Question about Dr Greenbaum and Medicare

I don't know about medicare, but I do know that his transcriptionist is slow as can be. It took almost 2 months to get the paperwork submitted to BCBS. Keep hounding them for the letter. He really is the best surgeon in the area, especially for revisions.

as far as I know, osteoarthritis is a comordity for medicare.  I know when I called Medicare for the listing of qualifications for my RNY, they listed osteoarthritis as one of them and they were talking WLS in general, not just the RNY.  You do have to be careful about sign an ABN though, sometime Medicare won't cover just because you sign that stupid paper.  They say you signed saying you knew it wouldn't be covered, therefore they won't pay. Where it should be, you will pay if it isn't covered.  Make sure you check the exact wording of the ABN.

Oh thanks for the heads up.  Really I would rather pay the $2000.00 up front and *not* sign anything.  I'm not sure why they don't think osteoarthritis is a co-morbidity.  Anyway I'm not sure  what I should be looking for as far as the actual phase. 

FYI  my surgery got scheduled for July 19.  Woo Hoo On to get my knees replaced!  (which is really what this is all about)

I'd see if your knee surgeon would sign something saying that you need to lose weight BEFORE your knee replacement, because the replacements won't be as effective without the DS. And Medicare did consider my osteoarthritis as a co-morb, back 6+ years ago. (And losing weight has worked SO well for me that I still haven't had the knee replacements done!)