Paying up front for your surgery?

I am having my surgery in FIVE days!!!  woohoo!!! 
So to make my nerves even worse patient financial services decides to call me today to tell me I need to pay 75% of what I may owe before my surgery!!  Are you kidding me??  I owe 20% of my surgery, but the most I will owe is $2500 (that is my out of pocket maximum)  So they are telling me I need to pay atleast $1000 before my surgery?!!?  I was so shocked!  So I asked her why this is- she said if your surgery is not covered or if you have a high amount of what you MAY owe they like you to put 75% down?  Yea right! They want to make sure you are able to pay your balance, don't worry you WILL get your money!  This just frustrates me, has anyone heard of this before? 
I called the insurance coordinator for surgical weight loss and she said she has never heard of this before and was shocked that they called me- she said I wouldn't worry about it, just wait till after your surgery when you get a bill because you may not even owe the full $2500.  Thanks for letting me vent! haha

Never heard of anything like that if your insurance is going to cover it.  Only time I've heard that is when people have to pay for the entire thing out of pocket - and even then it's on a graduated payment plan... not something insane like 75%!  I had surgery 2 weeks ago and my only up front cost was to Dr. Brader's office.  They make you pay $300 to be part of their program before surgery.  If you follow through with all of your follow-up visits after 5 years, you get that money back.  Because I had testing and all my lab work and everything done during 2009, I had to pay my deductible for 2009 - but once I reached my limit, I never saw another bill.  Because my surgery was the beginning of Jan in 2010 - I'll have to pay my deductible again, but then again - will not see another bill for the remainder of 2010.

I agree with the insurance lady... get a bill from them in the mail before you have to pay anything.  That way you have a record of what you've paid and you know it's actually coming from their billing department.  Just out of curiosity, what hospital are you going through?

Melissa

Well apparantely no one from the surgical weight loss heard of that either- my insurance pays 80%, I pay 20%- but not to exceed $2500....once my out of pocket maximum is met then insurance pays at 100%.  I am definetly not going to pay 75% of what I MAY end up owing then have to be reimbursed and all!  I am going to Hershey  Med center.  I guess they really want to make sure they will get their money!!

So how are you doing since your surgery? Any post-op advice for me?!  I just was reading your blog about what to take to the hospital- I will definetly copy that down!
Liz

I plan to post another blog post tomorrow about how the past week has been.  Can't believe it's been 2 weeks since I've been out of the hospital and pureeds start tomorrow!  A little scary, but at the same time - I'm ready for the change!  I have not done 1 protein shake in the last 4 days.  I just couldn't do it anymore.  Instead I'm using cream of chicken soup (strained), greek yogurt, and skim milk to get all of my protein in.  Feel free to ask any questions before you go in.  I'm off work for the next week and a half yet and have plenty of time to respond

I was actually told something similar at Barix. I was told I needed to pay something like $1000 up front because they had no proof that I had met my deductible and out of pocket max. I faxed them proof of what I had already paid, and they waived the "down payment". I was shocked when I was told I had to pay up front. Glad you checked with the insurance coordinator!!! Good luck with your surgery!!!

The hospital billed me after surgery and allowed me to pay $200/month until my balance was paid in full.  I paid it off really quick, since I paid weekly when I could.  All paid up now - whew, what a relief, but so worth it.

we have to pay the global fee (out of pocket ) before surgery.

at Barix you pay your deductable  in full 2 weeks before your surgery, they don't give you payment plans. they make sure they get their money first. which is understandable. What I don't understand is that they don't even give you a disount for multiple surgeries.
you only have WLS one time but you can go several time for plastics
Susan