I have the 3 hour info session in April. I am hoping someone can tell me the time frame of how long you have to wait for a surgery date. I am hoping my insurance (BCBS) doesn't give me a problem. I have a bmi of 44 and have sleep apnea. I am 42 and been overweight all my life. Can someone give me some answers? I will be greatly appreciative.

I would suggest you do a search in the Insurance section for BCBS to get a good idea of what your experience will be like because all of the other people here who have gone thru it already. There will be tons of info there!

thank you, cindy

It took me 6 to 8 weeks to get through the blood work, EKG, Psych eval and nutritionist. My insurance took about a week or so. It went very smoothly. Good luck.

Hi,

I was told the whole process could take any where between two and three months...(depending how quickly they can schedule everything). The nurse I spoke with said that BCBS typically gets back to you within a week. Good Luck!

I have the 3 hour info session in April. I am hoping someone can tell me the time frame of how long you have to wait for a surgery date. I am hoping my insurance (BCBS) doesn't give me a problem. I have a bmi of 44 and have sleep apnea. I am 42 and been overweight all my life. Can someone give me some answers? I will be greatly appreciative.

Which BCBS do you have? I have BCBS of Minnesota and mine requires that I attend 6 meetings one per month with either a medical doctor or a dietitian and follow a diet designed by them. I have made it through 5 months so far! I have 17 days till my last appt.

Good Luck

Hi, I have BCBS of New England... I have to attend 3 support group meetings, meet with the nutrionist (2x's), lose 5% of my body weight before surgery, meet with the surgeon and psychiatrist and agree to go to at least 1 support group meeting per month for a year... Ugh... Lots of work, but I know it will be worth it! My last appointment is April 17th.. I'm hoping to get a surgery date of early/mid May!

Good LUck!

mine was 1 week...self-pay, no major "health issues"

I have gone through all the testing and when the dr. finally submitted all the info, bcbs came back with a reply in 2 weeks. no questions asked. the hardest part now is waiting for the surgeon to find me a date. he's booked up for 2 months!!!!!

I have a different ins co but I had my seminar in Nov, submitted the paperwork in January and had surgery in Feb.

It all depends on the specific insurance plan your employer has and the requirements of your surgeon. I have BCBS of IL. Some of the BCBS plans don't require the six month supervised diet and some do. Mine did, which thankfully I had already done. But due to the requirements my surgeon had (nutrition consults, psych eval, pulmonary eval, support meetings, etc) and the time it took to get in to see these people it was a very lengthy process. Not to mention the fact that they wouldn't even schedule the surgery until everything was completed, which meant waiting another month for the first available surgery date. It took me 6 months from the informational meeting until my surgery date. Granted, this is probably a bit longer than most, but just prepare for the worst and hope for the best.

I have BCBS of NH and it took about 3 weeks to hear back from them. I had 3 meetings, 1 consult, 2 meetings with the nutrionist, a smoking cessation class, a psych visit, lab work, upper GI, EKG and a pre-op physical. I managed to get all of this done in 7 weeks! April 14th is my day!