shriner37

Thanks for the good wishes. Surgery went well with no unexpected issues or complications. I wil say that the time in the PACU/Recovery room was less than comfortable. Things got progressively better over the evening/night (except not a lot of sleep). I left the hospital this morning feeling more like normal than like I'd had significant surgery. We'll see what the next few days bring.

Seminar attendance, check. Financial arrangements, done. EKG, lab work, EGD completed. Psych visit and pre-op classes, check. Pre-op diet nailed. On my way to the hospital this morning for surgery. Looking forward to getting through recovery and starting a new chapter in my life!

I have to admit I chose the center and surgeon because a family member is an employee there, so I had a lot of information about them. However, I would look to a few different factors... What is the experience of the surgeons in the practice? The practice I'm using completes more than 1,500 procedures per year. My surgeon has completed over (I think) 3,000 procedures. Is the facility certified as a Bariatric Center of Excellence? Some insurance requires this and some doesn't, however it does indicate that the practice complies with the highest degree of standards. Read the patient feedback. Places like this forum and others are great places to see what other patients think of the surgeon, the practice and their experience. Ask lots of questions - I found that most everyone I encountered was happy to give you the information you need to make an intelligent, informed decision. If a surgeon or practice isn't willing to allow you to be informed you should think twice about committing to them for such a significant medical procedure.

My program allows for decaf after the first three days, but no caffeine at all (coffee, tea or otherwise) for eight weeks following surgery. The NUT told us they didn't want us to have any caffeine until the sleeve is fully healed.

Very easy procedure. They took vitals and started an IV in the prep area. The nurse gave me the first of the meds as they were wheeling me out of the holding area into the procedure room. I remember being in the procedure room for about 30 seconds and the next memory is waking up in the holding area again. The procedure was so quick my clinic didn't even have you change out of street clothes. No after effects except for some residual sluggishness from the versed and fentanyl. Went home and took a couple hour nap and was fine.

I've been very selective about who I've shared my plans with. Told my boss and the HR person who is also a friend. I told most of my direct reports and a couple of friends. I figure with time off work and fairly rapid weight loss it will be obvious something is up, and I'd rather they have the truth than wild rumors. It helps that another person where I work had very successful VSG surgery a couple of years ago and people can see the results. As for family, I told my mom and my sister who were both very positive. Although to be fair my sister works at the bariatric center so she better be supportive! :-) I also set up a consultation and spoke at length with my PCP about my plans. We walked through my history, the recent and long term studies and results, and in the end he was very supportive of my decision as well. I've found that most people know nothing about bariatric surgery, and in particular about VSG. If I spend a couple of minutes educating them they realize it makes perfect sense to pursue it and generally are supportive.

My surgeon didn't set a goal weight but did tell me he expected I would lose about 100 lbs. I mentioned that 110 lbs would get me to my desired weight, which I guess would be my goal. He said that with good adherence to the nutrition and exercise recommendations he didn't see any reason why I couldn't hit my target.

In researching VSG I came across an interesting explanation as to why some insurance plans cover weight loss surgery and others do not. I can't confirm the accuracy of this explanation but it sounds very plausible. There are generally two kinds of insurance plans: employer funded and commercial plans. Employer funded plans are used by many employers with more than 500 participants as it is more cost effective to fund their own plans. They will use an insurer to administer the plan, but since most of the funding comes from the employer they have a big say in what is covered (within lawful restrictions). Commercial plans are offered by insurers to the general public, or to smaller employers. They are funded by the insurance company through premiums and investment of their assets. The health plan, not the employer is on the hook for costs in this case. Many commercial plans do not cover WLS because they realize that their membership is very transient and change plans often. For example someone who is a member of a Blues plan this year is likely to be a UHC or Cigna member next year. Health plans understand the long term healthcare cost savings of WLS but do not want to spend their dollars today to generate savings that will help out the plans the member will participate in 5 or 10 years down the road. Many employer plans take a longer view of this situation, realizing that as long as you are employed with them they will have responsibility for your healthcare costs, and thus are more likely to pay for WLS as a long term investment in your health. So when a health plan denies coverage or publishes a specific exclusion, they may not be stupid, just focused on their short term financials.

Ironically my experience has been just the opposite. My employer (a big healthcare company) offers a number of plans. Most are self-funded but in certain markets they also offer commercial plans from big health insurers as a courtesy. Our national health plan is company funded, managed by Aetna and WLS is covered. However they also offer a plan from the local BCBS (a good customer of the company) which isn't funded by the employer. I have BCBS and WLS is specifically excluded. When I asked why I was told that the Aetna plan is company funded, while the BCBS plan is a commercial plan offered as a courtesy. I opted to go self pay instead of waiting for the 1st of the year to switch insurances then go through the medically supervised weight loss period which would likely be required. As I said, I was just relaying what I was told in explanation as to why one employer offered plan covered the surgery and another didn't.

The BLIS coverage is right around $1,400 according to the information provided by my surgery center.

First post from a new forum member. Self-pay cost in Kansas City (Bariatric Center of KC) is $11,999, which includes surgeon, hospital costs, pre- and post-surgery consults, lab work, etc. EGD is also required and can be covered by insurance or they have a flat $1,000 fee for that as well. Also something to consider is complication coverage. This center, being a Center of Excellence, also offers BLIS insurance coverage which basically covers any complications for a set time period. The surgeon waives his fees for treating any complications but hospital, anesthesiologist, lab and other costs can be crippling if not covered by insurance. BLIS is not cheap but provides some protection from those costs. The patient purchases this coverage separately from BLIS, but the surgeon must be a participant in their network.