Hubby's laminectomy bill.....

[Colleen]

You may have read some of my posts on my husband's surgery for his back that was done June 21. We have no complaints about the doctor, who was wonderful to deal with, or the hospital or staff. It all went very well and my hubby is getting around almost like he use to. What's keeping him a little slow is his right knee that needs to have a knee replacement done on it, which is coming up soon.

Anyway, I've been keeping an eye on the insurance to see what the billing for his back surgery is going to be. So far, only the hospital charges have been submitted to the insurance. I almost fell over when I saw how much it was. Anybody have a guess??? $68,000!

That's just for the OR, medications, etc. That doesn't include the surgeon or the anesthesiologist. HOLY MOLEY! I can't imagine what people do that don't have insurance.

I'm waiting to get what my share is going to be.

 

[terry123]

You did not check before hand to see what your responsibility would be? The doctors always bill separately but your policy will tell you how much your part is. $68000 is not that much and after it is negoiated (sic) down you will be surprised at how much will be charged off. Your policy or Medicare can tell you how much you will owe for everything before you have any procedure done but you have to find out for yourself. Patients are assigned a case manager and you can work with them. But your policy will spell out what you will owe.

Many years ago when I had brain surgery for an aneurysm the drug bill by itself was $180,000. Did not count any other charges. My part of everything was zero. All I owed was for what the insurance did not pay the doctors which was not much. This was an emergency so I could not research costs. Since then I have a good idea of what my part will be as I research and ask questions.

 

[Colleen]

You did not check before hand to see what your responsibility would be? The doctors always bill separately but your policy will tell you how much your part is. $68000 is not that much and after it is negoiated (sic) down you will be surprised at how much will be charged off. Your policy or Medicare can tell you how much you will owe for everything before you have any procedure done but you have to find out for yourself. Patients are assigned a case manager and you can work with them. But your policy will spell out what you will owe.

Many years ago when I had brain surgery for an aneurysm the drug bill by itself was $180,000. Did not count any other charges. My part of everything was zero. All I owed was for what the insurance did not pay the doctors which was not much. This was an emergency so I could not research costs. Since then I have a good idea of what my part will be as I research and ask questions.

I don't think it would have mattered if I'd checked beforehand what my responsibility would be...it still had to be done and we'll pay whatever our portion is.

 

[Murrmurr]

You may have read some of my posts on my husband's surgery for his back that was done June 21. We have no complaints about the doctor, who was wonderful to deal with, or the hospital or staff. It all went very well and my hubby is getting around almost like he use to. What's keeping him a little slow is his right knee that needs to have a knee replacement done on it, which is coming up soon.

Anyway, I've been keeping an eye on the insurance to see what the billing for his back surgery is going to be. So far, only the hospital charges have been submitted to the insurance. I almost fell over when I saw how much it was. Anybody have a guess??? $68,000!

That's just for the OR, medications, etc. That doesn't include the surgeon or the anesthesiologist. HOLY MOLEY! I can't imagine what people do that don't have insurance.

I'm waiting to get what my share is going to be.

I had a laminectomy back in Nov 2017. The final bill was about $80,000, but the surgeon also removed some arthritis, carved out room in a foramen (part of a vertebrae) for a deformed nerve root caused by an accident, and repaired a tethered spinal cord caused by a birth defect (spina bifida occulta).

I was extremely fortunate to get an excellent surgeon willing to bill both my medicare and mediCal. I didn't have to pay for anything to do with the surgery. I actually think the $80K was cheap considering all the work the surgeon did. Plus, it got me out of a wheelchair.