Program Fees Southern California

I am looking for a HIGH QUALITY physician to do surgery that does not charge program fees. I reside in Rancho Cucamonga which is in the Inland Empire about an hour outside of Los Angeles and two hours from San Diego.

Thanks for any help!

what exactly are program fees?  I have an excellent surgeon in LA.... he is with a group called the Khalili Center for Bariatric Surgery.  The number is 310-858-1242 if you want to inquire about it... I'm not sure what program fees are, is that different than surgical fees?

Some doctors I guess charge program fees for nutritionalists, support groups, dietician etc and it ranges anywhere from like 500 to 3000.

I had sugery with Dr. Zorn at Pacific Bariaric in San Diego. I have never been charged out of pocket for anything. But my dietician and nutritionist was covered by Kaiser. As far as support groups, there are several local that you can go to at no charge.

I'd strongly urge you to consider Dr. David Suh of Crown Surgical Group in Corona. He's done several thousand LAP RNY'S over the past decade.   He puts on 4 support groups per month. I attend his groups in Redlands, Corona and Murietta.  He did my RNY 4 1/2 years ago, for only what Kaiser pays for the surgery. No program fee charges. The suppport group meetings are free for his or any other wt loss surgery to attend.  He does RNY, Realize Lapband, and began doing the Sleeve surgery last June.  I live about 20 minutes from his office. His reputation is widely known in southern CA. He also teaches other surgeons how to do these surgeries. DAVE

Dave,
You say he did the surgery for what Kaiser would pay. Does that mean he takes Kaiser insurance? Because that is an option we have for the next calendar year in 2011. Otherwise we have a PPO which leaves us with 10% of the total at minimum!

K

Crown Surgery is a quite common outside referral surgery center used by Kaiser in the Inland Empire. I attend 3 support meetings a month, and these meetings have several in attendance doing the required support group attendance--a requiement of Crown itself.  I was a Kaiser patient, and most of the pre ops in support group meetings are also Kaiser patients.  My wife needed a revision from a 1980 gastric bypass that had issues. I went through Kaiser to Harbor Cities hospital, where Kaiser does a number of RNY surgeries. After 3 cancellations by the surgeons there, I made a heated call to the head of surgery.  I told him of 3 surgery cancellations, one of which we were not told about, and I only found out about because I called the hospital. I insisted and got a letter from the surgical admisitrator that his surgeons were unwilling to do the revision for my wife. I took this letter to Kaiser, and they referred her to Kaiser, where her revision was done in July, 2008.  In both my surgery and her surgery, our surgical expenses were zero. We paid a copay for office visits to Crown, but that was our only expense.  Dr. Suh of Crown is a very respected surgeon in the RNY community. He is now doing the sleeve also. DAVE

They don't take United Healthcare PPO insurance. They only take Kaiser. We don't have Kaiser.

I know they take Beaver Medical group too, and I don't know if that's a HMO or not. I've also heard from others with other insurance companies.  So, I know there are other insurance companies used by Crown besides Kaiser.  DAVE

 I live a few minutes from you in Redlands. Fontana is my Kaiser. (Would be yours too.) They are paying for my DS... 100%. My copay is 15 dollars for a Dr. visit and 0 for hospital stays. So I don't have to pay much of anything. HTH