Costs-please share - ThinnerTimes - Gastric Bypass Forum, Lap Band Forum, and Vertical Sleeve Gastrectomy Forum

princessmommy · 02-11-2009, 03:35 AM

I am going through this with a dear friend, if she doesn't back out!! We went to the seminar and she is now excited. We both know we will have some plastics done after. Neither of our insurances will pay the the WLS or Plastics. Would you please share the costs you incurred with plastics so we can save/make arrangements, etc???
Thanks so much.

MiladyB · 02-11-2009, 09:23 AM

Mine was over a year ago and my insurance covered most of it but I went back and looked up total charges for my breast lift and tummy tuck (which included the tightening of muscles). The cost also included the removal of a lipoma that was in one of my breasts. I was in the hospital for 3 nights due to ALOT of nausea and ALOT of bleeding during OR. Plus DH came down with the gastric flu and none of my docs wanted me to go home. Normally it would have been a 2 night stay.

Physician: $10,278.00
Hospital/OR: $16,981.88
Anesthesia: $2,436

Total cost was: $29,695.88

I also recently had a quote from my plastic surgeon for an arm lift. The quote he gave me was about $6000 total cost (Physician/OR/Hospital) That would be an Out-pt procedure.

princessmommy · 02-11-2009, 12:44 PM

Thank you for taking the time to look all the info up. That is a bundle. I also noticed you had surgery --gall bladder, etc. My friend has no insurance. This would be insurmountable for her. I have insurance...it just will pay for nothing dealing with WLS or plastics. Get those arms done!!! i bet you will love the results.

MiladyB · 02-11-2009, 01:56 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by princessmommy

Thank you for taking the time to look all the info up. That is a bundle. I also noticed you had surgery --gall bladder, etc. My friend has no insurance. This would be insurmountable for her. I have insurance...it just will pay for nothing dealing with WLS or plastics. Get those arms done!!! i bet you will love the results.

Yes, I did have to have my gallbladder removed a little more than 2 years after my RNY. Insurance covered all but $450 of that surgery. The bile duct stricture was a complication from the gallbladder problems. Neither was a direct complication from the RNY but indirectly from the rapid weight loss. Thankfully the insurance covered all of the treatment from the stricture. That would have been pricey since I was in and out of the hospital every 2 weeks for 7 weeks as an outpatient. Only other complication I have had post RNY was a very small ulcer found when they scoped me. They were looking for the reason for my abdominal pain. Turned out to be my gallbladder.

The plastic surgery is pricey, plus I needed to be off from work for 6 weeks. I didn't have short term disability, so needed to have enough vacation time to cover it. I'm an RN so my PS wasn't too excited to have me go back before then due to the lifting restrictions. I also work in a pretty high infection unit so he also wanted my incisions pretty healed up before working. It was well worth the $3000 that I needed to come up with out-of-pocket but if insurance hadn't covered a lot of it, it would have been out of reach for me.

The arms? Well they are still up for debate. I'm not ready to take out a loan to cover the cost so right now I'm seeing if I can save up the money. Cost for me would be about $5200. My plastic surgeon is a physician at the hospital that I work. He takes care of a lot of the patients on the Burn Center, where I work and was generous enough to give me a 25% discount off from his charge.

narf852 · 02-11-2009, 02:13 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MiladyB

Mine was over a year ago and my insurance covered most of it but I went back and looked up total charges for my breast lift and tummy tuck (which included the tightening of muscles). The cost also included the removal of a lipoma that was in one of my breasts. I was in the hospital for 3 nights due to ALOT of nausea and ALOT of bleeding during OR. Plus DH came down with the gastric flu and none of my docs wanted me to go home. Normally it would have been a 2 night stay.

Physician: $10,278.00
Hospital/OR: $16,981.88
Anesthesia: $2,436

Total cost was: $29,695.88

I also recently had a quote from my plastic surgeon for an arm lift. The quote he gave me was about $6000 total cost (Physician/OR/Hospital) That would be an Out-pt procedure.

Hi, I have this idea that I would love some feedback on it. Has anyone ever thought about getting in touch with the TV programs (who only cater to WLS and extra skin. For example. the show "Big Medicine") I wonder if the patient agreed to have it done with cameras in the operating rooms so everyone could see the procedure, maybe the doctors would do your procedure "pro-bono"!!!!!!!! What do you think? Thanks Fran

MiladyB · 02-11-2009, 02:23 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by narf852

Hi, I have this idea that I would love some feedback on it. Has anyone ever thought about getting in touch with the TV programs (who only cater to WLS and extra skin. For example. the show "Big Medicine") I wonder if the patient agreed to have it done with cameras in the operating rooms so everyone could see the procedure, maybe the doctors would do your procedure "pro-bono"!!!!!!!! What do you think? Thanks Fran

Actually there is someone who periodically posts on here who was featured on "The Doctors". She had the works done all free of charge. She lives in LA and had gone to one of the surgeons on the program for a consultation. But sadly I don't live any where near LA and have already had the MAJOR problem areas taken care of. I did try to talk my PS into doing my surgery for PR sake but it didn't float. *LOL* All I could get out of him was a 25% discount.

CanuckDiva · 02-12-2009, 02:23 PM

I am about to have plastix done in 2 weeks:

Feb 27 - Tummy Tuck $7,738. (paid by me).

Feb 27 - Breast Lift/Reduction covered by provincial coverage (@ 5k) but I paid $1060. extra that was not covered toward some lipo they do under the arm so you don't get bulging boobs - $6,060.

I am going to have a thigh lift done too in about 6 months or so and that will cost: $5775. (paid by me)

Total: $19,573. ---- $14,573. (paid by me), $5,000 (paid by insurance)

Hugs,
Kimberly

cali4ialuv · 02-17-2009, 01:27 PM

I just had an extended abdominoplasty on 1/30/09. (Including muscle tightening) And the total cost was $5,195. Outpatient surgical facility in LaMesa CA. The surgeon and staff were great. (Dr. Sarosy) Very intense pain, a lot of swelling, but results are dramatic already. I'm back at work today after just 2 weeks from surgery. Only regret is not taking more time off. (I still can't stand straight up.) Can't wait for the final results. Dropped ten pounds in one week. 6 pounds of skin removed from abdomin. Good luck!

SDphotogrl99 · 08-27-2009, 09:45 PM

T Tummy Tuck with 7 inch Hernia repair
Arm lift
Impants (gel)
total cost 14,850.

He gave me a deal on the TT and the hernia repair and got the cost down from 21000 to 14850. He knew I would be getting a LBL later on and I was going to get ther hernia fixed by Kaiser. He would rather do it all himself so it is done they way he wants it so he lowered the price to make it worth it for me.

http://www.seifymd.com/

Tell them Holly sent you.

nchaka · 08-28-2009, 06:01 AM

Have you looked into donating the extra skin for burn victims(if its possible). Maybe it will cover some of the costs.