Congratulations on taking charge of your health and wellness! We are excited to be able to help motivated individuals set and achieve goals.
The first step to success is food journaling. Get started right away by recording your meals in a notebook or a free calorie-counting app such as MyFitnessPal or Lose It. Journaling will kick-start your weight loss and provide information necessary to get the most benefit from your nutrition consultation.
Appointment Changes:
Please call 205-934-7053, and choose option 1 if you need to reschedule your appointment to a more convenient day/time.
What to Expect at Your Visit:
- To protect your health, a mask is required, and your temperature will be taken upon entering the facility.
- Please arrive 1 hour before your scheduled appointment time if you are scheduled with a physician or nurse practitioner, and plan to be with us for 3 full hours.
- Please arrive 30 minutes prior to your scheduled appointment time if you are scheduled with a registered dietitian, and plan to be with us for 1.5 hours.
- At the conclusion of the visit, we will recommend a specific nutrition plan that best fits your individual needs and weight loss goals.
Preparing for Your Appointment and Testing:
- Do not exercise or eat or drink anything (except water) for 4-6 hours before resting metabolic rate testing.
- Do not smoke or use nicotine for at least 2 hours before your appointment.
- Please bring your paper food journal or smartphone with at least 4 days of meals recorded.
- The New Patient Questionnaire can be completed at your visit.
- Please bring a snack and plan to be with us for 1-3 full hours, depending on your appointment type. We feel that it is very important to completely assess your medical, dietary, and physical fitness history.
- To avoid unnecessary testing and insurance denials, we request that any lab work performed outside of UAB within the past year be faxed to us at 205-930-8655.
- Weight must be taken without socks or shoes.
- Please let us know if you have a pacemaker prior to being weighed.
Please bring a complete list of all of your medications including the dosages.
Special Medication Instructions for Patients with Diabetes:
Please take your regular medications as usual, except diabetes medications. Do not take your diabetes medications while you are not eating. However, please bring your diabetes medications to the visit, in case your blood sugar gets low and you need to take them.
Insurance Coverage and Billing:
All services provided at your new patient visit will be billed to your insurance carrier if you have coverage. Coverage cannot be guaranteed, as many insurance plans have different deductibles and co-insurance policies. Please call your insurance provider and ask if you have coverage for medical nutrition therapy (CPT codes 97802 and 97803). This will help you understand your coverage and make the most of your visit. Please be prepared to pay your co-payment and obtain an authorization from your primary care physician, if required by your insurance plan. If you are interested in Bariatric Surgery, please call your insurance and ask if it is excluded from your benefits. This will ensure we can help you get started in the right direction from your very first visit.
Missed Appointments:
Please be advised that when you make an appointment with one of our physicians, you are reserving 3 hours of time dedicated to you. If you cannot keep an appointment, please notify us at least 72 hours in advance, to allow another patient to be seen in your place. Missed appointments will NOT be rescheduled. Thank you for your understanding.
Address, Contact Information, and Parking
UAB Weight Loss Medicine, UAB Hospital-Highlands, 1201 11th Avenue South, Suite 515, Birmingham, AL 35205, Phone: 205-934-7053, Fax: 205-930-8655
Convenient free parking is available in our side lot. The clinic is easy to find; if you come in the main entrance of UAB Hospital-Highlands, take the elevator to the 5th floor, and Suite 515 is on the left at the end of the hall.
Thank you for choosing UAB Weight Loss Medicine. We are looking forward to your visit with us!
For more information about our programs, please visit uabmedicine.org/weightloss.