Here is my concern. On May 1st I will have completed everything the insurance company requires. I actually have my last appt for the 6 month weight loss visits on that day. I plan to drive over to the surgeons office with everything. If it is submitted and approved within 2 weeks I wonder if I will have a long wait to get the surgery done. I really want to get it done the end of May. Some people on here seem to already have tentative surgery dates. Has anyone received approval from insurance and then the surgery was scheduled within two weeks. I know this sounds petty but I don't want to get an approval and then find out you have to wait to get an appt for surgery another month.

I guess I am a little different from what I have been reading. I have been scheduled and my insurance has not approved yet (probably has by now). Because my insurance is so good about approving this surgery, they went ahead and scheduled me for 3 weeks out....

So you did not get an actual date months in advance. I thought I might get a date at my consult with the surgeon's office. I know I will not have everything completed until May but once I am approved I want the surgery to happen right away. If I hand everything in to the office and they schedule me for three weeks after that would be great. Good luck.

I had approval within about 3 weeks of completing all the pre-op requirements, and then I actually could have had surgery within two weeks, but I opted to wait about 4 weeks because we had bought a new house and were in the process of moving.

Brad

Once my insurance approved, the surgeon's office offered me the next available date, which was only a couple days later. I couldn't go on that short notice, so I had to wait almost 3 weeks.

Once I completed the required upper GI and H-pylori test, my doctor submitted everything to the insurance company on October 15. The insurance company approved the procedure on October 16. I was then given a surgery date of November 11.

I think my scenario might reflect what occurs on average to other people. My doctor has lots of patients at different stages of the process, so I do think I could have received a surgery appointment any sooner than what I did. Plus, I did have to meet the surgeon one more time and complete hospital pre-registration and pre-surgery lab work.

And most importantly, I needed to plan for my work absence and my after-care recovery. So 4-weeks notice gave me the time I needed to get everything done.

Most of it depends on what pre-op diet the doctor requires too. My surgery center waited until the day insurance appoved me then they set me up at that point. I also opted push mine out about 6 weeks so that we could make a family vacation and I could wait till the kids went back to school.

I am in the process of getting insurance approval too. My doctor office says once that comes in (expected in a week or two) then I have an appointment with doctor and surgery is two weeks later. I am looking at Feb for my surgery. I have had very fast response from my insurance company. Good luck!