Good evening.....
After mailing out 15 letters to various surgeons in NC I have received replies from only 7 of them. Of the 7 replies, 4 either no longer perform bariatric surgery or dont accept medicaid. Of the three that accept medicaid I have "tentatively " chosen Dr Voellinger in Charlotte.
In trying to contact my local VR about this, I discovered that the approval process is generally slower than medicaid according to the lady I talked to. She did everything she could think of to disuade me from WLS and I got the feeling she did that to everyone.
Next is an appointment to go to a seminar in Charlotte and then they will give me some kind of packet to fill out and return.
My concern is the 6 months of supervised dieting. Through my PCP I have been on a supervised diet but we didnt meet every month to discuss this with him. He put me on various drugs to lower appetite, etc including phentermine but nothing worked. My question is if I went to a supervised diet with meetings every 2 or 3 months for at least a year, will that suffice?