Congratulations on your approval! I could really relate to what you were saying about going crazy waiting. When I went in to talk to the people in my surgeons office I discovered that they couldn't find my paperwork... they had lost it. I tried to be patient and waited a week to call and see if they had managed to do the letter (in 3weeks), and they claimed that they had sent it out. After it had be "mailed" and the ins. co. and 3weeks had gone by for them to get the paperwork & review it, the ins. co. called to answer a question my husband had asked them the previous work day, and I asked how long it took them to approve surgeries. The lady didn't know I had put in for approval so she pulled me up on the computer, and it was not in there. Talking to her, I found out that BCBS works the paper work by surgery date....... my surgeon doesn't bother to give you a surgery date until you are approved...... so your papers stay at the bottom of the stack until no one else submits anything for approval. Silly me, I thought that my surgeons office would CARE and want to know so they could submit things with an estimated surgery date............ well, the office staff don't really give a rats behind......... they told me "oh, well, we NEVER submit the papers with a surgery date!" I pointed out that they were complaining that approval took a long time, and that was why. Evidently, it would be too much trouble to even estimate a date so that the insurance company could work on my papers. Also, it was to much trouble to re-fax the papers like the insurance company asked for, also.
The staff's answer for everything is, "the insurance company is lying.... they always lie".
I don't know about that, but I do know that the office staff had a 6 in stack of papers that they needed to file, and another stack of work that they needed to get done, and they were carrying on about how busy they always were, but the only thing I saw them do was make long personal calls and let people stand at the window and wait for them to finally get to them.
I may have 2 birthdays before they bother to re-fax my papers. I know that I told them that it needed doing on Monday, and when I talked to them on Thurs. it had never been done. The girl took my number so they could call me back, which they never do. (later she called to see if I had the fax number for the insurance company....... evidently she looked in my file and it had not been done. but that was 2 hours later and the ladies who submit the papers were still out to lunch according to her. She just thought that she would get the fax number. The fact is, she is the one who found out that they lost my papers in the first place....... maybe they need to hire someone else to answer the phone and let her do the files, it might actually get done that way.)
I am sorry for ranting...... but it just burns me up, and then I get depressed. My insurance would cover this stuff, but they are going to screw around and in May, we will be starting the 2nd year that my employer had this ins. co. and they will be able to make changes and exclude the surgery then........... I have the fear that I will get screwed up, because these people are playing around, and not taking care of business, and I will run out of time.
Thanks for listening.