Help finding surgeon

I am beginning to search for a surgeon to do my plastics. I went for a consult and the surgeon is a cash only doctor. He gave me a quote and was very upfront with me (much appreciated). I have a hernia above my belly and he said he would repair it at time of tummy tuck, but absolutely does not deal with insurance. He recommended that I get consults from physicians who are providers on my plan (BCBS TX).

I live in a very rural area and the closet large town is 120 miles away. There are 2 board certified surgeons. I contacted one and she refused to even schedule a consult and said the hernia would have to be repaired by gen. surgeon in a separate surgery. The whole point with going with a provider in my policy was to save money because of hernia. The other surgeon has scheduled a consult and will discuss me at that time coordinating with a general surgeon.

I am willing to travel to find a surgeon, can anyone recommend someone who does good work and will possibly do the hernia repair at time of tummy tuck without requiring help of general surgeon?

I hope somebody local to you will reply.

Here is how i picked surgeons for my consult.  I asked people i know that live around me. None of them had done massive weight loss reconstruction, but you would be amazed how many TT and boob jobs are out there...lol

Second, I went to real self and read tons of patient reviews and ratings and looked at a million pictures.

I had the hernia repair done with my weight loss surgery which was all covered by insurance.

When I do plastics they are going to repair the muscle seperation, but i guess that is different then a hernia.

I went to Dr Sauceda so that I could get everything done at one time, with an epidural and twilight sedation.  His practice is dedicated to WL patients.  No, I don't get paid to refer him, I just think he's one of best PS that deal with massive weight loss and how messed up we are.  Our skin has been stretched several times.  There is a group here on OH, you can click on Dr Sauceda in my siggy line.  I think there are 2 ladies still down in Monterrey now.  One was headed home today.  There are almost 200 pages of information about going to Monterrey and experiences for you to check out. 

Dr Sauceda has hand sewed hernia's when he's doing your TT or LBL.  Talk to him about it.  If you take pics from the front, side, back, side and zoom in on any area of concern, email to [email protected]   He will get back to you with a day or so if he's not in surgery with a quote (make sure to reduce the size of the photos so they will go through email). 

I went to see a PS here in Calif, but was worried that I would go home the same day with an LBL.  As it was, I was in the 24/7 clinic for 7 days.  My body work was on Thur, and my face/neck was on Monday.  Went to the hotel on Wed and left the following Wed.  The clinic, hotel, up to $600 credit for your airfare, 2 sets of garments are all provided to you if your surgery is over $7k.

I did go back last Jan for an upper body lift, Dr S said I needed it at my first consultation, but at the time it didn't worry me.  After everything else was fixed, it bothered me...