Hey all, my insurance doesnt cover bariatric surgery so I started looking else where, i didn't want to travel to Mexico. I wanted to stay in the US. I found dr. morris washington. I have my surgery date set for september 12th.

Everyones questioning why its so cheap so i asked. Here was the reply:

Ok ....why it's so cheap. Our bariatric program here at Conway Medical Center with Dr. Washington is new. Our former bariatric surgeon left this area about 1.5 years ago. The hospital recruited Dr. Washington from his practice in NJ (Freehold I think). Our facility was previously a Center of Excellence in Bariatric Surgery with the former surgeon. When he left, we lost that special accreditation (b/c we had no one to do the surgeries and you have to do so many in a certain time frame to keep it current). For our new program we are in the process of obtaining our new Center of Excellence. In order to be in compliance with this program however, you have to do 125 bariatric surgeries over a certain time frame. The hospital administration decided to discount the self pay price for the surgeries so that we could hopefully get to that number sooner rather than later as that is the only requirement of the excellence program that is not already in place.

I also asked is he board certified and here is the reply:

Dr. Washington is board certified and he is even a fellow of the American College of Surgeons. (extra training/certification) You can see all of his credentials, bio information, etc. on our website financing through chase advanced medical (i think thats what its called...not positive) and i was approved for 7000. If anyone has any questions feel free to ask me. I'm very confident with my decision to choose Dr. Washington. (he's in south carolina by the way-and its a 12 day visit if your out of town).

Good luck!!!

I just spoke with Coastal, no more $8000.00.. Cost for self pay is $18,500..

I called the morning after my previous post and do get the special $8,000 self-pay pricing since I already had a consultation scheduled for next Monday at 1pm.

Meredith I'm so glad you get the price!! Good luck at your appt!

Not familair with him but 8000.00 is great.

keep your incidental expenses in mind, too. I recommend you begin to "pay" now, you have 6 months to save up - and that could drop a signifigant amount off your bill. If you could get enough you could possibly do a small micro loan and save alot on interest.

If you have not already, request terms and conditions for your loan and check on what the fees are for the loan. I have heard of people paying upward of 20% to finance self pay. I opted to draw some funds from savings and 401. Still lost a bit off the top but nowhere near the 20%.

Don't mean to be a kill joy but what was the specifics of the bariatric excellence award time frame? 125 surgeries does not seem to be alot for 6 months. Be sure you are getting all of the answers straight up - check with other sources, and confirm his accreditations. Do some research and make sure the hospital did not fall out of favor with the old doctor for another reason than they state. Make sure you doctor has not gone downhill somehow, too (no kidding leading heart doc in 80's that did my Papaws heart surgery would go to prison on repeat drug charges ((him doing not prescribing!)) 12 years later).

Wow, thanks for the price info lulu. @pook- I'm doing a loan, if its paid withi 48 months i believe it is...its 0% interest. I'm moving my surgery date up a bit. The flights are paid for but since i have to change them it'll be 96 dollars each (flying my boyfriend down to SC, and my Mom home to NJ from SC *we're driving down together*) and of course the hotel fee and the price of my bills for two months so i dont have to worry about all that lol.

As far as his surgery numbers, He was in New Jersey first and moved down to AC when they recruited him. I'm sure he had more in new jersey that weren't counted towards his number in SC. I read some where that he only does 3 surgeries a week....which to me is good because he's focusing on the people that he already did surgery on. I feel comfy knowing that hes not rushing through doing 1000 surgeries in a week like it seems some doctors try to do.

Not sure the specifics but if i find out ill repost.

Yay!!! My surgery with Dr. Washington is July 11 and thankfully I got the $8000 price. I had my consultation with him on March 29th. It went pretty fast because I had already been through consultations elsewhere only to find out the price for self pay was way out of my budget. The staff is great. Lauren and Sabrina are both extremely nice. My only issue right now is that it is so far away for me so I'm trying to start working out and reduce my carbs so that by surgery date I don't have a lot of extra weight to worry about.

Feel free to stay in contact with me. Mocha has been really helpful to me too since she had the surgery there as well.

thats great mimi!!! I just changed my date to 8/8. i was offered 7/18, i would have probably ran into you lol. Mocha has been helpful with all of us...danielle (daniEA) has been in contact with her too. Thank goodness we all have eachother! Good luck with your surgery MiMi, you'll have to message me and let me know how you do!! Do you know which protein shake your going to use for your pre op diet???

@futureskinnypants I think I am going to do Medifast since I've had those shakes before and they are pretty good. I'm just nervous about if I can make it 2 weeks with nothing but liquid but I've come this far. I am so excited!! I've waited so long for this. Do you know what shakes you're going to get?

Not really sure, i was thinking the muscle milk light but i heard the vanilla one isn't too good. I'll have to look more into them. I dont like protein shakes to begin with. I wonder what tastes the most like slim fast...I don't mind the taste of them. lol

I'll be using Premier protein shakes from Sam's Club. It's got 30g protein and 1g sugar. With tax, it comes out to $18ish for 12 shakes, so you can do the math. I love the taste of Slim Fast, and I even think the protein shakes taste better. It's not going to be hard doing strictly shakes for two weeks prior to surgery. With the amount of protein, you stay full for pretty much the whole day. Maybe I can take the 7/18 date if it's still available!!

@meredith that would be awesome if you got the 7/18 date. We will run into each other then.

Where are you all going to stay? I will be staying at ResortQuest for the two weeks I am there.

@meredith, is that on the list of the shakes???? They're ready to drink? ideally i'd like RTD but they seem a lot more expensive. The tubs are just a pain in the butt but if im saving a lot i guess thats better . Since i switched my dates around, I have to put more money out for the flights and hotel so i want to try to cut corners lol

@mimi, wheres resortquest??? In conway or myrtle? I was looking at a condo at sun & sand in myrtle beach. i haven't booked yet.

ResortQuest is in myrtle beach. I couldn't find anything that had suites in Conway. I will be traveling with my parents and my 3 yr old so I have to get a 2 bedroom suite and I didn't want to have two separate rooms. It was about $3600 for the two weeks but I thought it was worth it.

Holy cow mimi that's A LOT for 2 weeks. I am staying at value place and we got the entire 11 nights for right at $400 Total! I know since you'll be there during tourist season it will be more expensive but that just seems crazy expensive.... Value place is 10 minutes to the beach and 3 traffic lights to the hospital. It's nothing fancy but its not a rat hole either lol....

Im so excited for us!!!

Lol I know Dani. I splurged a little because I also wanted to use this opportunity to take my parents on vacation because they need to get away and they have been through a lot lately so this will be like a little getaway for them. I don't know how relaxing it will be for them since I will be having surgery but hey at least they will be somewhere nice and near the beach.