Question:
how long is too long

How long is too long? I had consultation on 2/24 and checked with insurance yesterday and they have not even received my paperwork. And unfortunately the ins. lady at the wls office can be a little snappy shall we say(sure am glad she's not doin my surgery). So just wanna know if this is an acceptable amount of time to wait to have ins. submitted, how much longer should I wait before I call the wls office.    — tracy W. (posted on March 12, 2003)

March 12, 2003
I would call everyday until you get an acceptable answer. It is your health that is suffering. My letter was susposed to be sent 1/2/03. I called my insurance on the 14, they hadn't received. Got fax #, called dr, had letter faxed and within 2 weeks had approval. Keep on them.
   — Jan P.

March 12, 2003
Tracy, I would call today. It doesn't hurt to call her and give a little reminder, it has been 2 1/2 weeks. It took my surgeon's office maybe 2-3 weeks to get it to the insurance company. They are busy, so I understood. Luckily, I dealt with a wonderful staff, so i really didn't have to press too hard. But it sounds like you might, I'd call every other day, you don't want to get to the point of nagging, but you want to be firm and nice ofcourse, and make sure it gets done. Goodluck to you!
   — Lezlie Y.

March 12, 2003
It depends on the number of surgeons and the patient volume in the office. My consult was 12/03/02, and my paperwork wasn't submitted until 2/26/03. Just to be courteous, whenever I called the surgeon's office for an update, I asked how long to wait before calling back for the next update.
   — [Deactivated Member]

March 12, 2003
I'm not sure how your office worked, but I'd have gone berzerk if I'd had to wait that long to even get filed. I went in for my consult on 1/30, the letter was mailed on 1/31, and I was approved by insurance by 2/14 and scheduled by 2/18. My surgery is this coming Tuesday. I would think that is a long time to have to wait to even file a claim, considering how long it takes most insurance companies to reply to them. That just adds to the problem. I would call and ask when she expects to have them filed, and then call again on that day and make sure they have been filed. If this isn't effective, I'd try to contact someone at the doctor's office and try to get some answers.
   — Becky K.

March 12, 2003
It was made clear to me that it could take as long as 120 days to hear from the insurance company, though from the posts I've read here, anything over 6 weeks is TOO LONG! You just call that snippy lady, be sweet as can be and tell them to get their butts in gear!
   — Renee B.

March 12, 2003
Every surgeon's office has a different protocol. I had my consult on 8/6/02 and then had many tests and specialists consults to complete next. Once all that stuff was completed, then we got a surgery date and THEN the surgeon's office sent off for insurance approval with all the data that has been collected so far. Luckily, my insurance approval came thru about 10 days before surgery but it was a close call, in my opinion. Many frazzled nerves during those last few weeks!! Good luck to you!
   — thumpiez

March 12, 2003
You may want to ask if they are waiting on anything else. They may be sitting on it because they need some form filled out by you or the psych eval (that's what held up mine). Call and ask and ask when they think it will be sent and check back. Document your call. Document everytime you call with the time, the person you spoke to and the jest of the conversation. Let them know you are writting it down. "Just let me jot that down, what date do you expect to mail that? Great, I'll call you about then just to verify because I know how busy you are." I'm a firm believer in killing them with kindness.
   — Sunny S.