How long did it take you to get your surgeries?

[Romanoloser 67]

Wreckitangie keep us posted on how long bcbs takes I have basically the same insurance And requirements, I go tomorrow for my nutrition class, I already met with the psychologist. Nurse at the drs office said from 3 days to 30 for the approval, I’m hoping 3 I would like my surgery in feb also.

[AEdoesRnY 531]

February 2nd 2018 was my first meeting w/ docs, surgery was July 30. I could have had surgery a month or so earlier than that but I had travel already planned that we had to work around. I have health partners. 

[Oct517 527]

About 6-7 months

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[WeGettingThere 28]

15 hours ago, wreckitangie said:

I have Blue cross/blue shield of Illinois (I live in idaho) they require 1 nutrition class, 1 psych evaluation and to have a certain BMI (which I do) my surgeon wanted an upper GI x ray done to check for reflux and hiatul hernia. I do not have to do any kind of supervised weight loss program. My first appointment with the surgeon was January 8th. My last required appointment is tomorrow morning with the psychologist. Then everything will be submitted to insurance. I am really hoping for an early to mid February surgery date because I am going to England at the end of May and I want to have lost some serious weight by then!

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Woahhh. Sounds easy af. I hope you get your surgery date soon! Good luck to you.

[sisternewt@yahoo.com 102]

I have Aetna insurance which required a 90 day pre surgery wright study. My dr had all the necessary info to demonstrate I was a good candidate, they turned I. The pre approval to my insurance on my 90th day and 7 business days later, I had my approval. Surgery was then scheduled about 10 days later, because of Christmas.
I think insurances want you to jump through hoops hoping you’ll forget wanting the surgery!!!

[WeGettingThere 28]

16 minutes ago, sisternewt@yahoo.com said:

I have Aetna insurance which required a 90 day pre surgery wright study. My dr had all the necessary info to demonstrate I was a good candidate, they turned I. The pre approval to my insurance on my 90th day and 7 business days later, I had my approval. Surgery was then scheduled about 10 days later, because of Christmas.
I think insurances want you to jump through hoops hoping you’ll forget wanting the surgery!!!

Most definitely. I have Medicaid. It's a super common, super free insurance. So I'm like "Oh yeah, they are going to make this hard for us."

[YeahOkay31 652]

I had Emblem Health - GHI. Mine required me to go to a nutritionist monthly for 6 months before surgery. I also was not allowed to gain anything in those 6 months and was expected to lose atleast 5% of my body weight. In addition to all the other medical clearances (psych, gastro, pulmonary,cardio) I had to attend one hospital run bariatric support group.

My first doctor's appointment was in October 2017, my surgery was April 27, 2018--so almost exactly six months.

[ShuffleOn 4]

I have Cigna, and it took me from November 21 (my 1st appointment) to this Wednesday (January 16) to get my surgery scheduled. The earliest date I could have done surgery was February 18, so that would have been just under 3 months. I scheduled for March 5th though because it’ll allow me to use my spring break for recovery (I teach).

Now, as a caveat, I’d had a physical and blood work a week before my first appointment so I didn’t have to re-do that, I managed to attend a support group meeting the day of my first appointment, and I had literally 0 medical clearance requirements (EGD, sleep study, etc) because all of my blood work, blood pressure, etc. were good and I’ve had a million EKG’s because my sister has a heart condition that can be hereditary. My surgeon said I was the first patient in months who he hadn’t required any additional testing for. If I’d had to do that, it might have extended things a bit.

[Hopping To It 25]

Mine is 4 months due to having to heal from lapband removal. I have HAP and they have no supervised weight loss requirements

[deltagirl93 79]

I was self-pay, so three weeks. I have insurance, but it was going to be a minimum of six months and I knew in advance that I’d probably fail on the weight loss requirements for each month. So I sacrificed and dug deep for $17000. I’d do it all over again. I’ve lost over 120lbs since having surgery on 02/14/2018.

[GoudeauGirl 5]

I have Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield.

My first surgeon appointment was 11/14/19 and my surgery is scheduled for 1/23/19. Insurance requires 6 months medically supervised weight loss. I had been seeing my primary doctor about my weight for over a year and the insurance accepted 4 months from my primary Dr (internal medicine doctor) and 2 months with a nutritionist.

[Lynnlovesthebeach 627]

I went to my WLS seminar in May and at that time was given a June 4 appointment with the surgeon. The day after the seminar I called the office and scheduled all my required visits, 3 medically supervised diet appts, psyche eval dietician eval, Upper GI, cardiac clearance (took 3 visits with the cardiologist for stress test, EKG) etc. I was finished with everything in mid Aug but had to wait until Oct 9 for surgery due to surgeon's busy schedule and 2 week vacation! I lost 26 lbs in that time.

[Frustr8 7,886]

Wanna hear from oposite extreme? 3 years and a month nearly.
1st attempt: August 2015-January 2016- Job terminated, no one made me aware my secondary was less stringent and would have covered.
2nd attempt November 2017- February 2018- after every requirement fulfilled Surgeon kicked me to the curb, refusing to do my surgery.
3rd attempt: March 2018- spent 4 months doing further requirements this program required, meeting every month also with Nurse-Practioner. Surgeons pre-exam July 17th 2018, surgery preformed September 5th 2018 at 7AM at OSU- Wexner Medical Center by Bradley J Needleman MD, who I can never stop being grateful to, he took a 72 year old sad dejected and rejected person and helped her into a future of health. And now I work to finish the miracle he started for me, not easy, had some set-backs but I Shall power through to victory, just wait AND see-----
AND THE REST OF MY LIFE SHALL BE THE BEST OF MY LIFE, THIS I VOW! 😛👍😛

[Frustr8 7,886]

And my insurances- United Healthcare- Medicare- and Ohio Medicaid, no shame- no blame- that's just the way it is.

[WeGettingThere 28]

On 1/18/2019 at 5:49 PM, ShuffleOn said:

I have Cigna, and it took me from November 21 (my 1st appointment) to this Wednesday (January 16) to get my surgery scheduled. The earliest date I could have done surgery was February 18, so that would have been just under 3 months. I scheduled for March 5th though because it’ll allow me to use my spring break for recovery (I teach).

Now, as a caveat, I’d had a physical and blood work a week before my first appointment so I didn’t have to re-do that, I managed to attend a support group meeting the day of my first appointment, and I had literally 0 medical clearance requirements (EGD, sleep study, etc) because all of my blood work, blood pressure, etc. were good and I’ve had a million EKG’s because my sister has a heart condition that can be hereditary. My surgeon said I was the first patient in months who he hadn’t required any additional testing for. If I’d had to do that, it might have extended things a bit.

Woah, that's super quick. I hope I can schedule my surgery for April so that I can recover during spring break too. I'm a student.