Hello everyone,

I live in Tucson & my insurance is Arizona Complete Health (medicaid in AZ) & requires 6 months diet plan w/ Primary doc, Cardiologist (EKG), Pulmonologist (chest x-ray), sleep study, nutritionist, psych eval, endoscopy, & letter of rec from primary care doc. It is a lot, but you got to do what you got to do!

Does anyone have recommendations for a Cardiologist, Pulmonologist, & sleep study doc or place in Tucson?

Thank you!

Which docs and which hospital? I think I can help you!

That's great! I just saw Dr. Patrick Chiasson @ Northwest. His name was given to me by a few people on Bariatric Pal.

OK.... I can definitely give you a cardiologist! I love Dr. Goldfinger. He is associated with the Northwest team... so probably takes your insurance. He can do the EKG and would probably be willing to order the Chest X-Ray. I saw him before I had made up my mind about surgery, so didn't experience him being supportive before... but after surgery when I saw him he was VERY supportive and proud of me for taking that major step.

Mine was with Banner/Dr Ghaderi. I had a nutritionist in his office and he just ordered the tests I needed.

Sleep study... I was seeing Dr. Okcay who was associated with Northwest... but she up and left this month so waiting on a replacement. My new referral is through Banner... don't have a doc yet. But my boss just had a sleep study... I will ask him who he saw and let you know!

Primary Care... Mine is down in Sahuarita... so unless you want to do the drive... this recommendation is useless, but I see Hanna Vogan-d"Arezzo. She is a FNP and is awesome. And VERY supportive of me wanting to do the surgery.

I should add.. if Goldfinger orders your x-ray... I don't see why you would need a pulmonologist unless they see a problem... but he can give you a referral if needed.

Doesn't you doc order all the tests for you? Mine did! I will look to see who did my psych eval... I really can't remember!

Not sure if this would work for you or not but I live in Phoenix and had my Psych evaluation with Dr. Kevin Olin and they did it 100% online. It wouldn't hurt to call them and see as they should be able to do the same for you as mine was just done in October. The evaluation occurred during two days but wasn't very difficult and they just wanted to make sure that I didn't have any underlying conditions that were unresolved.

I would recommend my other Doctors but they are all in Phoenix and most of them were in person. My BIL lives in Tucson but is traveling to WLIA in Tempe to have his operation.

Edited March 18, 20215 yr by mswillis5

With my insurance, I need to get all referrals through my primary, Dr. Brenda Wells. BUT, she needs the names of the docs I would like.

She is not tooo supportive w/ me doing WLS because she says I'm not morbidly obese. I am 5' 2.5" & 229lb. This last year I was diagnosed w/ type 2 diabetes, high cholesterol, & hypothyroidism. She lost a lot of weight on her own & thinks I can do it too. Unfortunately, she has gained some of the weight back, so I wasn't convinced. I have been trying my whole life, I have made my mind up.

I see that we were around the same size starting (height & weight)