Scheduling my six months with my PCP

As I have said in other threads, I have to visit my PCP for six consecutive months for my insurance to approve the surgery. My PCP is booked way in advance; my first appointment is December 3rd. Should I schedule my appointments at each visit, or would it be best to call the office and tell the secretary that I need to schedule six months of appointments? What do I tell her? I'm just worried that I might run the risk of not being able to get an appointment for January when I go in December. I'm thinking I can just tell my PCP that I need six consecutive months, and then maybe he can squeeze me in. What would you do?

I would schedule in advance. You can always cancel.

Mine were all scheduled at the same time and I knew I would be able to meet the insurance company requirements.

Might as well schedule everything in one go-- you can always cancel or reschedule later appointments if you need to.

You can always schedule appointments in advance. I'd do it all at once for your own peace of mind, especially if they don't have openings frequently.

When you do/did you meet with your surgeon? Have you selected one yet? Have you gone to the public info meetings for a few surgeons?

Personally, I never messed around with my PCP and went right to the surgeon. I was fortunate because my insurance did NOT require a referral from my PCP. Mine (and most surgeons) I think do the pre-WLS managed diet and get some of the other pre-surgery requirements done during that 6 months - blood work, EKG, checst x-ray, echo heart clearance, stress test, to save time. If your PCP is making you wait 6 weeks to even get the 6 month managed diet started, I would be really pissed. For my insurance, the surgeon's office was the one who submitted everything (not just the 6 months diet info) to insurance and obtained the approval for surgery. Also, the surgeon knew more about me by the time of surgery.

Good luck,

My surgeon's office is going to send all of the paperwork to the insurance company, as well. I don't mind starting my diet on December 3rd because I cannot get the surgery done until at least the second week of May, and the six-month diet will be over by then. I would have liked to get scheduled earlier, but the secretary said that my PCP was booked through November.

My surgeon's office does not do the six-month diet; I have to do it with PCP, and I think my insurance requirements state that it must be done with my PCP. I have to get an upper GI, sleep study, and psychological evaluation done during my six months. I'm actually going to call each of those offices on Monday so that I can get those all out of the way.

I called my PCP's office today, and they said I can't schedule appointments ahead of time. I found that kind of odd, but whatever.