I live in Florida and as most Medicare patients here know is that Medicare requires 18 months doctor supervised diet before the surgeon will even see you. Well when finding that out about a year a change ago I decided to look to other states to have the surgery. I choose NY because there is no requirement. At that time gas and traveling were cheap. I am almost done doing all the test the doctor in NY requires. My mother had asked me to call again in Florida to see if the 18 month requirement was still in play. I called a local Center of Excellence and they told me the 18 month requirement was still in play. I asked if there was any way around it, to which the girl responded that if I got something in writing from Medicare stating they would cover it without the 18 months she would give it to the doctors and they would see if they could do me locally in instead of traveling. So do you think there is anyway to get it done locally? Will Medicare grant me an exception of some type? Anyone have any information that could help me?
I live in Florida and as most Medicare patients here know is that Medicare requires 18 months doctor supervised diet before the surgeon will even see you. Well when finding that out about a year a change ago I decided to look to other states to have the surgery. I choose NY because there is no requirement. At that time gas and traveling were cheap. I am almost done doing all the test the doctor in NY requires. My mother had asked me to call again in Florida to see if the 18 month requirement was still in play. I called a local Center of Excellence and they told me the 18 month requirement was still in play. I asked if there was any way around it, to which the girl responded that if I got something in writing from Medicare stating they would cover it without the 18 months she would give it to the doctors and they would see if they could do me locally in instead of traveling. So do you think there is anyway to get it done locally? Will Medicare grant me an exception of some type? Anyone have any information that could help me?
Sal