Question:
Is there anything I can do to speed up approval

I'am waitng for my conslt ad then the surgeon sends for approval. I s there anything I can do to speed it up like calling ins company myself or should I just try to wait it out? I feel lost and not sure what to do with this time. My appt is not untillAug.13th for my consult. any suggestions of how to keep my mind occupied with preperations or something would be great.    — Sue R. T. (posted on July 2, 2001)

July 2, 2001
Sue, one thing you can be doing while you wait for your consult appointment is to gather all your medical records together to take to your consult appointment. If you don't get them ahead of time, it can take your surgeon several weeks to write to your doctors, request the records and receive the records. If you haven't already done so, you should also read through your insurance policy and check for WLS exclusions, etc. You can also call your insurance company and request their WLS criteria -- then you can tell your surgeon how you meet their criteria.
   — Denise C.

July 2, 2001
HI, Sue - The only thing that I did post op was to make sure my policy did not have a bariatric surgery exclusion. I am still waiting for insurance approval- the paperwork was submitted on Friday. It is nerve wracking to wait! Good luck.
   — Jean K.

July 2, 2001
When I scheduled my consult, I told the receptionist that I was in a rush. She put me on the telephone with the doctor's assistant who was nice enough to tell me what pre op tests I needed (bloodwork, egd, psych eval). When I went in for my consult, I had everything ready and was scheduled for 5 weeks later. It helped a lot to have everything ready when I went.
   — Jeannet

July 2, 2001
I had no problem getting an appointment with my surgeon. They booked me in really quickly. As far as getting approved with my insurance company and getting approved faster with them, I feel that the personal letter that i typed and faxed made a world of difference in there decision to even approve me. I highly recommened anyone waiting for approval that has already had there paper work sent to their insurance company to type a letter telling them why you need the surgery and how important it is that you that you have it.
   — [Anonymous]

July 2, 2001
Hi Sue, this is what I did. In September I called and made an appt. for my consult, which wasn't until November. I asked the surgeon's office if I could go ahead and work on insurance approval during this time, as I was shooting for surgery at the beginning of '01. They were great. They sent to me information about writing my diet history and what they needed as far as medical records. I spent the next month writing an extremely compelling diet history, getting a new PCP that would submit the referral, and gathering my medical records. I sent this information to the surgeon's office about the middle of October. They added whatever they needed to it and sent it in. I was approved in 3 days with written approval in about 5.(all before having I even saw the surgeon!) I went to my consult with approval. It was a group consult and while others were just getting information regarding their insurance companies, etc... I was given my surgeical date. I had surgery 1/8/01. Perfect for me!! Shelley
   — Shelley.

July 3, 2001
Yes...do everything the previous posters mentioned. Do a really detailed, complete, diet history and gather all the supporting documentation. Jenny Craig, etc., will send you the records if you give them the approx. date, location, etc. Work on a compelling and persuasive letter to the insurance company. Get any tests done that you know you will need. If your surgeon's office won't give you the information, you can do like I did and contact other patients on this site who had surgery at the same place. I learned so much from talking to them...some little tricks, let's say. They explained the roles of the staffers in the surgeon's office and gave me some insight on how to get around them. (The woman who normally schedules the surgery was a real bitch, but she didn't come into the office until late in the morning. The woman who fills in for her is extremely nice and accomodating, so I made sure I called only when the nice one would answer.) This all worked really well for me. My surgery was less than 4 weeks after my first consult! Just sitting and waiting is awful! It is so much better if you can use the time to do something proactive.
   — Anne G.