Today's Appointment(IMPORTANT CORRECTIONS MADE!!!! )

[dawnmarie]

Hello everyone,

I went for my first appointment today, you were all right everyone at the office was wonderful and made you feel so welcomed. Even the other patients were so friendly. Dr. Allam was very informative and just an overall nice person. He went over everything with me and gave me my blue folder with my homework in it. The only bad news I got was that my insurance requires 6 months of documented proof that I've been on a diet regimen. So I'm a little upset about that, that is really going to set me back. I am calling first thing in the morning to set up my other appointments so I can at least have that done.
Thank you all for being here and helping all the rest of us to get through this, it is much appreciated.

Dawn

[Jamie]

Hi Dawnmarie,

Congrats on your appointment, I'm glad it went well for you except the insurance thing. By any chance, does your primary care physician have any documentation of any mention about your weight? Have you ever been to Weight Watchers or any other group like that lately? If you have any information of that nature, it might be able to be used and your insurance company may accept it.

I am glad to hear that your experience at Dr. Allam's office was a positive event, everyone there is so helpful and caring that it does take some of the anxiety out of the mix.
I, myself have gotten into some very interesting conversations in his waiting room with people that just wanted to help. It is such a friendly atmosphere that sometimes after the doctor sees you, you might want to stay and chat some more!!!! There really isn't another doctor's office like that anywhere!!

That atmosphere is kind of like our Support Group Meetings on the third Tuesday of each month at the Hampton Bays Public Library at 6:30. We take pride in helping others and will answer any questions that may come up during your journey. We have all been through the things you have in front of you right now and will help guide you through the hoops if you would like us to help.

Most of all, feel free to post any questions you may have on the message board and we will get back to you with (hopefully) some advice.

Hope to see you at the meeting on the 19th. A couple of us try to get there around 6:00 in case anyone wants to ask questions before the meeting gets into the swing of things that are on the agenda for the night. It will also give you a chance to meet Pat our wonderful Nutritionist before your appointment with her, if you haven't already seen her.

Talk to you soon,

Jamie

[Regina]

Hi DawnMarie, I am glad that your visit with Dr. Allam went well. He does have a great staff working for him. :)

Jamie gave you some good advice about looking into your primary care doctor to see if he has any records of you dieting. As Jamie mentioned also if you have tried weight watchers, Jenny Craig or any other ones that keep records that might certainly help with the insurance company.

You know every time a read a post about insurance companies wanting a 6 month study to see if you have tried other things before going down this road I have to laugh to myself. What do they think that we just woke up one morning and said Hey let me have surgery? Do they think that we haven't tried over the years to lose the weight? Oh and are all the people that work for them skinny? It irritates the heck out of me when they ask for this. However, we do it because we have tried everything else. We now want something that will work for us. Although it is just a tool, we still have to follow the rules to be successful.

So don't be discourage just do like you said you were going to do make all your other appointments and collect what ever information you can from any of the doctors over the last year that kept a record of you trying to lose the weight. Start to come to the support meetings NOW. Post here any questions or concerns you have and keep us updated on your journey. Your Journey began the day you made the call to set up your appointment with Dr. Allam.

Good luck. I hope to meet you at our meeting on Tuesday August 19th.

[QUEEBELL]

DawnMarie,

Hi! I understand your frustration, but I'd be happy to help you put together a diet log for your insurance company. I'm a medical biller.
Isabel

[Regina]

Please except our apologies for giving you wrong information. I was given wrong information about what can be used for a diet history.

Here is how it works and the information that I am posting came from a very reliable source. So it would be best for all NEW PATIENTS that have to have a diet history to FOLLOW what I am posting now. This is the CORRECT WAY to do it.

Insurance companies require a 6-month, doctor SUPERVISED MONTHLY visit with documentation of: 1. Diets 2. Weight 3. Changes to be made to that diet. They will NOT accept Weight Watchers, etc .

Also, to do all of the appointments in the meantime is also ill-advised. Those clearances will need to be updated around the time of surgery. They are better off waiting until around month # 3 of the diet history and then going to do clearances.

Another thing that I was told is that a MEDICAL BILLER CAN NOT HELP YOU. SO please disregard that information as well.
If you want your insurance to be approved for this surgery, please follow what I just posted.

[candiekisses68]

WOW REGINA YOUR LIKE A WALKING INFORMATION BOOK!!! WTG YOUR GREAT!!!!!!!! ANYONE WHO NEEDS INFORMATION SHOULD REALLY COME TO YOU FOR THE CORRECT INFO!! YOUR THE BEST!!!!!!!!

[Regina]

Well not so much me. Thanks but to the proper people who know about the insurance end of it. We can just stick to what we did before and after surgery. Leave the medical and insurance questions to the professionals.

I am just glad that it was brought to my attention ahead of time that we were making some mistake on the information we were giving out before we caused any damage.

For now on I will just say and tell what I know.;)

[dawnmarie]

Thank you everyone for all your encouragement and words of wisdom I appreciate it. I spoke with Pat the nutritionist, what a nice lady, I have an appointment with her on Wednesday the 27th. I'm not having any luck so far finding a pshyologist I've called four and they are all on vacation, so I will try some more on Monday. I've got a call into my pcp to discuss my diet history and see if he can do something up for me.

Thanks again,

Dawn

[hawk1989 (RNY)]

Dawn,

The six months will go by faster than you think! A friend of mine had to do 18 months worth of diet and psychological review before her insurance would consider the surgery.

To say the least, she ended up loosing all the weight in the 18 months and looks terrific. But after she got through the first 5 months, she could not believe it went so fast. Just think we are almost through the summer (3 months) June, July and August.

Just think positive and you will get through it.

This is a great group of people who will support you all the way.

Christine

[Jamie]

Hi everyone,

Great save Regina!!!

We as a group can only give you advice and stories from our own experiences and people should always ask medical, nutritional, and insurance questions to the people that know. We hear things that we believe to be true and try to pass it on to help others and may at times innocently pass the wrong info on to others. We certainly wouldn't do this on purpose and everything we comment on is to help others make the correct decision for themselves. We have been through it and know how confusing it can be as there are many questions that will pop up along the way.

Please realize that we are there to help, and to the best of our knowledge, pass on the correct info so your journey will be as smooth as possible.

Thank you for understanding,

Jamie