financial question, please help!

I'm in a different area that you but everyone's experience seem to be similar.  The surgeon's fee for my RNY was $6,500 for RNY and $6,000 for LapBand.  The "allowable" amount with BCBSNC was $2700.  At the time I scheduled, I had met my decuctible ($500) so all they wanted was the 20% coinsurance of the ALLOWABLE AMOUNT ($560)  that they would be due.  The Preop tests will vary depending on your situation, the only "big" expense I had was $455 due for the endoscopy.  The nutritionist was $50 copay, pshyc. was $40 copay, and the abdominal scan was covered 100% by insurance (don't ask, cuz I don't know!).  The hospital bill was $34,000 and change, but the allowable amount was only $9,000.  I spent about $2,000 out of pocket and still owe the hospital a little bit that I pay monthly.  I don't care how much it was though, it was SOOOOOO worth it!

Good luck to you!

Jason

 I paid out somewhere around 1600.00 in Georgia (Emory Johns Creek). Their people there had been through it so many times that they knew exactly how much to charge as did the surgeon. I think I paid out 900.00 to the surgeon and 700.00 to the hospital and never ever did I get another bill. I know its a long way down there but the facility is in my opinion one of the finest bariatric wards on the planet. Both I and my wife were patients there at different times under different surgeons and while she was there for a week and I only two days we both had some of the same nurses two years apart in time. My best advice is pick a Center For Excellence for your surgery. This means the hospital has to have specific standards to meet for bariatric surgery and adhere to better guidelines in order to keep the standard up. I would be worth any extra you might have to get up in order to use such a place than to have it done where for instance the chairs are for normal people and not obese ones. The bathrooms are not equipted for larger people as well as the space in the rooms. Your insurance may require you to go to a center for excellence in order to get the surgery. If you have Humana which I may say had really worked well with me on my post surgery as well as pre surgery I had to go to a center of excellence for the coverage to pay like it should. 

I had mine at CMC Mercy last August. I paid 10%. My hospital bill was around $1200. So I would double that for your 20%- Approx. $2400. Then whatever your doc bills you. I had to pay ahead of time to the surgeon and my deductible was already met so I think I paid him around $400-ish. I had it all pulled out of my pay thru the cafeteria plan I had at work, so the money was sitting there waiting to be used.
Remember there are several meds that you will need right after surgery as well, but that cost is probably around $100-ish depending on your insurance.

I would say after all was said and done, I probably spent around $3000-4000 out of pocket. That is a very very ROUGH estimate, but inside the ballpark.

Hope that helps.

Good Luck!
Cutty

Thanks everyone for all of your help! I think I got it, and should be able to get through this with some really tight budgeting. Like someone said - it is worth it!!!
Thanks again!

I had RNY in Oct 07.  My out of pocket for everything was under $2000.  I have BCBS and it paid very well.  Since surgery, my out of pocket for anything related to the WLS has been limited to my deductible and normal office co-pays.  A real bargan considing the fact that I'm off all prescription drugs now that use to cost me about $150 a month.

Good luck with your decision.  Alice