Actual Medicare cost for lap band surgery.

Hi.....

I am considering lap band surgery. I am roughly 5 ft 7,

at 258 pounds. Now I know Medicare covers lap band,

but no google search has ever told me the cost OF lap

band, only the types Medicare covers. Can anyone

give me a financial breakdown on actual cost thru Medicare?

Thank you,

Carl

I can't give you a breakdown, but I wanted to say please do not get the lap band.

I had one for 12 years and except for the first couple of years it was nothing but a torture device. Any honest surgeon will no longer perform lap band surgery. I had heartburn/GERD/reflux what ever you want to call it so bad that I was eating tums like they were candy. The band became encased in scar tissue and even completely empty I had so much trouble eating. The band caused damage to a part of my upper stomach that had to be removed when I revised to the bypass.

There are so many people who have had nothing but issues with the band. Please reconsider and look at either the sleeve or bypass or even the DS. Any one of those are so much better than the band.

Best of luck to you.

I did not know any surgeon still would do a lap band.

A conscientious surgeon would choose not to, in my opinion. Talk about setting a patient up for failure. With the statistics known now, you'd think they'd just scrap that device altogether and save people the time, money, and pain.

It is easy money and I guess some surgeons will just take it and let the patient suffer the consequences. There are very few left that will do a band after all of the misery it has caused.

I agree with the others. You're going to have a hard time nowadays finding a surgeon who'll place a lapband. Almost no one does those anymore. RNY and VSG are the two most commonly done surgeries now. Both are infinitely better than the lapband.

The Lap Band is too much work!!!

Medicare doesn't give a cost breakdown. They pay what they pay and your supplemental insurance will cover the rest or it won't , considering the policy you have.

the hospital may be able to give you a breakdown of what Medicare usuAlly pays.

Please reconsider your choice of lap and and consider the other options.

Statistically a lap band is 5 times more likely to maim you than result in weight loss success. Over the long term they only have a 15% success rate and have a 70% removal rate at 10 years. A study of thousands of Medicare patients showed that there were an average of 4 reoperations per band patient!

lap band has higher complication rates than sleeve and bypass combined and many doctors consider it malpractice to place one. That is why bands are only 1% of all bariatric surgeries.