Sorry for the long post but Omg what an emotional rollercoaster. So I finished all my pre op work and went to my pcp last week Friday. I was explaining to her that I was finally done with my 6 month nutritionist appointments and that I’m super excited, (I finished all my preop clearances in 1 week) My surgeon saw me the day before and gave me a surgery date of December 17! I thought my pcp would be excited since she was the one who referred me there and I’ve been giving her updates monthly but she gave her an entire 360. She seriously got her boss and after my labs were done, tried to convince me not to get the surgery. They seriously told me anything that can possibly go wrong, they told me surgeons only care about making money and then when the patient is sick they have to deal with the consequences. She admitted that she sent me there thinking he would just put me on a diet or hope that he would say I didn’t qualify. When she said that my heart shattered. Here I went to her thinking she would be thrilled and suddenly I felt attacked by both of them. I had to defend my reason for the surgery, her boss said had I gone to her she would never have referred me. She seriously said in her entire 20+ year career she has only referred 1 person. Wth?! How u tell me this 12 days before my surgery? I have been coming here monthly and have kept you in the loop on my progress. I told her from day one my surgeon said I qualified. What did she think that I was lying? She did give me a letter of support 2 weeks ago didnt she? she then said she didn’t think my insurance would qualify me because I only have asthma and Gerd and my BMI is 36. Honestly they killed my spirit. I was depressed all weekend but nonetheless this Monday I went to the hospital and did my preregistration. They told me everything looked good just waiting for Insurance to approve. When she said that I became more anxious. I waited until the next day and this past Tuesday I called my surgeons office. I asked if they had any update and I was told by my surgeons assistant that I was DENIED. My heart shattered again. I couldn’t understand how after so much work I put in I was denied. The surgeons assistant told me to give her until Thursday to have my surgeon call himself and try to get it overturned. Needless to say I had not slept since Tuesday. Well she just called me and told me I was approved! They did it!!! Omg I was so happy to hear this I cried. I’m usually lurking here but I posted this hoping to give at least one person hope. Don’t give up, even when those you expect to support you don’t. I was able to keep my surgery date Dec 17! My surgeons office submitted my insurance approval on Thursday, I called Tuesday and had a denial and 2 days later it was approved!
I would just say you have to be proactive, call your doctors business office, call your insurance company. I even called my employers hr department. I work for a large company and they outsource people to advocate for insurance for situations such as this. I put out out an APB like I have to get this done! lol I do understand it's an insurance game to deny at first. I've posted my story but I went through the whole 3 month pre-program even got Pre-approved. They went to submit me and then..boom..I was denied. I unleashed holy hell and it worked.
