Horrible! Just Horrible!

You are not going to believe this! I called my insurance company today to check and see how much longer it was going to be before they either approved me or denied me for the surgery because it has been since September. They informed me that they don't have anything submitted for me to get the surgery. I am just ill right now. All this time 7 weeks waiting and the letter was never submitted. I have emailed the Dr.s office several times in the last two weeks trying to get information and nobody will write back. I hate to call up there and bother them but now I am upset. I was trying to get this done by the end of the year due to my deductible are being met. I feel just horrible!

I would call the Dr's office up and let them know that your insurance company has not received any paperwork yet and that you need to get this done asap.  Is it your personal dr or the surgeon dr who has not sent it in yet?  I know with my personal dr I had to call several times and I even had made an appt once just so I could talk to my personal dr one on one about the paperwork that still needed to be sent in (to my surgeon though not my insurance) and had her send it in while I was there *grin* because I was tired of waiting.  Make sure when you call you have your insurance number and fax number handy and give it to your dr, just in case they "forgot" it.  That's what I did.  Good luck and I hope they get this sorted out so that you can get your surgery in before the year is up..

It is the surgeons office that did not submit the paperwork after I spoke with them personally and they asked me if I wanted them to go ahead and submit the paperwork because the doctor was filling up fast. It just blows my mind. I am really upset. My doctor will approve with no problem so I know they werent the hold up they are superb. I am just so ready and excited to get this done. I went to the support group meeting last night and everyone is so excited and happy that has already had theirs done and I am ready to be one of those happy bubbly people.

I agree.  Make the call.  E-mail isn't reliable. Good luck & hang in there!!

I certainly understand you desire to want to get this done and become a post-op.  I had medicare and I had originally went for surgery Sept of 2005 and was sent home because I had not quit smoking, well anyway by the time I quit smoking, it was Feb 2006 and I redid my bloodwork to have surgery (again) and that was when medicare decided that the hospital and surgeons had to be centers of excellence before they will pay for the surgery and so I had to wait and finally had my surgery Aug 2007, so I had to wait almost 2 years.  I would definitly keep calling your surgeon's office, until they get it all done.  Even though the surgeons are always so busy now and hard to get a hold of before surgery, I promise you will not have any trouble getting ahold of them after surgery.  I had Dr Baker, and it was near impossible to get ahold of anyone in his office, I would call sometimes everyday for 2 weeks before someone would call me back, but now if I call, I usually talk to someone, or someone calls me back the next day.

My surgeon is Dr. Rex Luttrell and I've got to say his office has been great.  Every time I've called, i've directly talked to Chyrl (the office manager) if I've needed to talk to her, or Erin (the nurse) if I've needed to talk to her.  They sent in paperwork immediately on everything and have been very supportive.  My lap-band is scheduled for Tuesday, and I think the surgeon's office has been the best part of this whole scenario thus far.  Erin is like a cheerleader!