Question.

What order did you all do things in? For example, I talked to my doctor, then he sent the letter to the insurance company. Should I have requested the testing before approval from my insurance, or does that come after? God Bless, Tiffany.

My Journey: I asked my PCP to refer me to the surgeon I wanted to use. She referred me and then wrote a Letter of Medical Necessity to the surgeon. I met with the surgeon who then ordered all necessary pre-op testing. Once he received all of those results, his office sent the request to insurance.

With my surgeon, first there was the initial visit to see I qualified as a candidate for the surgery, then the office staff set up the appointments for the Nutritional Evaluation, the Psychological Evaluation, and the Sleep Studies. After the reports from all these came back favorable, and I had submitted a letter of referral from my PCP to the surgeon's office, they submitted my paperwork to the insurance company. I have to commend my surgeon's staff, as they did stay right on top of things. When I visited him for the first time, I was told up front that it may take three to four months, maybe longer, to get everything scheduled and completed before the actual surgery could be scheduled, so I pretty much knew what to expect. From what I have read on here and on the main board, though, it seems that some surgeons do things differently, such as scheduling the surgery, then getting all the other stuff done before then, and even before knowing if there will be an approval. This seems a little backward to me, but (shrug) who's to say, huh? Personally, I would want to know that eerything would be covered by the insurance BEFORE having any of the preliminaries done. But, that's just me.