UAB Weight Loss Medicine

About UAB Weight Loss Medicine

What is UAB Weight Loss Medicine?

UAB Weight Loss Medicine is a medical weight loss clinic at UAB Hospital-Highlands, 1201 11th Avenue South, Suite 515, in Birmingham, Alabama. Its phone number is 205-934-7053. The clinic is part of UAB Medicine and the University of Alabama Birmingham Health System, and its main business is medical weight management. Patients can pursue weight loss with medication, without it, or with both, and no physician referral is required.

The prescribers are Basma Abdulhadi, MD; Fernando Bril, MD; Suranjana Dey, MD, MPH; Laura Rogers, MD; Amy Warriner, MD; Amanda Edwards, CRNP; Anna Marchant, CRNP; and Antoinette Spellmon, CRNP. Its care team includes physicians board-certified in obesity medicine, along with registered dietitians and diabetes educators. On Google, the clinic has a 3.7 rating from 9 reviews. In its own words: "We treat obesity as a chronic, complex medical condition rather than using a “one-size-fits-all” approach."

This listing is for its Birmingham office at 1201 11th Ave S #516.

What services does it offer?

The clinic offers ongoing medical care with physicians and nurse practitioners, individual nutrition visits and group sessions with registered dietitians, a healthy lifestyle program, the Diabetes Prevention Program, an initial evaluation, and telehealth visits for select services. The initial evaluation includes body composition analysis and resting metabolic rate testing. The lifestyle program is designed to support Wegovy® and Zepbound®. The Diabetes Prevention Program sets its own eligibility rules, including age 18 or older and a BMI greater than 24.

What does it cost?

The lifestyle program costs $25/month while you are on medication, and membership is required for as long as you take the medication. The clinic does not publish a consultation fee or the cost of the medication, and it does not say whether medication is included in the $25 program fee. It does not publish cancellation terms for the membership.

Visits and testing with physicians, nurse practitioners and dietitians are billed to insurance, and it works with insurance providers. Coverage cannot be guaranteed, and dietitian coverage varies. It does not mention payment plans or financing.

What should you ask before you book?

Ask who writes the prescription and whether you will see that same prescriber for follow-up. Ask whether the $25 monthly fee includes the medication, and what the medication costs on its own. Ask whether the medication is the brand-name product or a compounded version. Ask what the consultation, follow-up visits and lab work cost, since the clinic asks that lab work done outside UAB in the past year be faxed in to avoid insurance denials.

Call your insurer before you book. Ask whether Wegovy and Zepbound are covered, whether bariatric surgery is excluded from your policy, and what your benefits are for medical nutrition therapy (CPT codes 97802 and 97803). Ask the clinic for its hours, since none are listed. Plan for 3 full hours at your first visit and arrive 1 hour early if you see a physician or nurse practitioner. Missed appointments need 72 hours' notice and are not rescheduled, so ask how cancellations work before you book.

Who is it a good fit for?

This is a good fit if you can get to Birmingham, want medical care for weight loss with or without medication, and are willing to call the clinic and your insurer for the prices and coverage it does not publish. If you need the full cost known before your first visit, call and ask those questions before you book.

Sources: uabmedicine.org/specialties/weight-loss-medicine, uabmedicine.org/specialties/weight-loss-medicine/uab-weight-loss-medicine-information-for-new-patients

Services Offered

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