Hello friends, I'm curious if anyone can tell me how long it took for you to get approved for surgery from your first Orientation Meeting? I had my first meeting with the doctors on March 8th and still waiting for all the follow-up appointments.

Thanks.

I had my first appointment in September 2016 and my surgery date is May 2017. So I would with my insurance it took almost 8 months. I had to do lost of testing but the major time was spent on supervised weight loss for 6 months. My last class is April 20.

I went to orientation meeting Dec 2016, and had my first appointment Jan 2017. As of now the plan is for surgery to be in July, 2017. Depending on insurances, they require a certain amount of monthly nutritional visits, mine was 6 months. Them you have all sorts of specialists, gastroscopy to look at your stomach and esophagas, sleep study, cardiology, psychiatrist. You need to get all sorts of medical clearance as well as treat any other issues you may have to ensure you'll be healthy for surgery. It is a long process, but its that way for a reason!
Its a lifetime change! A lot of the times the biggest slowdown is insurance. I saw and was cleared by all the specialists in the beginning and now just finishing the monthly nutritional visits, good luck on your journey!!

Hello friends, I'm curious if anyone can tell me how long it took for you to get approved for surgery from your first Orientation Meeting? I had my first meeting with the doctors on March 8th and still waiting for all the follow-up appointments.
Thanks.

I went to orientation on 11/2/16. I started my 3 month supervised diet on 11/22/16. I met my surgeon on 1/30/17. I then had appointments for medical clearance from 2/1-2/23.
I've been done with all my pre op evaluation appointments, but it took 4 months waiting to be medically cleared by the surgeon (there was a dropping of the ball for my chart to be given to him). My information was sent to my insurance company 11 days ago. I'm now in the waiting game for approval and it has me nervous. I'm calling them tomorrow to see if we heard anything yet.
I'm so anxious!
Good luck!

I went to the info session in September 2017 and am having surgery May 2nd. I took a good month or so off from doing the requirements because I started a new job and didn't want to leave for appointments. Then my Dr.'s office was short staffed and I lost a few weeks there. I could have had the surgery in April but had travel for work so I delayed it. If I did everything right away I think it would have taken about 4-5 months to get through the requirements.

I started in October. Had appt with surgeon in December. Then had all preop appts done by March 1. After they submitted to insurance. It was about 2 weeks to approval and my surgery is scheduled for May 31. Good luck.

I started in Feb. My insurance requires 6 months -- so doing all the testing between. I'm scheduled for August.

2 hours ago, crocodoxie said:

I started in Feb. My insurance requires 6 months -- so doing all the testing between. I'm scheduled for August.

Thank you Crocodoxie for your reply. WLS in August? So there is light at the end of the tunnel. Good luck!

5 hours ago, hmills653 said:

I started in October. Had appt with surgeon in December. Then had all preop appts done by March 1. After they submitted to insurance. It was about 2 weeks to approval and my surgery is scheduled for May 31. Good luck.

All the best with your surgery as well, and thank you for your reply.

18 hours ago, ColleenErin1974 said:

I went to orientation on 11/2/16. I started my 3 month supervised diet on 11/22/16. I met my surgeon on 1/30/17. I then had appointments for medical clearance from 2/1-2/23.
I've been done with all my pre op evaluation appointments, but it took 4 months waiting to be medically cleared by the surgeon (there was a dropping of the ball for my chart to be given to him). My information was sent to my insurance company 11 days ago. I'm now in the waiting game for approval and it has me nervous. I'm calling them tomorrow to see if we heard anything yet.
I'm so anxious!
Good luck!

Hello ColleenErin1974, hope you found out the news you were waiting for. The wait game is hard, but you are nearly there. All the best to you, good luck!

I called my surgeons office today and spoke with the manager. She checked to see if there was anything going on. According to her there was no news yet. Tomorrow she will speak to the woman who does all the approvals and first thing in the morning she'll have her call my insurance company. So, still more waiting! Ugh!

I attended the information seminar in November of 2016. My insurance required 3 months physician supervised weight loss which I started in December. I had my assessment, visit with the dietician and therapist March 28th and met with my surgeon April 10th. The only testing he is requiring is an endoscopy and some blood work. I already did the blood work and the scope is scheduled for this Monday. Then it is off to insurance for approval!

Started feb 22 of this year and have all of my requirements complete as of this Monday. My insurance allows me to use all consecutive dr visits prior to my consult as part of my 6 mo diet requirements. I've called my surgeons office today to verify they've received everything and see about scheduling a tentative surgery date assuming insurance approves. I've heard of a lot of surgeons who schedule dates with the assumption insurance will approve. That way you don't have to wait extra time after insurance approves.

I had my first meeting with my surgeon on 31 August 2016. My surgery was 20 October 2016. Just under 2 months. Luckily I was in the Telemove program at the VA hospital for over a year so that counted as my 6 months supervised weight loss program. But I still needed to get all the other testing/evaluations done and have everything submitted a week before the surgery. I got lucky.

My surgery is 25 May... I can't wait as I've been on liquids for 7 weeks dues to swallowing issues

Hello memabock, 7 weeks of liquids would drive me crazy, good on you for staying sane. Best of luck with your surgery.