$4K+ is too much

Aloha, My connection is limited to dialup, so please forgive me if my question has been asked a thousand times before. I live in Volcano and have HMSA PPO. My family physician agreed that I'm a candidate for WLS, and gave me a referral to Kenric Murayama, MD, at Queens. He must be very busy because no one has returned my phone calls/emails. On my own, I found Dr. Cirangle and began the profiling drill with him until his office called and said I'd need to come up with $4K out of pocket plus my insurance. I'm already going to have to come up with significant out of pocket money for airfare and such between Hilo and Oahu, so such a demand is way out of line for me. Anyone have any suggestions?

Hi Tom! I had lap rny on January 10, 2005 by Dr. Paul Cirangle. I am so glad that I found him. I would not have had surgery done by anyone else! He is one of the best in his field!! I have not had any complications whatsoever during these past 10 months. He is not only knowledgeable about bariatric surgery but also really cares about his patients. He is accessible by e-mail or his cell phone 24/7. Considering that he is in San Francisco I would consider that to be very reassuring that he will there if you need him. I understand about the out of pocket expense of $4,000.00. I have HMA insurance and I actually had to pay Dr. Cirangle $6,500.00 2 weeks before my surgery. My insurance did reimburse me $5,900.00. I still felt that it was totally worth it. You might want to find out from your insurance how much of the $4,000.00 will be reimbursed to you. That way at least you'll know how much you will get back from your insurance. I hope this helps you with your decision. It is a lot of money, but considering the seriousness of the WLS, you would want to have someone who has the most experience in this field. Please e-mail me if you have any other questions. Aloha, Pat 261/154/120-125?