I have my surgery consult today and I just had a question pop up that I haven't asked before. How long after your intial consult was it before the surgeon submitted paperwork for insurance approval?

Just a day or so, I guess it depends on how busy they are at the time.

My surgeon submitted immediately actually before my consult so we knew what would be covered.

WOW! You gals are lucky--my surgeon doesn't submit the paperwork until I complete the stinking 3-month pre-op program :-(! I'm just dying to get a surgery date--I think it will make all the hoops worth it to know I'm working toward a definitive date!!

My insurance company has a year long waiting period during which they require completion of certain medical/psychological requirements. Most of these are the same as what many of you have posted. This included monthly visits with my physician and daily food logs. Let me just say that after a year, I had a lot of papers to submit. Darn near killed a forest. I started my journey in July 2007 and was finally banded in Janaury 09. (actual approval came through in Nov. 08). Even with this wait and all the hoops, it was worth it and I would do it again. Maybe this was a test of my committment to make sure that I would use this as the great tool that it is.

Juliansmom,

Be thankful your insurance company only requires 3 months. Mine requires a SIX month medically supervised diet. I am 4 months into it now, which would give me a surgery date of about Oct 15th. Unfortunately I have a major project at work which goes live on 11/17 and may not be able to get off work until after then!

It totally depends. My time from seminar to surgery was just 1 month, and I have insurance. Some are fast, some take longer. :tongue2:

My hold up was getting all the appointments taken care of (nutritionist, psychologist, meeting with endocrinologist).

I went to the seminar on the 28th, my consult was on the 15th of June. Then I had this whole psychologist issue (first guy tried to charge me $300 for tests). So then I had to see someone else, then take a PAI test (charged as a session), then a follow-up. Nutritionist was on the 25th. Finally saw the endocrinologist on the 30th (couldn't get an earlier appointment).

I had my pre-op consult with the surgeon on the 6th of July, which is where I gave them all the paperwork. They submitted it the next day. I was approved in 16 days (on the 23rd of July). And my surgery is in 2 days.

It was 3 months for me also. I didn't think that day would ever come. When I finally got 'THE CALL' that I'd been approved, I cried I was so happy. :tongue2:

It was 3 months for me also. I didn't think that day would ever come. When I finally got 'THE CALL' that I'd been approved, I cried I was so happy. :tongue2:

Aw. I was like, "Yay!" I'm not an emotional person at all, so I knew I wouldn't cry. I was happy about it, though!