Fallon/St. Vincent Hospital (Worcester, MA)

Hello! Just curious about what the experience has been like going through the program at Fallon/St. Vincent Hospital in Worcester, MA. How long did the process take for you from the first info session until you were given a surgery date/had surgery. Was is hard to get approval for your surgery with Fallon Insurance?  I am currently going though the process and am in the behavioral medicine and nutrition portion of the program. I only have 2 more lbs to lose before I make my 5-10% weight loss. I am trying to figure out when I can expect to have the surgery. I'm hoping for sometime before the middle of June.

I am going through the program too. I was approved by the team on March 26thy (my birthday). I have my surgical consult on April 7th and they said I can expect to have surgery by the middle of May. If you go through the Fallon Program FCHP usually gives you no hassle for approval. Although there is a first for everything with insurance companies. I started the program in October so it will have been 7 months start to finnish. This program is the strictest, but best in my book, around. The sucess rate with Dr. Arcand and Dr. Potter is amazing. 0 fatalities and only minor complications in the 8 years the program has existed. Thats pretty darn good. If you haven't been approved by the team in March they meet again the end of April. You will get a call from Nutrician setting up your pre-op Nutrician group and a couple days later you will get a call from Dr. Arcand office for a consult, which for me was only 1 1/2 weeks after approval. Generally surgery is about a month after your consult. Once you hit your weight loss it goes quickly so hold on for the ride...lol...and don't worry if your sugical consult is with Dr. Potter or Dr. Arcand, they do all the surgeryies together anyways... write me if you have any questions....Lauren

Thanks for the info Lauren! I'm glad to hear that they have had no fatalities and only minor complications. I will be finishished with Behavioral Med at the end of April and I will have lost 5% by then too. Based on how long it took you, I should expect to have surgery in July. I was hoping for June, but July is fine with me too. I'll let you know if I have anymore questions. Thanks a lot!!!