First appointment with the surgeon

Hello, I am new to this board. I read all the posts every day, but this is my first time posting a question. I am having my surgery in Bangor with Dr. Toder. I have completed all my pre-op appointments except for the final nutritionist appointment which is scheduled for Oct. 12th. My question is, once you see the surgeon, is the insurance paperwork submitted then or is there a delay? And, any ideas on how long it takes to hear back from insurance on approval status. I have Atena for insurance. I'm hoping to have the surgery before the end of this year.  Thanks

Hi Julie,    Welcome Aboard!  Since I had a different surgeon and bariatric center, I'll leave your specific questions for someone who knows your center's process. But I did want to let you know it's nice to have you join us!    Good Luck on your weight loss journey! Blessings, Yvonne 

Yvonne, Thanks for the welcome. Everyone seems so supportive here. It is nice to finally be a part of it. Julie

Hi Julie!     I also had surgery with Dr. Toder in August, and I actually just got off the phone with her. She is such a great surgeon. I don't know if you have met her yet but I'm sure you will love her. Anyways about the insurance, I don't have Atena, I have Cigna but this is how it worked for me: I had my surgeon consult on June 8th and I gave them all my dr supervised diet info at that time plus other records they wanted. Then about two weeks later the office called me and said I was approved. A day after that I received a letter in the mail from CIGNA saying I was denied...which was weird, and then like two days after that I got another letter saying I was approved. What had happened was I was denied, Dr. Toder's office appealed it without even telling me about it (pretty cool I think, much less stressful for me) and got me approved. So all in all it took about 2 weeks from the time of my surgeon consult to when I was approved. As far as the surgery date does you wont get that until you are approved and I know this summer she was very very backed up and had to add an extra day in to accomodate everyone. I had a special situation because I needed to get it done before school started with enough time to recover so she actually scheduled me for surgery at my consult assuming I would be approved, that's not typical though. I hear the normal wait time between approval and surgery is about 4 weeks.     Hope that helps, let me know if you have any more questions!! Good luck on getting your approval! Kristi

Kristi, Thanks for the feedback. It helps alot. I have not met with Dr. Toder yet but I have heard she is excellent to deal with.  Thanks again, Julie