pre surgery question

[TINABUG1978 1]

i am pre surgery doing my 6 month diet, my last weigh in is next month and so is my psych eval (the last 2 things i have to do) how long after that does it usually take to find out if your surgery is approved by insurance?

[epiphani 28]

It varies by physician office and insurance type. My approval took about 2 weeks after it was submitted. Surgery was then scheduled for a couple of weeks after that.

It is important to advocate for movement in processing your paperwork. I checked with my insurance to make sure the pre-authorization had been submitted when I had completed everything. I learned that it hadn't been, and so I made more contact with the surgeon's office to make sure it got done in a timely manner.

Surgeons staff have a lot of roles and juggle a lot of information. It is important to keep on top of your own process rather than wait for it to happen.

[tissiegirl 36]

Thanks Epiphani for the input. I'm fortunate my insurance isn't requiring a diet plan......I had to do nutritionist initial consult, submit 5 yrs health records showing weight loss attempts a 5 hour nutrition class for presurgery and be over 40 BMI . The nutritionist gave me impression that once she faxed Class completion they would submit and they didn't I had to call. I am almost tempted to call insurance company to see If it was submitted which should of been 2 weeks ago but will call surgeon office Monday to check status.

[ready2B 263]

Tissiegirl - nothing wrong with calling your insurance company to make sure they have everything. I did and they were very nice and told me I had been approved before I had heard anything from my doctor's office.

[majones_orl 16]

The phone call is a nice touch I used also. My insurance offered me a case manager to help me through the process. The case manager called after surgery and has checked in a few other times.

I think it would give u piece of mind you are on track.