So I had my first consult with the surgeon, and we decided on the sleeve. He mentioned (as I had read before) that I would be on a bunch of vitamins afterwards.

They set me up with their program, which they turn into insurance, and I get the amount of every vitamin I need delivered to my door monthly. She said most people have a copay of $25-35 and some even get it free.

Well I just got a call from that program and they took off over $130 a MONTH because it was so high, but even with that big of a discount, they said it would be $387 a month copay for the vitamins and minerals I will need. (Until we hit our deductible.. every year...) I definitely can NOT afford that.. so Im trying to price check around.

How much a month do you pay without insurance? And How much of each vitamin do you have to take a day? Trying to find a list so I know how much I'll need when we do our price checking to make sure I can afford this before I pull the trigger on the surgery...

You should basically be taking a generic multi-vitamin (I use the trader joe's chewable), plus perhaps a calcium citrate and iron supplement. Those costs sound crazy, as does their story about it being insurance and that being your co-pay.

I'm so glad to hear that I was really starting to freak out... I was looking at "celebrate" on Amazon, and if I take a 60mg Iron, a multivitamin, calcium, and B12 that would have it around $33 a month.. If that's all I should have to take I think we can afford that. The price was ridiculous, it's apparently a new company that they go through and the company itself checked our insurance. But there is no way I could have the surgery if we would have to pay almost $400 a month for the rest of my life..

2 minutes ago, AstroCat said:

I'm so glad to hear that I was really starting to freak out... I was looking at "celebrate" on Amazon, and if I take a 60mg Iron, a Multivitamin, Calcium, and B12 that would have it around $33 a month.. If that's all I should have to take I think we can afford that. The price was ridiculous, it's apparently a new company that they go through and the company itself checked our insurance. But there is no way I could have the surgery if we would have to pay almost $400 a month for the rest of my life..

Was it your doctor specifically who directed you to these people (as opposed to someone in the office)? You should probably mention something to them because that's sounds nuts. To the point where my first thought was that its some sort of "unnatural attachment."

I think the only thing that is off is that at least for a bit you want to have a pretty high dose of Iron. I use the "Ferrex 150 Polysaccharide Iron Complex Capsules" from amazon that are expensive (as in $15 for 100 capsules). You also will probably want to get the chewable calcium for after surgery (the non chewable look like horse pills... huge).

I take Trader Joe's Chewable Multivitamins, they were one of the brands recommended by my surgeons office.

3 hours ago, aNYCdb said:

Was it your doctor specifically who directed you to these people (as opposed to someone in the office)? You should probably mention something to them because that's sounds nuts. To the point where my first thought was that its some sort of "unnatural attachment."

I think the only thing that is off is that at least for a bit you want to have a pretty high dose of Iron. I use the "Ferrex 150 Polysaccharide Iron Complex Capsules" from Amazon that are expensive (as in $15 for 100 capsules). You also will probably want to get the chewable Calcium for after surgery (the non chewable look like horse pills... huge).

It was his personal assistant, apparently he's partnered up with them and it's a fairly new thing, she said most people only have to pay a 25-35 copay and insurance usually covers it, and 3 of her patients got it free. It was the company itself that ended up telling me it was going to be $387 (with over $130 already taken off of it she said..) but that just seems ridiculously high for vitamins.

I'll definitely have to look into that! I did call and leave a message asking exactly what amounts of each vitamin they would want me on, and took some pictures from walmart and looking on Amazon as well. Definitely something I have to find out before surgery though as I know if I have the surgery it would be something I will need all my life.

Thanks for the advice!

@sillykitty Thank you too, I will definitely look into those. I heard those or "Celebrate"?