Pre-Bariatric Surgery Psychological Evaluations

What is Bariatric Pre-Surgical Psychological Evaluation?

If you’re considering bariatric surgery or have already chosen to move forward with this weight loss procedure, you will likely need to complete a pre-surgical psychological evaluation. Insurance providers commonly require these services before surgical treatments, including bariatric surgery. 

Who Should Receive Bariatric Pre-Surgical Psychological Evaluation?

Insurance providers will likely require you to undergo bariatric pre-surgical psychological evaluation. These evaluations are required to give patients an opportunity to talk through their goals and plans with a skilled professional. If you haven’t decided whether or not you want to go through with bariatric weight loss surgery, completing a bariatric pre-surgical psychological evaluation may help you with your decision-making process. It’s important for patients to understand that a history of mental illness does not necessarily mean they will be denied coverage for bariatric surgery. These assessments are used to help your insurance providers and medical doctors determine how likely you are to safely and successfully achieve your weight loss goals with bariatric surgery.

What Kind of Testing is Involved?

The pre-surgical psychological evaluations will include one or more assessments and a clinical interview. Prior to your clinical interview, we ask that you complete a short, background questionnaire. We will use the results of this assessment to guide the clinical interview. We will also discuss past and present psychological symptoms, diagnoses, and treatments. The psychologist will also help you evaluate your risk for psychological symptoms following the bariatric procedure.

After your pre-surgical psychological evaluation, you will need to complete a few additional assessments that will have questions to help us better understand your thought process, goals, and areas of strength and weakness. The assessments typically take about an hour to complete, but every patient is different. These assessments are created as a set of rating scales that should be easy to understand, but please don’t hesitate to ask for assistance. We will compile the information from your pre-assessment, clinical interview, and post-interview assessments and provide a report for you, your insurer, and your bariatric surgeon.