Question:
Is there anything I can do to speed up approval
I'am waitng for my conslt ad then the surgeon sends for approval. I s there anything I can do to speed it up like calling ins company myself or should I just try to wait it out? I feel lost and not sure what to do with this time. My appt is not untillAug.13th for my consult. any suggestions of how to keep my mind occupied with preperations or something would be great. — Sue R. T. (posted on July 2, 2001)
July 2, 2001
Sue, one thing you can be doing while you wait for your consult appointment
is to gather all your medical records together to take to your consult
appointment. If you don't get them ahead of time, it can take your surgeon
several weeks to write to your doctors, request the records and receive the
records. If you haven't already done so, you should also read through your
insurance policy and check for WLS exclusions, etc. You can also call your
insurance company and request their WLS criteria -- then you can tell your
surgeon how you meet their criteria.
— Denise C.
July 2, 2001
HI, Sue - The only thing that I did post op was to make sure my policy did
not have a bariatric surgery exclusion. I am still waiting for insurance
approval- the paperwork was submitted on Friday. It is nerve wracking to
wait! Good luck.
— Jean K.
July 2, 2001
When I scheduled my consult, I told the receptionist that I was in a rush.
She put me on the telephone with the doctor's assistant who was nice enough
to tell me what pre op tests I needed (bloodwork, egd, psych eval). When I
went in for my consult, I had everything ready and was scheduled for 5
weeks later. It helped a lot to have everything ready when I went.
— Jeannet
July 2, 2001
I had no problem getting an appointment with my surgeon. They booked me in
really quickly. As far as getting approved with my insurance company and
getting approved faster with them, I feel that the personal letter that i
typed and faxed made a world of difference in there decision to even
approve me. I highly recommened anyone waiting for approval that has
already had there paper work sent to their insurance company to type a
letter telling them why you need the surgery and how important it is that
you that you have it.
— [Anonymous]
July 2, 2001
Hi Sue, this is what I did. In September I called and made an appt. for my
consult, which wasn't until November. I asked the surgeon's office if I
could go ahead and work on insurance approval during this time, as I was
shooting for surgery at the beginning of '01. They were great. They sent to
me information about writing my diet history and what they needed as far as
medical records. I spent the next month writing an extremely compelling
diet history, getting a new PCP that would submit the referral, and
gathering my medical records. I sent this information to the surgeon's
office about the middle of October. They added whatever they needed to it
and sent it in. I was approved in 3 days with written approval in about
5.(all before having I even saw the surgeon!) I went to my consult with
approval. It was a group consult and while others were just getting
information regarding their insurance companies, etc... I was given my
surgeical date. I had surgery 1/8/01. Perfect for me!! Shelley
— Shelley.
July 3, 2001
Yes...do everything the previous posters mentioned. Do a really detailed,
complete, diet history and gather all the supporting documentation. Jenny
Craig, etc., will send you the records if you give them the approx. date,
location, etc. Work on a compelling and persuasive letter to the insurance
company. Get any tests done that you know you will need. If your
surgeon's office won't give you the information, you can do like I did and
contact other patients on this site who had surgery at the same place. I
learned so much from talking to them...some little tricks, let's say. They
explained the roles of the staffers in the surgeon's office and gave me
some insight on how to get around them. (The woman who normally schedules
the surgery was a real bitch, but she didn't come into the office until
late in the morning. The woman who fills in for her is extremely nice and
accomodating, so I made sure I called only when the nice one would answer.)
This all worked really well for me. My surgery was less than 4 weeks after
my first consult! Just sitting and waiting is awful! It is so much better
if you can use the time to do something proactive.
— Anne G.
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