Approval time

Can someone please tell me how long it took to find out you were approved for surgery. I went to Legacy Obesity Clinic today for my lab work and psych eval and tomorrow is my 4 evals. I was wondering if anyone knows how long from now until I know whether or not I will get approved for the surgery. Any info would definitely be appreciated. Thanks

Beka, Well, it's been about 5 years since I went through that whole rigamarole - but it took about 6 months for me. (And then, we found out that my insurance companies - yes, that's more than one - both of them! - had airtight exclusions for WLS, darn it!) The trippy part was that my insurance would cover all of the pre-op stuff - they just wouldn't cover surgery or follow-up. The stinkers. I will say that their office was horribly disorganized and not very with it - so hopefully that has improved over time. Honestly, I'm thankful now - in retrospect - that my insurance didn't cover, or I would have not found my wonderful surgeon! (I ended up self-paying.) Best of luck to you! Blessings, dina

Hi Beka: It looks like you have Blue Cross. I have Providence PEBB and can only tell you how it went for me. I met with the nurse practitioner at the surgeons office on February 21st. She referred me for a number of tests (psych eval, sleep study, etc.) It took about 6 weeks to get all that completed. I also had to lose 5% of my body mass (18 pounds for me). Once all that was done, the hospital submitted everything to the insurance company for approval. BUT....OOPS...they forgot to document the weight loss. I was denied the following day. So I faxed in the required info and submitted a letter asking them to reconsider approval. I was approved 3 days later (yesterday!). Surgery is scheduled for May 16th. Time invested to date: less than 2 months. I hope your process goes as smoothly.

I have regence blue cross and blue shield and am in the same boat as you are. Have you heard anything?