Was your DS surgery out-of-town, if so were you able...

Did anybody have to travell out of town for their surgery?  If so were you able to have your pre-op testing done locally and have the information transferred to the location of surgery?

We have two bariatric programs in the area but the only do the band, sleeve, and rny...I really want the DS and my insurance covers it (BCBS-Anthem) 

Quite a few of us traveled. All my pre-op work-up was done at home through my PCP. I had several phone consults with my surgeon and then flew to CA on a Sunday, saw him in the office on Monday and Tuesday and had surgery on Wednesday.

Good luck.

Did your insurance cover the surgery and if so who gets the authorization?

No. My insurance does not cover WLS and so I was self pay. But, my surgeon's office would have done all the insurance authorization.

I traveled to Brazil.  I had all of my pre-op testing done here and faxed and hand carried everything to my sugeon.  I also set up after care here with a GI doc and my PCP. I never needed anyone except the PCP. My surgeon is available 24/7 by phone if I need him.

Michele

 Did insurance cover the surgery?

No they didn't but they covered all the pre-op testing and aftercare. They would have covered an RNY 100%.

Michele

I had everything done locally with one exception.  (More on that later.)  I went to my first appointment with a one-inch-thick file of my tests and results and CDs and all kinds of things.

I took:
Surgeon's Report for the placement of the band (which I had at the time)
Colonoscopy Report
Polysomnogram Report
Preliminary Labs
Abdominal Ultrasound
Arterial Blood Gases
Spirometry
Pulmonary Exam Report/Clearance for Surgery
Cardio Stress Test--Adenosine
Mammogram (why not?)
EKG
Cardio Clearance for Surgery
Upper GI Radiology Report
Upper GI Films on CD
Chest x-ray on CD
Psych Eval
(Plus a VHS tape of a barium swallow showing the esophagus being screwed up courtesy of the band)

Dr. Keshishian looked at the stack and kind of laughed.  "Is there anything you DIDN'T do?" he asked.  I said I hadn't done an endoscopy.  He asked why not and I suggested that I feared he might not accept that coming from somewhere else.  He laughed more because, back then anyway, on a band-to-DS revision, he really liked seeing for himself what he was about to encounter in the OR.

Oh...and I got all of that ordered by my PCP...MOST of it because it was a good idea for me, with my history, to have that stuff tested..

my pre op work up was done locally and surgery was done out of town, not a problem.  it depends on your surgeon,  and your local doctors willingness to cooperate with each other.
 My team involved my PCP in NJ, a wls,a gastroentrologest and a cardioelectrophisologist in NYC and Dr Antone in Omaha.