(I am being sleeved by Dr. Margaret Inman at St. Vincent Bariatric Center for Excellence).

I have my Pre-op testing on April 20, 2017. I think they told me it can take up to two weeks for them to get those results back. Once your testing is complete and they get the results back, and you get medically cleared to have surgery how much longer do you have to wait till you get a surgery date?

Sorry I'm getting a little inpatient I started this process in June of 2016, and after to denials letters and finally getting approved I am really looking forward to finally finding out when the surgery date is.

Once most of my testing was done and my PCP sent my medical clearance form to the surgeon's office, they then sent to insurance for approval. I was approved in 2 days. The same day I was approved, the insurance coordinator called me and I was able to schedule my surgery that day. This happened on March 2nd and I scheduled my surgery for March 30th.

It really just depends on your insurance company. In my case, once my PCP sent the surgeon's staff my medical clearance, they filed with the insurance the next day. I was approved two weeks later. The day I was approved, we scheduled the surgery for about 1 month later. Including the six month pre-op diet program (insurance required), from start to finish, the whole process took 7 months.

Hello! I am also getting sleeved by Dr. Inman at St. Vincent. I just finished my 6 month supervised diet and psych eval and the surgeon's office submitted all of my paperwork to my insurance last Thursday, so I'm hoping I hear something soon. I have to go through all of the medical clearance tests and a pre-op class that supposedly takes a few hours. I hear a lot of people saying they do these steps first and then submit to insurance, but I guess St Vincent's is a little different. I am hoping it goes pretty quickly after the insurance approval! Bri24, how long did you end up having to wait for a surgery date?

19 hours ago, hduckey said:

Hello! I am also getting sleeved by Dr. Inman at St. Vincent. I just finished my 6 month supervised diet and psych eval and the surgeon's office submitted all of my paperwork to my insurance last Thursday, so I'm hoping I hear something soon. I have to go through all of the medical clearance tests and a pre-op class that supposedly takes a few hours. I hear a lot of people saying they do these steps first and then submit to insurance, but I guess St Vincent's is a little different. I am hoping it goes pretty quickly after the insurance approval! Bri24, how long did you end up having to wait for a surgery date?

I got denied the first two times. However my third try I was approved, so I hope you don't have to go through all of that. My appeal packet was sent in on March 9th. I got my approval letter from my insurance company on March 17. I got my pre-op testing paper work on March 29th. I had my pre-op testing on April 20th. My nutrition class was May 16, and my surgery was May 24th. Hopefully it will go quicker for you. Once you find out when your nutrition class is, your surgery is going to be the following week. Total wait time was 69days once I recieved my approval letter. Part of the reason was Dr. Inman was booked!

what surgery are you having if you don't mind me asking. I had the sleeve done.

Bri24, I'm glad everything worked out for you. What a nightmare! How are you doing since surgery? I am still waiting to hear from insurance. I have Anthem BCBS. I've read through all of their requirements and I meet all of them, so hopefully I won't have to deal with denials. But you never know...

I am having the sleeve as well. Hopefully Dr. Inman won't be as busy and things will move a little more quickly. What did you think of St. Vincent's overall? I am just full of anxiety right now. I'm ready to get this done! The waiting is killing me lol.

4 hours ago, hduckey said:

Bri24, I'm glad everything worked out for you. What a nightmare! How are you doing since surgery? I am still waiting to hear from insurance. I have Anthem BCBS. I've read through all of their requirements and I meet all of them, so hopefully I won't have to deal with denials. But you never know...

I am having the sleeve as well. Hopefully Dr. Inman won't be as busy and things will move a little more quickly. What did you think of St. Vincent's overall? I am just full of anxiety right now. I'm ready to get this done! The waiting is killing me lol.

I can relate to that feeling. I just wanted it to happen as soon as I got the approval letter. My stay at St. Vincent was Great. I had a great nurse and tech. It got boring by the third day but I kept doing laps on the unit to pass time. I think you will enjoy your stay. I only saw Dr. Inman twice. Once before the surgery and the day after surgery.