Jumping Through Hoops

The first thing the insurance company required was a 6 month physician supervised diet. At first I was really losing weight... and my doctor advised me that I really didn't want to lose weight! Plus, by losing weight I was lowering my BMI which would lower my chance of being approved for the surgery.... OOPS. I wasn't losing A LOT of weight (not as much as I WANT to lose anyways) only a few pounds. I don't want to lose a few pounds I want to lose like 100 lbs!! So I decided to continue to eat healthy, but not "diet".

Tim (my hubby) decided he was fed up with his weight as well, so he began a diet. He was restricting his calories, cutting out Coke, and making healthier choices. (Of course he dropped 50 lbs in a matter of months... darn men!!!) I was following along with his diet as best I could but making sure to stay at a steady weight so I wouldn't sabotage my chances of being approved for the surgery.

In April I met with Dr. Bagnato. He wrote a qualification letter to the insurance company and said he'd see me soon. A few weeks later the insurance company replied with the following hoops to jump through:
1) Nutritional Assessment
2) Psychological Assessment
3) 2 year weight history (wait, what?? That's what I liked about my doctor!! She didn't make me get on the scale!!!)
4) that dreaded 6 month diet supervision documentation.

Time to jump-
#1 was easy. There was a guy here in town that performed Nutritional Assessments (in other words he printed off a diet plan from the internet and told me I need to eat healthier... duh) for the low price of $85.

#2 wasn't quite as easy. Come to find out there are only a handful of psychiatrists here in Middle Georgia that do the assessment for bariatric surgery... and most of them don't accept my insurance. Dr. Tillitski to the rescue! He is hard as heck to get up with... but when I finally did, they took my insurance with no problem and submitted his report to Dr. Bagnato's office in lightening speed.

#3 well, lucky for me I had regular check ups with my OBGYN during the past few years... and he DID check my weight (and get onto me for being too heavy) every time I went. They sent me my records for my NON-PREGNANT check ups and viola- there's my weight history!

#4 I've been doing this... this should be easy. BUT OF COURSE it wasn't. They needed Dr. Bagnato's office to officially request the documents instead of me just taking them to his office. No problem. Dr. Bagnato's nurse, Terry, had that under control.

Now, time to wait....