Lapband to DS waiting game.....how long was your wait??

Hi all! Ok,,,,my 3rd meeting with nutritionist is next week; sleep apnea came back negative; labs are within normal limits; passed my psych eval and met with my surgeon for the first time on Tues. He stated that he feels that I am a great candidate and need to get this band out and revise to DS. He was great! Answered all my questions;) They will be removing my gallbladder and appendix at the same time too. He stated they will be submitting my paperwork to insurance company. I have BCBS Fed which covers WLS....My question is...how long was your wait? I am just  a little anxious I guess....hope all is well with you guys;)

Hi,

I was a RNY to DS revision and it only too the insurance a few days to approve me once it was submitted. I have United Healthcare PPO. I think the waiting time is all over the place. Ask the surgeon's office to keep on top of it and call to make sure they got all the paper work, etc... I am sure they are doing this already but it does not hurt to ask.

Best of luck! Terri

I was lucky and it was only two weeks to get the insurance approval.  Not only keep on the surgeon's office, but call your insurance company yourself to find out the status and to see if they will require any other tests before approval.

Pretty good songs from that band, Thin Lizzie!

From my first call to the ins. company to completing all surgeon and ins company screening appointments until the paperwork was submitted to the ins company was 33 days. I got dates from every screening doc I had to see to find out when the results would be at the surgeons and I followed up with every provider to make sure they were meeting the dates they set. Had one problem with the psych, after missing the first date and seriously lame excuses, they told me it would be another 3 days. I told them their behavior was unacceptable and got the report that day.( I am a manager with 10 direct reports and manage a pool of 20 field service techs, if your going to make an excuse about not doing something you made a commitment to do, it better be a good one and verifiable.)

I called the ins co. the day after the paperwork was completed and submitted to make sure they received it and they had everything they required to make a decision. I got names every time I called and I kept notes. I called the ins every 2 days and updated my surgeons office with info I thought was relevant/noteworthy. in 7 business days from paperwork submittal, I had a decision in my favor for the DS surgery.

Total wait time from first call to ins co. to decision was 40 days! now i have another 27 days to wait until I have the actual surgery. the bummer is it will be on 11/29 so I get to watch all my family and in-laws eat the turkeys I'll be frying this year while I eat protein shakes and other wonderful liquids, Hmmm, turkey gravy is a liquid....cranberry jelly is almost a liquid...

Thank you all for replying;) @Texas, I thought I was being on top of it! LOL, you put me to shame;) I will call Monday morning to find out about things. The Dr. sounded pretty confident that we could shoot for December..which I am great with. I also was thinking that cranberry sauce is liquid,lol. I know it sucks to be getting surgery around the Holiday season but I took a step back and said to myself..."you want the surgery? or you want to start your new life".....didn't have to think much more of that! Thank you again...I am sure I will be posting with my results!

Thin Lizzie,

My doc wanted me to commit to surgery on 11/12 but my sis is getting married on the 17th. The doc said that was too soon to travel out of town so that blew that surgery date. My mother in law and sister law are coming in on 11/18 and will be at our house until 11/27. I will not be at home in recovery while they are here, good people and they are both home care nurses but that just isn't going to work for me at all. So I have the chance to get surgery earlier but good reasons not too. Holidays don't bother me. I can sit out one holiday meal to work on being thin and then every day for the rest of my life will be a holiday that I can enjoy my family, and new found self respect that comes with the ability to fully participate in my life and the lives of my loved ones again. I can't wait. I still get to deep fry 4-5 turkeys for coworkers and family so I'll still play the roll of rockstar chef. My daughter will be home from culinary school and I'll make sure the spotlight in shined on her. I bet they don't teach deep frying turkeys at Le Cordon Bleu.

Can't wait to hear about your results!

Hi!  i went from lapband to DS and it my approval took about 3weeks....maybe less cause i was really shocked how quick i was approved.  i have aetna insurance.  i had my surger october 25, 2012 :)

Your reply gives me hope. I had lapband in 07 and trying to get revision to dswitch. One more appt with nutricionist and dr will send in paperwork to ins co. Im worried to death they wont approve me.

After all of my nutritionist vists were done, my paperwork was turned in and I got the call about 10 days later that I was approved!   I go in to start my pre-op Tuesday and the following Tuesday (13th) is my surgery day.

Hope you hear something soon!

 

Thank you for your replies;) I am thrilled to hear 10 days to 3 weeks...not bad really when some people have been waiting for so long.

I called my surgeon's office and they are going to submit paperwork to insurance after my last entry with the nutritionist....which is this Friday;) I cannot wait to hear from you all about your experiences and achievements;) Please friend me if you want to be buds....I know I can use all the support I can get. It feels good to have others going through the same thing;) Have a wonderful day!