Question about insurance... sort of

Just wondering if any one else had run into this. My mother is looking to get a gastric sleeve, she has three different insurance coverages, ChampVA, Medicare, and Medicaid. She's got approval from her doctor, and from the insurance, we're told she would be completely covered. We live in Fl so we find a place in the area that does the surgery, get her set up with a doctor who wants her in for a consultation for which he wants 500 bucks won't be covered by the insurance. Neither of us has that kind of money to just throw down. The only reason we have been able to go through this far is because the insurance was covering everything. Now don't get me wrong a 20000 dollar surgery for 500 bucks is a steal, but she has low income, and I'm not doing much better than her so can't lend her the money right now, as a result we would have to cancel the whole thing until we could come up with the money, which we'd rather not do as that could take quite some time. So now that the exposition is over the question I have is this; has anyone else heard of this, or had it happen to them, or is the doctor just trying to get an extra 500 bucks? Thank you in advance for any information.

Look around at what other docs are doing. I have observed that they charge different fees around ATL.

Yes the surgeon is just trying to get some extra bucks and calling it a program fee. I would check around even if you have to drive a bit to find a surgeon with no program fee or a more reasonable one. Gl

Many surgeons believe the thousands they get for the surgery isn't enough, it is greed.  Some surgeons charge as much as $7,000 for a program fee.

If you can't find a surgeon that does not charge a program fee then the fee will have to be paid.  It's completely legal for them to do this.

Thank you guys very much for your information. We'll be checking around to see what we can find.