Hi I just need a little advice or something . I called my insurance company BCBSNJ to make sure they received my paperwork for authorization for wls and to see if there was an answer yet. First the guy said I had been approved for the procedure on 1/11 then at the end of the call he was like so it is still pending. I was like wait I thought you said it was approved so what procedure am I getting on 1/11? He said the wls so I was like then I should be approved pretty quickly right ? And he agreed. Now I am not sure what’s going on, am I approved or is it still pending and why would he give me a date of 1/11? I tried calling the doctor but had to leave a message. Please help me understand...

The insurance company wouldn't necessarily have the scheduled date of your surgery, so his mention of a specific date of 1/11 is odd. First it gets approved, then it gets scheduled.

That’s what I thought. I think he meant I’ll hear something by the 11th. Idk I just want a date.

Mine did this too. Mine approved it in 2 week increments which was silly as it was longer than that before I got a date. I just called and they did 30 days and said they could extend the approval if necessary. I have BCBS also but not NJ.

What do you mean 2 week increments?

13 hours ago, Hopefulin2021 said:

What do you mean 2 week increments?

Like my approval was only good for the 2 week dates they gave. Which it was good until I had surgery, but the approval letter they provided only gave an approval date of 2 weeks. So I had to have them adjust the date because surgery was over a month out from the dates they approved for. The approval part didn’t change but the extension of the date on the paper needed to.

does that make more sense?

Got it thanks I hope I hear something soon

So I actually got a better answer from the insurance company. They said my auth is still pending and it will be processed after the new year. I also asked about the date I was told of 1/11 and she said that is the date that was provided by my surgeon. She said the date shows 1/11 to 1/13 because it is a inpatient procedure. So they will definitely process my auth probably by early next week. The only thing I am still a little confused about is my surgeon originally said I would have the surgery in February. So I am thinking if they just told the insurance that date to get it approved faster? Any insight?