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Finally Approved After Nearly 16 Months!



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I apologize for the long post in advance :)

I'm so incredibly happy today. I finally got a call from my surgeons office saying that I'm approved for surgery. I started this whole process in October of 2010. I went through all of the psych evaluations, 6 month long diet, etc. Unfortunately, when my surgeons office submitted my file to the insurance company BC/BS of Minnesota), I got a call back saying an exclusion I was not notified of was placed on my policy at the beginning of 2011. So that left me with 3 choices...I could either pay for the surgery myself (but I'm a broke college student the way it is), I could try to lose weight on my own again (imagine that, it didn't work), or I could wait until the beginning of 2012 to try a different policy within BC/BS of Minnesota. Eventually I decided my only real choice was to wait and get into a policy that would cover the surgery. Needless to say, switching my policy (even though it was still with the same insurance company) paid off. I was finally approved this morning after only 9 days of my info being sent through to the new policy.

I had to wait 16 months for insurance approval, but I already know this surgery is worth it. Can't wait to start posting in the Post-Op section of this website!!!!

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What wonderful news!! Obviously, there was a reason that you had to wait for surgery. I'm sorry it took so long, but I know you're gonna really rock that sleeve when your turn on the loser's bench happens!!

Congrats and let us know when you get a date and how you're doing afterwards, please!! :)

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    • BeanitoDiego

      Oh yeah, something I wanted to rant about, a billing dispute that cropped up 3 months ago.
      Surgery was in August of 2023. A bill shows up for over $7,000 in January. WTF? I asks myself. I know that I jumped through all of the insurance hoops and verified this and triple checked that, as did the surgeon's office. All was set, and I paid all of the known costs before surgery.
      A looong story short, is that an assistant surgeon that was in the process of accepting money from my insurance company touched me while I was under anesthesia. That is what the bill was for. But hey, guess what? Some federal legislation was enacted last year to help patients out when they cannot consent to being touched by someone out of their insurance network. These types of bills fall under something called, "surprise billing," and you don't have to put up with it.
      https://www.cms.gov/nosurprises
      I had to make a lot of phone calls to both the surgeon's office and the insurance company and explain my rights and what the maximum out of pocket costs were that I could be liable for. Also had to remind them that it isn't my place to be taking care of all of this and that I was going to escalate things if they could not play nice with one another.
      Quick ending is that I don't have to pay that $7,000+. Advocate, advocate, advocate for yourself no matter how long it takes and learn more about this law if you are ever hit with a surprise bill.
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