To add to the list of hospitals in the Triangle area that can provide WLS to Medicare and Medicaid patients.........WakeMed Cary Hospital which has been approved as a Center of Excellence.  
Medicare patients please recognize that you MUST have 6 consecutive monthly physician visits to work on weight loss issues BEFORE you can have WLS done.  This messes up many patients who desperately need treatment for severe obesity so please make sure it gets done correctly (we do this at www.newhopewellnessNC.com)
The newest Medicaid requirements released in January DO NOT require this 6 months of effort.

Also for those of you Medicaid patients considering WLS, although the Duke program could perform those procedures, I have been told that they are not currently accepting Medicaid patients for new patient evaluations as they are reviewing these new requirements and trying to figure out what they are going to do.  It seems very likely that they will limit how many Medicaid patients they will see once they decide to open up for appointment scheduling for Medicaid insured patients.  Please be sure to ask LOTS of questions about their approach to Medicaid if you choose to call them.
www.newhopewellnessNC.com does provide services to the Medicaid and Medicare populations.  The only out of pocket cost for a new patient evaluation is Medicaid's co-pay ($3) and a one-time $300 single charge which covers psych, nutrition, and physical therapy evaluations (yes- all 3!).  There is no application fee and we accept Medicaid and Medicare rules for the financial aspects of covering the surgery.  Call today-  no seminar required before your visit and appointments are available with little waiting period!