KAISER CA: SIGH

Yeah, my caveat about whether what I was told about Kaiser's new policy was too good to be true turns out to have been well-founded.  The person I got the information from pretty much completely misunderstood what was going on. Yes, there is a contract that is GOING to be signed with Pacific Laparoscopy for their practice to do all of Kaiser's DSs.  That's about all that was correct. In order to get the DS, the patient is STILL going to have to go throught the Kaiser bariatric program, and then the bariatric practice will be deciding which surgery is right for them.  Let me guess how often they are going to say the DS is better for the patient, since then Kaiser will have to pay CASH to Pacific Laparoscopy?  Yeah, probably less than never.  It is going to be the same-old-same-old with Kaiser -- if the patient wants the DS, they will have to go throught the miserable internal appeals process, and then on to the CA DMHC process -- although the patient will almost certainly win, this nonsense will add another 4-6 months to the process.  The only big deal is that WHEN Kaiser is forced to pay for a DS, it will be done by Dr. John Rabkin, one of the best in the business. Dammit.

After reading your posts, I am now considering fighting Kaiser for bot DS and "bypassing" the 10% weight loss requirement. Now I wonder if Pacific Laparoscopy requires the weight loss prior to surgery. ..

No. Not to my knowledge unless you may have some unusual rare presentation with added risk. Rock

No, in fact they think the whole "weight loss before WLS" and "liver shrinking diet" stuff is a crock (I'm sure they put it more nicely).

HI Diana, Thank you so much for passing this on.  I'll definitely bear this in mind when I see my new PCP in June.  Thanks again.