How Long Did It Take

    Hey Everyone!!!  I'm new at all of this.  I'm curious how long did it take to get everything done before your it was sent in to your insurance company?   My next question is once you were approved by your insurance company how long did you have to wait for your surgery?  I'm still trying to get everything accomplished for the insurance.  Sometimes I feel like I'm fighting a losing battle.

This is so case sensitive because every Dr has different requirements AND they know what each insurance requires so they are going to cover all the bases before submitting.

I had to go through a 6 month weight monitoring program before anything was submitted. once all the tests were completed it was nearly 9 months total before submission.

I got a date imediately after approval, and it took about a week for approval.

It is very different for each person... my insurance would not cover my surgery so I self paid , all my doctor required was a psyco appt, a health check from my primary doctor and nurtritionst visit.... took me about 3 weeks from start to finish ( of course I tried to get the insurance to pay for 2 months before ) .....  Everything really falls on the insurance company,, once they say YES you can get scheduled for all the before checks and be on your way. Trust me it is worth all the hassel  Good Luck

Hi Leeann--  Good luck with your journey! i have Dr. Bauman as well.  After everything was submitted for insurance it took a couple of weeks for it to be reviewed by Dr. B and sent to insurance.   Once insurance approved me (which took only 3 days), I was called and my surgery date was scheduled for two weeks later!   These two weeks sped by!

Hi Leeann -

I know it can be frustrating and feel like you may never see the light at the end of the winding tunnel, but you will. As others before me have said, it really depends on what your Dr. requires, the process that there office uses, and what your insurance requires. So it varies, not only from practice to practice, but also from patient to patient because the insurance companies and individual policies can have such wide ranging requirements. Like Holley, my insurance requires a 6 month physician supervised weight loss attempt, so that was part of my requirement. During that time, I did the application and the tests done. Once that was done, I saw my provider and they transcribed all of the notes and prepared the package for insurance. Once submitted to my insurer, they had up to 3 weeks to repond with a 'determination' or approval. I got that about 2 weeks later. Once I got that I got my surgery date which was about a month later. So all-in-all it took about 9 months from the time I started to surgery. My husband is going through the same process.

Hang in there.

Barb

It's different for each doctor and insurance company. I saw my surgeon for an initial visit in November, my surgery date is 4-4. 

I went to the surgeon in Sept of 2005, my information was sent to insurance of Jan 2006... I had to fight denials and was finally approved in April 06, the first open surgery date was June 06... so 9 months from start to finish.

Hi Leann, I am having the Lap Band this Thursday with Dr. Bauman.  I have BCBS NC, and everything was submitted on a Thursday and I was approved the next Tuesday.  I know how it feels to be patient, but once everything is signed off on by Dr., it is really fast after that.   Everyone here is wonderful and helpful, it is really like a extended family.  I dont know what type of surgery you a planning, but if you have any questions, please do not hestiate to ask.....

Hi Leeann! First of all WELCOME! I began my serious inquiries with a first doctor's appointment in Nov 06 and had my surgery in July 07.  My insurance company was one of the "toughies" to get approval from and I also had to go through a 6 month supervised weight loss pregram before we could submit.  After submission adn all the prereqs were met, it took about 3 weeks for insurance to approve.  Once approval was granted, the surgeon was ready to operate within 10 days!  I had him wait a few weeks so I could get my ducks in a row at home.  This is indeed the most tedious part and sometimes the most frustrating part as the insurance companies often pose a lot of hurdles to approving this surgery.  The time has flown by and the pounds off with it since then!

Hi Leann!

I have Dr. Bauman as well.  Have you had your consult yet?  If not, I would suggest getting it all done before the consult.  When I went to see him on March 3rd, he checked off everything I had right there and put it in the computer.  One test was missing.  If it had not been, they would have submitted it all the next day to the insurance company.  My insurance request for approval was submitted on March 12th and it was approved on March 13th.  I could have had surgery this week or next, but because of my work schedule, I am going to have to wait to May 6th.  One further suggestion is that I would call them. They are very busy and sometimes it helped when I would call.  I got to know Amy in their office pretty well....lol.  If you have it all at the consult though, your turn around time will be quick because he checks it all right there with you in the consultation appt. instead of the weeks it normally takes for review.  I wish you the best of luck, and welcome to the board! JamieLynn