Scheduled but NOT approved... Normal?

[SouthJerseySleever 34]

My Dr won't send the paperwork to insurance until you have a surgery date. I had my last meeting with him on Thursday (6 days ago) and he scheduled me for 13 days out. I got a call last night from the hospital about my pre-admission testing. I have to go on Friday morning. This morning I called my insurance (BCBS Federal Employee) and they said the authorization is still in process.

I'm going to be really upset if I go through the 2 week pre-op diet and pre-admission testing only to find out insurance said no.

Did anyone else do it this way? It seems kind of backwards to me....

[Lannie 135]

That seems a little backwards to me. My doctor won't schedule until we had the insurance approval. I have BCBS of Illinois and it took about 2 weeks to get approval after the submission of the paperwork.

It may be worth asking your doctor about alternative dates in case the approval does not come through in time.

[deanalyn 8]

Mine wouldn't even talk about possible surgery dates until the approval was in. It'd be terrible to have to reschedule, especially since he is booked 2-3 months out!

[Banded2003NYC 55]

My Dr won't send the paperwork to insurance until you have a surgery date. I had my last meeting with him on Thursday (6 days ago) and he scheduled me for 13 days out. I got a call last night from the hospital about my pre-admission testing. I have to go on Friday morning. This morning I called my insurance (BCBS Federal Employee) and they said the authorization is still in process.
I'm going to be really upset if I go through the 2 week pre-op diet and pre-admission testing only to find out insurance said no.
Did anyone else do it this way? It seems kind of backwards to me....

Well the pre-admission testing is normally good for 30 days leading up to surgery date. So just remain optimistic that you will be approved.

[SouthJerseySleever 34]

So apparently all I has to do was post abut it for it to happen - approval came through today! 6 days til surgery!

[mikala3672 10]

Congratulations SouthJersey! So happy for you!!