Hey everyone..! I'm new, & have my first appointment with my doctor! (In shelton, Connecticut) on Thursday. I just got the call saying I'm covered.. But my parents switched insurance in January of 15 & the deductible is 4k! The woman said it goes towards visits ,etc but whatever is owed to the office has to be paid before procedure can be done..

I was told the deductible is what you pay before policy takes effect. What can I do? Can I do a payment plan? If I do the process of the sleeve with all the appointments needed before surgery, will it go down?

Do I have any options or do I have to wait & save?

I've waited for this for so long.. I'm getting really sad :/

you can apply for a medical loan. It is the only way I know how. I had to pay out of pocket and that is what I did. Good luck I know how it is!

Hey everyone..! I'm new, & have my first appointment with my doctor! (In shelton, Connecticut) on Thursday. I just got the call saying I'm covered.. But my parents switched insurance in January of 15 & the deductible is 4k! The woman said it goes towards visits ,etc but whatever is owed to the office has to be paid before procedure can be done..

I was told the deductible is what you pay before policy takes effect. What can I do? Can I do a payment plan? If I do the process of the sleeve with all the appointments needed before surgery, will it go down?

When they said "whatever is owed to the office has to be paid before the procedure is done," do they mean your balance has to be paid off or do they mean you have to prepay the procedure? If the former, then if your insurance allows $75 for each office visit, for example, then you would have to pay $75 each visit until your surgery (I doubt you would rack up $4000 in office visit charges).

Generally, a deductible is what you pay before the insurance pays. That can mean different things for different policies. Here are some examples, the first one is my own policy:

1. Office visit copays are $35, and the deductible does not apply. Everything else has a $1250 deductible (xrays, tests, etc.). Once the $1250 deductible is met, my insurance covers 70% and I pay 30%. The total I ever have to pay in one year is $5000, then insurance pays 100%.

2. The patient pays $4,000 in deductible before insurance pays a dime.

3. The first three office visits in a calendar year are $25 each, then the patient has to meet a deductible of $2,000, then the insurance pays 80% and the patient pays 20%.

So as you can see, depending on the terms of your policy, your deductible may work in different ways.

Oh okay thank you. I've seen that people didn't have to pay the whole thing upfront.. I have my first appointment tomorrow I'm going to ask my surgeon what my options are. I won't give up!

Please fill us in on whatever it's you decide