Question:
Has anyone used UHC PPO through Escambia Co Fl schoolbd. for this sur.?

I have this insurance and would like to know if anyone recently had this surgery? How receptive were they? How long till approval? My consult is June 5th. Anything I should do to help speed process? Wondering.    — [Anonymous] (posted on May 15, 2001)

May 15, 2001
I have UHC PPO, but with a different employer. As long as your employer does not have an exclusion clause in their policy, UHC will approve it easily as long as you meet the NIH requirments of 40+ BMI or <40 BMI with co-morbs. My most significant co-morb is arthritis, so I'm pretty healthy overall. Once your pre-determination letter has been faxed to the right people, approval will come in just a couple of days. UHC does not require any pre-op testing before approval, you won't have to go on another diet just to prove you'll fail, and no psych evaluation (unless your doctor requires one). My advice to speed up the process? Get a copy of your doctor's pre-determination letter and call UHC at least twice a week to check on it's progress. My letter had to be faxed to Care Coordination where it was assigned to a nurse. I called the next day to find out who my case had been assigned to. Once the nurse received the letter, she called me and gave a preliminary approval but still took another day and half to find my company's policy to verify there wasn't an exclusion clause. It's likely that the doctor's office will take more time to prepare the pre-determination letter than it will for UHC to approve it. The waiting game is extremely nerve racking, but hang in there. Good luck on your quest!
   — Lori W.