Looking for info on Military doctors

Greetings! I have just had a consultation with a surgeon on the Air Force Academy. He offered me two procedures. The Open RNY and Lap-Band are the two operations that he personally does. He is not confident to do a Lap. RNY and he has yet to do a Lap-Band procedure (the military is trying to acquire a contract to purchase the Lap-Bands) but has attended all required courses on the procedure. My problem is I don't know anything about him as a surgeon. There is no way to really find out his "qualifications" or track record. I had a bad experience with a military doctor (a c-section) and am apprehensive about being a guinea pig. Is there anyone out there that has had experience with military doctors? Christy

i have tricare and they opted to send me to dr. schoen in denver as opposed to the military facilities. he will not do lap band but he does do the lap rny. i don't think i would go with an open if i could get the lap rny and i would not be willing to be his first lap band. my surgery oct. 6th good luck to you

Did you do the "Nutrition Classes" at Fort Carson? I have my first one today and I am not exactly sure if this is part of the process or part of the "run around."

I actually have my nutrition classes in denver in september. i do know that you are required to have the nutrition classes (as required by the insurance). exactally what all have you done already? we should chat sometimes since it seems like we are going through basically the same thing at the same time. cheryl

I have tried to email you and i am not sure if you are getting them or not. At any rate, I was finally told that the surgeon is not deployed. He is at Fort Carson and that he will perform the surgery. I am going to meet with him and take things from there. I will call you perhaps tonight after the kiddos are in bed. More than likely around 8:30 PM. Hopefully you will be home Christy

Hello! I'm two weeks post-op, and one month away from PCSing to Fort Carson. I was told that there are three bariatric physicians available at Fort Carson, but I don't know their names or how many surgeries they've done. I, too, have had a less-than-pleasant experience with a military surgeon, though it wasn't bariatrics. A quick word about TRICARE: be very careful about pursuing the LapBand procedure unless you get IN WRITING from TRICARE that they will cover it. I took my case all the way to TRICARE Management Activity (TMA), the governing body that makes "cover/don't cover" decisions. The response I received was that TRICARE will NOT cover ANY portion of the Lap Band surgery at this time, because they still consider it "experimental." We live at Fort Monroe, VA. There currently are more than 500 people waiting in line to have a Lap RNY at Portsmouth Naval Medical Center; a two-year-plus wait. The chief surgeon told me it was only about six months ago that he was given the green light by TRICARE to do Lap RNYs, rather than Open. It seems TRICARE tends to follow Medicare/Medicaid guidelines when making decisions about what is "usual and customary." (Translation, they're often WAY behind the curve!) Sorry to babble ... I just would hate to see you expend a lot of emotional / physical energy on the Lap Band, only to learn TRICARE will not support it. I sure hope I'm proven wrong; I would LOVE to see them step up to the plate and be more proactive on behalf of those of us who battle obesity. It's literally "penny-wise and pound foolish" not to cover these procedures, isn't it? Either way, the very, very best of luck to you! Heather