One Year On
Yesterday was the one-year anniversary of my surgery, and to celebrate I gave myself the day off. Slept in, had breakfast in bed, went for a long walk with a friend, had dinner with other friends. All is well with me.
For this (probably) last post in my cancer blog, I wanted to publish some facts & figures about the mind-boggling costs involved.
Total amount billed to my insurance company: $202,223
Total amount written-off by the insurance company (this is the discount the insurance company has negotiated with the various service providers): $75,245
Our out-of-pocket expenses: $9,011
Myriad Genetics charge for BRCA test (aka "breast cancer gene" - I was told they have a patent on this, and are the only lab in the country which can do this test): $3,340
Excerpts from Mission Hospital's bill (it was $107,550, and did not include surgeon's fees or anesthesiology costs):
Central Services/Supplies (hospital booties? cranberry juice? who knows?): $45,100
Operating Room (my surgery was about 6 hours): $41,745
Room and Board (2 nights and 2 meals): $5,500
Occupational Therapy (a woman came into my room the day after surgery, and spent about 5 minutes showing me 2 simple arm exercises): $350
My treatment didn't include chemotherapy, but as you might guess, the cost of those drugs is staggering.
None of the above figures are disclosed to a patient prior to treatment. In doing my due diligence to try to find out in advance which services and health-care providers were covered by my insurance, and at what percentages, I found that I was banging my head against the proverbial brick wall (ok, really, it was the dining room table).
Can anyone imagine a situation in which you agree to pay an unknown amount for an unknown set of services, and all you know for certain is that the amount in question could bankrupt you? At the beginning of this whole process I attempted to find out what the cost of the biopsy would be. I spent an entire day on the phone, being bounced between the hospital, the breast care center, the radiology group and my insurance company. The low point was when a representative from my insurance company said he could not tell me how much they would cover, because the contracts they have with the service providers are "confidential." At which point I screamed "Do you think I won't figure it out when I get the bill? I'm the one that has to pay for it!!!!!!!!"
Onward.
