MEDICARE

HELLO ALL, DOES ANY ONE KNOW THE WEB ADDY FOR MEDICARE. I AM SO TIRED OF HOSPITAL GIVING ME THE RUN-A-ROUND ON IF I'M COVERED OR NOT.ALL MY TESTING IS DONE. JUST WAITING FOR A DATE. I KNOW MEDICARE COVERS IF IT IS MEDICALLY NECESSARY. AT 350 PLUS,IT IS. THEY KEEP TELLING ME THEY ARE WAITING FOR NEW GUIDELINES FROM MEDICARE. IF ANY ONE COULD HELP I WOULD APPRECIATE IT SO MUCH. THANKS ALL CAROL

Medicare is reviewing its coverage for gastric bypass surgery. I am hoping this means they will be more lenient in their coverage of this lifesaving surgery. My HMO coverage converts from individual plan to Medicare plan in November. I had to hire a lawyer to get my HMO to approve my surgery (they said my BMI was too high) and am now going through the slow process of pre-surgical classes, etc. Knowing my luck at times, Medicare will decide not to cover gastric bypass surgery any more now that I'm going to have Medicare coverage! I think Medicare's guidelines will be out in the next month or so. If you are worried about this, better to get it done sooner than later. Kix

This seems so strange to me ... I fought with BCBS for a solid year and got no where ... they denied coverage across the board. I went on Medicare January 1, 2005, and boom, boom, boom, I was seeing a surgeon for consult the next month, and surgery the next. No problems, smooth sailing. I was 430 at surgery, and that may be why, but I honestly didn't have a ripple with Medicare. Have AARP as well, so they picked up the differences. Best wishes on this, my surgeon's office did all the pre-auth's so I don't know where you'd turn otherwise, but the website is www.medicare.gov Myra

They are giving you a bunch of bull, I am on Medicare and Medicare first of all will cover ANYTHING if medically nesessary, AND they will NOT preauthorize,,,,there are no new guidlines,,,they guidelines for WLS were implimented last year. I am scheduled for mine on 11-8 Good luck Vee www.medicare.gov ............. this is the webiste,,you can read it for yourself, or print it out for your doc