I have BCBS of NC and haven't started that process as of yet, but wondered how much, on average, you had to pay out of pocket to cover co-pays and what not?

Hi mpope!

I'm in the same boat. I'm in looking into doctors and hospitals, but I would like to know how much out-of-pocket will it be?

It varies so much............

You can have the band placed in the states for as Low as 10K (Denver) or as high as 25K............ my doc has a self pay price of 16.5K.

Mexico (where they've been doing the band for 15 years) can be 6.5K

Other countries also have lesser prices......

If your insurance covers it, you will have your deductibles, copays and possibly out of pocket max's to pay..........

The year I had it planned, I put the out of pocket max on my Flex Spending Account and it worked beautifully! (I was able to use it for the psyc and nutrition eval, since it was required for my surgery approval.)

have you called to make sure it's covered on your insurance yet? some people don't seem to do that and then go through the process and then find out it wasn't covered. call your insurance company and ask them if it's covered and then ask them what your max out of pocket is...mine was 2k...so i ended up paying 2k for the surgery. my copay is 30....i think i had 5 or 6 appts before surgery...so under 200 in copays. when i go for fills i don't get charged for the office visit part i only get charged for the use of the xray stuff...i'm sure that will end at some point though. buf for sure call your insurance company and even ask them to mail you out the part of your policy that talks about bariatric surgeries so you have something in writing.