On the edge of giving in. I am soo disappointed in my bariatric advocate!!!

Get copies of all your records and handle it yourself. There is no one that is going to advocate for you like you can.... My insurance started asking for copies of things so I faxed them myself, followed up almost every day and advised them that I have every medical record for the past 5 years and if they needed it to contact me. I was approved the day I told them that...lol

If your "advocate" doesn't get folks approved, her Dr has no surgeries to do and goes broke.  It is to their benefit to make sure folks get approved, not denied.  Maybe she is new and doesn't know all the insurance companies yet.  I knew at my first visit exactly what my insurance company needed and as soon as it was all done, I was approved.  They didn't approve me until it was all done.  Talk to the practice manager or office manager and explain the problem.  You can't get them done last month now, but you can get it taken care of quickly so approval can happen.

ERs provide emergency care.  Unless the cardiac and pulmonary tests are needed because of an emergency, I doubt you can just walk into an ER and get them done.  And the fact that your bariatric advocate is dropping the ball is not really an emergency, although I understand it may seem that way to you.

Perhaps you want to find a new surgeon to work with, one with staff that actually do their jobs?

Thank you so much for the support. I did not go to the emergency room. The idea was just a way for a person who is feeling out of control to hopefully try and get some control. Instead I think I'm going to just cry myself to sleep.

I suppose I shouldn't wait so long before a post on the forum
Have a great night everybody.

I did all the work myself, I contacted all of my own dr, and went to the appts myself. Also you can even research another surgeon becasue typically the ba is the one that really knows all that you need and they are working to help the dr get clients.

My journey from first consultation to actual surgery was 18 months. Yes. 18 months. And a lot of that had to do with differences between what my doctor required (which was pretty easy to do) and what my insurance company required (which they kept telling me in tiny bits and pieces so I didn't have the whole picture).

I'd recommend calling your insurance company and getting a FULL list of all tests required for approval. Sounds like you are on the way but I had to have the 6 month supervised diet, pulmonary eval., sleep study, stress test and cardiac eval., psychological eval., H pylori test (twice, with a PrevPac of antibiotics in between) followed by a GI consult, as well as copies of my PCP's chart notes documenting a long term pattern of obesity, hypertension, and high cholesterol. I also had to have documentation of attendance at 3 support group meetings. There was more documentation required, but the process of getting through all the hoops was the absolute WORST part. By the time I was done with it all, the surgeon asked for a 2nd consult! At that point, her office staff did everythign possible to get me scheduled ASAP!

Take control. Get copies of all of your reports from ALL tests for your own file. Work with the so-called "advocate's" supervisor (even if that is the surgeon).

You will make it. The journey is different for all of us - but boy oh boy did I get upset seeing posts by people who were approved within a day or two!

MY STORY so SIMILIAR... i started my journey feb 2010 and still havnt had surgery . i have been approved but still i havnt heard that from my bariatric team . i had to call the insurance office myself. i still have not heard from my bariatris team AT ALL!! i can call, leave a message and NOTHING!!! .so 17 months in and im still WAITING. it has put me in such a pissy mood. its made me just want to hang it up, have a cigarette and forget about it . i was also told if i switch surgeons. i willl have to pay another up front fee and may have to wait another 3 months if not more..im very disappointed with  ky right now....its sad when they dont have 5 minutes to say something.. i do agree that ppl need to do their job. its not like i call and bug them like im a freak of nature. i may call once a month and still get no response..

i also had to call 2 months after i was supposed to get an appt for cardiac and pulmonary . because my pcp. secretary never did her job either .... got all my tests done and im still holding. i dont know whats wrong with ppl anynore who dont care about anybody . it sickens me .

Hang in there !  You have come to far to just let it slip away. I was pro active in getting my surgery done. I called my insurance company and kept a handle on the process and what needed to be done. If I didn't hear from the doctor's many departments I would call the main office and talk to who ever knew what I was suppose to be doing. Be it the Nut, the insurance processor, the doctor's nurse who scheduled the surgery. Even with being pro active it still took me 6 months to get processed just because of all the testing. One tip is make sure you push to get your cpap test for sleep apnea as soon as you find out you need it. They held me up 3 weeks due to pokey scheduler. I called my doctors office to find out what the problem was untill I got an answer.  Be proactive just because offices are busy and lots of people going through the process. Human error will always happen and you have to guide your surgery along to stay on a decent time frame. That's my two cents hehe

Be calm.
People take vacations and get behind on their work.
In this economy there are fewer employees in offices.
People make mistakes.
If you are going to be approved a few weeks won't make a big difference.
Good luck to you when you get approved.