Self-pay sleeve along with insurance paid hernia

[Blue1213 122]

Well I can give you my surgeon's name if you are interested. He's the one that suggested to me I buy the eggs and milk together. But he's in the Houston area

Who is your surgeon? I'm also having my surgery in Houston.

I'm actually in The Woodlands area. I used Dr Balette. Below is his website. Since I was self pay it went very quickly. I had my surgery at the end of March. Dr Balette is awesome.

http://www.sgotw.com

Oh, nice! I'm scheduled to have surgery on the 19th. Closer to SW houston, though.

Good luck! I hope your surgery goes well. I had no problems with recovery. Maybe one day of feeling gross. No issues with food. Only the Vitamins make me nauseous so I have to take them with yogurt. I'm so happy I had the surgery.

[laurette 0]

I'm no attorney and I certainly understand your desire to have as small an out of pocket expense as possible but I think charging the operating room expense to one surgery while actually doing two borders on insurance fraud. I expect most surgeons are leery of this. They live or die by the insurance companies. I had to change jobs to get mine covered by insurance (not the ideal situation for everyone, I understand).

Nope. Perfectly legal and not at all uncommon. Search these boards and you will find many who have done this when WLS was specifically excluded by their insurance. It is a "self pay" option that some doctors make available as an adjunct to hernia repair.

Nothing illegal about it at all. The insurance is not billed for the WLS. The surgeon and hospital bill the patient directly at a vastly reduced rate.

Some doctors in the U.S. actually advertise this as an option. Whether a person can take advantage depends on whether their insurance will cover the hernia repair, whether the surgeon is considered in network, etc.

I paid full price for the WLS then my surgeon billed insurance for the hiatal hernia on top of that. Wish I would have visited this site prior to surgery, I would have shopped around a bit more.

[Mega_100 146]

Has anyone been able to find a surgeon to do this in Michigan? So far my search has yielded no result.

[%#LoosingIt?!&- 16]

I'm looking in Colorado or Wyoming for the hernia repair-sleeve surgery too. Anyone know of a surgeon that wouldn't turn their nose up at me for mentioning it?