Alisa_S
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Long whine alert -I'm really disappointed! I saw my primary Dr last month and told her I wanted WLS and she was all for it. Said that I had to do the 6 month supervised diet for my insurance and a boatload of other tests. Ok. I understand.She started my 6 month diet last month and sent a referral to the bariatric surgeon.MY plan was to do the supervised diet, then at the end of the 6 months in January, do all the other tests...sleep study, endoscopy, ekg, psych, nutritionist, etc. because all of that would get my insurance deductible met, then have surgery in February or March. Since my deductible would be met, I'd only be paying my 20% coinsurance by then.Got the call from the bariatric surgeon's office on Friday and was told that THEY are the ones that will do my 6 month supervised diet. I explained that my primary Dr already had me on it for a month but they said everything will go thru them. Ok. I understand.So I explain about wanting to complete the diet first, then do all the other testing (because I don't want to have to pay my deductible twice by paying for all that stuff now, & then it starts over in January) but she tells me that they do the testing while I'm doing the diet. That means that I cannot even start their bariatric program until January!
They made my first appt for Jan 9th & that's when the 6 month diet will start with them & they'll submit to insurance for approval in June & I would have surgery in July. Man!!! That's almost a year from now! 
All because I don't want to pay $4500 now, than have to pay it again in January.
I don't understand why they won't let me diet now & do the other tests at the end.
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Before you assume that the testing will take your full deductible, I would make some calls to your insurance. I have a 3k deductible and my portion of the bloodwork was nowhere close to that even though I assumed it would be. I think my copays ended up being around $1k or less for all the preliminary tests. And remember, you will have extensive bloodwork multiple times after surgery, so there may be no way to get it all into one calendar year. Also, you might look into financing options through your hospital. Mine allowed me to put the $3k I owed after the surgery (because yeah, that did max out my deductible for this year) on a 24-month no-interest payment plan. Depending on your options, it may be affordable enough that you can book your appointment sooner and get this whole thing going instead of having to wait almost a full year to have your surgery.
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I'm not talking just bloodwork tho, Sleep study, EKG, Endoscopy, Nutritionist classes. psych eval, etc. Plus the surgeon consult, monthly weigh in visits for 6 months (he's already mad that we have to drive 2 hours one way for those), & surgery.
My DED is $4500 & my OOP $9000. Hubby will flip out if I have to cover the DED twice.
I'm seriously considering going across the border into Mexico and doing it without insurance. Cash price will probably be less than my $4500 deductible, and I live right on the border in southern Arizona. There's a place in Nogales, Sonora Mexico https://bariatricmednog.com/ just 2 hours down the road.
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