Anyone from Canada who had Gastric Sleeve either in Canada or out of Canada.

[RiaR 30]

Hi there, I am wondering if there's anyone from Canada who has had surgery and wondering how you dealt with your provincial health care. Looking for advice on what is covered and what was not. Were you able to claim anything with CRA ? Also if you had blue cross coverage how did that go ?

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[RiaR 30]

I'm from AB coming to Ontario for surgery. I don't think AB blue cross covers anything.

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[RiaR 30]

How does that work? Are you being reffered over? Or are you self-pay?

Self pay

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[chattycat 91]

I’m from BC and Provincial Medical covered all expenses for WLS. You have to meet their requirements and go through the program. There are only 2 Surgeons in BC that do either sleeve or RNY so waits are long to get into the program. I was on a wait list for over 2 years and took 6 months to go through the program so almost 3 years from start to finish. Self pay was not an option here.

[chattycat 91]

And they do have a program in Alberta that is covered as well.

[RiaR 30]

And they do have a program in Alberta that is covered as well.

The wait time is very long. I had been on the list for 4 yes now and when I called to inquire I was told I wasn't even close.

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[chattycat 91]

On 01/04/2019 at 18:22, RiaR said:

The wait time is very long. I had been on the list for 4 yes now and when I called to inquire I was told I wasn't even close.

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Oh really, that long?

[RiaR 30]

Oh really, that long?

Yeah, many people from here often end up going elsewhere to Mexico. There was an agency here WLS now bought by a company in BC that used to send patients from here to see Dr Pompa .

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[RiaR 30]

Hmmmm...as an Alberta resident, are you not covered by AHCIP? If you satisfy the requirements, AHCIP covers the cost of WLS much the same way as OHIP. First step would be to go to your Primary Care Physician to get ball rolling. Unless of course you don't have AHCIP....

Only if I have the surgery in AB, not if I go out of province.

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[Samantha1324 23]

I’m from Ontario.

I was told by my family doctor that I would need to be referred to a specific office located in Guelph that deals with OHIP covered WLS. It could take a while to get that appointment. From there you are assessed and have to go through 6 months to a year of trying to lose weight on your own with a supervised diet before they will put you on the list. Once on the list, you could wait anywhere from 2-4 years for the surgery.

After learning about this process, I decided to self pay and was sleeved on Dec 13th.

I don’t have any sort of benefits through work but I will be writing all of the medical expenses off on my taxes. I’m not exactly sure how much I will get back but I will at least be getting some sort of return to help offset the cost.