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Self Pay trickle down costs



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Don't get me wrong. I AM GRATEFUL for my new life. However, I was told by my surgeon that his price was all inclusive. Now I self payed, scraped scratched, borrowed and suffered financially in order to get the money paid. Now, I keep on getting bills, one from the surgeon and another from the hospital from the day of the surgery. I am a bit frustrated as it adds up to another 500 bucks. It doesn't sound like all that much, but I'm already 11,000 into this and was orginally told 10,000 max. Should I protest, or just suck it up and realize it was the best decision I could have made?

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Do you have a contract from the surgeon that outlines what was included?

So sorry....how frustrating

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Worth a call to the surgeon's office at least to see if there was just some sort of error.

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Definitely call them. It's possible there was just a mistake. Go through your contract and any paperwork you may have. It's possible the hospital hasn't been paid yet by the surgeon or vice versa, so they are directly billing you.

Also, it's possible that the surgeon had to perform additional testing while operating. I know on my contract it stated that if he needed to do a liver biopsy or hernia repair, it would be an additional cost. Check to see if that's the case!

Edited by yerawizardamy

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I agree, call the surgeon's office.

I am a self payer as well and the hospital told me the "all inclusive" plan but that only covered their part. I also had the surgeon's fee, the anesthesiologist, and the nurse anesthesiologist. The "all inclusive" only covered everything in the hospital such as supplies, operating room, drugs, 1-2 over night stays, etc...

I would ask to see the contract and look at it very closely.

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I was also self-pay and ended up with an extra $500 in bills later. I called the office and while I got stuck with a $50 bill, they handled the rest. It turns out that they had paid for the services, but I still ended up being billed for them before their payment had been posted.

You paid for the fee for the surgery and if you are billed anything additional, this is your surgeon's office's responsibility. If they don't want to be cooperative tell them that you will be happy to contact your attorney. Chances are it's a mistake, but if it isn't, then they need to be held accountable.

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      On day 4 of the 2 week liquid pre-op diet. Surgery scheduled for June 11th.
      Soooo I am coming to a realization
      of something and I'm not sure what to do about it. For years the only thing I've enjoyed is eating. We rarely do anything or go anywhere and if we do it always includes food. Family comes over? Big family dinner! Go camping? Food! Take a short ride or trip? Food! Holiday? Food! Go out of town for a Dr appointment? Food! When we go to a new town we don't look for any attractions, we look for restaurants we haven't been to. Heck, I look forward to getting off work because that means it's almost supper time. Now that I'm drinking these pre-op shakes for breakfast, lunch, and supper I have nothing to look forward to.  And once I have surgery on June 11th it'll be more of the same shakes. Even after pureed stage, soft food stage, and finally regular food stage, it's going to be a drastic change for the rest of my life. I'm giving up the one thing that really brings me joy. Eating. How do you cope with that? What do you do to fill that void? Wow. Now I'm sad.
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    • Alisa_S

      On day 4 of the 2 week liquid pre-op diet. Surgery scheduled for June 11th.
      Soooo I am coming to a realization
      of something and I'm not sure what to do about it. For years the only thing I've enjoyed is eating. We rarely do anything or go anywhere and if we do it always includes food. Family comes over? Big family dinner! Go camping? Food! Take a short ride or trip? Food! Holiday? Food! Go out of town for a Dr appointment? Food! When we go to a new town we don't look for any attractions, we look for restaurants we haven't been to. Heck, I look forward to getting off work because that means it's almost supper time. Now that I'm drinking these pre-op shakes for breakfast, lunch, and supper I have nothing to look forward to.  And once I have surgery on June 11th it'll be more of the same shakes. Even after pureed stage, soft food stage, and finally regular food stage, it's going to be a drastic change for the rest of my life. I'm giving up the one thing that really brings me joy. Eating. How do you cope with that? What do you do to fill that void? Wow. Now I'm sad.
      · 1 reply
      1. summerseeker

        Life as a big person had limited my life to what I knew I could manage to do each day. That was eat. I hadn't anything else to look forward to. So my eating choices were the best I could dream up. I planned the cooking in managable lots in my head and filled my day with and around it.

        Now I have a whole new big, bigger, biggest, best days ever. I am out there with those skinny people doing stuff i could never have dreamt of. Food is now an after thought. It doesn't consume my day. I still enjoy the good home cooked food but I eat smaller portions. I leave food on my plate when I am full. I can no longer hear my mother's voice saying eat it all up, ther are starving children in Africa who would want that!

        I still cook for family feasts, I love cooking. I still do holidays but I have changed from the All inclusive drinking and eating everything everyday kind to Self catering accommodation. This gives me the choice of cooking or eating out as I choose. I rarely drink anymore as I usually travel alone now and I feel I need to keep aware of my surroundings.

        I don't know at what point my life expanded, was it when I lost 100 pounds? Was it when I left my walking stick at home ? Was it when I said yes to an outing instead of finding an excuse to stay home ? i look back at my last five years and wonder how loosing weight has made such a difference. Be ready to amaze yourself.

        BTW, the liquid diet sucks, one more day and you are over the worst. You can do it.

    • CaseyP1011

      Officially here for a long time, not just a good time💪
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