The Journey Begins (Began)

AKA The STV Fail

So I actually started this Bariatric Journey (I will NOT refer to this from here on out as the BJ) late last year with St. Vincent's Hospital in Carmel, IN.  I did some research and joined a forum to get some opinions but ultimately chose STV because of their reputation and in small part due to their location in proximity to my job.

Things went fairly well at first.  I was required to attend a 'seminar' on bariatric surgery.  This was rather informative.  The staff was a little too informal but I thought well maybe that's the norm.  After the seminar we were given the option to speak with the surgeon ($100 bucks or so and not covered by insurance) which I opted to do.  I spent about 10 minutes with the surgeon who was very personable but a little off.

After that I was shuffled along to someone to schedule the required 'shrink' visit.  Again another round of costs not covered by insurance.  This would become a common theme and I am still running into little things here and there that insurance doesn't cover.

My overall feeling I got was this:

- Insurance is going to be a pain in the ass

- Don't call us complaining about insurance being a pain in the ass...we'll call you (RED FLAG should have popped up right there)

- It was going to take about 6 months for this to get all worked out and maybe a year

- I was in good hands as far as the surgeon was concerned

- I know what cattle feel like when they're getting moved through their pins.

The whole process was very, very impersonal.  I never really felt like anyone gave 2 shits about me as a person.  I also had an underlying feeling that the staff and nurses felt like we were all a bunch of lazy asses who just got fat yesterday and wanted to get thin again.

Still I stuck it out.  I put my faith in the one person who would be key in all of this.  The surgeon's insurance coordinator.

I should point out right there that in fairness to STV, the surgeons and their staff are not employees of STV.  I still feel like the whole program needs loads of work.

Well it turns out that the surgeon that was chosen for me (we had a choice but I wanted to get started quick and this guy was the next up in the seminar rotation) has a waterhead for an insurance coordinator.

I will bore you with the gory details of what happens when dealing with insurance later on down the road.

So I waited, sometimes patiently, sometimes not for several weeks which turned out to be months and finally gave up trying to contact them since they never contacted me.  

"But Mike", you're saying to yourself, "they said it would take months."  I know.  But every time I contacted this ding dong (only effective way was with her Yahoo! account by the way) I got mixed answers and never a direct answer to my question.

Had I given up I would have assumed this the norm.  Thankfully I didn't.  I can't say that you should not go to STV.  I have been told by numerous people that their program is superb.  They cannot all be wrong.  This is just an example of one person giving bad customer service can make the difference and vice versa.

What I do suggest for anyone reading this blog who is interested in bariatric surgery is that you attend the seminar for at least 2 programs before you make your decision.  This is a life changing, life threatening surgery.  You should find a surgeon and team that you are comfortable with.

tl;dr

STV wasn't a good fit for me