To my pleasant surprise, Dr. Kuwada called me at home this afternoon. He wanted to explain his delay in sending my insurance letter, in spite of all preliminaries being done.

As you may recall, he has to be recertificed by Inamed and has to have 2 surgeries scheduled together before Inamed will send someone to proxy his technique. He explained that they're waiting to submit my insurance letter at the same time as someone else's, so they'd be approved about the same time.

Apparently some insurance companies' approvals are only valid for a period of time. If that time elapses, it can be difficult to be re-approved. I re-iterated that I'm not concerned about when I'm schedule for surgery as much as I'm anxious over whether or not I'll get approved. Anxiety over what I'll do if not approved.

He is going to have his insurance person contact my carrier and find out for how long approval for surgery is valid. From there he can determine when to send the letter and not run out of time while getting a second patient approved.

That was really nice of him to cll you personally!

Karen that is wonderful news...well that he cares enough to call you on a sunday afternoon. That shows he knows his patients. That is great...Hang in there girl you will be done before you know it.

Well, now aren't you special. That was very nice.

Sounds like a good omen to me. At least you know if you have a caring and thoughtful doctor. That is so important, glad to hear he did the right thing. Sounds like he really cares about his patients.

Merry Christmas

Cindy

Yay!! Another step forward! It was nice of him to call you.

Justina (Dr's insurance person) called yesterday. UHC approvals are valid for 90 days. Per Dr. Kuwada's instructions to her, if 60 days or under they'd hold off on sending my letter; if over 60 days they'd go ahead and send it. Hopefully it's already dictated and can go out very soon. I may not have a quick surgery date, but hopefully I'll know whether or not my insurance will cover it.

Justina also told me that Dr. Kuwada fights denials and has yet to lose an appeal :eek:

Karen -

This is great news. I hope things move very fast in 2006. I am still rolling along, but still having the should I shouldn't I things. Reality check, I need to lose this massive weight. I'm sick of people at work telling me you don't 'look' that heavy, well i feel that heavy. especially when my spine is hurting from herniated disc's and my blood pressure is out of control again. SO, yes, if they saw me naked, they'd scream, because when I get dressed in the morning. I am still fat. I see it and it looks back at me. Thank god I have my curls in my hair to distract me....

I'm glad ot hear you will have a dr that will fight for you too. WIll you be staying overnight when you have this surgery?

Merry Christmas.

Depending upon the time of surgery and how you do after, Dr. Kuwada keeps you at least one night and sometimes two.

Awesome Karen. Let's hope you know soon if you are approved. I remember well on the wait and it stinks. I hope it goes by fast and you find out soon. Hey maybe I will have Gallbladder surgery the same day you have your Lap-Band done? lol

Angie