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I just had a couple questions because I recently was sleeved and two of my coworkers that had bariatric surgery at the same facility as me with the same insurance both got these outrageous bills for $35,000 like six months to a year after surgery. It's unclear what they were getting billed for but I just don't want 2 get one of these bills because my insurance says they cover bariatric surgery a hundred percent I have Blue Cross Blue Shield of Arizona it's a federal plan

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Do you have any additional information? What were the bills for, maybe the hospital stay/surgery? I know my primary insurance covered my surgeon with no problem, but not the hospital he would perform the surgery at. The ins required a Center of Excellence. Thankfully my secondary covered it as primary. Without any additional info, the coworkers need to inquire what the bills are for, if they have been submitted to their insurance, and follow up with the insurance as needed. Sometimes bills get separated from the pre-approval case number and the two need to be matched up. It is also possible the ins requires additional info to pay the bill and haven't received it from the doctor/facility. Too many "what ifs" here.

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Do you have any additional information? What were the bills for, maybe the hospital stay/surgery? I know my primary insurance covered my surgeon with no problem, but not the hospital he would perform the surgery at. The ins required a Center of Excellence. Thankfully my secondary covered it as primary. Without any additional info, the coworkers need to inquire what the bills are for, if they have been submitted to their insurance, and follow up with the insurance as needed. Sometimes bills get separated from the pre-approval case number and the two need to be matched up. It is also possible the ins requires additional info to pay the bill and haven't received it from the doctor/facility. Too many "what ifs" here.

One of my coworkers got the lap band and I'm pretty sure she said she was being charged for the hernia repair and the assistant that isn't in our Network. My second coworker had it done use the same Hospital same assistance she also had a hernia but she got the sleeve. She is no longer employed with us she works for Southwest Airlines and I was thinking maybe they needed more info from her and they weren't going to cover it or since she doesn't work for Homeland Security anymore they're not going to cover the remainder of the bill

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Best thing to do is to call your insurance company with your concerns, or call your surgeon's office and ask to talk to a navigator.

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On 6/1/2018 at 5:04 PM, mamalala said:


One of my coworkers got the lap band and I'm pretty sure she said she was being charged for the hernia repair and the assistant that isn't in our Network. My second coworker had it done use the same Hospital same assistance she also had a hernia but she got the sleeve. She is no longer employed with us she works for Southwest Airlines and I was thinking maybe they needed more info from her and they weren't going to cover it or since she doesn't work for Homeland Security anymore they're not going to cover the remainder of the bill

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I have Fed Blue too, and my surgeon submitted that they're doing an umbilical hernia repair along with the sleeve. Once I was approved, I called Fed BCBS and they said the hernia is covered 100% along with the sleeve (minus the co-pay for the hospital stay and surgeon's fee). So this makes me a little concerned.

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      On day 4 of the 2 week liquid pre-op diet. Surgery scheduled for June 11th.
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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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      1. summerseeker

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