Surgery Deposit?

I'm in the early preop phase of WLS and I'm getting a little worried.  I hope that maybe someone can answer my questions.  I have insurance that I'm pretty sure will pay the majority of bills, however, the Doc's office called yesterday and said I needed to send them a check for $455 to cover the cost of my endoscopy (the WL surgeon actually does the procedure himself) because I had not met my decuctible ($600, $2500 maximum coinsurance).  I said ok and I know that I'll be responsible for the portion that my insurance doesn't pay, but I didn't know I'd be hit with so much up front.  I had to pay $200 out of pocket (non-filable with insurance) for the "patient education class" and consultation to get started.  When she called about the $455, I asked her if there was going to be more large sums of money that I would have to come up with before the surgery would be preformed, she told me that a "surgery deposit" would be due when I get my date and that it would vary depending on "several factors".   I have saved about $1800 so far for non covered portions of this surgery and now over $650 of it is gone!  I'm so afraid that I'll run out of money and won't be able to pay this deposit crap after I've jumped thru hoops to get it approved!  Can anyone offer any guidance.  I thought about the various medical finance offers out there but I filed for bankruptcy about a year ago (a long story for another day!) and don't think I'd qualify.  I was hoping that the surgeon would file his charges after the hospital so my out of pocket would be satisfied and he'd get everything that's coming to him.  I'd then be able to work something out with the hospital for the balance, I've done that before with no issue.   Can anyone offer any experiences with this situation that may ease my mind?

Sorry I don't have any first hand advice on this b/c my surgeon did not charge me anything upfront. I got a bill after surgery for what was not covered and that's it. Every insurance and dr's office is different, but they should be willing to discuss any and all financial issues with you so I would call their office asap! I hope you can get things worked out~Good Luck with everything!!!!!!!

I didn't pay a dime out of pocket before surgery. even my psyc eval was covered under insurance. I had no "non insurance" bills either, I personally feel that those are just a rip off, another way for the surgeon to make money, so I made sure I didn't have that to pay.  You should be able to get the R&C for your surgery (reasonable and customary) that's what your insurance will pay. For example: surgery is $10,000. R&C is $4500. You have to pay 10% of your bill. So insuracne takes the $4500 and pays 90% of that and then you pay the other 10%. The surgeon writes off the rest!!! You may have a yearly deductible that you have to pay as well. So, if you've not met yours then know that if your surgery isn't before Jan. 1 you'll have to remeet your dedicutible. 

I had to pay a $2000 deposit with my surgeon two weeks prior to my surgery because even though my insurance had approved me and she was in-network, there seemed to be concern that my insurance was really going to pay.  At 6-8 weeks post-op, I received a refund check in the mail for $1927. Otherwise, my out of pockets were all after the fact and were co-pays for lab fees at the hospital. That came to less than $500.