Hey guys,

Anybody ever got their surgery date before getting the surgery approved by insurance? Surgery date is October 19th.

My program coordinator seemed like that was the usual and had no doubt they would approve it when she called me today but I don't want to get my hopes up and then have a problem with my insurance.

Any advice?

13 minutes ago, Kaybop said:

Hey guys,

Anybody ever got their surgery date before getting the surgery approved by insurance? Surgery date is October 19th.

My program coordinator seemed like that was the usual and had no doubt they would approve it when she called me today but I don't want to get my hopes up and then have a problem with my insurance.

Any advice?

Even back when insurance was problematic, I got a date which was part of the insurance approval process.

Once approved, I got moved to a week earlier.

It's SOP.

Tek

Same thing happened to me as well. I was given a surgery date of 8/19 in July. I was nervous but it only took the insurance company a week to approve my surgery. Hoping you have the same outcome.

Edited September 18, 20205 yr by RichelleGetsFit0309
Typo

Oh ok , I had no idea this was the protocol. Thanks so much!

no - they waited for the approval before they scheduled mine. But then again, it only took the insurance company about a week to approve it, so I would have been fine, since they were scheduling surgeries 4-6 weeks out at that time.

I was given a date for Nov 16th and just got an approval letter from BCBSIL today 09/18/20. It took BCBSIL exactly 5 days to review and approve the surgery so no worries. I wish all a continued success and fast recovery.

Mine was the same way. Surgery date before they even submitted it to insurance. I was nervous, but they knew what they were doing!! Good luck!

11 hours ago, Kaybop said:

Hey guys,

Anybody ever got their surgery date before getting the surgery approved by insurance? Surgery date is October 19th.

My program coordinator seemed like that was the usual and had no doubt they would approve it when she called me today but I don't want to get my hopes up and then have a problem with my insurance.

Any advice?

Hello

From my experiences when I underwent the Lapband procedure in 2009 and my revision WLS Gastric Bypass in 2016, I did not wait for the office to tell me anything. I got on the phone and asked if my insurance covers WLS. The other question you want to ask the insurance company are there any particular medical requirements in effort to be approved for WLS? You may want to ask also at the time of admission if approved do I have a copay at the time of admission? There are some insurance companies that require a copay ans some donot.

I have never heard of a surgeon perform WLS and not receive an authorization for the service that is rendered.

I hope my information is helpful and do not hesitate to ask anything. I am Post Op 11 years and still in the journey. This is a longterm journey of challenges.

Missy Cee

I was told that in order to get insurance approval, you needed a date first. So it sounds like your process is consistent.

Yes! The last thing on my list of things to do was meet my surgeon. At that appointment I asked how far out he was scheduling in an attempt to make tentative plans for time off & his PA scheduled it that day for 10/12/20. She indicated insurance pre-cert required a date to make the determination. I was also prepared to wait up to 30 days for insurance approval but was told by the same PA that 2 weeks max is what they see. Good luck!

Received my Insurance approval in the mail today!!!!

I’m pretty sure they have to put a surgery date on the paperwork that they submit to insurance. It’s probably not a firm date until the approval is received from your insurance company.