The insurance coordinator emailed me today and said that the approval is valid throughout the year in which it's given.

Sadly, my window for participating in the FSA closed Monday. HOWEVER, I do have money in my Thrift savings that I can take a loan against.  I know that isn't a popular option but I know I can quickly re-pay the withdrawn amount and the interest charged is like 2.25%. There is no loan out there where I can get that low of a interest rate. So my plan is to save 1/2 and loan the rest. 

Where there's a will there's a way!

Thanks for the imput, I'm glad you won your appeal! I'm trying to see if they can re-assign my NCM... if it's not one thing it's another. She keeps saying she's not receiving everything then she starts questioning stuff. The diet I sent her I wasn't even pregnant during it, she just took it upon herself to assume that. It's so frustrating. She has all my medical records which are from my OB/GYN and it clearly documents when I was pregnant and wasn't. I just feel like if someone is incompetent they shouldn't be in that position. Not to be mean... but it's a huge deal if I get approved or not. It's very frustrating. I'm glad I'm not the only one but it should be this difficult.

I am not sure of the window after approval for surgery.  However, for the out of pocket expense, do you have a health savings account or flex spending account?  You should be able to use that full amount as needed.

Keep your head up!

I've been trying to obtain approval from UHC (Choice Plus PPO) for a couple of months now. My patient advocate at my surgeon's says they are faxing items over, and the nurse case manager is saying she isn't receiving it. Is this a common issue with anyone else?

I was denied earlier this month because they did not have my psych eval info or my 6 month diet info. That has been submitted twice so far this week and they are still saying they are not receiving it. Now, they say they have received the diet, but not the psych eval. And they say that the diet doesn't count because I was pregnant. The diet took place a few months after I gave birth, they even have all of those medical records showing that. Is it possible they are causing this run around just so they don't have to pay for the surgery? We certainly pay enough on our insurance premium. It's just becoming a huge frustrating mess. Any suggestions on how to get the ball rolling and get an approval? thanks!

 
Ditto.

I didn't really care what my PCP had to say on the topic, I don't really remember if I told him before surgery or not but I opted not to jump through ins hoops and self pay instead.

If I would have opted to do the six month nonsense I would insist on a doc that was behind me all the way.