ugh!!!!

Hey Everyone.. Well I have been trying to get this surgery on the ball but have only had problems the whole way. I got all of my labwork, my support group, my seminar, dr letters, and the psych eval. I was told by Dr. Baker's office in the beginning that I DO qualify. Now I spoke with them and they tell me that my bmi is not high enough and that my co-morb's are not what they are looking for. I have severe asthma, depression, and infertility. I looked all this up and even spoke with Medicare and they told me that they don't understand why his office is telling me that. So, I called Dr. Weaver in Memphis and told her everything and she told me to come there and Medicare will cover, so now i am re-routing all my info to her office to get this thing rolling once and for all. Hope all is doing well and have better luck than I have had..  Tina

Hummmmm.  Maybe it is Dr. Baker requirements instead of Medicare?  Or maybe they misunderstood?  Who knows.  Good luck either way! 

Thank you. I explained it all to them and they told me not to call them back  until I weighed 248lbs. How rude is that.  I thought, well i'm trying to lose weight not gain it. Anyways, I don't think I like them much. Their not very friendly to me.

I know Medicare is picky about the BMI thing.  They told me over the phone a few years ago that they didn't require this or that but then I found out that if you didn't have this or that they wouldn't pay the surgeons. Dr. Baker and his staff really are a nice bunch of people, I know pre-op I didn't care for them to much but they have been great to me ever since my surgery.  Dr. Baker sticks with what Medicare requires to pay for the surgery to a T, if even one little thing is out of place he won't do it.  He has good reason to, he had lots of trouble last year and even early this year getting Medicare to pay him for the surgeries he had performed, not just him but Dr. Gibbs had trouble to and Baptist Hospital as well.  Matter of fact last year both surgeons had to stop taking new Medicare patients all together for a while. I know how tough this can be, and even though Medicare tells you one thing on the phone, it doesn't necessarily mean they will pay for the procedure when its all been done and papers filed.  Dr, Virginia McGrath in Memphis is a good surgeon, I had talked to her office right after Medicare had made all the changes to how they would pay for WLS, at the time no surgeon or hospital in Arkansas could do it because Medicare now required hospitals be a Centers of Excellence and surgeons to be certified by one of the Bariatric surgeon groups, maybe the AMBS or something like that, anyhow Dr Virginia and the hospital already met those requirements and I was thinking of going to her, but making the trip to Memphis wasn't something I could do, especially when I don't drive and have a hard enough time finding rides to Little Rock for my post-op visits. I wish you good luck!