Question:
How long does it take for Affinity Health Plan to approve WLS?

I live in New York and have Affinity Health Plan which is my HMO for medicaid and I have a surgery date for July 20, 2009 and I have not heard if I am approved or not for my surgery so I was wondering how long it takes for Affinity to approve and why would my surgeon give me a date if I don't have an approval as of yet. Please if anyone can help it would be great I have heard that insurance companies can be quick but I am not sure seeing that this is my first time I am doing this.    — sjbenji2 (posted on July 8, 2009)

July 8, 2009
I,too, have a surgery date 08/26/09 and mine is tentative. The way it was explained to me is that this way all parties involved know what to expect. The insurance companies know that surgery is planned and the paperwork is in progess and would be receiving it soon. The hospital has the operating and sleeping room reserved. We, as patients, know what we have to do..If anything is missing, it can be worked on.
   — Kathleen W.