How Long Is This Gonna Take?

[kczar 166]

I try to be patient but I'm losing it right now so thought I would vent. I finally got my verbal approval for surgery last Wednesday (not yesterday, a week ago Wednesday.) Yay! Insurance said they would fax the approval letter to my doctor's office that day. I gave them a day and called on Thursday to schedule surgery. The scheduler said her system was down but that she'd call me back. Nothing. Called back Friday afternoon and she said they had to order a part (what kind of scheduling system is this?) and it would be in on Monday. Called the insurance coordinator on Monday to make sure they did indeed get the approval letter just to make sure there wouldn't be any more delays. She called me back on Tuesday and said they had it and my file was with the coordinator and she would be calling me. Yesterday, nothing. Left her a voice mail at 2:00 and still haven't heard back as of this morning.

It's not like I can have the surgery done next week, I need to schedule it mid August. But seriously, how long does it take to call back? How many patients could she possibly be scheduling? Let's say it takes 15 minutes to schedule a patient (that includes a lot of padding). And assume she does three an hour (again, generous). That means in two days time (again, if I err on their side and call Monday a loss), that's 48 patients that she could have theoretically scheduled in that two day time frame. Am I being naive to think she would have over 50 patients to schedule? Has anyone else run into this kind of roadblock?

Anyway, I'm giving her 30 more minutes then I'm calling again. I just want to have a date so I know how to plan everything. Plus classes start in a month so I want to have some time to recoop before starting those. Thanks for listening!

[mufasas-mom 170]

I'd be jumping up and down - sending emails - voicemails till someone called me back. Heck, 3 weeks ago when I finally made the desicison not to go with lapband, but the sleeve instead - i called the bariatric coordinator to make them aware, called my insurance company to make them aware and to double check to see if there were diferent qualifications and hoops to jump through, there were none - so I was about to just drive to the bariatric center (True Results) and speak to someone face to face to make sure they have this changed in my files so when they send it all for insurance next week - we'd all be on the same page.....they called 8 days later to inform me they got my messages and have switched surgeons, surgery and hospital so when i come in next week - all will be up to date.....

You really DO have to stay on top of everything.....it's your surgery, therefore I own it 100% to know what my insurance requires, and to check it off as everything gets completed.

[scaredoftheunknown 95]

I'd be calling every hour.... Good luck!!

[kczar 166]

Yay! I called again and got that ditz's voice mail again. So I called back and got the front desk, and very sweetly asked the lady if their system was still down since I'd left a few messages and hadn't heard anything back. She transferred me to the scheduler, who answered immediately. I now have my date, August 20th. Finally!

[chitowngirl 886]

Congrats on getting your day. Aug 20th less than a month away. It will be here before you know it.