Scooterbug

We got a call from Dr. Baptista's office this morning and they fit us in for a visit at 3:15. You were right...he is SUPER nice!!! Also Rosy is on the ball..she already talked with our insurance company twice and is getting everything in line. here is hoping everything continues to go smooth! Kinda wish I choose Dr. Baptista to begin with.

My wife and I are in the process of switching to Dr. Baptista!!! Let's pray everything goes smoothly from now on.

Thank you..I will look into them. I was also looking into Dr Baptista, but I can't find him listed on my insurance site as being in network

I am finally fed up with dealing with Dr Cywes's office...now they are not scheduling surgeries at all, and I was told that even when they start scheduling them again there could be a month or more wait.... sorry but that's the last straw!!! Can anyone suggest a good surgeon that will not give me the run around??? I am already approved..It would just be a matter of getting to the surgeon and setting things up.

Got some great news today.....my wife called UMR and we were both APPROVED!!! We called Dr Cywes's office to find out our next step..and OF COURSE Jaime is NOT IN THE OFFICE AGAIN!!! Why is my progress always held up by this one person? Since she is out several days a week, I take it she is NOT working full time. I just finished my schooling for Medical Billing and Coding...maybe I need to go to the office and take her job! I am able to work FULL TIME and could do 1000% better then she is doing!!

WOW....less then a week out from surgery and they postpone it??? I would be up in arms!! I think the problem they may be running into is that some insurances require the surgery be done at a "Center of Excellence". I know Memorial was one (where Dr Pinnar did his surgeries), but I can't find any information to the fact if Shands is one (where Dr Cywes does his surgeries).

You would think...but of course they do make you sign the paper about the "NON refundable program fee"

Thank you. I think the only reason we have not went to a new surgeon is because my wife doesn't want to fork out program fees again to a new doctor.

Thanks for the reply JaxBandster. I am just hoping nothing is effected once my wife and I get approved and are ready for surgery (like having to wait several months before it's done due to there office being in apparent chaos). As far as Dr Pinnar and Dr Cywes go....I first met Dr Pinnar when he did the seminar we went to. I had heard great things about Dr Cywes, but my wife liked Pinnar so much she almost decided right then that she wanted him to do the surgeries. We also got to see Dr. Pinnar on our first visit to get things going. We inquired about getting the band and Plication, in which he said that would be great. On our 5th visit for our PSD I mentioned to Jody that sometimes I felt a bit queezy after eating....so right away she panicked and set our last PSD appointment, as an actual appointment to see Dr Pinnar (because she assumed something had to be wrong with me). At the time of that visit I had already lost 20 pounds, and it seems my queasiness was due to indigestion (nothing a few tums didn't fix). My wife and I explained to Dr Pinnar how it was rough the first month or so doing the low carb diet, and how we both actually gained a small bit doing the diet before we actually started losing. Dr. Pinnar's comment to us was "you must have been eating cake and ice cream"..not in a joking way, but in a serious condescending way. My wife and I had changed our entire eating habits, gave away all the food in our house that had carbs in it, only to be accused of eating poorly..sheesh, I had lost 20 pounds and my wife had lost 18. Of course when we did our dietitian visit they give you a whole sheet of foods they say you can "eat as much of as you want", which we found is not the case. Also....during that visit we again mentioned the Plication, it's at this time that Dr Pinnar tells me that I can in no way shape or form have the Plication, because my BMI is too high. After reading about the Plication my wife and I were pretty set on getting it....of course Dr Pinnar could have mentioned this at our FIRST appointment when we asked him about the Plication. We finally saw Dr Cywes for our last visit before filing insurance. I was expecting this crazy tough person to come in and simply rip into everyone..but he seemed just the opposite. He actually explained a lot about the mental change required to make the band successful. My wife and I both left the appointment wishing someone had given us the "mental" talk sooner Anyway...people have different experiences with doctors...mine with Pinnar were not bad, just left me feeling a bit leery of him, but my experience with Dr Cywes left me more reassured and more informed then I previously was.

WOW..that's crazy!! I agree..no excuse at all why the staff can't return calls. I know I had read Dr. Pinnar had some controversy as far as his old practice was concerned (supposedly he sold his practice and left town without any warning..not sure on all the details).

Something crazy is defiantly going on at the office...not sure what it is. Dr. Pinnar is gone and Patti Hessman (the only person I have dealt with that actually returned calls) is gone I believe as well. I talked to another patient of the practice recently and she had been trying to get a hold of the dietitian and nutritionists, and even they are not calling or emailing back. My paperwork was FINALLY sent in to UMR, only after so many calls, unanswered voice messages, and eventually a visit to the office. Currently my paperwork is in the review stage (should have been being reviewed and possibly approved weeks ago). If anyone finds out exactly what's going on, be sure to fill us in.

WOW..REALLY!! I know he was there about 2 weeks ago...that's odd. I did hear Dr. Cywes say they were doing "restructuring". I also noticed Patti Hessman , who we dealt with when we began our process, seems to be gone too.

Awesome!!!! That's how it should be, sent in the next day after it's gathered, unlike in my case 2 weeks later and still hasn't been sent in

That's the same information my wife and I got on 4 or 5 different occasions when we called. When our surgeon's office called to get the requirements they said it was BMI over 35, 5 years weight history, 6 month PSD (Physician Supervised Diet), and a few other things. Even our booklet says the only requirement is 35 BMI +. Guess the doctor's office has certain people they talk to that give them the CORRECT info

So Rita finally returned our calls, she called my wife just as she was walking out of work. According to her, she found our information and it looks like it was NEVER sent!! She does not know why it was not sent since Jaime will not be back in the office until tomorrow. So.... supposedly she is gonna find out why it wasn"t sent first thing tomorrow, then personally fax the info into UMR. She is supposed to call us an give us the fax confirmation number as well so we know it goes through.

Thanks.... As soon as my wife gets home from work, we are heading straight down to the office. I called UMR again JUST to make sure they weren't overlooking anything (as far as receiving the info from Dr Cywes's office), they checked there entire system and so far they haven't gotten anything from there office. Maybe I will have better luck in person.

So I called the extension for Irene...of course I got her voice mail. The recording said "This Voice mail is not checked on a regular basis, if you need any help please call extention 108 for Rita" ... This is almost getting to be a joke!

So I found her name as Irene L. Wolfe Cywes I take it she is married to Dr. Cywes now. So she is over the Office manager Rita I presume?

So to update: After not getting a callback from any one at the office this morning I decided to call again. Jaime's voice mail now says she will be out of the office until Wednesday! I called and asked for Rita who was in a meeting, so I left a message with the desk clerk (I left a lengthy voice mail for her yesterday as well). I still have not heard back from anyone!! My wife even tried calling and was put through to Rita's voice mail!! This is so frustrating!! One of the reasons I chose this office was because I heard they were the best, and Dr Cywes always said if we needed any questions answered or had any problem to just call and it would get fixed. Well.... unfortunately so far there not living up to that promise.

I am well aware that the INSURANCE COMPANY has 30 days to approve or deny it, but it does not take there office 30 days to send in my paperwork. I have planned this for well over a year, and had plenty of time to wrap my head around it. I am already on the LOW CARB diet and have been for 6 months now. My frustration comes from having to play tag with there answering machines, and my information NOT being sent to my insurance company 2 weeks after they said it would!

I have a quick question for anyone who used Dr Cywes or Dr Pinnar... Have you ever had any problems with the staff at there office???? My wife and I went for our group appointment on July 25th. After the appointment we asked Karma when our info was going to be filed with insurance..we were told "tomorrow" (which would have been the 26th). On the 27th I called UMR to make sure our information had been faxed and received. UMR had NOTHING in there system about receiving our info. I called the Doctor's office and was directed to Karma's voicemail, so I left a message. I called back and was transfered to Jaime's voicemail (the woman who does insurance), again I left a message. Monday July 30th I recieved no call backs from the office. I called Jaime again and was told se was out of the office. Tuesday July 31st I call and actually get ahold of Jaime. She tells me that she is submitting our information that day! Today (August 6th) I called UMR to verify they recieved the info for my wife and myself. They are still showing no record of any information faxed to them. I called Jaime again and got here "I am out of the office message"..I called back and asked for the office manager..I was transfered to Rita (I think her name was)..of course I get HER voicemail I left a detailed message and asked that she call me back....the office is now cloased and NOBODY called me back!!! I am getting rather frustrated with the office staff!! Has anyone else had these problems dealing with them???

While looking for a low carb syrup to help take some blandness out of my Protein shakes, I came across a company called Walden Farms. They say there products have "no calories, fat, carbs, gluten or sugars of any kind! Has anyone tried these products? If so how did they taste? And are they worth paying $3.75 a bottle for them?