Okay, my insurance gave me my an approval August 4th. My surgeon's nurse called me yesterday with a pre-op test date of August 27th and a appt with the surgeon on September 21st. I told the nurse how happy I was because my insurance told me my date will be September 30th. She laughed and explained to me that was a dummy date that placed on everyones UHC paperwork and that I would be lucky to have my WLS at the end of October. I started to cry (yes I'm little emotional) I told her that this was crazy my last PCP appt was July 13th and I gave them all my paperwork for my insurance company on July 16th what happened. Her only explaination was that I should not have followed up with my insurance company and that I should have waited until I received a call from their office and my paper was not sent to my insurance company until July 29th this is why they tell patients it takes 15-20 days for an approval to give them time to set up appts. I shoot back at her saying " so basically you already new a head of time that you were not going to schedule me until October" what a bunch of croc!!!

Does anyone one know if I can take my approval to another hospital? or Am I stuck with SLOW POKE GONZALEZ?:svengo::svengo:

Thanks if it was not for this site I would have lost my mind a long time ago

UGH...that's for the birds.

I'd hate if I had to wait that long after getting approval.

I was self pay so it all went very quickly. One day shy of a month from first consult to surgery day.

I wish I could have self paid. Took about 9 months from start to finish. I have Kaiser (so cal). Hang in there. I feel your pain. You are almost there!

I can sympathize. I got my approval call today. The girl who handles the insurance said the nurse will call in about 10 days to make my appointment for the nurse assessment and then they can schedule my appointment with the surgeon for 2 weeks before surgery. So I think I'll be in October sometime as well. But I'm still trying for September.

Good luck to you.

Man, I totally understand how you are feeling. I have working on this for a year now. Keep the faith, you will get your date soon. Just think you are closer now then you were when you first started. I know it is hard to not get discouraged, man do I know, but just keep thinking you are almost there, you are almost there. Good luck, and keep us posted.

Hang in there... I feel your pain all too well. The entire process start to approval, has taken my husband and I over 8 months. We finally have a surgery date in September. It has been discouraging because we hoped to have our surgery before classes started again at the university but, all you can do is go with the flow. One step at a time. I would call and ask her if she can move anything up for you... maybe the person who is doing the scheduling can contact you sooner? :thumbup:

I'm sorry to hear you have to wait longer than expected. Do they maybe have a list they can put you on in case someone else cancels or postpones?

I am sorry. The nurse should have been more sympathetic when explaining the time frame to you. I am sure she is well aware of the hoops that must be jumped through to get this approval and the emotional rollercoaster people are on. I am not sure what plan you have, but if you don't want more delays and you are confident in your surgeon, I would probably just stick it out. AniO had a great suggestion to contact the scheduler and see if there is a wait list, my doctor's nurse told me that often patients will back out just days before their surgery. That being said, if they do have one you should absolutely stick firmly to your preop diet in case you got called ahead of time (makes the liver less fatty, they have to lift it to get to your stomach).

I'm sorry to hear you have to wait longer than expected. Do they maybe have a list they can put you on in case someone else cancels or postpones?

Thanks for the suggestion, I asked and they have no cancellation list. The nurse said, "no one has ever had to cancel a surgery date"

That is amazing...you know employees in Doctors offices forget that we have no clue how these things work. She should have been much more sensitive. For heavens sake its like they forget that we are all paying their salaries!! Hang in there. The waiting is horrible but you will get your date!!