Dr. Jean-Baptiste & Aetna Ins.

Hi, I have a consultation tomorrow with Dr. Jean-Baptiste and I got a voicemail this morning saying that I'll have my nutritionist appt and pysch appt also tomorrow and have to bring $300 for those 2 appts?! I tried to call the office back but could not get ahold of them before I left work so hoping maybe someone could shed some light for me...
If its only my 1st appt is it normal to do the nutritionist appt and pysch appt the same day as 1st consultation? Why wouldn't my insurance cover these costs if they cover my surgery 100%? And wouldn't I wait to make sure I'm approved before I shed out $300 to just talk to two people? This doesn't make sense to me. Please help!

You need to call and your doctors office and tell them you are not ready to go ahead with the surgery until you have all the neccessary info you need to proceed. Your psych and nut may be covered by your insurance Aetna is pretty good with that. So you may have to go to your own psych and nut but let them know they may have a list of doctors which they prefer. I had BCBS and the nut was not covered but the psych was so check with Aetna first and have your consultation minus the psych and nut. Good luck.

My surgeon offered all at the same time for patient convenience. Some people have to travel long distances to their surgeons and do not want to take that many days off of work. I had to pay separately for my nut and psych visit. If I recall, one of them may have been covered by insurance but I never submitted anything for repayment. These visits were with a psychologist and nut associated with my surgeon's office however the checks were not made payable to the surgeon but rather the nut and psychologist.

I just noticed this post now, I was wondering what ended up happening with your appointment?  I originally went to Dr. Jean-Baptiste, and unfortunately had some problems with the way his practice is run.  They did want to rush everything and I did do the Psych and NUT appointment with them, but I also decided to go to another surgeon basically for a 2nd opinion and decided not to go back to Dr. Jean-Baptiste.

And yes........... for some reason, their Social Worker (who writes the psychological eval) and their Nutritionist are not "in network" with insurances.

My consult went ok, saw socail worker and nut that same day which I thought was quick. He gave me all the paperwork for my pre-op testing and they would not take my ins for either pysch or nut, which I was bummed about. Does your surgeons office take your ins for those 2 evals?? I'm not too sure if I should see someone else. I really dont have the time to take off work for another consult and then surg and other pre -op stuff. :/  Do you have your surgery scheduled yet? Or did you have it?

For some reason I am just seeing your post now.  My story is a long one.  You can look at my profile, I did 1 entry in a blog.  With the new surgeon I have to start all over.  I too have difficulties missing work, but I am now on month 3 with the required 6 month medically supervised weight program that my insurance BCBS requires and most insurances require.  I was really hoping to just have the authorization transferred from Dr. Jean-Baptiste's (I was approved and scheduled for surgery! with him) but that will not be possible, so I am back to the "waiting" part.  The surgeon I am now going to is in Florham Park, (and I live near you) which makes it like 45 minutes away from home, but I am happy with this practice, so I wait.

These message boards are really great and a big help!

Keep me posted on what's going on with your pre-surgical stuff, and good luck!

Jen

yea its like $300 plus $1800 program fee above and beyond insurance if you want Dr. JB to do your surgery....i want to use him for my wife since he's got a good reputation...but I just dont know if we'll be able to afford it...