I am in the 3rd month of my medically supervised diet, my 6 months will be up Aug 19th, but I do not want to wait until September for my consult with the surgeon. I have my blood test done, my psychologist appt is june 18th, and all my pre-op will be done, when should I meet with the surgeon (maybe July) so that once Aug 16th comes, they can send off my paperwork the next day for insurance approval. Can you give me some ideas on how to approach this. I just do not want to wait until November or December for the surgery. I would like to have the surgery in September if possible. The surgeon will not submit to insurance until after Aug 16th, which will be my 6 months. I have blue shield HMO in california, Sante physicians group......any suggestions?

I honestly don't see why you can't go ahead and make that first appointment with the surgeon. That way they can start getting your records in order and you can find out any specific requirements he may have prior to approving you for surgery as well. I would want to get as much of that out of the way as possible so when the six months is up, I could move things along as quickly as possible.

I would definitely research a couple surgeons and meet with them now. I would choose the one you feel more comfortable with. Good luck with your decision.

Mesaucy-

I am also in my 3rd month of my 6 month pre-approval. My surgeon gave all interested persons a folder with forms/patient history/etc. at the seminar. I filled out my forms and faxed his office my physican progress notes each month. They want patient to call their office after the 5th visit is scheduled. They will then schedule my appt. with him and all the others ( nutritionist, psych, etc. ) between my 5th and 6th month family physican appt. After that 6th appt., I'll fax my last progress note and they will submit it to my Insurance. When I asked a woman @ suppport group who had the same insurance as I do, how long it took for her to hear back, she said one day. So if all goes like it was explained to me I should find out mid to late August on the approval and hopefully ( fingers crossed ) have a surgery date of either the end of August or the beginning of September.

This was posted by an attorney on another site: If you don't want to do the six month diet, Options, or other pre-referral processes, APPEAL! The CA Dept. of Managed Health Care (DMHC) will order Kaiser to waive these requirements. This also applies to all heath insurers in the state. I have not been on an MD supervised diet in the last 3 years and when I submitted to Healthnet for approval for a lap rny I was terrified that I would have to do the six month diet. I was approved in 4 working days with no diet requirement. My bmi is barely 40. Good Luck!

the only reason they are prob. making u wait because they already have other people scheduled for august... or either i would ask if there is any way your date could be pushed up...