Hi!  I have Aetna and I live in the Cleveland area too.  The Cleveland Clinic will help you with the 6 month physician supervised weight loss requirement.  I split my visits between the Cleveland Clinic (for nutrition and psych) and my primary care physician for the just-checking-my-progress visits.  I found it to be really easy that way.  Once my 6 months was up, I got copies of my physician's notes from the 4 or so appointments and gave them to Cleveland Clinic.  They compiled them with their notes and submitted the whole thing to Aetna.  Super easy.

I was also really impressed with the Cleveland Clinic's Bariatric unit.  Between the experience and professionalism of Dr. Schauer & the Cleveland Clinic, I wouldn't hesitate to recommend them to a friend.  Good luck on your WLS journey!

    I just wanted to say hi, I've been lurking here for about a year and am just learning how to navigate the site. Thank you to everyong that has shared their exsperiences. My surgery is next week and I'm very excited and scared all at the same time! Will keep you posted

I have Aetna, and did the 3-month program at Akron City (Summa)Hospital.  It might be the same distance as St. Vincent's.  I highly recommend the program at Akron City.  It's a very comprehensive program, and all staff members know their jobs well.    I did not have to go every week for 12 weeks.  I had to complete prerequisites and visit with a doctor once a month for 3 months.

Here's a link:  http://www.summahealth.org/common/templates/article.asp?ID=1 3105

Good luck to you.

I go under the knife in 3 weeks at the Cleveland Clinic... It's been a struggle with a few back office issues dealing with getting the right procedure approved but I am confident with the medical staff.

Hi Guys,

I've been lurking for a few weeks - what a nice bunch of folks on this board!

I have a question for anybody with Aetna:  Aetna requires either a 6 month physician supervised diet and exercise program or a 3 month "multidisciplinary" surgical preparatory regimen.  St. Vincents has such a program designed to meet Aetna's requirements, but the next session apparently doesn't start for a few months.  Also, St. Vincents program will be really difficult for me to do - it's far away (I'm an east-sider), I work full time and travel a lot for work so I don't even know that I can arrange to be here every Thursday for 12 straight weeks...  Did any of you use a different program in Cleveland to meet this requirement, and if so, where? I called Aetna, but they were supremely unhelpful.  I'd rather try to do the 3 month option if possible (it took me forever to get my courage up to do this at all, and now I just want to get on with it!)...

Thanks!