How long from initial visit til surgery

[new@beginning 3]

My initial appointment was 2/14 and I was told on 4/2 I could move forward to a surgery date on 4/30 - I really hope there are no road blocks that pop up

[Nikki_Nik87 27]

My consultation was 12/1/17 and I was approved by my insurance 3/29/18. Scheduled for surgery on April 25th.

It really depends on requirements from your insurance and if your doctor also requires further testing, weight loss, etc.

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[+Wendy+ 6]

My consult was in Aug 2017. Surgery will be May 1. 9 months. Had to do 6 months of physician supervised weight loss, psych eval, and meet with nutritionist to get approval with Aetna. Was about a month from last visit to approval. Took longer than I had hoped but I've appreciated everything I've learned and had to overcome to lose weight and qualify.

[baribetty 166]

I have Kaiser (so cal- Fontana). I started my process and classes in November and will how my surgery on Tuesday (5/2/18). My 12 classes were delayed a couple weeks because of the holidays, but I was very diligent about getting into every appointment ASAP, I met my surgeon on 4/20 and he scheduled me for 5/2.

[msjenae 1]

My initial visit was 12/27/17 and my surgery was 4/10/18. I have NC Medicaid.

[Kerby50 7]

My program requires 6 months to prove you can stick to the new healthy lifestyle and what not. With college and work, it took me 2 years. I’m 3 days post op. [emoji5]

[magpie26 244]

I started the process in 8/16. Psych evaluation a week later,".It took a while to meet with the surgeon that put me into October. Endoscopy in November, another appointment in December. Didn't see my PA until maybe march? Then April, June, august. My weight loss was slow, partly because I didn't give 100% and wasn't ready to give up certain things. Anyway, got my act together, got approved by the surgeon put in for insurance and nothing....I have an $11000 deductible that was almost met and this was August. I waited and waited and I SHOULD have called, but I didn't. I have hope. I gained a little back and then FIVE MONTHS LATER I get the letter that I'm approved (in February when my deductible had re-set) finished my one support group, got my date in march- 4/17/18 @ 10 AM. Year and a half out would've been a year or less if I didn't mess up or cancel and the insurance went through sooner, oh well, lesson learned. I'm sleeved now- 12 days out and grateful for it!

[BKNEWJOURNEY2 3]

On 4/10/2018 at 8:01 PM, ancirasd said:

My insurance made me do 6 months of a pre op diet with HMR through my doctor and then on top of that I had to do a consult with psych and had to get cleared by my primary. I think in total I was close to a year from starting to talk about it get getting the procedure. The classes are there to help and most of the time the instructors are really nice and helpful! My journey was tough because I got denied twice before finally getting approved. It takes time but it’s worth it

Why did u get denied twice ?

[newmebithebypass 713]

So I filled out my new patient paperwork middle of February. I was blessed enough to be able to be seen at the end of February to kickstart the process. I'm now on month 4 of 7 with all the requirements met except the nutritionist visits. I have to do one a month until August then I am done yay. But I am having such a hard time cutting out the bad things like seriously it is getting terrible

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[Frustr8 7,886]

I know our Canadian posters seem to have a long wait for approval, but whose surgery was the quickest to,be approved?

[Creekimp13 5,841]

My first appointment was June 6th of last year, and my surgery was December 5th.

I think I did a quick one on one consult in May at the orientation seminar.

[wowerinreally 22]

I had a general orientation in early January. My first appt with the surgeon was 1/23/18. I had to have several preop tests, meetings with a dietician, and a neuropsychological eval. Insurance approval for me was almost 3 weeks after all results were back and we chose which surgery I would have. I was then required to do a 2 week HMR/clear liquid diet. I had surgery on 4/16/18 but could have done it at least 3 weeks earlier but my surgeon was booked and I wasn’t able to schedule all of my testing immediately due to work. I think things moved really fast in my situation. It can widely vary.


HW: 360
CW: 330

RNY 4/16/18

[Apple203 1,314]

It took me 4 months to finish the extensive list of pre-reqs, and then another 3 to finish the classes and get scheduled. So 7 months total.

[mjcclkwd 27]

My first appt was 12/05/17 and surgery was 4/18/18 so 4 1/2 months. I was very diligent about all my appts, scheduled them early and never cancelled. Luckily my insurance only took 48 hours to approve the surgery.

[moondoggie1983 202]

Mine took almost 18 months, but I seem to be the oddball on here with such a long timeline. When I went for my initial consultation, it was December 2016. At that point, my insurance had no nutritional counseling requirements. I was set up for all my pre-op appointments in January 2017. Then wham! My insurance changed its policies and I needed a full year of monthly nutritional visits. Talk about getting screwed! So, my last one was December 31, 2017. Then I started all the appointments from scratch because all the tests I’d already done were too old. BUT, my prior with was submitted 4/26 and approved 4/27. I got my surgery date that same day for 5/10. So, once you get approved things run REALLY QUICKLY!


HW: 311
CW: 259
SW: We’ll see on May 10!
First goal weight: 191 lbs
Second goal weight: 159 lbs
Goal weight: 142 lbs

5’6” 34 yo female in NC