mac409

Wanted to correct the information I gave you about medicare costs. It seems as the hospitol and medicare have an agreed upon price which is much lower than the bill price. Medicare pays about $12,ooo which leaves a copay of about $1,200 for the stay. The surgeon in my case charged about $6,000 and I assume he has a similar agreement to accept a lower payment from medicare so the co pay will be ? based on thier agreement. The anesthesia doc charged $2400 and I have not found out what he accutauly gets paid by medicare. The good thing is you pay your co pay based on the amount medicare pays the doctor or hosp. Hope this helps, sorry for the wrong information on my last post.

bebop

this one dr office I called said they have an agreement with medicare and the fee is like 2800.00 with all the fees. then I would have to pay all that up front and be reimbursed by medicare since they are not a preferred dr on the list. anyway I am going to call the one you told me about. good to know the rooms are large and hubby can stay with me. he would not feel safe and would really get lost in Atlanta. lol poor guy. he is from kansas lol

bebop

does dr hobson have a website? or maybe the name of the practice?

mac409

Call them check it out, they still have not billed me. They do a lot of medicare patients, so they know how to bill and get paid. I know you will like the care you get both with the doctors and in the hospitol. Do call and find out when the next meeting is so you will be ready when you get your medicare. Good luck and keep in touch. Bernadette

mac409

http://www.peachtreebariatrics.com/ is the website for the Doctors.

bebop

I know I am being a pain in the butt here lol sorry bout that. I am looking at that site and don't see the dr that did your surgery. how long has it been for you? also you spoke about supplimental insurance. my dh has insurance on me right now but they do not cover wls. errrrr I am also on disability due to workman's comp injury.

mac409

Glad to answer any questions, and your not a pain. Peachtree surgial and bariatric is the group. Dr Duncan is the main surgeon, Dr Hobson, and thier is a female doctor named Rashied. The last two doctors due most of the medicare patients and Dr Duncan also does plastic surgery, he is also on Tv not sure what show. They do most of thier surgery at Atlanta Medical center, but do some surgery at other hospitols, mainly for insurance reasons. Atlanta Medical and Kennestone are two of the hospitols that are centers of Execellence witch medicare requires you to go to. I can not open the site at the moment on my computer so I don't know where Dr Hobson is listed.

bebop

oh ok. so they do operate at kennestone also? that would be cool I think. although both are pretty far from me! dang it! lol yeah I can't open the site right now either. something about band width lol

mac409

Didn't answer all your questions. I had my surgery Jan 24, 2008 about 7 weeks ago. So I am rather new at this too. When you get medicare you can pick a gap insurance to cover your deductable and co pays. This insurance will only cover the copays on medicare covered expensives, so if medicare does not cover the service neither does the other insurance. When I was looking last year they told me only Bankers Fiedelty would provide me with this gap insurance because of my age and my workmens claim. Not sure if it is still the same.

mac409

Dr Smith is the doctor that does it at Kennestone, and he is an excellent doctor too. He does have charges not covered by medicare that have to be paid before surgery. He stopped taking medicare for a few months but has just started to take it again, He does the DS and is the only one in this region that does. He has his own website and group site. The Advanced Obesity Surgery Center, Comprehensive Laparoscopic Bariatric Surgery, Specializing in Laparoscopic Duodenal Switch Procedure But check with him and see what they say about medicare and payments to make sure my information is up to date.
Also join his online support group they have a lot of good information and meet three times a month in Marietta. I have been in kennestone hosp twice once on the womens floor and it was alright and once on the orthopetic which was a horable experence. In my opinion Atlanta Medical is a much better place.