I received my approval letter from Aetna in the mail today. It has an inpatient services date of Nov 5th on it. Is that the day my Dr. Office would have submitted for surgery?

So far all the Dr. Office has told me after they were given verbal authorization is that the coordinator would call me to schedule a date........and I haven't heard from anyone since last week when they first told me I was approved.

Anyone else get an approval letter with an inpatient date on it? If so, is it the same as your surgery date or is it just a random date the insurance company puts on the letter?

(It would help if the surgeons office would return my calls but for whatever reason they are not good about it. It's a bit unsettling.....)

give them a call. if it were me, I couldn't wait! congrats on your approval and good luck to you and hoping you have a speedy recovery!

Keep in contact with your insurance company. At my final surgeon's appointment, I was told my packet would be submitted that day. I called the doctor's office two days later to inquire as to whether or not my packet was on it's way, and was told that it was. When I asked if I was approved, I was told that the insurance co-ordinator would be on vaccation for two weeks and no one there would know until she returns.

So........I called my case manager that I had with my insurance company for other major health issues, She looked it up in their computer and said it was approved immediately. I asked for an approval letter for my own files. Two days after that, I received it, and it said I had five days of hospital stay approved for my surgery. When I called the doctor's office to tell them that I am indeed appoved, and if I sent them acopy of the letter I could set a date.

On the approval letter, it did have the five days listed for my hospital stay. So, I called the doctor's office back and got my date a week sooner than if I had waited for the co-ordinator to get back from vacation. The date was in the time frame listed on the letter.

Sorry for my typos. I am a little medicated tonight. Better living through chemistry.

I would call your case manager or your regular contact at the bariatric center. Wifey called BCBS ( we were actually getting impatient about not having a surgery date) and they gave her a date of October 29. A few days later the Bariatric Center contacted us and confirmed an Oct 28 surgery date. So I think insurance May ballpark the date, but final dare has to be confirmed by your Bariatric Center.

Sorry..meant final date! This isn't truth or dare here!!! Lol!!

Wow...I'm dealing with the same thing....

My surgeon's office got a verbal authorization on Wednesday but the surgeon's office has not called me yet.....????

I finally got through to my surgeons office and was told I'll be called next week to be "officially" scheduled since the person that schedules is out........Very annoying and I feel like picking up my records and going to a different surgeon. My wife keeps telling me to be patient and that's it's more important to have the best surgeon (which I think mine is) -vs- the best office staff.

I can't really argue with that.

It is frustrating Mike. I agree if you have the best surgeon just stick it out and wait for the call Bro. I say just think of Nov 5 as your date to keep your sanity! It sucks cause you want a firm date, but like I said before, the date you have is likely in the ballpark. Work on getting your pre-liquid diet supplies together. Find your protein shake, multi vitamin, favorite jello, etc. They'll firm up your date soon!

Ok, I finally got my real date. December 10th! It's going to be a long wait but I can live with it. I'm going to do my best over the next 2 months to transition into protein drinks for meal replacements and to start walking as much as I can. I can't let myself go "Man -vs- Food" for 60 days!

Congrats on the date Mike! Not sure if you have a 2 week pre-liquid diet...but if so Nov 26 will be here before you know it!

My main regret right now is not working out enough before surgery. I would have liked to have lost 20 lbs before starting liquid diet.

Congrats on the date Mike! Not sure if you have a 2 week pre-liquid diet...but if so Nov 26 will be here before you know it!

My main regret right now is not working out enough before surgery. I would have liked to have lost 20 lbs before starting liquid diet.

Congrats on the date Mike! Not sure if you have a 2 week pre-liquid diet...but if so Nov 26 will be here before you know it!

My main regret right now is not working out enough before surgery. I would have liked to have lost 20 lbs before starting liquid diet.

I've only got a 4 day liquid diet required but Im going to try doing a full week to see what I can lose. I'm definitely going to start walking tomorrow and will be working up to walking a few 5k events before surgery. My plan is to get started on the exercise but also to get event shirts that are 2 sizes too small so I can shrink into them. By the time I shrink to that size I want to be able to RUN a 5k wearing them. That would be an awesome way to gauge progress without just looking at the scale.

Tonight is my last night on the couch.....

I'm in the same boat. I've been calling insurance every couple of days to see if my info was received. My docs office said they were having trouble with the Availity website and had to fax my records in to Anthem. Anthem has it and it's still pending but they made mention of an October 29th date. But from reading other posts, I'm assuming this is a generic date. I was sort of hoping this is an accurate date. Only preop testing I have is a class, labs and an upper GI. All of which was explained to be easy to complete and not hard to schedule. The "weight" is killing me!!

Ugh. Another set back..letter from insurance today states my approval is "pending" because they do not have md notes, diagnostic testing, methods and dates of documented weight loss attempts. Per my surgeon, I was required to do the 6 month md monitored weight loss attempt. So I did the 6 months of classes, had the psych and dietitian clearances. What else do they need?? Or did my surgeons office not submit it all?? I'm calling tomorrow and hopefully they have received this letter as well and already fixed the issue.