already gaining back their weight and some more on top of it, despite the waiting and preparation period.

Of course one can draw two entirely different conclusions out of the fact that many people are gaining back weight:

1) patients need longer preparation time so results will be better

2) preparation time is wasted time, there will always be people who're going to gain back the weight, no therapy works for 100% of the patients

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What is it about taking away the supervised program that is attractive to those of you that are seeking surgery? Is it that it takes away one of the multiple hoops we already have to jump through or is it that it shortens the length of time before scheduling surgery?

For me it was length of time. We have wasted so much time already on stuff that didn't work long term, why waste more? Look at the studies on morbid obesity and conservative treatment. Not one seems to come to the conclusion that non-surgical treatment is successful.

Edited March 6, 2019 by summerset