Friday, May 8, 2009

The Cost of a Tinier Stomach

Some may wonder how much surgery like this costs. My employer happens to carry insurance for me that took care of a huge amount of the surgery bills, but I did have a significant copay.

I recently had the insurance statements come in. If I totalled everything correctly...and no doubt this is rounded a little and doesn't include the consults and psychiatric evals and appointments and whatnot...the surgery and recovery in the hospital came to about $15,000.

Ouch.

Again, not out of pocket entirely except for my copay, but it amazes me how much hospitals charge to insurance companies and what small fraction is actually paid.

Is this average? Anyone else know what theirs cost, approximately, and is willing to share?

EDIT: another bill statement came from the insurance company. Adding this anesthesiologist's bill, the total is closer to $17,500...so far...

2 comments:

  1. I have no expenses at all from the surgery, either from the surgeon or the hospital.
    My insurance company paid 100%.
    United health Care decided that they would end up paying out far less money for me over time if I got the surgery.
    Almost all of my medical problems have disappeared, so they are proving that to be true.

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  2. I didn't pay the full amount, I had to pay a couple thousand out of pocket...we've been saving it from tax refund. There's no way I could afford the full amount.

    Insurance companies are grudgingly coming to the conclusion that this is cheaper than dealing with the complications of morbid obesity. It won't be long before this may start to waver as a trend as well since we don't know the long term affects and as more people do this you may start seeing more failures come as people cheat the system or go in thinking this is a magic bullet solution and it really isn't.

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