Where in Kansas can I get the surgery if I'm on Medicare and Medicaid?

Been reading a lot of messages and it doesn't appear that there is anyplace close to me where I can have surgery with Medicare as the primary insurance. Is this right? I've called Solutions for Life at Via Christy St Francis Hospital in Wichita, Kansas and they told me they don't accept Medicare. I've sent e-mails and left messages for the Geary County Hospital but they haven't responded to my questions. Is there anywhere around the Wichita area that does bariatric surgery? Any guidance here would be greatly appreciated.

I did not know medicare would pay for the surgery My doctor lives in Liberal kansas and I had my surgery there Dr. Anthony canfield 620-626-6448

Regrettably there are no centres of excelence in Kansas. It doesn't look like there will be any time soon. Several requirments must be met to get this title. The one St Francis in Topeka is struggling with is that you must have a data base on all patients cases. I guess there is extended information they are required to have. They just now got the software for that in and will have to go through and input years worth of data. There is also some equipment that needs to be purchased. Our problem is that Medicare does not pay as well as other insurance. Many providers either will not accept medicare at all or do so on a limited bases. So getting providers to spend extra money to serve Medicare patients may prove difficult. I have been told by the center in St. Louis that they don't accept medicare patients. There are several centers in Denver but I only found one that I felt would be a good place to go that accepts medicare. There are several other Dr's there that do but they only do this surgery part time. Like only 40% of what they do. There is Dr. Brown. However he only takes 3 medicare patients per month. I see him in April. Dr. Dunshee here in Topeka has told me that he will do my follow up care here, so I don't have to go to Denver. The ironic part to all of this is that all of the studies that were done on all of us, cardiac, pulminary, pyschiatric the works are all only good so long. Medicare paid for them and Medicare will pay for them again when we finaly find a place to have saurgery.

Im not really to sure where you are located at but the surgeons that I am seeing are at Tall Vascular in Topeka Kansas. Im not 100% sure the kind of insurance that they take there but Dr.Hamilton is the dr that I have been in contact with and seen since I have been there. He is a great dr and he can put himself at the personal aspect of things because he himself has had the surgery done. Brenda

Nola, There are no Centers of Excellence in Kansas. The closest I think is Norman Hospital in Oklahoma. I have heard a lot of good things about Tallgrass and I know a lot of good things about Geary,and I know they are both shuffling to try to make this happen, it may take some time, but I have faith it will happen. Hang in there and just keep calling them. I have done some research and decided I am not going to look out of state as I have no support system to speak of and the docs here won't follow up with another surgeons work Good luck, hope this helps a little

Shawnee Mission Medical Center is very close to becoming a Center of Excellence. Keep on top of it.

Thank you Megan!

I just file dout and mailed a form back to my surgeon allowing them to enter my data in their database of something...anyway it is all to become a Center Of Excellence. Tallgrass Surgery...Topeka KS. In my opinion they are very, very excellent already. [email protected] if I can help you further. Alice

Hi Alice, I talked to Tallgrass yesterday (Barbara) and she said it will be at LEAST 6 months to a year before they become a COE that the process is slow and they are working on it. They are HOPING for 6 months but realistically it will probably be more like a year. They do seem very nice and caring, thank you for recommending them.

Wow six months to a year! That makes me wonder how long it will take Junction City to get theirs then. This is all one big disappointment I sent off my patient packet to Norman, Oklahoma yesterday so I hope I hear from them real soon. It is close to three hours away from me but at least I guess it is better than nothing.