on cloud nine   i  got my call today  surgery  in edmonton is  Feb 25  start my liquid  diet on   Feb11  now there feels like a light at the end of  this tunnel   i am so  looking forward to  this  Dr Davey is my surgeon 

I had the lapband in 2009 and had no trouble getting the money back on my taxes. You can even claim travel for you and your spouse. Originally I didn't realize that you can claim expenses for a travel companion, but when they audited me (they seem to audit me every year for something or other although I have never once owed them another penny) I added these expenses and they ended up owing me money. I don't think I did anything special, just filled out the right form on my income tax.

Getting the money from ACHIP also wasn't that difficult. If you go to their website there are forms for out of country claims. The only thing I had to do was go back to my surgeon and get a more detailed and itemized bill, since you need a breakdown of costs and you need to keep hospital and doctor's fees separate. Then I just sent it all in and crossed my fingers.

Give it a go, it just might work for you.

I was told the exact same thing.

I'm a little heavier than you and was completely crushed when I was told I would only lose about 100 lbs. But I did a lot of research and asked a lot of questions and I am so determined to lose more than that.
I know that if I work hard and exercise and eat the way I need to that I can do it!

Just have to keep a positive attitude!

Good luck!

I had the DS done in Mexico in August. Best decision I ever made. It cost me $13,500 plus travel costs. I was willing to suck this up because getting this surgery was so important and I have no regrets at all.

While I was at home recovering I was informed by my disability insurance that they were denying my claim because they considered the procedure "elective" since I went out of country to have it done. Never mind that you can't even get this surgery in Alberta and the provinces that do offer it don't accept out-of-province patients unless they are self pay, and even then there are really long wait times. I hadn't really budgeted for a month of lost income, so this was a blow. Especially since I have been having to buy so many new clothes (although shrinking out of clothes doesn't suck at all). 

Well, the disability lady was nice enough to suggest that I submit a claim to Alberta Health Care Insurance Plan because if they cover it I can appeal my disability claim and there is a good chance it will get approved. I hadn't even thought about trying to get money back from the government. Well, I submitted the claim towards the end of November and got a cheque for $2200 yesterday. Between this and the income tax refund I will get for having so many medical expenses last year I may end up having about a third to a half of it paid for me. Not to mention that I might be able to recuperate the lost income I had not been anticipating.

I am not sure whether ACHIP would cover any expenses for procedures offered in Alberta (like the sleeve or the RNY) but for those of you who ended up traveling and were self-pay, it is worth a try.

 

So I made the decision to pull out of the Calgary program after completing over half of the classes. It was more depressing to invest all of this time in a program after initially being told they have no money for surgery right now, anyway. And that is if you make the cut.

I am now going to ask for an additional referral to Medicine Hat and see what comes of the Red Deer program when they contact me. 

The Calgary program seems like a make-work project at the moment, however well intentioned the learning component piece is meant to be. 

 

Jill