Kidden

Ah I see. Ok i'll try making arrangements with them asap. Thanks for the advice!

You explained everything really clearly, thank you. Can I ask a similar question? I have met my MOOP and deductible for this year and hope to get a December surgery date because of this. I have a $1,500 copay for any weight loss surgery (yet not other surgeries ) and so my question is when will this copay be collected? I have been approved so the next step is scheduling the surgery. So will the surgeon send the copay bill in the mail? Or is it due the day of surgery like a regular Dr. visit? I'm just confused by this because you will be at the hospital, not the surgeons office. I just want to know when I will have to have the $1,5000 ready bc it is Christmas time and I'm a broke college student Thanks!

I was approved for the Vertical Gastric Sleeve surgery this past summer, but suddenly I had to have emergency surgery to remove my gallbladder in June. I have BCBS IL and my copay for weight loss surgery is $1500. I am now fully healed and ready to get a surgery date. I really want to proceed with having the surgery before the year ends because my maximum out of pocket and deductible have been met due to the gallbladder issue. I usually have relatively few health issues and have never met this much before in a calender year, so I want to use that to my advantage and have the surgery before 2013. So my question is, did anyone have option for their copay? I will not be able to come up with the entire $1500 in the next month (I'm a college student and have already had to pay so many medical bills since June), yet I know co pays are due at the time of service. I plan on speaking with my surgeon's office tomorrow to ask them, but wanted to see if anyone else had any ideas or advice for my copay? I am so grateful for my approval and need to find a way to make this happen. My only 2 ideas are: 1. ask them if I can do a payment plan 2. ask them to charge the full amount on January 1, 2013 because I will have enough then on my FSA card. Not sure if I have the surgery late December if they would hold off for a few days. Thanks for any thoughts!

I'm also in the Houston area. I am researching which surgeon to use, and am really intrigued by Dr. Wilkenfeld bc of the gastric sleeve plication or iBand possibility? I haven't seen anyone else who does it in the Houston area. Is this why you went with him? My next question is your insurance going to cover this "new" type of procedure? I haven't been able to figure out if mine will or not, but I really hope so. I have BCBS IL. Any advice appreciated!