Hello all,

I am curious as to the cost of a typical 3 step surgery and subsequent hospital care in the US. I am a student in (and hence temporary resident of) Canada (but am American) and was able to get my surgeries covered under the medical services plan of Canada.

Just curious.

Thanks,
Z

Hi Zap,

I can't imagine someone having this surgery and paying for it themselves. My daughter had her colon removed and j pouch surgery in Feb.and 2 days later a 2nd surgery to repair the ureter that was severed. Since then she's had 2 EUA's(evaulatiion under anesthesia). Most of her doctors accept my insurance, but the one that cut her in the wrong places took what my insurane paid him (even though he usually doesn't). The surgeons just for the colon removal and j pouch creation got paid $30,000. As for the hospital room for 11 days my insurance paid $36,000 but were charged $85,000. I did not have to pay the difference.The surgeon that repaired her ureter got a few thousand dollars (not sure exactly, maybe even $10,000), and not to forget the pain management people, anestesiologists (at least $10,000 for the 2 in Feb.), and everybody else that just walked into her room. So far that covers Feb. Now for the 2 EUA's, the surgeon gets about $7,000, she stayed overnight at the hospital(2 nights the first time), also the anestesiologist, and once again the pain management people. Don't forget Mt. Sinai is going to bill something for the stay in the hospital. Hopefully she'll have takedown before the end of the year.
You do the math
Thank goodness for insurance!!!

Mila

Z, I was looking at my surgery records not too long ago and the total was $114,000 that was just for the first step. That was everything included surgeon, hospital stay, labs and even my visiting nurse charges. It is pretty high because I had a long hospital stay(2-3 months)also this was 8 years ago, I cannot imagine what it would be now. All I had to pay was a $25 co-pay when I was admitted into the emergency room, $1050 dollars for a private room was also charged to me but I never paid it, my doc wrote a memo to the ins. company saying that it was necessary and never heard about it again, guess they paid it. Scott Mc

There is a somewhat affordable way to get this sort of expensive surgery done uninsured, and that is to go to a place like India or Thailand. Certainly, the outsourced places like India are using skilled docs, trained in prestigious western medical schools, and they combine the trips with pre-surgery tourism and r ecuperation in luxury hotels, all for a tiny fraction of the US price.

I even inquired myself, just as "good to know" backup info., though hopefully I will still be fully insured when the time comes. Unfort the place I inquired of, in India, only does one steps. And I'd worry that the return travel could be tough, I'd imaginbe, with such a long flight back home.

There are some places in the US that negotiate insurance-type price discounts for the uninsured, as well. I think it's crimninal that if one is uninsured one has to pay a much higher rate for the same procedure, than the rate paid by insurance companies.

Christopher

I think I paid about $7 a day to hook up the TV in my room. That's it.

Wow! That's awesome that your surgeries were covered as a temporary resident in Canada! I mean, as a student I can't imagine that you were paying a lot of money back in taxes or anything so you definately got the better end of that arrangement. Maybe I'll go take a semester of something up yonder the next time I need some work done. Lol.

I cannot recall the specifics of exactly what procedures were paid for, but the total of my bills to the Mayo Clinic for my surgeries 2 years ago was over $70k. Granted, there were a few things in addition to surgery (colonoscopy, barium contrast, ERCP, CT scan, and a few other diagnostics) - but that's still a big chunk of change!

Rick

My surgery was done in 1986, and I tease that it might not look like much, but it's a $100,000.00 butt! We never had to pay anything for the surgery, only the copay for the initial consult, which lasted 3 days including testing at Lahey. Our financial expenses were hotels, food, phone bills, gas and tolls due to driving up to Lahey Clinic so often. I never did get a final tally on the cost of the surgery, we stopped adding after $92,000.00 as the numbers were giving my parents nightmares! Thank goodness my parents had good jobs with even better insurance plans.

Rick- if I may ask re your $70k tally, that was without any complications right? And, I am guessing your surgery at Mayo was laparoscopic? I assume that laparo is a chunk pricier than open, and that places like CC and Mayo are amongst the priciest. But when the time comes, assuming I am a candidate, I'd sure like to opt for laparo.

Christopher

quote:

your $70k tally, that was without any complications right? And, I am guessing your surgery at Mayo was laparoscopic? I assume that laparo is a chunk pricier than open, and that places like CC and Mayo are amongst the priciest. But when the time comes, assuming I am a candidate, I'd sure like to opt for laparo.

Yes, my surgery was done lapro as a 2 step. I am not sure if Mayo is more or less expensive but I think most hospitals/dr.'s only get reimbursed what the insurance company thinks is "reasonable" anyways. I did not have any complications, but I do remember that the drugs portion of the bill was extememly high so I must have gotten a lot of the good stuff.

Rick

Thanks for the info everybody!

I can't imagine paying for this kind of thing. Even with insurance in the US it sounds like a sizeable chunk of money. My charges were much like lixxie's. I only payed for the television at 10 dollars a day.

Rick is right, I didn't pay much in taxes. In fact, I got all of my taxed income back.

Crazy stuff.

Z

Wow, I got a screamin' deal! My butt only cost $50,000 or so.

I do live in a depressed economy so that probably has something to do with it. And I had no complications either.

2-step surgery colonic j-pouch/temp ileo (private room)and Takedown (shared room)combined cost my insurance (Aetna) $56k.

VAP Port surgery for Chemo was $2k

Rectal Cancer 2/06

Just to clarify...I had 3 steps...all except takedown done open surgery not lapro. Also..I was early in the jpouch program, they hadn't been performing the surgery all that long! Oh ya...I also had to stay in the hospital for 2 weeks of TPN due to the state of my health before they would even consider the surgery on me. So all of these factors obviously drove up the cost! Worth every penny that BCBS paid

My parents and I figured it out one time. Of course this was eight years ago and doesn't count all the times I've gone in for blockages and such over the last few years. But all in all, my surgeries and everything cost $500,000.00! You can see now why the insurance company tried to drop me earlier than they should. I was under my parents insurance until 24 but they tried to get me off about a year too early. My parents and I would have been in trouble if we had to pay for that ourselves

my 2 steps were about 150K.thank god for insurance only 500.00 out of pocket. worth every penny.