Question:
how long do most people wait between their initial consultation and surgery?
I am simply wondering what is reasonable and when i can push a little. — Carol S. (posted on September 30, 2002)
September 30, 2002
I had my initial consultation on august 8th 02 and my surgery date is Oct
7th 02, but I think it all depends on your insurance.
— kelly M.
September 30, 2002
I had my first consult the first week of May and my surgery was August 7,
so I waited approximately 3 months. But my insurance cooperated fully by
only taking ONE day to approve me. So my wait might be of been shorter
than others. Good Luck!!
— Amy S.
September 30, 2002
hi. i had my initial consult very end of june 2002 and i just had surgery
on 9-16-02. pretty fast, i think.
— Monica T.
September 30, 2002
It depends upon how quickly your insurance company responds with approval.
My initial consultation was 1/8/2002. I fought with Cigna for a few months
before approval came in Late May 2002. My surgery was then scheduled for
8/15/2002.
— Cathy S.
September 30, 2002
I had my first consult in Jan 2002 and surgery scheduled for the first week
of Feb, but I postponed until Feb 25th. Pretty quick if you ask me! I
actually had insurance approval within hours of submitting all the
paperwork!
— Rosario T.
September 30, 2002
It also depends on how popular your doctor is. Some doctors have very long
waiting lists, either because they have lots of WLS patients to do or their
hospital priveleges only allow them to use the operating rooms on certain
days/times. Best thing to do is check with the doctors office for the
norm. For me, it was about a month between initial consult and surgery,
but that was very fast.
— Cindy R.
September 30, 2002
Agreeing with Cathy, it depends on how fast your insurance approves you. In
my case, I got approved in an hour, but I also had to have my psych eval
and all. It also depends on how long the waiting list is for your surgeon.
With mine, it was only a couple of weeks. I have heard of surgeons,
however, where their wait is 6 months to a year. You might want to check on
it if you are really concerned.
— sammygirlwpc
September 30, 2002
It took just about 2 months for me to get everthing the surgeon and the
insurance wanted done. Once everything was submitted, it took 48 hours for
the approval with Aetna. my first consult was in the beginning of august
and my surgery is scheduled for 10/9! good luck with your journey :-)
jen
— JENNIFER A.
September 30, 2002
Thursday 7/8/02 I first visited the doctors office and filled out
paperwork. I met with Dr Alanis for the first time 8/13/02. He required I
have a sleep study. On Sept 19th I finally got my surgery date of 10/9/02.
So first visit to surgery date was 90 days.
— Wanda R.
September 30, 2002
I had my first visit with the Dr. on July 10, after all testing was
completed my surgery was/is scheduled for October 17. Not to long if you
look at how long it took to get where I am at now!!
— Sandy W.
September 30, 2002
My surgeon didn't require many of the pre-op tests and my insurance
approved within 4 hours so, mine went pretty fast - first consult May 24th,
surgery June 20th. (the surgeon's office even asked if I wanted to move it
up to have surgery on June 6th!)
— [Deactivated Member]
September 30, 2002
I had my initial consult on 2/14/02. My surgeon then left the ball in my
court to get the physical, psych eval. and letters from both. When all
that was done, it took less than 2 weeks for approval and I was scheduled
for 2 weeks later. So from 2/14/02 to 6/12/02 (my surgery date).
— emilyfink
September 30, 2002
I am so sorry to tell you this but I had my initial consultation Dec. 2001
and will be having my LAP RNY Feb. 4, 2003. BUT like some people probably
have told you this also depends on your insurance... my insurance denied me
initially and I won on appeal.. that process took 3 months..
It also depends on the hospital and surgeon...I'm having it done at The
Cleveland Clinic, and my surgeon Dr. Brody does other types of gastric
surgeries...Good Luck.. and God Speed!
— Leah S.
September 30, 2002
It took me a little less than 3 months between my initial consult
(4/25/2002) and my surgery (7/17/2002), but then again, I lucked out into a
cancellation on the surgery. It took me 7 months between the time I
called for my initial consultation appointment and the time I had the
consultation, though.
<p>
The insurance approval and the pre-op requirements (cardiac clearance or
medical clearance, upper GI, abdominal ultrasound, pulmonary function test,
standard pre-op blood tests) account for a lot of the time between the
consultation and the surgery. Also the nutritional and psych consult.
<p>
And the surgery dates also depend on how busy your surgeon (or his group
is) and whether it is a regular hospital or a bariatric center. I had my
surgery at the Hospital of the University of Pa., so the WLS' priority on
the OR schedule is lower than say, cancer surgery. There are also 500+
people at some point of the pre-op loop at HUP. That makes for some
greater delays in getting surgery dates simply because the two surgeons
that perform WLS at HUP can only perform so many surgeries a week...JR
(open RNY 07/17 -84 lbs)
— John Rushton
September 30, 2002
I know mine was really fast but I wanted to tell you for encouragement's
sake because if I had heard when starting out that it was going to take
months I would have been defeated! It took 2 weeks to get my initial
consultation appointment. Six day after that I had my insurance approval
and we had only had the insurance 2.5 weeks. Two 3 weeks to the day after
my initial consult I am having surgery! So in a nutshell 5 weeks from the
first phone call for an initial consultation to surgery. Surgery is this
Thursday! Stick with the process, do your research! Ask questions because
these people here know what they are talking about! Because of them I knew
to have a psych eval and a nutrionist appointment right after my initial
and that helped with a timely insurance approval. Also! Make a friend
when you call your insurance company! It helps!
— Kristi T.
September 30, 2002
It is hard to compare how long from the consultation to the surgery date.
It all depends on how busy your surgeon is. I was lucky to get an
appointment for the initial consultation 2 weeks after my PCP called.
However, it took a total of 5 months to get to the point of surgery. My
surgeon is getting very busy, so after I got the insurance approval, it
took 2.5 months to get to the point of surgery. The insurance approval was
held up by how busy the Doctors office was in filing requests, and the many
times the insurance company said they never received any information. I
had to finally get a specific person's name to send AND fax the info to.
Once that was done, the approval was mailed to me within the week. I know
some people with the same insurance who had to provide a large number of
supporting documents in order to get approval. I had enough documented
co-morbidities that that portion was not necessary for the approval. I
think the most important thing is that you have researched your surgeon,
and he is good at what he does. I would rather wait for a good surgeon,
than get a quick date because the surgeon is inexperienced. Good luck.
— beryl
September 30, 2002
In Arizona, the surgeons are pretty well back logged. I went for my
initial seminar beginning of September, mailed my packet to the Doctor and
am scheduled for a consultation on JANUARY 23. If I am accepted, it would
be end of March or April 2003 before surgery. That is, if the insurance
company plays fair and approves me. Mary Lynn
— Mary J.
September 30, 2002
You guys are so LUCKY! I'm Canadian and we have to wait up to a year for
the first consult, and then 1-3 years for the surgery (the waits are so
long because it's 100% covered by our medicare, but few doctors do WLS
because they don't get paid very much for doing it). I'm envious of you
guys!
— Patricia E.
October 1, 2002
I waited six months for my intial consult appointment and my surgery was
seven months after that...I was considered quick.
— Katherine M.
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