HOW LONG WERE YOU APPROVED BEFORE SURGERY...

Hi, I am scheduled for surgery monday and just had my last dr appt last wed. My surgeons office is rushing with my insurance to get me approved and it is making me nervous that I could be denied and then would have to move my date! I already scheduled time off work, etc...

How long did you know you were approved before they scheduled your surgery? I feel like this should be the last thing on my mind causing me stress...

My surgeons office doesn't schedule untill you have approval and then go through more testing. Hope everything hurries up for you!

Yikes, that is what I think would be the most logical way of doing things. But I kid of went on the fast track with all this - my PCP backdated all my notes and so I have only been to my surgeons office 3 times and got everything done for surgery within a 2.5 month time frame.. This insurance stuff is making me nervous...

 Same here.  My surgery did not get scheduled until they received the approval.  I wish you the best that everything will be fine.  :)

My surgery approval went to the ins. company on Tuesday and they approved me on Thursday of the same week. Usually, the surgeon's office has this down to a science. They know the time it takes for approval with each insurance company.
Don't waste a worry. Deal with it IF it is an issue.

When I originally was going for Lap Band surgery, they scheduled it right away before I even had my pre-op testing.   Then when I decided to go with RNY, with a different surgeon, it took 3 months and all my testing and then they sent the information into my insurance and when it was approved that's when they gave me a date.

Hope it all works out for you, sometimes I think the schedulers know more then we do.  I would just hate for the disappointment if they had to cancel.  Not sure why they would do it that way, I honestly don't think that's appropriate.  Good Luck!   (btw you could always call your insurance company yourself to see where they are on the decision)

My surgeon also will not put anyone on the schedule (even tentatively) unitl tehy have insurance approval in hand.... because to do it before then would result in a significant number of surgeries having to be rescheduled (and therefore a BUNCH of REALLY stressed out and angry patients) if there is a snag in the approval process.
 
(Even for some people, like myself, who CLEARLY met ALL the requirements, there can still be problems... the insurance company somehow LOST the original 50+ page fax... and we did not know it for a couple of weeks.  Once the surgeon's offie re-sent it, I got approved in 2 days.... but if it had taken lonnger and I had already been on the schedule for surgery 3 or 4 weeks out from when they submitted it, the surgeon would have had to rearrange her schedule and so would I!)

Lora

Thanks for the good words everyone! I agree, I kind of wish they would have gotten approval first so I wouldnt be concerned! Hopefully you all are right, and the scheduler/insurance specialist is in the know!

My doctor's office didn't schedule me until I was approved, but I was approved about 4 weeks before surgery.  Then I had to go to nurtitional classes.  Hope it all goes well for you!

Mine took one day they submitted on a tuesday and I called ins. company wednesday morning and I was approved. The ins company gave me a date, but i couldn't do it then so I scheduled with the surgeons office for a different date, which was perfectly fine with them. Good luck with everything!