Anyway so i decided i need to get to see a doctor closer to home. Which turned out to be a good thing , because when Cedars called me back the day after the seminar to schedule the consult, they told me they don't have a contract with my health insurance(Healthnet). Now i thought this was strange since i held in my hand an authorization from Healthnet to have the consult done at Ceadars and told them so. They didn't know where the mix up came from and rechecked with their insurance person and confirmed that they did not have a contract with Healthnet.
So the next thing i did was to call Seaview who manages my health plan. After explaining what happened they apologized & said i was sent the authorization by mistake. Ok now i know your question is how did that happen, which by coincidence is exactly what i said only a with a little more- lets say "feeling." To which they apologized again and said what happened was with normal authorizations for healthnet they can just approve it without sending it to healthnet, but for gastric bypasses they are suppose to be sent back to healthnet, but somehow someone just sent it out. He said that they would reprocess it and should take a week or so. I told them since they had to reprocess it again anyway to make it for Dr. Billy in Ventura (15 minutes away) I had done some research and found out that Dr. Billy is the best in the county and actually goes around the county and the world teaching doctors on how to do these surgeries.
So a week later i got the authorization for a consultation with dr. billy, so i called to make the appointment. I was told i would have to attend a patient education seminar. ARE YOU KIDDING ME! Another one, i explained i just went through Cedar's and watch the Emmi videos online- which according to his website is not required for a consult. They said i had to attend in order to get the consult. So i said can i at least schedule the appointment for the consult if i am registered for the seminar. They agreed.
So I now have a consult with Dr. Billy on Friday Oct 2 at 10:15 AM. There is also 20 pages of paperwork that i have to fill out before the consult. During the seminar they said the average time between consult to surgery is 4- 6 weeks. They can do it that quick because they have assembled all the prerequisite testing and nutrition education in house, so you don't spend weeks and months going from one place to another before allowing the surgery to happen. This excites me to think that this could actually happen before Thanksgiving-. I am thinking and hoping by the end of the year- figuring one hold up or another might happen.
Sorry this post is long and not very entertaining this time- i will make sure to update more often and throw in some of my witty repartee.
