Medicare setting the Bar!

I was talking with my brother who works in the healthcare field, about the WLS recently, and mentioned to him how frustrated I am becoming with insurances. I have explored about every major "big Name" company I can think of and when they send the Summary plan benefit package there it always is" Obesity/written exculsion specific to surgery. My brother stated that now that medicare is starting to pay for the surgery, he believes other insurance companies will have to also because Medicare sets the bar of standard for health practices. Has anyone else been led to believe this, or works in a related field that would be able to give us all some insight? Forever Hopeful, Nicole

This has been discussed at length in my support group. The consensus from those that work in the healthcare field is.....Yes. Once Medicare starts paying for a procedure, the other companies fall in line. Michele

Michele, Thanks for responding to my post, had begun to wonder if anyone else had heard anything. That sounds like a positive step in the right direction, yippee! I had about given up all hope of finding an insurance company and have been checking into privately paying for the surgery. The Surgical Weight Loss Clinic in Tacoma, WA sent me some info the other day, paying cash would cost approx. $32,000 for the open bypass surgery and $18,700 for the lap-band. (barring any complications) Dr. Fox is a pioneer in the bariatric field having performed over 6000 bariatric surgeries. So I am leaning towards this possibility, but need to do a bit more research to be confident. As desparate as I am to have the surgery done, I will not put my self in harms way to save a buck or two! The other thing I learned from talking to them that I hadn't even considered before was a company they use called Advanced Patient Financing (APF USA) that gives loans to pay for elective surgeries. So that was a nice alternative to learn about as well. Nicole