i've been doing so much research lately and i'm left in tears...

every hospital i've contacted in the cleveland, ohio area and i don't know what to do. one hospital quoted me $22,000. another one $27,000.

being self pay, i can't afford that!

so let me ask you... some of these hospitals quote their fee of $10,00 plus other hospital, anethesia, etc. fees. do the hospitals in Mexico do that or is it the flat rate of $8,500?

i'm getting so upset that i don't know what to do!

greatlakesweightloss.com ...Troy, MI $11,700

There's a company called BeLiteWeight that can help you schedule your surgery through a group in detroit for 11.7K. Or you can go to Mexico and get it done for 8K. You have to make sure that you have a plan for follow up care if you go the Mexico route. Many doctors won't do fills for people who have the lap band in Mexico, but some do. I am not familiar with Cleveland docs, but there are lots of folks on here who have used beliteweight and are happy with them. They are a surgery scheduling service, and all of their patient facilitators have had the lap band themselves (no I do not work for them).

I used to live in Euclid, a while ago - born and raised in Toledo. Ohio is a nice place, very pretty.

Good luck to you. There definitely are cheaper alternatives out there. Check out wasabubblebutt's entry on how to pick a doctor in Mexico. That is a good start if you are thinking about that.

Take care

Mount Carmel Hospital in Columbus is 15K or so.

I'm also from Cleveland, and self pay. I drove to Cincinnati to Dr Trace Curry. It was $12875 which I financed through Care Credit and then $400 upfront that I had to pay out of pocket. I put it on the 60 month plan, which is just under $300 a month. We're going to pay more than that, because I plan to use the same account for my tummy tuck, so I need to get it paid off fast. :blushing:

I drove down once and did my psych consult, seminar, and first visit all in one trip (2 days, I spent the night). Then once more for nutrition class. Then for surgery. It's on this side of Cincy so it was only a 3 hour drive each way from Medina. Not that bad at all.

It helped that Dr Curry was well recommended!

crazy idea..ohio isn't TOO far from NJ. Why not come here and have the surgery and just get filled by you? Maybe you can work out a price for just the surgery in NJ (i'm going to Dr. Ewing) without the year of fills and pay the 300 bucks by you to get filled???

In an outpatient facility with a year of fills it's costing me 15k. So, it would probably be much less without that...

just food for thought.

I went to colorado and had dr.k do my surgery. This was two years ago but it was approx. 10,000. Just be sure to find some one local to do your fills before you have the surgery. I believe dr. k's website is lapbandrockies.com