Went to my surgeon today

Hi everyone... I went to my surgeon today, they finally got the results for the sleep study.... I had to take a quiz... (that's what they called it) to make sure I understood the surgery... When I went into his office, he took a before pic we spoke a while, he gave me paperwork and said that I had to bring it with me the day of my pretesting...told me that i had all the testing done that i needed to do and all my paperwork was in order and that I had to go into the office to his right to schedule a surgery date... My heart was racing, I was so excited, i couldnt get into that office fast enough... When I sat down, we went through all the paperwork, but when we got to the insurance part, she said, oh no, not GHI.... she explained to me that she had to mail all my paperwork to them because they dont want it faxed, and that it could take 3 weeks to 6 months for them to approve or disapprove, and that she couldnt schedule a date until she got the approval letter.... then she told me not to worry because she doesnt take no for an answer and that she will appeal over and over until they approve... that depressed me so much when she said that, because to me it sounded like she knows I not going to get approved. I do know that she knows what I'm going through, because she's had wls also, and she and the whole staff are great people, not to mention Dr. Cooperstone is a great person also. I have 6 months supervised diet, sleep study, blood work, psych eval and ekg... so if they deny, I dont think i will have a chance... I am so upset right now... the wait is going to kill me... the thing is, even if I want to call the ins co to check on the status, I wouldnt know how to go about doing it, and if I do call to check approval status, will it hurt my chances of getting approved? now what do I do?

gia ill tell you what to do.... leave it all in ferns hands she is totally a magician she works wonders with the insurance companys and as long as you have the six month supervised diet you will have no problem....if you need to you can call her and talk to her... you know she had the surgery so you know she understands she will not let you down i can promise that please email me at [email protected] if you have any questions...i agree with you i love dr cooperstone with all my heart and soul hes my knight in shining armor and he gave me my life back as he will give you yours...... much luck and sucess to you please feel free to email me..... stacy -90

I have been told by a few people that you want to give your insurance about a week and then start calling to check the status. Keep them on their heels. For both times (first denial, then approval), I had waited 72 hours and called and they had had an answer for me both times. If you don't call, then it's possible things will get lost.

Gia, so sorry to hear about this....Sounds like you are looking at a RNY ? Have you thought about the DS ? You can go out of the country and get it done rather quickly for about 10-12K. Dr M is brilliant ! More and more people who CANNOT get their insuracne to cover the procedure are looking to Dr M and others who do it out of the country. Have you joined the DS list or even know about it ? Here are some links for you. (http://www)duodenalswitch.com/index.html [email protected] [email protected] F.A.Q. Frequently Asked Questions revised February 15, 2005 J. B. Marchesini, MD, FACS (http://)home.comcast.net/~gleppla1/MarFAQ.htm Good luck in getting results... Ginger <