Poll on Website needs your help!

It's 76% for and 24% no now! paula

Okay, it looks like the survey is closed, since the option to vote doesn't appear anymore. Final tally: No. Insurance Costs Too Much As It Is: 21% Yes. It Will Save Money In The Long Run: 79% Yay!

I just got on my computer and read the message. I went to WICC.com and it let me vote. It's now 11:07pm and the tally is: No. Insurance Costs Too Much As It Is: 20% Yes. It Will Save Money In The Long Run: 80% I'm still trying to find out how Medicare picked certain hospitals to be approved for Gastric Bypass surgery so they will pay for the procedure. As of now there are only 4 hospitals in CT and St. Vincent's isn't one of them. The approved hospitals are: Danbury Hospital Middlesex Hospital Orchard Surgical Specialists Hospital of Saint Raphael I have an appt with Dr. Ehrlich next week so I will be sure to discuss this with him.

80/20 as of my vote too ..I was one of those medicare patients that had to be in the medicare crossfire,now I am moving forward at danbury,but there should not have been the problems to begin with..But,I guess its water over the bridge now and medicare should be ashamed for giving such a short notice to people,,we are humans too.

I agree with you Cynthia. The short notice people were given leads me to believe that they were trying to pull a fast one. When I first attended the seminar in Sept 2005 we were told that although Medicare did not pre-approve surgery, they had never had a problem with them once the surgery was done. My surgery was scheduled for 12/13/05 and just before that I received a call from the dr's office advising that there was a chance that Medicare would not cover the surgery and did I still want to proceed. I said yes and at my pre-surgery meeting the dr again stated Medicare's status. They would not pay for anyone 65 or older. I was 66 at that time. I still opted to go ahead with the surgery (and do not regret it one bit) and do not know where I stand at this time. I just read another post where the woman stated that in order to be an approved "Center of Excellence" that Medicare would cover they have to do 125 surgeries per year. And even if they meet that requirement it still could take months to be approved. I'll have to find out the amount of surgeries my dr does and if they have applied or will be applying in the near future to be an approved facility. Best of luck to you with your upcoming surgery.