I just submitted my preliminary paperwork last Friday. They told me on Monday they were verifying my benefits and would call me. I have Empire BCBS. Now that I've finally decided to proceed I know this will be a really long process. I know it depends in your insurance but I'm wondering how long I will have to do the supervised diet if at all? I just have so many questions but I figure they will answer them all when I go in. Good luck to you all!!

The supervised diet , if required, is probably the biggest time issue. I found out about 6 weeks in that my insurance dropped their 6 month requirement. So I got the rest of my testing done and scheduled much quicker. When you know what your insurance requirements are you will get a better idea of how long the whole process should be. It could be as fast as a month, if you get everything else in place.

Good luck!

Mine was about 6 months. My insurance only required 3 Life Skill classes and 3 nutrition classes, which is about 3 months. I saw my surgeon in April and began all the tests and seeing the specialists to get my clearances. I was approved in September for October surgery.

I have BCBS IL, and once I met all the insurance criteria...

1) psychologist clearance

2) nutritionist clearance

3) primary doctor clearance ( recent blood work)

4) pulmonary clearance

Took me one month to complete. I was extremely motivated. I was sleeved one month after my initial doctor appointment

Some insurance companies require a 6 month supervised diet.

Forever...

the pre-op will be up to 6 months, and post sleeve is FOREVER!!!

:-)

Don't rush, I felt just like you BUT I learned a LOT in pre-op that has helped me...

Saw the doctor in August and will be sleeved in October... one last test tomorrow and I'm all done... Nutritionist told me, expect a surgery date in mid-October..if there are no hiccups in my final 3 tests, of course (don't anticipate any). I have Horizon BCBS-NJ insurance. They used to require 6 months supervised diet but no longer do..now it's just 3 consecutive doctor's visits, in 3 separate months. I was glad to find that out...I don't have 6 months to wait..

It may go quicker than you think...be prepared.

It really depends on the surgeons program and your insurance requirements. My very first visit was in June and I get my official sleeve date for October today. I had a little hold up because one of the pretest showed I had sleep apnea so I had to wear a CPAP machine as an additional step. So with me it was four months. I highly recommend the support group. Best of luck with y poo it journey :-)

Correction*** Best of luck with your journey. Don't know how that happened lol.

^{I had my consult on Aug 27 - all my labs and EKG was done ahead of time I got sick in July and the labs that my PCP did were the same the my surgeon required and my pcp did a EKG in July also on a regular visit. Sep 3- the surgeon office scheduled 4 appointments in one day at their office and Sept 12- had psych done Sept 13 patient portal listed everything as completed called BCBS this morning my paperwork is in review said will probably have answer within 72hrs...My process was fairly quick hasn't been a full month yet}

i had my 1st appt with the doc on august 21st, getting sleeved on sept 24th ..total 34 days total....bcbsnc