Question:
Why is it so hard to find surgeons who will accept medicare?

   — lschesser (posted on April 26, 2007)

April 25, 2007
Medicare has stricter requirements and that is probably why. You need to find a surgeon at a "center of Excellence" Very Very important. Medicare will only pay for surgeries done at a center of excellence. you can go to this website and search for a surgeon in your area that is at a center of excellence. http://www.asbs.org/html/about/membersearch2.html I would start there with your search. I hope this helps.
   — michelemcd

April 25, 2007
Unfortunately, Medicare and Medicaid are undergoing a huge change, and have therefore gotten more strict with their guidelines. Medicare has also reduced the payment even more on this surgery, which makes it difficult for the doctor to make ANY type of profit needed to stay in business. I would definately talk to other Medicare insureds in your neighborhood but most of all DON'T GIVE UP. You can make it happen! Good luck!
   — crystalsno

April 26, 2007
They are government insurances, tax payers contribute largely. The surgeons dont get paid very much to for Medicare and even less for Medicaid.
   — _blue_

April 26, 2007
Medicare will only pay for surgeons that are on the American Surgeons of Bariatric Surgery's Center of Excellence list. If you aren't going to one of the surgeons on that list, they won't pay. This went into effect Feb 2006 in order to keep people from going to fly by night surgeons or chain clinics for the surgery. I ended up changing surgeons midstream because of it, and ended up in a much better program in my opinion. Sure it wasn't as close to home but the reason they demand Doctors that are approved by the ASBS COE program is that they are surgeons who have done this surgery for a long time and have an excellent track record. You can find the list of approved surgeons in the state of GA at http://www.surgicalreview.org/locate.aspx?state=GA#srchResults the map at the top of the page is clickable for any state to search. If a doctor tells you that he's going to be added soon, don't believe it. My original surgeon said he'd be on it in a few months, and that was well over a year ago and he's still not. They take many different criteria into account and you're care will be excellent and your success will be more likely to be higher.
   — oceanrayne