Kaiser insurance- high BMI
It doesn't sound like the insurance company is holding this up. It sounds like no surgeon is willing to do the surgery at his current weight, correct?
6'3" tall, male.
Highest weight was 475. RNY on 08/21/12. Current weight: 198.
M1 -24; M2 -21; M3 -19; M4 -21; M5 -13; M6 -21; M7 -10; M8 -16; M9 -10; M10 -8; M11 -6; M12 -5.
Generally when surgeons refuse high-BMI surgery it means they have no experience with those of us who were super high weights. If you are in CA, have you contacted Dr. Ara Keshishian? He is known for the DS and has a good reputation.
I had lost 300 pounds before my surgery, but was still at a BMI of 78, and my surgeon operated without blinking an eye because he had done many surgeries on the obese. He was trained at a university health center, though, in residency, which means he had access to this which not everyone does. My VSG surgery had zero complications as a result.
So, yeah. There *are* surgeons who will do it, and more over, do it very well with great skill. Here they do at University of Chicago, where they perform surgery on very high BMI individuals of that weight, including the duodenal switch. Dr. Prachand was one of the first people to do a lap DS on very high BMI folks in the Midwest I think (?) if not the first. Elmhurst Hospital in Illinois also has operated on individuals of that size (the bariatric program I went to...my surgeon was trained by Prachand, actually). I think he's operated on people at least 600 pounds, though they don't do the DS at Elmhurst yet (they do it at U of C)
If your husband absolutely cannot get the care he needs in-state, Kaiser can be petitioned to cover it out of state. Individual providers can also work with an insurance company to be in-network for one person, but it is rare they do that/rare insurance allows us to. If it is Medicaid, most states have Medicaid that is required to cover procedures despite distance. For instance, here in Illinois, there are people who go from Carbondale to Chicago or out of state if they can't get care, because the care they required was unavailable.
I would call the University of Chicago and ask if they could take Kaiser...people from all over the country go there for bariatric surgery.
Surgeons at major university health centers will be more likely to have operated on very high BMI patients. I would call local universities in Cali... and then branch out.
I follow a ketogenic diet post-op. I also have a diagnosis of binge eating disorder. Feel free to ask me about either!
It is not that we have so little time but that we lose so much...the life we receive is not short but we make it so; we are not ill provided but use what we have wastefully. -- Seneca, On the Shortness of Life
Dr. K's website is at: https://www.dssurgery.com
I follow a ketogenic diet post-op. I also have a diagnosis of binge eating disorder. Feel free to ask me about either!
It is not that we have so little time but that we lose so much...the life we receive is not short but we make it so; we are not ill provided but use what we have wastefully. -- Seneca, On the Shortness of Life
