Gastric bypass - self pay

[PNWGAL 16]

Hello, I’m 10 days post op.

My question is about the cost of the surgery. Are there any self-pay patients out there?

I began this process in January of this year. Started with my local hospital and was given a quote of $35,000 which is due to the pre-op requirements such as psych eval, endoscopy, sleep study, etc.

I then reached out to a bariatric center about 5 hours away and they quoted me $25,000 and didn’t require the same pre-op items. I went with this program because the doctor has been doing bariatric surgeries for over 25 years. I prepaid the surgeon $4400 and the hospital said I needed to prepay $19,100.

A week after getting home, I am now getting billed an additional $31,000. More than double my quote. They told me those quotes are only estimates and that the cost of the surgery can vary greatly based on complications. The thing is, I had no complications and even was released a day early. They are sending it to the higher ups for them to “review”. This whole thing has been stressful and affecting my recovery. I wouldn’t have had the surgery if I knew it was going to cost me over $54,000 because I wouldn’t have been able to afford it.

Just looking for some prices to compare to. I’m in Oregon

Thanks!

[summerseeker 1,852]

Oh my goodness this must be awful for you, I hope you get the help you need to rectify this. I dont think I have ever heard that surgery in the US costing so much. Good luck

[dasper 26]

Sounds like they dropped the ball. I didn't self pay, but with insurance the surgery was 68k, plus another 4500 for anesthesia but for some reason those people were considered out of network so insurance didn't pay a dime of that. And all the pretests, were I'd guess 15-18 before the surgery. It's a shame the way our healthcare is

[liveaboard15 1,292]

That is very wrong. When you are self pay... You get the cost of the surgery. and for self pay patients. You need to pay before you even can schedule the surgery. i was self pay. I got my quote. I did gastric sleeve. For Bypass it was around $24K. and as for the pre op testing. Almost every surgeon has them. I had to do them. EKG, Xray, Blood work, Psyc Eval ect... All those things i had to pay additionally but it wasnt that expensive. Xray was 50 bucks... EKG was 60, psyc eval was $600. now i do have health insurance but they dont cover the surgery but it did cover some of the pre op testing. Because my EKG came back with issues i had to see a cardiologist and get a nuclear stress test done. Which cost me around $500 out of pocket after my insurance. So after i had surgery. I saw my hospital billed my insurance for $45K which they denied. After i found out i called the hospital and it was a mistake. But you should not be getting any kind of bills after the surgery if you are self pay and paid before surgery. Get a itemized bill and make sure you are getting the SELF PAY Rate... Because my gastric sleeve surgery self pay rate (Which i am posting a picture) which is in the $18K range... With insurance it would have been over $45K... Most hospitals have discounted self pay rates.

[catwoman7 10,867]

Don't freak out quite yet. I was self-pay for plastic surgery and the total (which I paid in advance) was somewhere in the $20K's. I got a bill afterwards for over $100K. I called them, and they got it straightened out. It was clearly some kind of mistake on the hospital's end. Not sure if it was someone else's bill, or if that was the amount they would have charged the insurance company had my insurance covered that kind of thing (which it doesn't). But either way, it was dropped.

[PNWGAL 16]

2 hours ago, dasper said:

Sounds like they dropped the ball. I didn't self pay, but with insurance the surgery was 68k, plus another 4500 for anesthesia but for some reason those people were considered out of network so insurance didn't pay a dime of that. And all the pretests, were I'd guess 15-18 before the surgery. It's a shame the way our healthcare is

Totally agree. It’s out of control

[PNWGAL 16]

2 hours ago, liveaboard15 said:

That is very wrong. When you are self pay... You get the cost of the surgery. and for self pay patients. You need to pay before you even can schedule the surgery. i was self pay. I got my quote. I did gastric sleeve. For Bypass it was around $24K. and as for the pre op testing. Almost every surgeon has them. I had to do them. EKG, Xray, Blood work, Psyc Eval ect... All those things i had to pay additionally but it wasnt that expensive. Xray was 50 bucks... EKG was 60, psyc eval was $600. now i do have health insurance but they dont cover the surgery but it did cover some of the pre op testing. Because my EKG came back with issues i had to see a cardiologist and get a nuclear stress test done. Which cost me around $500 out of pocket after my insurance. So after i had surgery. I saw my hospital billed my insurance for $45K which they denied. After i found out i called the hospital and it was a mistake. But you should not be getting any kind of bills after the surgery if you are self pay and paid before surgery. Get a itemized bill and make sure you are getting the SELF PAY Rate... Because my gastric sleeve surgery self pay rate (Which i am posting a picture) which is in the $18K range... With insurance it would have been over $45K... Most hospitals have discounted self pay rates.

Thank you so much for this information. I did do pre-op stuff but it wasn’t nearly as much as with the first program I went through. I had to do a psych eval, bloodwork, I would have had to do an EKG but I had just had an echo done a few months before so they were able to use that, and a visit with a dietician.

[PNWGAL 16]

2 hours ago, catwoman7 said:

Don't freak out quite yet. I was self-pay for plastic surgery and the total (which I paid in advance) was somewhere in the $20K's. I got a bill afterwards for over $100K. I called them, and they got it straightened out. It was clearly some kind of mistake on the hospital's end. Not sure if it was someone else's bill, or if that was the amount they would have charged the insurance company had my insurance covered that kind of thing (which it doesn't). But either way, it was dropped.

This is exactly what I’m hoping happened. Still it was quite a shock and until they get it straightened out, I’m a wreck 😩

[liveaboard15 1,292]

5 minutes ago, PNWGAL said:

This is exactly what I’m hoping happened. Still it was quite a shock and until they get it straightened out, I’m a wreck 😩

It took about a month for them to straigten out my issue with them billing my insurance almost 50K when i already paid cash for my surgery. you will get it sorted out. So dont sweat it. give us updates when you get them.

[Queen ApisM 426]

This happened to me. I was self pay, and then got a bill months later for a crazy amount of money. I called my surgeon's office and asked if there were complications I didn't know about because of the insane bill I got. The PA there looked into it and got livid when she realized the hospital was billing me again, and intervened. It basically was a case of the hospital doing one thing, and not being synched up with the surgeon and such.

Mine got sorted out pretty quickly when the surgeon's office got involved, but it was still a good month or so like others mentioned. I was really stressed out about it all at the time.

[PNWGAL 16]

Thank you for your response. I contacted my surgeons office to make them aware. Didn’t think of that. Thanks again!

[Limor 1]

Hello, I’m 10 days post op.

My question is about the cost of the surgery. Are there any self-pay patients out there?
I began this process in January of this year. Started with my local hospital and was given a quote of $35,000 which is due to the pre-op requirements such as psych eval, endoscopy, sleep study, etc.
I then reached out to a bariatric center about 5 hours away and they quoted me $25,000 and didn’t require the same pre-op items. I went with this program because the doctor has been doing bariatric surgeries for over 25 years. I prepaid the surgeon $4400 and the hospital said I needed to prepay $19,100.
A week after getting home, I am now getting billed an additional $31,000. More than double my quote. They told me those quotes are only estimates and that the cost of the surgery can vary greatly based on complications. The thing is, I had no complications and even was released a day early. They are sending it to the higher ups for them to “review”. This whole thing has been stressful and affecting my recovery. I wouldn’t have had the surgery if I knew it was going to cost me over $54,000 because I wouldn’t have been able to afford it.

Just looking for some prices to compare to. I’m in Oregon

Thanks!

Is so expensive. I did in turkey for 4000$ every thing is covered up. Except for the flight.

Sent from my SM-A705FN using BariatricPal mobile app

[Cpach81 18]

I was self pay for gastric bypass and it was only $17k. That was for everything, surgeon, anesthesia, hospital stay, and insurance in case I end up with complications that I have to be seen for. It also covered all my pre and post op appointments & consultations. Oregon needs to get their **** together!!

[PNWGAL 16]

On 9/25/2022 at 10:15 AM, Queen ApisM said:

This happened to me. I was self pay, and then got a bill months later for a crazy amount of money. I called my surgeon's office and asked if there were complications I didn't know about because of the insane bill I got. The PA there looked into it and got livid when she realized the hospital was billing me again, and intervened. It basically was a case of the hospital doing one thing, and not being synched up with the surgeon and such.

Mine got sorted out pretty quickly when the surgeon's office got involved, but it was still a good month or so like others mentioned. I was really stressed out about it all at the time.

Just wanted to post an update. They ended up writing it all off and told me I didn’t owe any more. They made a mistake and were charging me for using the Da Vinci robot. I’m so relieved!

thank you all for your responses

[Leo segovia 54]

Wow reading this topic I'm very fortunate I qualified for surgery here in Canada. It did take about a year of screaming and follow ups. In the end all was covered under ohip . Ontario health insurance policy and did not pay directly out of pocket. Most people who start the process do not fill requirements. They don't follow guidelines or miss appointment or ignore preset goals. I was informen that 85% give up and of those that do the surgery 60 % regain the weight back in 5 to 10 years. I know of two people that did surgery and one gained weight back and the other is still keeping it off. So I am truly wishing you all positive thoughts encouragement and support in all of us on this weight loss journey!