Hernia surgery more than a new car!

[LisaR]

My DH had hernia surgery a few weeks ago. It was done at an outpatient facility and he was home within a couple hours. We just got the explanation of benefits. The charge for just the surgery was $12,300. Come on. How much does open heart surgery cost???

Here is the part I don't understand. Our insurance allowed $1100 and we only owe $190. What the heck happens to the rest of that? I assume it is written off but how can they even charge over $12,000 to begin with? Whatever happened to "reasonable and customary?" Is $12,300 reasonable now? We have received two other bills for this for doctor fees and I swear the other was for band-aids. Those were over $500 between the two of them.

 

[scnana]

Well, in February 2009 my husband had a pacemaker-defibrilator implanted. He was in the hospital from Thursday night through Saturday morning and it was $147,000 (I think).

 

[golfgal]

Is the OEB for everything or one particular charge-the a facility fee or anesthesia? Something is not right if they only allow $1100 for ANY surgery. Yes, they are expensive but when you figure what goes into that cost-education/training for the surgeon, technology costs for all the equipment, nursing staff, etc. it isn't unreasonable for the surgery to cost that much. My C-Section cost about that much 15 years ago.

 

[ontariomonkey]

I heard that an aspirin in an american hospital is like $12. It all adds up.

 

[JVL1018]

In 2005, my son had a hole in his heart repaired via cardiac catheterization, no open heart surgery necessary. He was in the hospital for 24 hours only. Total bill was about $50,000.
We paid $20-thank goodness for good insurance!

 

[HelenePA]

My dd's open heart surgery was well over 250K that was only with 3 days in the PICU. Her NICU charges after she was born were about 11k$ a day.. she was there for 33 days.. she is our million dollar baby..

 

[LisaR]

Wow! Thanks for sharing what some of the other surgeries cost. $12,300 doesn't seem like much in comparison. I am not sure what the charge is for specifically since it just says outpatient surgery but I do find it odd that insurance only allowed $1100. Like I said, we owe under $200 so I can't complain but it seems strange to me that $12,300 would be billed and only $1100 would be paid.

 

[ZachnElli]

My sil is having an abdominal hysterectomy next week and she got a letter saying the surgery is $29,000. She was asking me if that included the hospital stay and other stuff. I said The letter also said that her insurance covered $14,500, so she is freaking out. She needs the surgery. I took her to the ER myself only a few weeks ago.

 

[lynxstch]

My DH had hernia surgery a few weeks ago. It was done at an outpatient facility and he was home within a couple hours. We just got the explanation of benefits. The charge for just the surgery was $12,300. Come on. How much does open heart surgery cost???

Here is the part I don't understand. Our insurance allowed $1100 and we only owe $190. What the heck happens to the rest of that? I assume it is written off but how can they even charge over $12,000 to begin with? Whatever happened to "reasonable and customary?" Is $12,300 reasonable now? We have received two other bills for this for doctor fees and I swear the other was for band-aids. Those were over $500 between the two of them.

my husband had a pacemaker/defibrillator implanted last April..and the cost was $44000..thank God that our insurance paid the entire thing!

 

[Bella the Ball 360]

My DH had hernia surgery a few weeks ago. It was done at an outpatient facility and he was home within a couple hours. We just got the explanation of benefits. The charge for just the surgery was $12,300. Come on. How much does open heart surgery cost???

Here is the part I don't understand. Our insurance allowed $1100 and we only owe $190. What the heck happens to the rest of that? I assume it is written off but how can they even charge over $12,000 to begin with? Whatever happened to "reasonable and customary?" Is $12,300 reasonable now? We have received two other bills for this for doctor fees and I swear the other was for band-aids. Those were over $500 between the two of them.

A little ot...my husband needs this surgery. Was the hernia in is stomach? Did they put in one of those screen things to hold it in or was it an inguainal hernia. I had heard there was a long recovery from this surgery and I was wondering how your DH is faring.

 

[laurie31]

I fell last summer and shattered my wrist. I had to have a plate and six screws. I was at the hospital for a total of 6 hours (includes signing in , waiting to be called back, plus prepping for surgery, the actual procedure, and recovery).

My charges *for the surgery* were $40,000!

Our insurance dubbed $1700 "allowable charges" and that is all that was paid.

The surgeon's bill was separate from the hospital charges. We were billed $1800 and the insurance paid $1200. I thought that was WELL worth it, as he was a specialist in hand/wrist repair and I had been told I might never get function back in that hand (but I did! )

The total charges for my procedure - surgery, anesthesia, the surgeon, and follow-up were $48,000. What's scary is that without any insurance, I'd have been responsible for that entire amount. With insurance, they aren't allowed to bill for more than the insurance deems "reasonable." Which in my case was about $3000.

 

[disfan07]

In september i had an electrophisiology study. Outpatient and only lasted about 2 hours.
Total cost.....$50,000....from the time we got to the hospital in the morning to the time I was discharged was less than 12 hours.
And they're going to have to repeat the study again within the next couple of months....so another $50,000 at least.
That is on top of two 5 day hospital stays that were over $50,000 each.

 

[LisaR]

A little ot...my husband needs this surgery. Was the hernia in is stomach? Did they put in one of those screen things to hold it in or was it an inguainal hernia. I had heard there was a long recovery from this surgery and I was wondering how your DH is faring.

It was in his stomach and they did use the screen. He just went in for his follow up and told the surgeon that he has this occasional stabbing pain. The surgeon said he will probably experience this off and on for the next six months or longer.

Everyone we talked to said this was a cake walk.

His regular doctor (not the surgeon) said to schedule the procedure on a Friday and he would be able to go back to work on Monday. He ended up doing it four days before Christmas so work wouldn't be an issue but he said he would have been in too much pain to go back to work. He had to wear sweatpants until January 3rd because pants with a belt really irritated him.

My Dh is not a wimpy guy but he has never had any type of procedure done like this in his adult life. I am not sure if he just didn't deal with it well or if it really wasn't a cake walk like everyone claimed. I do see why men don't have babies.

 

[arminnie]

How much does open heart surgery cost??? .

About $100,000 twenty years ago.

 

[locolala]

Where on earth can you get a new car for 12k? lol

I know one of my surgeries (removing bone chips from my shoulder, I wasn't even knocked out for it) was about 10k. Prices are crazy.

 

[charming23]

My Dad had open heart surgery (quadruple bypass and a valve replacement) in 2001 and the total bill for everything (surgery, parts, 7 days in ICU, and 15 in the actual hospital) was $836,236.00. Thankfully we had excellent insurance through my mom's work and the only thing we had to pay out of pocket for was the tv services.

My one question to the dr when we got the billwas how come the mechanical valve was $10,000 put the cost of the materials to put it in was only $12?

 

[LisaR]

My Dad had open heart surgery (quadruple bypass and a valve replacement) in 2001 and the total bill for everything (surgery, parts, 7 days in ICU, and 15 in the actual hospital) was $836,236.00. Thankfully we had excellent insurance through my mom's work and the only thing we had to pay out of pocket for was the tv services.

My one question to the dr when we got the billwas how come the mechanical valve was $10,000 put the cost of the materials to put it in was only $12?

Wow! I had no idea these things cost so much.

 

[Poohbear123]

I was an "out-paitent" when I had my Hernia Surgery in Nov ...it was 19,235.00!Yea, and I have to Pay 1,399.00 for MY part that isn't covered by insurance!

 

[HelenePA]

Wow! I had no idea these things cost so much.

Sometimes its better not knowing!

 

[locolala]

Between malpractice insurance, paying the salaries, and facility charges.. surgery's freaking expensive. BTW, I looked it up and a c-section costs around 12-13k, and that includes the three day stay in the hospital. So glad I have insurance.. lol