Question ref Duke WLS

I've heard the initial out of pocket cost for Duke is somewhere close to $1,000 excluding visits and co-pays.  I know the application fee is 250.00, is there a way to offset the cost of the other evals (psyc, nutrition, etc).

I've posted on here before about trying to gain support of my wife... and while I'm not there quite yet...we'll getting close and I would like to be able to get started asap.

First.  It depends on your insurance and what your co-pays are.  Since my surgery was in January, none of my deductables had been met.  The fees you have to pay, not covered by most insurances.. are the 250 application, 300 first psych visit, i think there was another like 50 after surgery psych charge, and my "specialist co-pays" for each visit.   I'm not positive (the checkbook is at home), but that's close I think.  Good Luck on your journey

My husband and I have both had our surgeries through Duke. Some will depend on what your copays are, but they have a non-refundable 250.00 program fee. If you have a flexible spending account you may be able to use that for this expense. You will have a 300.00 psych fee that covers your pre-op, 3 wks, 3 month, 6 month and 12 month post op psych visits. They will give you a form at each visit that you can use to see if you can get your insurance to reimburse. If you have office visit copays to see the Dr for each visit, they will fall under your 'specialist' copay. For us that was $35.00 each visit, but there are only 5 visits in the first year.

As far as your copays for the actual surgery goes, that will depend on your insurance coverage. I think my total out of pocket was about 2K, but to be honest, that can vary. Some people have outstanding coverage that covers at 100 percent. The other thing to check is to see what your annual out of pocket cieling is, I think mine was 3700.00, but I didn't get close to it.

I hope that helps.