Fibroids and Tummy Tuck?

cmmcguire66 · January 9, 2009

Does anyone know if there is a way to get ins. to pay for a Tummy Tuck if you have fibroids removed? As long as they're in there . . .

Dr. Schulman · January 12, 2009

Does anyone know if there is a way to get ins. to pay for a Tummy Tuck if you have fibroids removed? As long as they're in there . . .

Insurance will not pay for a TT, because it is entirely cosmetic. There may be some advantage to getting it done at the same time. You only have to recover from one surgery. Also, insurance may pay for you to stay overnight in the hospital because an overnight stay is customary with a fibroid removal. It is common for people to elect to have cosmetic surgery at the same times as another procedure, but it does not absolve you of any obligation to pay.

Candle · January 14, 2009

I don't know about having insurance cover the TT but you could send a note to Frangipani. I believe she had fibroids removed at the same time as her TT.

Dr.JLo · January 16, 2009

Yes, it is nice to have one downtime, one recovery, and one exposure to anesthesia as Dr. Schulman points out. One of our hospitals will also agree to lower the room fee a bit as well as cover the overnight stay.

Be sure your OB-Gyn and PS talk...a "simple" hysterectomy or fibroid removal can become a very involved case with blood loss if the fibroids are large, or if your OB-Gyn is going to try and preserve the uterus.

I always tell patients that the PS portion of the procedure will be done only if the OB-Gyn portion goes smoothly !

Frangipani · March 5, 2009

Hi Cmcc,

I am a bit late in responding here, but I was off the board for a time.

Last June I had an open myomectomy (i.e., removing the fibroids from the uterus as opposed to removing the uterus itself), a full Tummy Tuck and a breast lift with implants done in one surgery. I ended up saving little over $4K in fees (your mileage may vary).

Insurance covered most of my hospital costs and my entire hospital stay. The plastic surgery portion (as our very helpful doctors have already pointed out) was not covered by insurance.

I had five fibroid tumors removed and an ovarian cyst, and all went just beautifully. My GYN surgeon told me that doing what he needed to do was so much easier because the TT incision is much larger than the incision he is usually able to make (and therefore he had a lot more room to move around ) Because of the open GYN procedure I got to stay in the hospital for three nights, and was given plenty of pain meds -- so it all worked out very well for me.

I would highly recommend combining a GYN procedure with a cosmetic procedure, if your doctors approve of you doing so.

Edited March 5, 2009 by Frangipani