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Wow! The cost of Surgery.



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I just got off the phone with Kaiser in Northern California. They have the Sleeve Surgery priced at $47,600.00! Of that I would pay 20% co-insurance, which works out to $9,520.00 I will actually only pay what is left of my Out of Pocket maximum for the year ($5,945.00). Does that sound close to what others are / have paid? I'm going to pay for it but I guess I expected my portion to be closer to $3,500.00.

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My bill was 63.000 and out of that I paid 3300.00 out of pocket. Sounds about right. That was with Health Net.

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I have kaiser socal and I have no copay at all. (i am also a Kaiser employee) my friend did not pay for hers either. That is a lot of money! At least you save some with your out of pocket.


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My bill was 40,000+ my out of pocket was 150.00 which I paid today. Serving my country paid off tri-care.

Sent from my Z981 using BariatricPal mobile app

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Grew up in Northern California, born and raised going to Kaiser. That price is a little disappointing. I am going to Texas Bariatric Specialists surgical center in San Antonio. $9000.00 no insurance. Would be $12 or 13 if I needed to be in the hospital for the surgery. That number is strictly surgery cost and all follow up. Did not cover pre-surgery requirements. If I had kept my work insurance and not kept the VA as my primary my max would have been $7000 and my surgery would have been in a “teaching” hospital with a much lower success rate. My employer only pays half for the insurance (non-profit), so really same as paying out of pocket for me.

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My bill was about $66,000.... A surprising amount was the hiatal hernia surgery, which I needed...I had a big one.

I ended up paying less than $1000 out of pocket for surgery, plus lots of copays for doctor/dietitian visits.

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My bill was $89,000. I had a 5 day stay and an extra CT scan. But I only paid $450 for the hospital copay. I don’t know how people self pay, and how some people only self pay $10k-$12k.


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I had my surgery done so late in the year, I had already hit my out of pocket maximum, so it was free. Beat that!

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My bill was well over 60k between the hospital and surgeon. Luckily my max out of pocket is only $2000.


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11 hours ago, MJinNorCal said:

I just got off the phone with Kaiser in Northern California. They have the Sleeve Surgery priced at $47,600.00! Of that I would pay 20% co-insurance, which works out to $9,520.00 I will actually only pay what is left of my Out of Pocket maximum for the year ($5,945.00). Does that sound close to what others are / have paid? I'm going to pay for it but I guess I expected my portion to be closer to $3,500.00.

Yikes! I’m on disability & my surgery was covered 100%. That said your estimate of $3,500 is what I’ve read many people pay for their surgery. Might be much less to have it in Mexico.

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I have Kaiser in Southern California and I have -0- copay, however two gals I met in my Options classes had to pay. One paid $500.00 and the other had to pay $3,000.00. I'm sure it depends on the plan you have, but that sounds way out of range from what I have read.

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Yikes. I'm sure my surgery will be expensive but all I Will pay is 500 total in copays. My deductible will be met for the year so will my out of pocket maximum. I absolutely love my insurance

Sent from my SM-T380 using BariatricPal mobile app

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Do not go by the billed amount. That's like the sticker price on a car: Nobody ever pays it. You go by what your insurance company says is the allowable amount for the procedure. you need to consider the surgeon, the assistant surgeon (if any), the anesthesiologist, the hospital/surgical center fees, nutritionist, pre-op visit and other things that may pop up. Costs and insurance contract vary throughout the country so the usual total allowable amount at the contracted rate can vary anywhere from $15,000 to $30,000. Use that range to figure out what your share of the coverage will be. If you have an *** it's likely only a one-time flat fee for the surgery and co-pays for each doctor and other visits. If you have a PPO then you're going to be responsible for your deductible amount in full then likely 20% of the allowable amount until you've reached your out of pocket maximum.

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