I was given a surgery date (March 8th!) during my initial consultation with the surgeon. In the case of my surgeon's office, I believe they have good relationships with several insurance companies and are pretty confident that you will be approved. My surgeon's support staff was very helpful and outlined exactly what I needed to do and the deadlines to give them all the required paperwork. After that they submitted everything to insurance and notified me when I was approved (which was on Tuesday!). Of course this is not an absolute because I have read on this forum that some people's surgery dates have been cancelled when insurance was not approved. I would ask your doctors office if they anticipate any issues/obstacles with approval. On the other hand, the surgeon that I visited before I chose my current surgeon did not give surgery dates prior to insurance approval. They explicitly said it was because they had dealt with several insurance denials in the past and wanted to be absolutely sure before scheduling dates. Sent from my iPhone using the BariatricPal App