DS cost?

So i posted this on the vsg board now im looking at ds. ive narrowed it down to vsg or ds. can you let me know how much was billed, how much insurance paid and how much you paid? i understand that ds will be more expensive than vsg...

I have the absolute worse insurance ever when it comes to weight loss surgery!  I had to pay about $10,000 out of pocket.  This is the coverage my employer agreed to.  What you would have to pay is up to your insurance or employer.  I have United Healthcare, but others with United Healthcare probably didn't have to pay anything out of pocket, or at least a lot less. 

Depends on your insurance... I do know it is the most expensive surgery.  I had to meet my out of pocket expense for the year... so it was about $4000 out of my pocket.

That would depend on your deductible and how much of a % your insurance pays for surgery. If they only pay 80% then you will be billed for the 20% remaining. It also depends on your surgeon and hospital and how much they charge.

I paid 5k out of pocket for deductible with 20% I owe to the hospital. They billed me for 400.00.

I beg to differ with some of my esteemed collages.  I have the worst insurance coverage and I work for them!  Coventry health care has a weight loss exclusionary policy and pays nothing for WLS and any testing  before during and after OR related to the surgery. I could not go out of the country for other medical issues and paid 23K for hospital, MD fee, anesthsia fee and then the assundry labs, pathology,post op leak testing etc...Good luck I really hope your insurance pays.  I would have LOVED to just pay a deductable. But my other MDs endo, pulm and Internal meds have told me it was the best 23K I will ever and have ever spent.  The DS has saved my life.  

No one here can give you a precise answer to that question, as it depends on your specific insurance plan, the surgeon's fee, etc.

So the only adivce I can offer is to make this decision based on what is best for you medically, and in terns of longterm results and quality of life. There are some aspects of life where the cheapest service or product is the way to go. Your health is not one of those areas. If you have carefully considered your health, comorbidities, and done some honest soul searching as to what lifestyle changes you can live with for life and what you can't, then you can make the decision that is in your best interest. As far as the factors that go into this decision, cost is far down the list.

Larra

My policy with United Healthcare required only a $250 copay for in-hospital surgery.

I had UHC and only paid my maxiumum out of pocket on my policy, which was $500

Let me put it this way---I could have had an RNY close to home, at a cost to me of about $200. Instead, I chose to have the DS and pay my surgeon's fee out of pocket (my insurance covered the DS, but my surgeon did not accept my insurance) and travel in order to have the DS instead. I consider this to be the best $7500 I've ever spent.

Anthem Blue Cross.  I owed to the hospital was what was left of my deductible, little under $450.  Everything else was covered, as far as I know.  Haven't received any bills and it's been 10 months.

I did have a program fee owed to the doctor, which was $3,000 but I was able to finance that at around $100 a month through a medical financing company.