Starting The Waiting Game

[Scooterbug 13]

My wife and I had our group meeting with the Lap Band surgeon yesterday, basically so he could explain the mental part of making the Lap Band effective (changing your thinking about food, etc). After the meeting the we were told that our information should be filed with insurance today (UHC Options PPO plan through UMR)!!

I know all insurance companies are different, but if anyone has experience with UHC or UMR, what is about the average wait time to see if your approved?? The woman who collected our information at the surgeons office told us that insurance companies are slow for some reason recently, so she predicts we will be waiting 30 days

[Deana01 23]

call your insurance company on your own and be pushing. my was mailed in at first and was told 3 weeks. i waited a week and called the insurance company UHC and they said to fax it. Then it was approved like the next couple of days.

[Scooterbug 13]

Mailed in??? Geez...in this day and age what doc's office would not fax the information??

[SusieSunshine 68]

I'm irritated. I will have all my appointments done in two weeks but I need a special dietary class through insurance and they are booked up until early Sept. Really aggravating. Maybe they shouldn't have so many seminars if they can't handle the appointments.

[justathing2me 146]

I don't have United Healthcare but it doesn't hurt to call and at least make sure they received your information and ask them what their standard turn around time is for pre-authorizations. My insurance told me they had 14 days to decide and they came back with an approval on day 12. Good luck!

[Scooterbug 13]

Called UMR today and they didn't have anything in there system yet. They said it takes up to 48 hours for info to get into there system, so I guess I will try back on Monday. I also called the surgeons office to make sure they did in fact send the info in yesterday, but I had to leave a message and nobody called me back yet.