Anyone had medicare Insurance?

Has anyone had medicare insurance for this surgery, and if so, how hard is it to get them to approve the surgery? Do you need to have any supervised diets?

Hi Virginia, I have medicare/blue care cross over. My medicare is A & B, I haven't had to go thru any insurance hassles yet, but Ihave talked with them, and all I need according to them is to be pre certified. Since I have met my deductable. Anything that they don't pay, Blue Care picks up the balance. My hospital part is basically covered 100%. Even if they only pay 80%, my Blue Care picks up the 20%. Both, medicare and Blue Care gave me surgeon's names that accept both insurances and does the surgery. From what I have read under insurers, approval is after the first letter. Best of luck to you on your journey. Let me know how it goes with Medicare. Kathy

Medicare would not tell me if they would cover the surgery or not - they said they would have to wait until AFTER the surgery to decide. My secondary insurance is BCBS-Federal and they told me they would cover it even if Medicare wouldn't. However, when I went to the seminar at Centennial Medical Center they told me that as long as you met the criteria (40+ BMI, or 100lbs over weight, or 35+ BMI and 1 co-morbidities) Medicare would cover the surgery. My surgeons office doesn't accept medicare assignment so my BCBS will have to cover them. But my hospital bill will be covered 100%. My BMI is 46 with 3 co-morbidities and I got approved, per the hospital, in less than 2 weeks. Have you picked a surgeon yet? If not, go to a seminar and you'll get plenty of info there. May God bless you. Jeanette