As I’ve mentioned before, the nutritionist appointments that the insurance companies make you go through are a bit of a joke. I’d imagine the percentage of morbidly obese (how much I hate that term can never be expressed) have been on one diet after another, can probably out nutrition the nutritionist if you will. Maybe that’s not true, but it feels a bit like that.
Monday’s class was about calories. What a calorie is; what a calorie does; how to not eat too many calories; etc. I wish they would refocus these nutrition classes. I think they have a huge potential to really help people make a difference in their pre-surgical journey. I think the focus should be more on why it’s important to lose weight prior to surgery. Discussions should be had on how much quicker a person will recover from surgery if they drop a few pounds and walk a bit more. I just feel a bit like this is a $50 per class hoop to jump through.
After the nutrition class is when things really started to happen though. I confirmed the surgery date with the insurance coordinator; confirmed that she had everything she needed to submit. She (Pam, the insurance coordinator super hero) confirmed that she would be submitting to insurance on Tuesday the 26th and that in all likelihood we would hear back by the end of this week…WOOT. Now it’s time to develop an ulcer while waiting to hear back right? Well not exactly. Everything’s out of my hands at this point. I’ve jumped through all of their hoops, met all of their requirements, now all I can do is wait.
The surgeons office went ahead and scheduled another onslaught of appointments to get me ready for surgery. Here they are:
- 7/28 Meet with the Surgeon for my pre-op orders
- 8/11 2 Hour nutrition appointment. They will go over how we will eat post-op, what our nutritional requirements are, what to expect, etc.
- 8/17 Final Pre-Op Surgical and Nutritional Consult.
- TBD-Blood Work, EKG and Surgical release from Primary Care Physician.
My fingers are crossed that insurance will come back with an APPROVED response!
Exciting!!! You WILL get an approved response, no doubt about it. I am thrilled for you that this is moving forward at a great pace.
I can’t believe you have to pay for those nutrition classes. Kaiser makes me jump through a lot of hoops (including losing this darn weight), but everything is free. I guess it’s a trade off, because I’d gladly pay $50-100 just to get the ball rolling.
You know, I tend to think you’re right that many people who are in need of weight loss surgery probably already KNOW most of what they need to to lose weight (or, in this case, keep it off). It’s just putting that knowledge into practice that we’ve had difficulty with. I do understand why they make the class a requirement, though (liability purposes and those people who don’t already know, scarce as they may be). It’s too bad they can’t offer a few different choices, like a class that is more advanced for those who already have a baseline understanding of nutrition.
Good luck with the approval – I hope it comes back quickly!