Hello, I live in Leavenworth and have been trying to get surgery for about 1 1/2yrs. Am now waiting to go to a seminar in Sedalia with Dr Hornbostle there. Anyone else in the Medicare waiting game?

Going with my employers insurance.. but ...

I heard that by the end of this month Medicare is supposed to review the centers of excellence again and hopefully REMEMBER to include some local hospitals

I wish someone here in KC would get Ctr of Excel accreditation. I just talked to Dr Hornbostle's ofc and she said you must to come to seminar (next one Feb 6) ,get their papers to fill out,get Dr records and then they are making appts for MAY for your 1st consult. Thats not even getting the surgery scheduled. Thats a BUMMER!

I had to go to Sedalia also. You won't regret going to Dr Hornsbostels seminar. It is very informative and educational. I have my consult with him on 1/24/07 I am getting pretty excited about it. I don't know when my surgery will be scheduled but I guess I will find out soon.

I live in Bonner Springs Ks so I see we are not too far from each other.

I am with Medicare Humana that will pay for my surgery.

I checked with Dr Malley but he is not with a center of excellance and also wants $5000.00 up front. At this time he does not take Medicare patients. So I am glad I found Dr hornsbostel

I had to go to Sedalia also. You won't regret going to Dr Hornsbostels seminar. It is very informative and educational. I have my consult with him on 1/24/07 I am getting pretty excited about it. I don't know when my surgery will be scheduled but I guess I will find out soon.

I live in Bonner Springs Ks so I see we are not too far from each other.

I am with Medicare Humana that will pay for my surgery.

I checked with Dr Malley but he is not with a center of excellance and also wants $5000.00 up front. At this time he does not take Medicare patients. So I am glad I found Dr hornsbostel

Thats great to know someone close by is using him. I have been waiting since Feb of last year for somewhere in the KC Metro area to become a Ctr of Excellence. Ive decided I cant wait any longer. My husband and I will go down for the Feb seminar, I called Sedalia and the receptionist said the are scheduling consults for MAY!! I cant imagine when the surgery will be for. I will go anyway and am hoping in the mean time somewhere local will get approved for Medicare. I have noticed on here I dont seem to get alot of responses to comments when I mention say Medicare, maybe I am just being paranoid. I have added you to my buddy list here (I dont know for sure what that does). Goodluck when you go. Hopefully the weather will cooperate. Let me know how it goes after youve seen him. Sharon

Good luck to both of you.

I am using Dr. Malley and the $5300 is the dr portion of the $16.5.... the other is the hospital portion and is what would be paid for by medicare (WHEN the center of excellence is approved)

Sedalia isn't that far away, when you consider going to Denver or Mexico for self pay.

Keep us posted....

:confused: Sharon,

Thanks for your reply. I will let you know how it goes after I have seen him. You may request them to contact you if there are any cancellations. Mine was scheduled for April and I emailed Dena to see if there was anyway I could get in earlier. As you can see My appt is Jan 24th. So sometimes you can get an earlier date. I was very thankful, I didn't want to wait until april.

I went to his seminar in December 2006. I really feel lucky!

My sister is having lap band surgery. She doesn't have a surgery date yet. She will also go for her consultation on the 24th.

I will add you to my buddy list (if i know how)

Ginger

I had to go to Sedalia also. You won't regret going to Dr Hornsbostels seminar. It is very informative and educational. I have my consult with him on 1/24/07 I am getting pretty excited about it. I don't know when my surgery will be scheduled but I guess I will find out soon.

I live in Bonner Springs Ks so I see we are not too far from each other.

I am with Medicare Humana that will pay for my surgery.

I checked with Dr Malley but he is not with a center of excellance and also wants $5000.00 up front. At this time he does not take Medicare patients. So I am glad I found Dr hornsbostel

I am going to Sedalia for the next available seminar. I called Dr Malley's office today and I now understand what you said about the $5000. She said $5300 then Medicare would pay for the hospital bill. She said I would have to sign a paper saying I wouldnt even try to get Medicare to REIMBURSE ME for the $5300. I dont understand that at all. Am going to the seminar anyway. I brought up Sedalia and she said that they (Sedalia) had told her that they were booking surgeries for 2yrs from now! Let me know what they tell you. I think I am going to call Sedalia and see if they confirm that. If thats the case I dont know if I want to waste my time even going down for a seminar. I cant handle waiting THAT long. I just cant believe all this.

I go for my consult in 1 week.

I do not believe that is a true statement from Dr. Malleys office.

I will let you know when I talk with the Dr. and Dena, his nurse.

I would call and talk to them and let them know what was told to you. they are really very helpful.

Here is the number 660-827-0423

Let me know how it goes.

I go for my consult in 1 week.

I do not believe that is a true statement from Dr. Malleys office.

I will let you know when I talk with the Dr. and Dena, his nurse.

I would call and talk to them and let them know what was told to you. they are really very helpful.

Here is the number 660-827-0423

Let me know how it goes.

Hi...just talked to Sedalia. The nurse I talked to said that if I am just now going for a seminar it could be a year before I am scheduled for surgery. But you never know what could happen between now and then! We are still gonna go down for the seminar, and I am going to go to Malley's seminar tonite. I might as well get my name in the running everywhere at least be that far along. This is all so discouraging. Keep me posted and let me know what you think after Sedalia. Take care

Just saw this over on oh.com

New Center of Excellence in Kansas!!!

Original Post by Carolanne S at 5:19 PM CST on 02/05/2007

SOMEWHERE IN..., KS

Shawnee Mission Medical Center was approved as of 1/24/07 as a center of excellence. That will allow medicare patients to have bariatric surgery in the Kansas City metropolitan area. The only question is wheather a surgeon associated with SMMC will perform surgery. I attended a seminar from Dr Hoehn and Dr Hitchcock and they were sort of reluctant to do medicare patients if SMMC were to become a COE due to the reimbursments from medicare. Its all about the money!