Will medicare pay for excess skin removal after gastric bypass surgery?

Answer 1

Medicare will pay for it if it is "medically necessary", such as rashes, back discomfort etc. Get on your local obesity help webite OBESITYHELP.COM and open the link to plastic surgeons or just ask a question from the board in your state and get answers and referals to surgeons who accept medicare.I have had both Gastric Bypass, and (as of date) one surgery (an abdominalplasty) to remove excess skin. Unlike many bypass patients my weightloss was VERY slow. In addition I was under 30 years old. I drank a lot and followed instrunctions carefully. Despite all of these "anti skin sagging" busters I have much excess skin - EVERYWHERE. I also have medicare.

I found that Medicare will pay for surgeries to remove skin. You HAVE to make sure that you get a surgeon who is willing and knows how to deal with Medicare. It is not an easy process and it can be a long process. I was lucky enough to have a surgeon who performed the first (of what will have to be many) surgery while we fought. Medicare approved (tentetively) at first. We were informed that only ONE proceedure at a time could be done i.e stomach, thighs, etc. and that all the billing codes must be perfect. After the surgery they denied the claim however. We had to appeal and finally won. It is not easy BUT it can be done and is being done more and more everyday.