St Vincent Charity

Ok guys, here's the deal.  Since i finally got approved for surgery (yay!!!) My insurance has referred me to St Vincent Charity in Cleveland stating that everyone there is in network.  I left a message with them 2 days ago and they haven't gotten back to me.  My insurance company told me to contact them for the initial appointment and go from there. 

Guess my questions are:  What is the initial appointment?  What do they go over?  In the initial appointment can they deny you after that?  What happens after the initial appointment?   

i feel so clueless like i'm living in a dream world.  Every morning i wake up and think, i'm going to get that denial letter any day...even though i've been approved for surgery...

Anyone who had the surgery at St. Vincent i would like to know more...heck any answers would be good.  I'm really excited and nervous and anxious all at the same time. 

St Vincents does only bariatric surgery and is well known. They are also very very busy.  If they don't respond to your calls by Monday, I'd call the insurance and tell them that you need a referral elsewhere.  They should know who takes them.

I hope you get your answers!

janice

 I just had my surgery there, everything turned out great and so far I have lost 25 lbs in 4 weeks!!! I would call them back, I know they get very busy. The number I have is 216-592-2801

I went there for my surgery and would not have went anywhere else. The care was great. I think you might want to check out the website for the informational meeting they have. When I had mine they require you to attend this and give all your info. If you have approval this will speed up the process.

http://www.svch.net/bariatric/gettingstarted/calendar.asp

Hi there,
I went through St. Vincent Charity almost 2 years ago with Dr. Aviv Ben-Meir. I had the RNY lap, and was also there last week for a hernia repair with him too. I HIGHLY recommend him and the hospital. They do the most surgeries in the Cleveland area, and are highly regarded. Just call again on Monday, they will call back. As the last poster said, they are very busy, but in my opinion well worth it. I dont know how it works with an approval from your insurance already, so cant tell ya from that prospective, but u will meet them and be bombarded with tons of information. (The other doc is Dr. Sonpal, he does open RNY, so dont know who u will see. He has an excellent reputation as well.) You are in good hands with them, any questions ask away here. There r lots of people to help!
Michelle

Hello there
I just had my surgery on Aug 6th by Dr. Aviv Ben-Meir.Hes the best!!!!!

Wonderful....did not have any problems the only thing about the hospital stay was that the nurses rarely checked on me so most of the time when I needed help out of bed I had to call for them and remind them it was time for me to walk....plus nobody would help bath me I had to have a family member come in to help...those are my only complaints about St Vincet hostpital.
Other

By all means, I would call them back. The office staff there is busy, but they do a lot of bariatric surgeries. Yes, You do need to attend an informational seminar before your initial consult. I'm nearly 3 yrs post-op at St. V., and still think it was the right choice. Good luck!

hi, i just had surgery on 7-17 with dr ben meir, and believe me, i would totally recommend you to stay there, they are alittle busy, you have to go to the seminar or watch the seminar from their website before even seeing the dr, what insurance company do you have, you can look to see what other people needed to get approved, the drs and office staff are great ... i would call the office again on monday and let them know you were referred by your insurance company, check out the seminar on the site (they started that a few weeks after i attended one) and you'll be good to go

you can call to get the information for the meetings other than that they wont see you or really talk to you until then, i had surgery on 7-22 i loved dr. ben-meir he is the best and has great bed side manner the nurses are ok that took care of me i had some issues with a few of them not responding to me needing help, although i was on a different floor cause they were remodeling the bariatric unit so maybe the nurses werent used to having to help out? the nurse i had on my last day Rocked!!! good luck Dr. Ben-meir really knows his stuff!

cvkirk,

I had Dr.sonpal do my surgery on 8/5/08 he is very good. I was looking at your profile and with your BMI you will be forced to have an open surgery if you are going to do the rny which is what they will recomend with that BMI I know because mine was slightly higher. Some things you need to know about ST.V, They will assign you a nurse that you can call during business hours if you have problems and they will help answer questions you my have. They also have a nuturtionist that works with you on your preadmittance testing and you will follow up with them on discharge and will see them at the follow up appointments. St. Vs also has a regular doctor on staff who works along with the surgerons to help with follow prescriptsons and any other medical questions/problems. I have had some minor problems and Dr, Sonpal has been there everystep of the way. He is a great surgeron and I will recommend him 100 percent.  On top of the great doctors the whole program is set up for people who large. In the waiting rooms are chairs that we can actually fit in. The people there don't make you feel different because of your size and they geniunely concerned about there patiants. If you have any other questions ask. By the way I caused my own minor problems by over doing some work in the garage after surgery. I was feeling will well and was working on a project and just over asserted myself.