New Here, Already Complaining :(

An additional explanation about insurance reimbursement: Insurance companies will only pay certain amounts for procedures. They offer a contract to health care providers to be signed by the providers (surgeons, dieticians, physical therapists, hospitals, etc.) to be listed as one of that particular insurance companies approved providers. While a surgeon may want to charge $3,5000 for some surgery, the insurance company may present them with a contract that says they will only pay them $1,500 for that particular surgery. The surgeon may agree to that, or not. The same with dietician, physical thereapists, etc. fees. The health care provider can choose to sign the contract, or not. If they do sign, they agree not to charge the patient any more than they agreed to in the contract. (Of course your insurance may require you to pay a percentage of the fee, or a co-pay), so they pay the health provider even less. Not all prividers choose to sign these insurance reimbursement contracts. If they feel their services are worth more, if their risk is high, if they have a large office staff to pay, if they have overhead, they may choose not to agree to the lower price offered by the insurance company. It's their choice. However, many will *accept* your insurance, but will not have agreed to the lower price. So, they will still charge full price, accept what your insurance pays, and bill you for the rest. All perfectly legal and legitimate if that's what they choose. It is your responsibility to check with your insurance company to make sure they have agreed to charge only what is outlined in the insurance company contract. You need to also check with the surgeon's office. As far as dieticians go, those working for hospitals are salaried or hourly employees. Your payment goes to the hospital, not the individual dietician generally. The hospital can cover the lower payment by charging in other areas to other patients (like $15 for a Tylenol). They (the dieticians that work for hospitals) get the same pay regardless of the patient's they see, generally. They are paid by the hospital. However, those in private practice deal directly with insurance companies, or individuals if they have not signed insurance reimbursement contracts. They may not want to pay staff to submit insurance forms when they have not signed to accept insurance reimbursements only. So, it leaves the payment up to you and the filing of the claims with your insurance company up to you. Insurance companies may offer to pay just $5 per visit or something like that. You never know. It would be more  expensive to pay staff to file the claim than the insurance payment would be worth! It isn't a one sided story or a greed issue.  (Also, at OWLO, there are multiple visits with the nutritionist for the $200 fee. I'm glad to pay for someone to be there to help me through this.)

Thanks for all the advice folks! I didn't feel anyone was mean at all, just honest and I appreciate it :) I realize I'm very lucky for having insurance that pays for my WLS!  I'm still making my decision at this point but I appreciate the kind words and information from you folks.