Self pay folks - please advise re: choice of hospital/surgeon

[doglover 0]

Hello,

I am a newbie here. I have been researching Lap Band surgery for quite awhile now and have decided it's the right choice for me. I'm a self-pay patient and live in Nashville, TN. I'm trying to decide between Baptist and Centennial Hospitals to have the procedure done. I have researched them both, met surgeons at both places and feel very good about the quality of both choices.

I'm pretty risk-averse and as a self-pay patient, I feel pretty strongly that I would want to buy BLIS insurance to cover myself if things go wrong (erosion, slippage, port issues - plus problems stemming from the lapband that insurance may not pay for because they excluded the original procedure).

Here in Nashville Baptist has a lower self-pay price ($12,000) but does not offer the option of buying additional insurance. Centennial is more expensive right off the bat ($14,500) but offers the option of BLIS insurance. The insurance is definitely expensive, which is of course a bummer. Centennial offers BLIS in 6,12 and 18 month increments. You have to buy separate coverage for each category (i.e. slippage, erosion). So, I could buy 12 months of erosion insurance, 18 months of slippage, etc.

Can people please give me opinions about this? I know it all comes down to my own comfort zone, but I would really appreciate any input. Is it better to choose the lower cash price but no BLIS option? Or, the higher cash price but BLiS option (which also adds a lot of expense)?

Thank you so much in advance for your input!!