Anyone in NC with Medicare as their insurer????

Good morning to everyone from North Carolina... I am wondering if I can get some help in a sense.. When I started the process I was on medicaid... when my SSA disability started, I lost my medicaid.. my Medicare starts on September 1, 2006. I was wanting to know if anyone had surgery using medicare as their insurer... and what was their experience? My doctor is Dr. Chapman in Greenville, NC.. My process has kinda of been in limbo for a few months... Need to drop the last 6 pounds doctor required and get the situation with payment source ironed out... Any information would be greatly appreciated... Nelle

(raising my hand here) I fought private insurance for over a year (BCBS) for WLS coverage ... while waiting to qualify for Medicare via disability. Once I did qualify for Medicare, all of a sudden the ball started rolling in fast-motion. I qualified in January 2005, started pretesting that month and through February, got a date for March, and had surgery by March 30th, 2005. My experience with Medicare was excellent. I have AARP supplement as well, so everything was paid. I understand that since that time, Medicare's put some new qualifications in place (surgery required to take place in a "center of excellence", and other things I'm not up on), but I think most BS are aware of these things and making sure their practices fall within the guidelines. If you don't have Medicaid any longer, definitely get a supplemental insurance if you can do it to help with the "left-over" after Medicare. With Medicare being a federal program, rather than state, I would think the criteria is the same nation-wide. All the best and prayers your way! from Missouri Myra G