question for southern surgical bcbs nc patients

wanting to hear some of your experiences............. how long after your last evaluation (cardio,pulminary, psych. eval, etc.)  before you got an answer from bcbs nc approving you for surgery??? thanks so much!

three days from the time the doctor's office sent the paperwork. 

I didnt use southern surgical but did have BCBS... when my paperwork was submitted they took 30 days to send their first reponse. I went into this knowing I would have to fight and it took me 4 months to get approval thru them.

I went to the education class at SS on July 6, had my preop appointments, finished those middle of Sept, met with Dr. MacDonald on Oct 1 which is when they told me I was already pre-approved! No waiting period and we scheduled my surgery that day!!  I thought they have to send something off, but if you are with state health plan of BCBS NC, then b/c SS is a "Center of Excellence" they are almost always approved before your surgeon appointment.  This is what the people at SS told me when I asked. I went from education class on July 6 to surgery on October 11... Not too bad I don't think! Good luck and feel free to join our support groups at SS on the first Wednesday of every month. Welcome to the NC forum! :)

Ditto on what Mindy said... My visit with Dr. Mac was on the December 11th.  They went ahead and sheduled me then and I got an approval letter from BSBS in 2 days.  Insurance should be the least of your worries if you have BCBS.  Good luck!

Good luck hon! Sounds like you shoud have no problems getting your approval!