How long did it take to get a date from St Agnes

Hello I have decided to pursue the lap band at St Agnes with Dr Averbach can anyone give me general idea of how long the process was from start to finish.  I am attending the information seminar on tomorrow evening.  Thanks in advance.

I had my surgery with Dr. Averbach in December at St. Agnes. How long things take will depend a lot on your insurance company. Some of them require a supervised diet program for six months or so prior to your requesting approval for the surgery. If your insurance requires this (or something similar) and you haven't done that yet it could take a while!  I have BlueChoice HMO and they do require the six month supervised diet. Fortunately, I had started Weigh****chers on my own last March before I even knew there was such a thing as a Lap-Band. By the time I went to see Dr.Averbach for my initial consultation in September, I was almost done with the requirement. Most insurances also require you to have various evaluations, such as a nutritional evaluation, psychiatric evaluation, etc. You may also need testing to determine the presence of other co-morbidities like sleep apnea, so a lot also depends on your individual cir****tances. I saw Dr. Averbach for my initial consultation on 9/18/07, had most of my testing and evals done in October and was approved by early November. I was so shocked at how quickly everything went that I needed time to adjust, so I delayed scheduling my surgery until December. I have been very happy with my care and I like Dr. Averbach a lot. Feel free to PM me if you'd like! Michelle :)

My experience with St. Agnes was great.  As soon as I was approved by my insurance company, Dr. Averbach's office scheduled my surgery within two weeks.  You will have other tests and insurance requirements so the entire process could take a while.  I went for my seminar at the end of June and received my band on January 4, 2008 -- so just a little over six months -- but it went by quickly.  Good luck.

Started the process in October, everything submitted in November, surgery in December.

Thank you all so much for the responses. I have Blue Cross Blue Shield Federal Preferred Provider insurance I have had my psych eval done and I have a letter of recomendation from my PCP. I was pursuing another office initially but they had a 500.00 program fee so I abandoned that program. Thanks again

Hi There !st Dr. Averbach is a great surgeon, you are in good hands.  I had the RNY and I started the process at the end of Jan 07 and had the surgery April 27 2007.  RNY involves psych evals and more, so the length of time it takes, is really dependent on your Insurance company. I had United Health Care.

I attended a seminar with Dr Singh on yesterday ...I was very impressed with him so I decided to use him instead of Dr. Averbach.  I called and got my appt with him for January 30th the lady in his office said that since I have Federal BCBS for insurance I don't need 6 months of a surpervised diet so I should be able to be scheduled for surgery once my consult is complete if all goes well thank you all for your help I will let you know how my journey is going!!!

Hello future bandster!  I have my surgery with Dr. Singh in February.  I was impressed with him also so I am looking forward to having this done.   Feel free to PM me and we can walk this journey together! Deb

K9Krazzi....thank you so much for your post.  I sent you a pm about my journey so far hope to hear from you soon!

Have you attended any of the Lap Band support groups at St. Agnes