I started my journey in August 2018 and by December 19th I had fulfilled all of my pre-op sleeve requirements. My surgeon said his office would submit everything to insurance that week. My surgery date is 2/11 and he said approval can take up to 4 weeks, so I felt really good about my timeline. So I call the surgeon’s office yesterday (1/25) to see if I had been approved since I’m supposed to start my 2 week liquid pre-op diet on Monday and they tell me they NEVER SUBMITTED. So here I am, ready to consume a rather expensive stack of protein shakes, bone broths and protein powder, and I don’t even know if I’m approved. The office said to proceed as if I’m approved and that they’d call me when it comes through, but I am so irritated and upset. Any other BCBSIL HMO patients who are willing to share how long it took to get approval? Thanks ?

I started my journey in August 2018 and by December 19th I had fulfilled all of my pre-op sleeve requirements. My surgeon said his office would submit everything to insurance that week. My surgery date is 2/11 and he said approval can take up to 4 weeks, so I felt really good about my timeline. So I call the surgeon’s office yesterday (1/25) to see if I had been approved since I’m supposed to start my 2 week liquid pre-op diet on Monday and they tell me they NEVER SUBMITTED. So here I am, ready to consume a rather expensive stack of Protein Shakes, bone broths and Protein Powder, and I don’t even know if I’m approved. The office said to proceed as if I’m approved and that they’d call me when it comes through, but I am so irritated and upset. Any other BCBSIL *** patients who are willing to share how long it took to get approval? Thanks [emoji21]

That is so unfortunate!! I personally work in a doctor's office and I know the process, So from my side I made sure everything was pushed but that office did really great.
It all has to do with the organization of that office. I did 6 months of preparation. But the staff at the doctor's office guided me with Appointments/ everything I needed to do to complete Insurance requirements.
On my apt day i had completed everything and they told me they were going to submit everything to the insurance, and that it would take a few weeks for it to get approved. I really thought maybe something was going to come up that I had to either re do or something New and it would probably take longer,you never know with insurance.
Luckily the person in charge in the doctors office called me the next day and said it was a miracle that she submitted everything that evening of my apt and they approved the next morning.
I was so very happy and excited and very pleased the way the office handled everything in my case.
I have same insurance.
Sadly, you might need to keep calling them and pushing them since you have gotten this far to have everything ready on your end.

Don't get discouraged and I wish you all the luck don't give up![emoji4]

Not BCBSIL, but another BCBS, and it only took about a week for approval. Good luck!

Good Luck on your Journey!

I have the same insurance. BCBSIL... I finished all my requirements over a week ago and I didn't hear anything so I emailed the gal at my surgeons office this past Friday and she was like oh, we just received the last piece of information and can now submit it to insurance. She didn't tell me anything else. It's kind of frustrating the lack of communication. I am so nervous... I just wish I could know one or another! Hang in there though!

Yes! That’s exactly how I feel. I just want to know for sure :(

I have BCBS of ILLINOIS and it was like pulling teeth to get them to approve me. Eventually we apealed to the state and they over turned my non approval. That was 3 weeks ago. And we picked my surgery date for the 31st of January.

I hope your approved quickly and can start your pre-op dieting .

Debbi did they have a reason for denying you?? That’s awful to hear. I started my prepping yesterday because the office told me to! If I don’t get approved I will be devastated.

Pre-op* not prepping

Debbi did they have a reason for denying you?? That’s awful to hear. I started my prepping yesterday because the office told me to! If I don’t get approved I will be devastated.

They cited GERD. Which I do not have. Also being I had a lapband and it failed I wasnt suppose to get a second weightloss surgery. But we had all this documentation talking about how LBs have a huge failure rate. Even the State quoted the documents and new stuff they had as to why they over turned the decision.

Still do not know where they got GERD from, I had my lapband removed in September. No issue with getting that approved.

They had their documenting wrong and wouldn't fix it. Still another reason it was over turned.


But my theory is it was the end of the year, they didn't want their bottom line looking bad. Lol...

Update! I called my medical group to check in and they said I’ve been approved!!! Glad I didn’t wait to hear from the Surgeon’s office ?