gastric by pass and medicare

I'm thinking about the gastric bypass surgery, however I'm just short of a BMI of 40 (6 pounds short) and Medicare says that if you have a BMI of 35 or more with one qualifying commodity and at least 6 months of medically supervised weight loss treatment they will cover some of it. Does anyone know if they will cover some of it if you have a BMI of 40 without any commodities and without the 6 month supervised weight loss treatment. I have sleep apnea but Medicare won't accept that because it is only in rem sleep, I have boarder line high blood pressure which I take water pills for and boarder line high cholesterol which I take meds for. Since the meds are taking care of these things and they are only boarder line  I'm worried Medicare won't pay some of the cost. If Medicare would pay some even just a little of it my other insurance will pay the rest. But if Medicare says it's not medically necessary my other insurance won't pay for any of it. If anyone has been through this with Medicare and can offer any insight I would be happy to hear about it. Thanks

Most insurance companies won't pay for WLS if your BMI is less than 40 unless you also have comorbidities.  Medicare is different than many insurance companies because they do not pre-approve WLS.  They just tell you what their criteria is and you have surgery and the surgeon and the hospital submit the bills.  If you met the criteria, they pay the bills (you would have to pay 20% of most things under Medicare Part B).  If you did not meet the criteria, they do not pay and you are responsible for the full cost.

You can call the 800-Medicare number and ask about comorbidities.   But if you don't have any, then they aren't going to pay for WLS if your BMI is under 40.

thanks for the info