I have never heard of a consultation fee with insurance.. The Dr's office charges a non refundable 200+ consultation fee on top of my insurance. Anyone else have to pay this?I've never heard of paying anything outside of the deductable or copays so this is new to me. They told me this is across the board so please give me some feedback...

Kristy

When I was approved with insurance and went in to schedule my surgery I had to pay $200. I was told it was for the cost of meeting with the dietician and exercise person. I have never had to pay for anything else so far.

melissa

I have never heard of a consultation fee with insurance.. The Dr's office charges a non refundable 200+ consultation fee on top of my insurance. Anyone else have to pay this?I've never heard of paying anything outside of the deductable or copays so this is new to me. They told me this is across the board so please give me some feedback...

Kristy

My first consult was free for me.

My surgeon used to have seminars, but then he didn't have them by the time I started with him. Since he stopped the seminars, you have a one on one consult. He doesn't charge for the first consult. It normally would have been a $50 co-pay. That's what I pay for any specialist co-pay, but he waived that.

So I don't know about the $200 fee. That sounds high. Shouldn't you just pay your normal co-pay??

They told me it was on top of the insurance. Everyone that comes in the door pays it.. I asked and they said it's something that everyone does.. I thought it sounded fishy so before paying it I thought I'd research it to see if everyone is truely paying it before searching for another DR.

my doctor has a $200 program fee that pays for you to go through the program - meeting with dietician, educational meetings, and other random stuff they have you do. Half is due at the first consultation and the second half is due at the pre-op appointment a week or two before surgery

I never had to pay a consultation fee. Everything was included, and covered by insurance.

I have to pay a $500 program fee which is not billable to insurance. All my out of pocket is met for the year so it wouldn't cost me anything if it wasn't for this fee.

I really like the program (what I know so far) and the doctor I met at the seminar but I really hate to pay the fee. I feel like its a surgery and billable to my insurance why ask me for more out of pocket. But it's nearby and my other choices I would have quite a drive for appts etc and they may have program fees too.

My first appt is next week and its an all day appt where I will meet with nutritionist, psychologist, nurse practioner, have blood drawn, insurance biller, etc. I have to pay half at that appt.

My Physician's office has a program fee of $1,000; insurance or self-pay. Half is due by your 2nd appointment, the last half due on your Physician Consult right before surgery.

I went to two seminars with two different facilities when I was searching. The doctor I chose to go with did not have a consultation fee, per se. I paid $150 on my first consult and they submitted it to insurance. After insurance paid, they refunded me $125 (minus my copay). Now, the other facility wanted to charge $500 on the first visit with insurance paying nothing. They claim it is for the necessary office staff to help tackle approval for insurance companies. They claimed that they had to keep multiple people on their staff just to deal with all of the paperwork and approval process for insurance companies.

My surgeon also charges a program fee of $200. When he broke it down and explained why he charged it, it made sense. There are extra costs when dealing with bariatric patients, apparently.

But that cost less than I would spend on diet pills and diet programs so I had no problem paying it.

The first seminar I went to there was a $400 program fee. It did not cover any patient care at all. Just an profit above and beyond what they got from the insurnace. I went to another hospital (one with actually a better reputation, but about 15 minutes further away) and did not have to pay a fee.

I have never heard of a consultation fee with insurance.. The Dr's office charges a non refundable 200+ consultation fee on top of my insurance. Anyone else have to pay this?I've never heard of paying anything outside of the deductable or copays so this is new to me. They told me this is across the board so please give me some feedback...

Kristy

I had to pay the $200 also. It wasn't called a consultation fee, I don't remeber what they called it. I also had to pay a $150 fee for the Psych report.

Yep, I paid it ($175). Bottom line--my doc said most of the time insurance will not pay for the consultation-- they'd bill it and refund if they got the money, but in their experience, insurance usually doesn't pay so they collect the fee up front.

I had 25$ copays for 8 mandatory appts. Nurse clinician, MD'sX4, dietician, PT, Nut, psych. No payment beyond this.

Seems like double dipping to me.

In any case, it seems to be somewhat standard practice. Shop around if you don't like it and see if you can find a surgeon who doesn't charge it since there seem to be a few out there. :thumbup:

Thanks everyone.. The fee itself is actually $285 and it's not such a big deal, but I have never heard of anything like this before so I always question the new.. When I met the DR I got a very good feeling about him.. It was almost weird.. So I guess i will go ahead and prepare to see him again on the 29th..

Thanks Again Everyone!!!