A few questions(mainecare & 1st appt)

Hi I have been on the wait list for what seemed like forever & I finally received my date for my first appt. w/ Dr. Cobean for January 28th I am very excited but I have a couple of questions & I am hoping someone can help me..Well my first question is I have MaineCare(medicaid) & in the letter w/ my date were instructions about getting referrals for dr. cobean, the dietician & for the psychologist visits. When I called my Dr.'s office they said they do not know if my insurance will cover the psych visits or not & they would not be able to give me those referrals for the dietician & the psych...I called MaineCare & got very confused with the info they gave me...the woman kept saying they do not cover psych visits unless it is a referral from Child & Family Services or some other crisis agency where u have to be in danger of hurting yourself & when I told her why i needed this appt. she said well if she is a private dr. then we wouldnt cover the visits but if you are wanting to have WLS in order for us to pay for that surgery you will need a complete psych evaluation so I am like well then why would you not cover it...she didnt ever give me a straigt answer just told me to call the dr. and ask them & the thing about the dieticain she was not clear on that being covered either...I did leave a message @ Dr. Cobeans office but didnt get a call back....I am just wondering if anyone else has mainecare & if you can let me know what referrals I need & how I can go about getting them. I also was wondering about the first visit w/ dr. cobean & what does that entail & i had heard once you have the first visit you have to wait 2 months for the next one...is this the way it works? any help would be greatly appreciated I am very anxious about having this surgery & I just want everything to go as smoothly as possible...Thanks so much Vikki

Hi Vikki, My situation is somewhat different as I went through Bangor's program (great by the way)...but I also have MaineCare, they covered everything. I do mean everything. I have not seen nor heard about anything that I may have to pay myself. Although this is a good question to ask on here...you will be much better off talking to your surgeons office. They will be able to tell you how it will go since it is different there from Dr. Clough here in Bangor. Casey

Hi.. a little input here. I have mainecare as well, and I know that all my appts were covered. I am in Bangor, so I think that the program may work a little different. My PCP referred me to the program, and then I did all of the appts, and the psych was one of them. I only rcvd 1 bill where I had to pay $6.00 that wasn't covered by the insurance. I hope that helps. ~Heather

Hi Vikki...What happened with me was my PCP had to set up all the referrals...dietician, psyc, stress test, etc. Then insurance paid for it all but they Needed that referral from the PCP the way i understand it they will not pay all of it without these referrals. Good luck!!! Sally

I want to thank all those *****sponded...I have since heard from Dr. Cobeans office & they said do not worry about a thing which is a wonderful relief. The bummer is that they were calling to offer me an appt for today @ 7:30 a.m., instead of my Jan 28th appt. over a month early, but I didnt receive the call in time & so they gave the appt to someone else ....but they called back this afternoon & split up my first visit so I go Dec 29th to meet w/ 2 members of the team (I believe the dietician & the psych) & the Jan 14th to meet the surgeon & I guess attend a class...so I did get bumped up so that is great...I am still wondering though how does the process go...I have heard that once you have your first visit you have to wait 2 months...is that true? Again thanks for the help!

Hi Vikki! I had surgery with Dr. Cobean last year. I did wait 8 weeks between the first and second appointment, and then surgery was 3 weeks after that! I know things are a little different now that they have another surgeon, but I am not sure if the wait time has changed? Make no mistake about it, it is worth the wait! Denise