insurance requirement:6 month diet

 Hello fellow Oklahoma posters. I just found out that I finally have an insurance that approves WLS but I must first humiliate myself one more time with a "medically supervised diet"  My primary physician has been no help. Does anyone know what or who I could use to complete this 6 month requirement in the Tulsa area. Thanks.
Molly

Hi Molly..
I have no answers for you, just wanted to say Hi and welcome you to the OK board.
Kim

 Well thank you! I have been a lurker for several years. Every time I would think I was going to have  WLS, the insurance I had would stop covering bariatrics.  I changed insurance  3 times.  Today I found out Cigna will still cover it after a 6 month supervised diet so there is hope again. Look forward to becoming more active on the board as my journey continues.

I had to do the 6 month supervised diet too.  My PCP is Debra Colpitt and her office is now out of Bailey Medical Center.  Really all I did was she asked me what diet I was going to do and I told her Atkins because I really couldn't afford to do WW or anything else.  I would make an appointment once a month and go in and get weighed.  After 7 months (they need 6 complete months plus your initital weight at your first appt) then she submitted everything to my surgeons office.  So that insurance would cover my monthly weigh-ins Dr. Colpitt would only write my high blood pressure prescription for one month at a time.  I didn't see if you had a surgeon or not yet but Dr. Joe Bob Kirk who works with Dr. Gorospe does medically supervised weight loss too (also at Bailey in Owasso).

 Thanks for the information.  I'm not completely sure on who will be my surgeon yet but I thought I had read in my insurance document that the doctor doing the surgery, can't be the same one who is supervising a diet.  Did you have to show success on your diet(but not too much to go below a BMI for surgery) to show ability to be compliant? I feel like I could lose some weight on a diet but it always comes back. but if I don't follow it enough, will the insurance deny me? I have Cigna.

Dr. Kirk doesn't do the actual bariactric surgery, he'll do the EGD.  But our goal for the 6 month diet was to show anything but a gain over the 6 months.  Some months I lost, some months I gained a pound or two.  We talked about what I did during the previous month, and if I gained was there a reason that I could think of.  Your weight at your first visit with the surgeon (which you should do before you start your 6 month diet IMO) is the one that will be submitted to the insurance company.  I would think that unles you got below a BMI of 35 there wouldn't be an issue.  Remember insurance makes you jump through the hoops to make sure you will be complient after surgery...it's a pain but worth it.

 Hey there. I have Cigna as well. My surgeon did my 6 month pre-op medically supervised diet. The only part he didn't do was the det part of it. I met with the nutritionist for that (obviously.) Also, Cigna does not put a weight loss requirement on the 6 month pre-op diet. Sometimes doctors do that, but Cigna does not. Trust me, I asked several different people at Cigna by calling them quit a few times. 

 Thanks January and Kathy.Good information. I talked to Grospe's office and they gave a name to another Doc in town to do my diet stuff. The office lady said it would look better if I decide to use Dr. Grospe. I wonder how much this will cost out of pocket or will Cigna cover.  

 Had another question for you if you don't mind. Does a chiropractor count for medically supervised with Cigna?. Dr. Grospe's office referred me to him but I wanted to make sure. Thanks.
Molly