New to the Forum-Dr. Vanguri no longer does DS!

Hello, everyone!

I'm new to the DS forum. This is my first post. I wanted to alert everyone that Dr. Apparao Vanguri of Baltimore, Maryland no longer performs the Duodenal Switch. He was the only doctor in the state of Maryland who did this operation! 

Presently, I have Maryland Health Choice care with Priority Partners. (I am pregnant and due in December). I was planning to get started on the pre-op visits (not sure if you can do this while pregnant) But I never got that far...because his staff told me Dr. Vanguri stopped doing the D/S last November! :-(

Does anybody have advice or experience in terms of getting an out of state Medicaid doctor to cover this operation? I would LOVE to see Dr. Elariny in Virginia, but I doubt he would take another state's medical insurance.

Thanks! 

Start looking at the docs in www.dsfacts.com. Lots of folks travel for their DS, so think out of the box, and good luck. Take a look at Dr Anthone, I want to say he takes Medicaid patients.

--gina
 

If your state's plan will cover the DS out of state, I have yet to hear of any insurance that covers him and the DS that Dr. Anthone won't accept.  It might take a legal battle (and the law might not be on your side) if your insurance denies you out-of-state coverage.

Do you also have Medicare? I had my DS as part of a plan to come off disability, so I have both. The obesity really just made my autoimmune issues worse. I also was very blessed, because for major surgery, most surgeons do not like the added risk of autoimmune disease. For me, the weight loss from the DS enabled medicines that had not worked before to become effective. Before then, the only thing that would work was prednisone, and that just added to the weight issues.

As for as going out of state with Medicaid, I'm sorry to say that it's nearly impossible, unless an ajoining state has some sort of reciprocity deal with your state. I live in the Great Lakes region, and am within two or three hours driving distance from several major medical centers, so I lucked out that I would have Plan B, C and D if Plan A didn't go through.

If your weight is making you sick, and getting rid of it would improve your condition, and if you have a dcotor or doctors that will work to get you all the documentation you need, it could happen. It also depends on how obese you are. The medical community's disdain for SMO people can work in your favor. The higher your BMI, the better chance you'll have. Check out my ticker, and you'll see what I mean.

It's going to be lots of paperwork once you find a doctor willing to help you document, and make sure you start your own paper trail by keeping a journal of how the weight is affecting your health and your daily life. Nothing fancy, a spiral notebook will do. Collect information from every doctor visit for everything.

Document how your weight affects things as mundane as going to the bathroom, taking a shower or bath or getting dressed. If you have to take your own chair with you when you go places, document that.

In other words, make your case so compelling that "malpractice" is what a doctor is thinking if he/she *doesn't* help you!

By the way, my surgeon is also the only one in my state who performs the DS.

Thank you all for the support and the advice! I really appreciate your kindness!

Hello ILOVE2READ. I understand your frustrations because I livei n DC and was looking into Vanguri as well and found out the same information. When looking up Elariny I saw that he requires a mandatory $2,000 up front which kind of detered me. I have Carefirst BlueChoice and I was already informed that they will cover my lapband revision as long as I have 6 months supervised diets which I have. I have come to the conclusion that I may have to travel to Georgia or North Carolina, but it is a hard choice. My original surgeon wants to do the sleeve, but I am scared to death of failure again which will lead to another surgery to finish the surgery to a switch and I am not trying to keep getting opened up like that. I just want this final surgery so I can be on my way. I hope you find your information. I am going to check with Dr. Smith in GA because I too have medicaid as a second insurance and I want to make sure that I have all areas covered.