DiZneDiVa asked me yesterday why I go to Denver. I've gotten a few new followers lately, so I'll just do a whole post about that.
Bottom line is that I'm self pay. My insurance has a specific exclusion for WLS, so there was literaly no hope that it would be paid for. Didn't matter how much I weighed, what comorbids I had. No insurance. Because of that, it took me about a year and a half to get the money together to make this happen. During that time, I researched docs.
I live close to both Lincoln and Omaha, NE. Both cities have really good band doctors. The doc in Lincoln wanted about $17K, the doc in Omaha was around $16K. I considered going to Mexico for surgery at a cost of about $8K, but my hubby was REALLY uncomfortable with that idea.
I found Dr Kirshenbaum in Denver through Lap Band Talk. His patients seemed very happy with him. His whole deal is that he tries to make his cost reasonable enough to keep people from going to Mexico. Dr K charged me just a tad under $10K. My fills during the first 3 months are free, and then subsequent fills are $25 (Robin, did you see that went up from $15?).
I definitely looked into aftercare here at home with the same docs I looked at for surgery, but it was more expesive than going to Denver. The docs in Lincoln wanted $250 ($350 for flouro) for a fill, the docs in Omaha want about the same, but with $1000 buy in first. I can fly to Denver, rent a car, and fly back in the same day for about $175. So that's what I'm doing. Plus, I get to see my orginal surgeon.
Since doing all this, I've come to realize there's a band doc in Grand Island that I never looked into. I still really haven't priced them. However, GI is about a 2 1/2 hour drive, so I don't know how much easier that would be, really. I'd still have to find childcare for the whole day (my kids are too little to handle that much time in the car), and I'd spend a lot more time actually "traveling," which I wouldn't be thrilled about.
So, thus far, it seems that going back to Dr K in Denver is still my best bet. I really like him, so I'm not really complaining. The hassle is just tiresome sometimes.
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Kim.. I thought it was still $15 for cash; $25 for credit card. I know that changed some time last fall; has it changed again?
ReplyDeletei just talked to my doctor's office about what will happen when i switch insurances and the new carrier doesn't cover bariatric stuff...they said that for fills i would get switched to the self pay price...50 bucks for the office visit and 100 bucks for the fill iself, i thought that was ok until i read this! 25 bucks! damn...
ReplyDeleteYeah, as of May 1, it's now $25 for cash, $30 for credit card. I'm hoping he doesn't keep inching it up . . .
ReplyDeleteYeah, Carmen, Dr K's fill prices are really pretty good. But I think ALOT of his patients are out of towners (that's his whole schtick), so I think most of us are paying to travel there, too. It'd be GREAT if I lived in Denver!
ReplyDeleteHow rude that they didn't give any notice. (Hrmph, his website still says $15.) I think I'll rattle some cages when I go in two weeks!
ReplyDeleteYou do it Robin. Maybe get my rate reduced while you're at it!
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