My insurance approved me 2 days ago. I have been trying to get a surgery date since then, but the scheduler told me: "We did receive your approval. As I explained yesterday, there is a process that we follow and this will go through an in office clearance. After that your file will be sent to me and I will schedule you in the order that I receive it."

Before the approval all she said was that she had to have the approval first before scheduling. I am so irritated. Just wondering if this is normal to wait for scheduling after approval.

_{I got approval letter in mail and call from doctors office to see about scheduling surgical apt which was about 2 weeks later because of his schedule. I started the pre-op diet (about 90%) as soon as I got the approval letter (Friday April 3rd?). I called the following Monday and made appointment to see surgeon. I could've had my surgery about 9 days after that appointment (April 20th?) because they knew I had been doing the pre-op diet and the last day was the clear liquid thing. I wanted a specific time (first in for surgery) so I opted for the following week, May 6th.}

I started my process back in May 2015. Preop testing was ordered, when those tests were received, I got the call for my surgeons appointment. That was on June 25. The surgeon told me that scheduling would call me in the next week. When they called, the earliest they could get me in was August 18th. I asked if there were a cancelation, if I could be bumped up. She said that because people are normally waiting a long time for this, they don't usually cancel. She said there was a opening on Monday, but she would need to talk to the doctor. When she called back she said that if I can go to all clear liquid until July 5th and nothing to eat or drink on the 6th. So now I am 4 days post-op gastric sleeve surgery.

What I am wondering specifically is how long did your surgeon's office wait to give you a surgery date after everything was approved. Same day, a few days, a week, longer....?

Haven't received any date yet but I was told by my surgeon that it usually takes about 2 weeks.

Keddycat75,

I was given a run around similar to what you described. The process of getting a surgery date was different than what I was told in the beginning. My insurance approval came the second week of August. The bariatric clinic then had to send the paperwork to the hospital to see how I could fit into their surgery schedule. My particular hospital only did WLS on Tuesday mornings and early afternoon, so I knew it was going to be another long wait. In the meantime, they had me see the bariatric doctor again since so much time had passed while waiting to get a surgery date.

While at that appointment (second week of September), the bariatric doctor asked if I wanted to take someone else's date that just cancelled. I said, "Hell yeah" and he put in a request for me to have the date. This was just a request, so I had to wait another week for the request to be accepted. At that time, I got a letter in the mail to complete a four hour hospital/surgery orientation the third week of September.

During this orientation, they handed out papers everyone had to sign giving the hospital permission for blood transfusions and to accept the fact that we could die during surgery. Each person had their surgery date written at the top of these papers. Mine was October 6th, which was 11 days away at the time. This meant that I had to start my pre op diet at that very moment. I considered going through a fast food drive through on the way home since I knew I would never get to do it again. I didn't.

Therefore, the wait time between insurance approval and getting a surgery date was about 5 weeks. If I didn't get the cancellation, I would have waited a week longer. The whole process from first appointment/consultation until the actual surgery was 9 1/2 months.

And yes, it felt like an eternity. My advice would be to take this waiting time as a great opportunity to reduce your weight so that you don't have as much to lose after surgery. If it seems like the clinic is taking forever, just keep calling and nag. They actually forgot to mail off my insurance clearance papers until I called and asked. So, don't feel bad about nagging.

Edited July 10, 201511 yr by WL WARRIOR

#WL Warrior I have nagged my surgeons office. Nothing I do makes them hurry one bit. waiting sucks.