bobainsocalif

Hi all. I'm really confused and hope folks familiar with Kaiser Permanente in California can help answer this question -- will Kaiser pay for Banding? I went to an orientation on weight loss surgery at Kaiser, and they flat out said they would offer only gastric bypass, not the band, period. But one of the moderators on this site said that Kaiser will pay for it. Is that true? If so, how do I get around their insistence that I get the more invasive bypass surgery? Thanks!

I went to the informational seminar at Kaiser and asked about the Band, and they flat out said they would not offer the Band to me under any circumstances, that I could only get gastric bypass. Now I'm confused. Were they lying to me?

Actually, MacMadame, there are a lot of folks on this site who have standard signatures that say stuff like "Band will get me to goal, sleeve will keep me there." I've seen at least a dozen, which prompted me to ask about it.

I see a lot of the people here are saying they've used lap band to reach their goals, but then plan to have gastric sleeve surgery for maintenance. My question is -- what are the advantages of doing lap band first? What are the advantages of gastric sleeve first, without having lap band? Thanks so much!

Hi all. I have Kaiser Permanente in California, which refuses to pay for lap-band surgery, only the invasive gastric bypass (and even then you have to spend months and months going through a pre-op program, which I cannot miss that much work for). I am going to have lap-band done in Mexico, either through my own research or through a medical travel firm. Any recommendations? I've seen varying prices from $5,500 from a doc in Tijuana who has gotten some pretty bad reviews, to $8,000 by a doctor Ortiz, who has gotten good reviews. Any other advice? Money is an issue, since I'm paying for this myself, but I also don't want to go with the lowest possible price if the doc is dangerous. Help! Thanks.