Confused

[Hopefulin2021 244]

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...

[GradyCat 3,692]

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.

[Hopefulin2021 244]

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

[RTL1234 99]

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.

[Hopefulin2021 244]

What do you mean 2 week increments?

[RTL1234 99]

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?

[Hopefulin2021 244]

Got it thanks I hope I hear something soon

[Hopefulin2021 244]

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?