What To Do Next

Welcome to Midlands Clinic Bariatric Program. Our goal is to help you obtain a healthier lifestyle. Our comprehensive program includes extensive pre-operative, operative, and long term post-operative care to help you achieve permanent weight loss.

We begin the process by holding educational seminars regarding the services we provide to help you obtain your weight loss goals. You must register to attend our free seminars. You may bring someone with you to this seminar but we ask that you don’t bring a child along. As you register we will collect insurance information from you to be sure that your policy does not exclude the treatment of morbid obesity. If an exclusion exists, you will not have any insurance benefits for a bariatric consultation or surgery. You may still attend our educational seminar and go ahead with surgery if you choose on a self pay basis. Mercy Medical Center works with us to provide an all inclusive price which includes the hospital, anesthesia and our surgical charge. As a self pay, payment would be required prior to surgery.

Following the seminar, you are eligible to schedule an office appointment with Dr. Rizk. This appointment is at 8 a.m. on Tuesdays and you start the day in a small group. You first meet as a group and watch an educational video, have a question and answer period on insurance issues and Dr. Rizk will speak to you as a group on information that pertains to everyone. After the group session is concluded you will have your private appointment with Dr. Rizk to discuss your personal history and to gather information to be included in his letter to your insurance. He will perform an examination at this time. After your appointment Dr. Rizk will dictate a letter to your insurance company asking for approval for your surgery if you have decided you want to proceed. You may bring someone with you to your appointment but we do ask that you do not bring any children along.

A pre-approval or pre-determination letter is a requirement of all insurance companies and is done to establish the medical necessity of the surgery and to verify that benefits are available for the surgery. Some examples of items that will be included in your letter are:

• Patient’s weight (which should be 100 pounds or more above ideal weight or a BMI over 40 or more than 35 with associated medical problems to qualify). BMI is your Body Mass Index which is the correlation between your height and weight.
• List of medical problems associated with obesity, such as type 2 diabetes, sleep apnea, hypertension, etc.
• Number of years patient has been overweight.
• Number and types of failed weight-loss programs attempted in the past.

Once this letter is submitted we must wait to receive approval from your insurance company before we schedule your surgery. This may take from 3 weeks to 6 months.

The Mercy Medical Center’s Comprehensive Bariatric Program has been designed to be an integral part of your surgical process. This program includes evaluations by a psychiatrist or psychologist, a physical therapist and a clinical dietician. This is required to ensure that you will be able to cope with the lifestyle changes that are associated with this surgery.