IM BAAAACCCKKKK

I M BAACCKK  lol

Here is hoping everyone had a great holiday season and is looking forward to an awsome 2010.

Only 84 days till open enrollment for Health insurance at work.  and 104 days till my next appointment with surgeon to rejoin his program.

Now just out of curioisty I have a few questions for others out there.

I have made the appointment for April 21,2010
to rejoin Dr Mark Kligmans program. 
I am wondering if since I have been in the program before if he will waive the 6 month nuritional counciling he requires.

I know for a fact that if my employer uses UHC out of Maryland that the only requirements for wls are a 5 year history of obesity, and a letter of recomendation from my family doctor.

Now the real question is should I check with Drs office to see about the nutrional counciling that he requires?  If he does I can start in February and hope to have surgery in July.  If he will waive it then I may be able to have it as early as May.

looking for feed back on this one. Any one that has had this or similar experience with Dr Mark Kligman please feel free to respond.

I have no idea but I wish you luck with it Lori.

can you call the doctor's office and ask them?

wonderful to see you back! i would call the doctor directly. let us know what ends up happening.

I agree with Nessa...I'd call the doc's office and ask. 

I'm excited for you Lori!

Lori, Glad to see you. I agree I would call the doctors office and double check. Better safe than sorry. Good luck I know you have been waiting so long. Happy New Year to you and yours.


                                                            Julie

WELCOME BACK HONEY!!! Hope your holidays were GREAT and your off to a fresh start to 2010!!

I have Kligman and I didnt need a 6 month program. I had surgery like 6 weeks after the seminar but I have Federal BCBS so I think that was why......but he is AWESOME and he will work with you to swing around it. I would email Nadja and see what her take on that is honey. She is my go to when I need ANYTHING I just email her ;o) Good Luck!!!!

Hi Lori, welcome back!

I am a patient of Dr. Kligman's also (pre-op) and I am currently in the 6 months supervised diet period which will be complete the first week in Feb. My advice, having recently been through some insurance hoops, is to contact Janice Bryant in Dr. K's office. Just call the main # (877-866-7348) and ask for Janice and then leave her a message. She is the Practice Coordinator and she interacts with the insurance companies and has a lot of knowledge as to what they will and will not accept in varying degrees and matches that up with the Dr. Kligman's requirements. Also, she is super friendly - as is the rest of his staff.

Based on my experiences thus far in working with his team (since August), I think they are a great choice.

I have one more suggestion, unless Janice tells you otherwise and that is: If there is uncertainty as to whether or not you need to participate in his 6 month supervised weight loss program, then you should make an appointment with Mary Beth Sodus, the NUT, as soon as possible. Then you get your first visit on the books and if you do end up having to complete the 6 months, you started that ASAP and that counts as the first month in the 6 months. I wasn't sure if I needed the 6 months because I had YEARS of Weigh****chers participation, however I learned that my insurance carrier is much stricter about the 6 months and requires the documentation to come from a physician only. Luckily, by the time Dr. K's office was able to sort all of that out for me, I was 3 months into the 6 months with Mary B. Bottom line is - it can't hurt. She's a very knowledgeable lady and she gives you a lot of information that is very valuable in preparing for WLS with Dr. Kligman.

Best of luck to you!

Good luck Lori!

I have UHC too and you may want to get it in writing that they do not require the 6 month supervised diet thing because that was my delay.  I called for months and was told I do NOT need it; however, when I started asking for it in writing, they would not provide that to me. I then went to my HR department to research it and i DID in fact need that 6 month history.

Agree with the previous poster.  Double check with UHC.  I have UHC  as well.  I believe they have changed their pre-surgery requirements and now require a 6 month supervised diet.  My surgery was in May 2009, and my son's surgery was in August 2009 -- the 6 month diet was required.  Good luck.

Every one thank you for all of the input. I did call the office and they told me that if I have completed the six month diet and mb signed off on it all i needed to do was come in for a re evaluation.  That was good news.  I won't know about what insurance will require once open enrollment April 1.  Not even sure if they are going to use UHC again.  If UHC is the animal of choice and has not changed their requirements I  will need a 5 yr wt history and a letter from my pc.  In the mean time its back on track, upward, onward and no looking back.