Expert: Diminishing Dawn - 11/28/2009

Question
Hello, Thanks for all the information.  You have been very helpful in giving a realistic picture of what I how surgery would affect my life. I am from out of Canada.  That alone makes my decision to get the surgery more difficult not to mention, my hectic work schedule and family commitments. I have ties in Toronto and London, Ontario though.  I am interested in doing the Sleeve Gastrectomy.  I cannot find any doctors, contact information, or costs in these cities when I use the search engines.  Please, can you help me?  Wendy

Answer
It depends if you want OHIP to pay for it or if you want to pay for it out of your pocket.

If you want to pay for it, I would suggest looking over the page:  www.misgroup.ca
This is a self pay option - their requirements are on this page and you can ask them
for their pricing and see how they determine what their costs are.  I do not know anyone
who has self paid so I am unsure of how much it would cost in Canada.

If you want OHIP to pay, then you generally have to have a medical reason for having a VSG
over RNY.  Simply having a preference for the VSG or its lifestyle is not a reason that OHIP
would pay for it. OHIP will pretty much push everyone into having a RNY unless as I said,
there is a significant medical reason why you'd specifically need a VSG (this would be
generally because you have a condition such as Crohns or colitis that would affect the
intestinal portion of the surgery).  You would also need to contact a Ontario Baratric Assessment centre and would need to make sure you meet their requirements. Some were going out of country (such as NY or MI) but typically to get it covered out of country there are more requirements (higher bmi/health issues). Email me again for more info if you need it.

Please feel free to email me again.

There is also a VSG forum on obesityhelp.com.  All their forums are wonderful for finding out
information.  I am frequently a poster on the Ontario forum but have not seen a self pay VSG yet.

Good luck
Dawn