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Waiting for approval sucks...(long vent)



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Although I hand delivered all of my clinicals and information to my surgeon's office over a week ago, I spent all last week playing phone tag with the insurance speacialist regarding her submitting the paperwork. We spoke Friday at 5:30pm and the bottom line is that she STILL had not submitted the paperwork. The issue is that I need a 6 month supervised diet and I had 5 visits over a 6 month period and so we are not sure if the insurance company with approve the surgery.

I finally submitted the paperwork myself to the insurance company this morning because I need closure...I need to know if I am approved or not so that I can plan my summer, figure out if I need to "re-do" the diet and just move ahead.

So now I wait and hope that I hear good news....

This waiting is killing me.:thumbup:

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Keep your chin up! It is so frustrating. I broke down crying at one point when they said it was going to take about a month after my insurance approved before they could get me on the schedule. I wanted it NOW! But God is great, and He not only had insurance approve me in a weeks time, but also had an opening on their schedule so that I was in two weeks later! I wanted so bad to have the surgery in April so I could lose weight before my sons graduation, and whiel I didn't get what I wanted in terms of weight loss, I did get the surgery on 4/29, so I made that date, and I lost 10 lbs before his graduation so at least I was on the way!

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I know, but it's worth it. It took me close to a year to get approved, my surgery is scheduled for july 12!!! But it took me such a long time to get approved, because I'am a veteran and I went through the VA.

Edited by suthrndelite

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It took me a 1 1/2 years to get from my first consultation to being approved. The wait takes forever but it is worth it in the end. I would do the extra visit to make sure you have 6 under your belt in case insurance doesn't approve you. Just my thought.

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What insurance do you have? I have HIP and although they say they require the 6 month supervised diet I somehow got away with not doing it. Probably because I had some prior documentation from when I was doing it under another insurance but it was almost a year prior. Good luck! I know the waiting is the worst! I only waited a few hours so I couldn't imagine waiting any longer than that. I have no patience. :smile2:

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I am waiting on insurance to make their predetermination. My paperwork has been with Cigna for a little over a week now. They are telling me it could take up to 45 days:thumbdown:

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I am waiting on insurance to make their predetermination. My paperwork has been with Cigna for a little over a week now. They are telling me it could take up to 45 days:thumbdown:

I might die if I had to wait 45 days...Its been 2 full business days and I am literally praying for a call tomorrow. sigh.

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Scoot over girl, cause I'm sittin' in the same boat with you! LOL :-) I keep looking at my phone, willing it to ring. Bah! So far nothing. <<chuckle>> Patience is not a virtue of mine either. At least we're in good company, eh?

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Glad to have the company Jamie!

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I wish you the best.

Read my thread "I'm so deeply sad and frustrated" by msdv.

Went through the same as you but much worse. You may have to be your own advocate. If you feel in your heart the Dr.visit may be a problem as a previous poster wrote I would go and get that 6th visit done so they can be consecutive. I like to anticipate and head off problems.

Which surgeon are you seeing and what hospital?

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Insurance companies are rough. It took a year to have my surgery approved. Every time I finished what they asked for, they asked for something else. Good luck.

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@MDX, I did catch up on your post and I am glad everything eventually worked out!

BTW- I have had 2 additional visits with my doctor after the supervised diet and I included those notes as well so hopefully they will count even though they are not consecutive.

My case is actually interesting because the insurance company has been extremely helpful but its the doctors office that is dragging ass.

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Yeah, my surgeons office has really disappointed me. If I did not have good references for him from others. I really would not feel comfy with the surgeon at all because of his office staff. I will tell him that too.

I'm waiting now to see how long it's going to take them to call me now that the ins. co has told me they approved my surgery.

I'm going with Dr. Gorecki at NYMethodist hospital.

Starting to get a little nervous now that I know the surgery was approved.

Wishing you the best. It was a long haul but it'll be here b4 you know it.

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If you got the approval , Call them and get a appointment! The squaky wheel gets the grease!

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Update: I havent gotten the final word, however the case worker at the insurance company told me that she recommeded approval for my case and because of the type of plan that I have it has to also be reviewed by the medical director but he has yet to disagree with her ruling.

so she she says "don't pop the bottle but you can go buy it!"

Still waiting but feeling good about it now!

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    • Alisa_S

      On day 4 of the 2 week liquid pre-op diet. Surgery scheduled for June 11th.
      Soooo I am coming to a realization
      of something and I'm not sure what to do about it. For years the only thing I've enjoyed is eating. We rarely do anything or go anywhere and if we do it always includes food. Family comes over? Big family dinner! Go camping? Food! Take a short ride or trip? Food! Holiday? Food! Go out of town for a Dr appointment? Food! When we go to a new town we don't look for any attractions, we look for restaurants we haven't been to. Heck, I look forward to getting off work because that means it's almost supper time. Now that I'm drinking these pre-op shakes for breakfast, lunch, and supper I have nothing to look forward to.  And once I have surgery on June 11th it'll be more of the same shakes. Even after pureed stage, soft food stage, and finally regular food stage, it's going to be a drastic change for the rest of my life. I'm giving up the one thing that really brings me joy. Eating. How do you cope with that? What do you do to fill that void? Wow. Now I'm sad.
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    • Alisa_S

      On day 4 of the 2 week liquid pre-op diet. Surgery scheduled for June 11th.
      Soooo I am coming to a realization
      of something and I'm not sure what to do about it. For years the only thing I've enjoyed is eating. We rarely do anything or go anywhere and if we do it always includes food. Family comes over? Big family dinner! Go camping? Food! Take a short ride or trip? Food! Holiday? Food! Go out of town for a Dr appointment? Food! When we go to a new town we don't look for any attractions, we look for restaurants we haven't been to. Heck, I look forward to getting off work because that means it's almost supper time. Now that I'm drinking these pre-op shakes for breakfast, lunch, and supper I have nothing to look forward to.  And once I have surgery on June 11th it'll be more of the same shakes. Even after pureed stage, soft food stage, and finally regular food stage, it's going to be a drastic change for the rest of my life. I'm giving up the one thing that really brings me joy. Eating. How do you cope with that? What do you do to fill that void? Wow. Now I'm sad.
      · 1 reply
      1. summerseeker

        Life as a big person had limited my life to what I knew I could manage to do each day. That was eat. I hadn't anything else to look forward to. So my eating choices were the best I could dream up. I planned the cooking in managable lots in my head and filled my day with and around it.

        Now I have a whole new big, bigger, biggest, best days ever. I am out there with those skinny people doing stuff i could never have dreamt of. Food is now an after thought. It doesn't consume my day. I still enjoy the good home cooked food but I eat smaller portions. I leave food on my plate when I am full. I can no longer hear my mother's voice saying eat it all up, ther are starving children in Africa who would want that!

        I still cook for family feasts, I love cooking. I still do holidays but I have changed from the All inclusive drinking and eating everything everyday kind to Self catering accommodation. This gives me the choice of cooking or eating out as I choose. I rarely drink anymore as I usually travel alone now and I feel I need to keep aware of my surroundings.

        I don't know at what point my life expanded, was it when I lost 100 pounds? Was it when I left my walking stick at home ? Was it when I said yes to an outing instead of finding an excuse to stay home ? i look back at my last five years and wonder how loosing weight has made such a difference. Be ready to amaze yourself.

        BTW, the liquid diet sucks, one more day and you are over the worst. You can do it.

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