"3/5/03 I have only gone to his siminar on WLS and found Dr. Brown knowledgable and pretty informal. His staff seem genuinelly concerned and helpful. I have an appointtment with him in a couple of weeks and will meet with him personally to get a more thorough impression. He is not in net work for any insurence company so all WLS patients will have out of network costs. 3/26/03
I have now met with Dr.Brown and his staff. as far as doctors go( I don't much care for them) He was fine for the first visit. I have nothing negative to say about him. He was open and friendly- very aproachable. As far as his whole office staff and atmosphere goes - it was awesome!!!! Everyone seemed like friends and made me feel so positive. Very few doctors offices that I have been to ever have given me the same feeling. In fact there has only been one other! I have definitly seen my share of doctors and delt with their staff too.
I left feeling informed of the positive as well as the negative aspects of Lap RNY. Dr.Brown has a very comprehensive program with support groups, nutrition classes, and medical evaluations.
7/7/03
I finally got approved and my surgerydate is set. I was disappointed with Dr. Browns office for delaying sending the surgery request to my doctor 30 days after they accepted me as a patient. My inital date was set 4 months away but they knew that CIGNA was a pain to deal with. Mary is a wonderful person but I feel that my approval would have been in time for my original date if they did not delay. I was also going away 2 weeks before the initial surgery date and because I was not persistant with calling Dr. Browns office no further action was taken with CIGNA at that time. A message was left, from Dr. Browns office, saying that CIGNA was going to deny me. When I returned home I continued facilitating the process with Kim (the newly hired person to deal with insurance) as well as with Cigna. The actual aproval came on the day I was originally scheduled for surgery. Dr.Browns office was nice enough to reschdule 1 week away so I would not have to continue to wait. I continue to believe that everyone at Dr.Browns office is professional and friendly. It feels like family or very good friends in that office but, I think they are a bit overwealmed with the volume of patients. "
