Question:
will Medicaid and Medicare pay for the surgery?

   — Connie H. (posted on January 16, 2005)

January 16, 2005
I am going thru the same thing. there is a dr in montgomery,AL Dr williams that accepts medicade, 334-265-9225. I have talked with several that have used him said he was good. and highly recomended him. Medicare will pay for it because they say that obisty is a desise. I am waitting on my medicare to start in dec. untill then i am doing the atleast 6 months weight and diet that is required now by all insurances, that is supervised thru a dr. I am also doing the sleep aptnia testing I am doing what ever i need to so that when dec gets here ill have it all ready. I hope this helped some.
   — susan P.

January 16, 2005
I have medicare. But I have a supplement to it. I have Humana Gold Classic. Medicare will pay but it is hard to get them to. Not all docotrs will do the surgery if all you have is medicare or medicaid. The docotrs don't always get paid from either one.I am SO much better luck with Humana Gold Classic ( it is free if you have medicare). It is my primary & medicare is my secondary.I have my phych eval on the 21st & that is all that humana is waiting on. So hopefully by the end of Feb early March I'll be on the losing side ..Go to www.humana.com & see if it is available in your state. I know that when I was using just medicaid, they DO require 18 consecutive months of documented diets with your DR. You can not miss a month or you have to start all over.
   — yellow T.

January 16, 2005
I had surgery on Dec 20th, 2004 covered by Kentucky Medicaid. The only thing I had to pay for was a $40.00 nutrition class, all else 100% covered!
   — elainefryman

January 17, 2005
Hi, I am also on Medicaid and what I have been doing is looking up doctors that do take medicaid. When I found a doctor that did I went to their name and web site and looked at what other people had to say about them and their credentials. I called several placed in Louisville and Lexington and decided on Dr. D. Blaine Nease in Huntington West, Virginia. When I called I talked to Sylvia and she said Yes he does take Ky. Medicaid. I liked what I read about him and them I looked up Medicaid on his site the people that had been approved by medicaid. I only found one person that was denied. The rest were approved most of them after their first letter. ObesityHelp.com has been a lifesaver to me. I have learned everything I know here on this web site. I hope I am as fortunate as everyone else and hope I get approved. Good luck Judy Morris
   — Judy 52

January 17, 2005
I had my open RNY in November, 2003. It took over a year to get approval as I am on straight Medicaid. I had to pay about $150 for the psychiatrist evaluation. But other than that, I just had to have patience. Good luck.... Barbara
   — StarWish624

January 17, 2005
I have Medicare and Medical(Medicaid in California), and I was approved within 4 days of my surgeon submitting the request for me to have the surgery. I had out of pocket expenses for the nutrition class and the psych evaluation, but that is all. Medicare has a list of co-morbidities that you must have at least some of before they will approve the surgery.
   — [Deactivated Member]

January 18, 2005
I have medicade and had no extr expenses everything was covered and approved right away
   — Stacy F.