Today's Quiz: How much does your Gallbladder cost?
So what we thought was a simple stomach ache turned out to be a bad gallbladder for the Mrs.! Wowzers. needless to say, we'll be camped out in this hospital 5 star hotel room for at least another day or two until all is said and done, but that's fine by me - just fix my girl and all is good!
Now, you might be asking yourself why on earth i'd be blogging at a time like this? Well it's simple. I'm addicted. Also, i'm bored as hell :) We're going on day #4 now with it all, and i've finally finagled a way to convert this nurse's computer into my personal blogging station! haha...if that's not sexy, i don't know what is ;) This whole process has tought me a few things so far, and i'd like to share them.
1) It's good to go to the doctor's if you think something is wrong. This "minor" stomach ache turned out to be a potentially fatal issue, which i would have NEVER guessed! you should have seen the look on the doctor's face when we asked if we could go home and schedule the surgery for later. She about died! haha....she was like, "um yeah....so, if you have an infection, it can cause this and this, and then this and you can die." and we were like, "hm....okay, we'll stay" :) that's some good ol' fashion McCain straight talk for ya!
2) It's a HELLUVA good thing we have health insurance! This is the first time we're using it to this degree, and i'd really not wanna pay out of pocket 100% ya know? It also got me thinking - i wonder how much all of this is gonna cost us when it's all said and done? A few hundred? A thousand? i haven't a clue. We've spent a total of $17 so far ($10 on a copay and $7.00 on some pain medication) but that's it.....for now.
So, i'd like to play a game now with you called "Guess how many Washingtons this will cost us?". (final cost here.)
I don't know about you, but i have nothing but time here to waste! So if you're bored @ work, or just really experienced with hospital bills - let the game's begin!
Here is all the info i can remember so you can do some calculations. Or, if you have massive A.D.D. like i do, especially today, then you can just take a wild guess for the hell of it. or not. whatever, it's all good. We have Blue Cross Blue Shield PPO as insurance, and i've been told that it's "a good one". Here are the deets:
I am just PRAYING that it doesn't cost us thousands!!! how scary :( I guess that's what Emergency Funds are for though, cuz that's how we'll be paying for all this! Alrighty homies, i wish you a blessed day! i'm outta here for now...I need some coffee STAT.
Now, you might be asking yourself why on earth i'd be blogging at a time like this? Well it's simple. I'm addicted. Also, i'm bored as hell :) We're going on day #4 now with it all, and i've finally finagled a way to convert this nurse's computer into my personal blogging station! haha...if that's not sexy, i don't know what is ;) This whole process has tought me a few things so far, and i'd like to share them.
1) It's good to go to the doctor's if you think something is wrong. This "minor" stomach ache turned out to be a potentially fatal issue, which i would have NEVER guessed! you should have seen the look on the doctor's face when we asked if we could go home and schedule the surgery for later. She about died! haha....she was like, "um yeah....so, if you have an infection, it can cause this and this, and then this and you can die." and we were like, "hm....okay, we'll stay" :) that's some good ol' fashion McCain straight talk for ya!
2) It's a HELLUVA good thing we have health insurance! This is the first time we're using it to this degree, and i'd really not wanna pay out of pocket 100% ya know? It also got me thinking - i wonder how much all of this is gonna cost us when it's all said and done? A few hundred? A thousand? i haven't a clue. We've spent a total of $17 so far ($10 on a copay and $7.00 on some pain medication) but that's it.....for now.
So, i'd like to play a game now with you called "Guess how many Washingtons this will cost us?". (final cost here.)
I don't know about you, but i have nothing but time here to waste! So if you're bored @ work, or just really experienced with hospital bills - let the game's begin!
Here is all the info i can remember so you can do some calculations. Or, if you have massive A.D.D. like i do, especially today, then you can just take a wild guess for the hell of it. or not. whatever, it's all good. We have Blue Cross Blue Shield PPO as insurance, and i've been told that it's "a good one". Here are the deets:
- Visit to the Gyno: Not sure exactly what was done here, but the Mrs. says they "ran a few tests" and did some consultations. Copay: $10.00.
- Visit to the E.R.: blood work taken, cat scan done, and doctor consultation. Copay: $0.00
- Visit to a G.I (Gastrointestinal specialist): more blood work and consultation. Copay: $0.00
- Visit to a Surgeon: Just a Consultation. Copay: $0.00 (sugeon actually said he won't write up anything as he doesn't accept our insurance, and it was a courtesy call from a good friend of his. i'll take that!)
- Visit back to Hospital: More bloodwork. Copay: $0.00
- Return visit to the G.I.: Another consultation. Copay: $0.00
- Return visit to the Hospital: Ultrasound, which finally found the problem! Copay: $0.00
- Admitted back into E.R.: Tests and IV setup
23 nights staying over in this fancy pants hospital suite: around the clock visits, tests, etc...No Copay so far as we haven't left yet.- 1 Gallbladder surgery - to remove it! Coming right up.... UPDATE: operation successful! Mrs. budgetsaresexy is now into "recovering mode" According to the doc, it was a VERY good thing it was removed as it was NOT a pretty picture. *bleh* Thx for all the prayers, they worked!
- NEW: 1 Gallbladder scan - The Mrs. was in some major pain after surgery, so they checked to make sure all is well...and it was! FINALLY out now and relaxing on this beautiful Sunday :)
I am just PRAYING that it doesn't cost us thousands!!! how scary :( I guess that's what Emergency Funds are for though, cuz that's how we'll be paying for all this! Alrighty homies, i wish you a blessed day! i'm outta here for now...I need some coffee STAT.
posted by J. Money at
12:58 PM
27 Comments:
Only $5,000 for a gall bladder operation?! Ha, ha, ha! I had a breast biopsy and it cost me $800 out of MY pocket for that little minor surgery - and no stayover in the hospital and I had good insurance too - and BTW, the test result came up negative. So my initial guess for the total cost of your gall bladder fiasco is maybe going to top out somewhere around $60-70K - so be glad you have insurance to help pay for it. We know someone who has no insurance who had a heart attack recently, was in the hospital for a few nights and has absolutely no idea how he will ever, ever pay back the $80K+ in medical bills he is facing right now.
I think the $5000 is low. I would bet pulling the Gallbladder is $15,000 alone. We also have BCBS PPO and it cost $6500 this week for my wife to run on their treadmill for 30 minutes (Stress test and EKG). I think the bill stressed my more than the test did her. You should be ok on your final bill, but it will be interesting to see what the initial bill to the insurance shows. The person that I talked to at our hospital said that BCBS would probable negotiate down to $4000 or so and we will have to pick up 20% after that. He also told me to attempt to negotiate when I called to set up payments. He said we may be able to save another 10% if we agreed to a payment plan. It sounds like they may be eager to negotiate for cash in hand. I would hate to take the hit on the emergency fund, but that may be the best plan. I hope the wife feels better and I look foward to future post.
www.WeLearnAsWeGo.com
Wow. The Mrs. must have been in a lot of pain. My dad just recently had his gallbladder out and he was in some pretty serious pain and they still said "Ok, we'll do it next week" and he was only in the hospital overnight (though the surgeon said it could be outpatient - Dad's doc said no). I can't imagine what your wife was going through. I'm glad to hear things went well.
Well, just had my gallbladder out the end of September. Just the hospital bill alone, not including any physician's costs was just under $25,000..........and I went in one morning and went home the next day by noon. So...........from one gallbladderless person to another........you might want to reconsider your amounts!
Fortunately of that $25,000, the insurance paid $8,000-something and we owe nothing because we were smart and made sure it was a participating provider!
And by the way, in a few weeks you are going to feel SO MUCH BETTER! Trust me.............I know!
Bonnie
fyremonksgal@msn.com
That is crazy... very glad you have insurance!
Best wishes to the missus. And good luck with the insurance company. Hopefully you don't have to pay too much for this.
Cost in Canada: $0.
Okay, you might have to pay for a taxi to the doctor or clinic, and you'd be out a day's pay... and there's the cost of that narsty vending machine food and drink (Dasani water tastes like dirt). But yeah, it's free up here. Kinda free -- we pay higher taxes.
Glad the wife is on the mend!
J, I think 5K will just about cover the anaesthesiologist, haha. I believe the average cost is $8500 outpatient. Yours was emergency and inpatient, so double or triple it - probably close to 30K all told.
I am assuming she had open, which is costlier than laproscopic, so maybe 40K-50K.
The nice thing is that the "emergency" situation means that you probably will end up paying less... Actually now would be a good time to call the insurance company and start figuring it out....
Wow, are you all cereal? That freakin' blooooooows. $25-$70k? maybe next time i won't ask ;) oh well, it's not like i have that much power over it..just glad the mrs. is now onto recovery!
As a side note, we ended up having the same surgeon that did our *free* consultation - aka the one who does NOT use our insurance. So you can imagine the look on my face when he said he'd be doing it! haha...BUT, according to him and 2 others we talked to - since we came in through the E.R., they have agreements in place since it's not like we really had the choice in the matter of searching for participants. so that's always good news!
@ Anon - thank goodness it came out negatory! i'm glad for that, and sad about your friend :( how the hell do people recover from that price tag? i really don't get it - my uncle is a bum when it comes to money, and has had like 5+ heart attacks and operations, and he never has to pay a dime! wtf? i don't get how this stuff gets sorted.
@ Jamie - thanks for the tips! this obvi. being my first venture down this path, i need all the help i can get ;) can you tell? hope your wife doesn't have to go back.
@ Megan - poor dad, is he nice and recovered now? i never realized how prevalent this stuff is - our surgeon said he's done about 250 so far and he's pretty young!
@ Bonnie - Oooh, now that's some hard numbers! i'm glad you're feeling better :) i just read your comment out loud to the wifey and she enjoyed it. i'm hoping we can get away with nothing!
@ Tom - Thx bro, appreciate it.
@ BigAssSuperstar - ZERO?!!! that is hotness. do you have to wait in long lines and such? i wonder what would happen if we tried something like that. i don't think we could handle it...good info there partner, as always.
@ ParadigmShifted - yeah, it's pretty safe to say i didn't think too much before guessing, eh? BUT it turns out she did actually have it the laproscopic way - woohoo! apparently technology has really blossomed over the past 10 years...i'll take that anyday.
Ah! Everything medical related is so expensive. I used to have Blue Cross and it was a "good one". Sadly, I no longer have insurance. You have successfully scared the beejeezus out of me about ever getting sick ever. EVER. Wishes to the Mrs. for a speedy recovery!
As a Canadian looking @ what you might be paying for emergency surgery paying with your insurance, I thinking that's crazy! It's zero dollars for stuff like that but other things you'd have to pay for out of pocket ( medications, etc) I'm complaining b/c I had to pay 69.00 for medication that's not covered by my medical plan! I'll take paying higher taxes any day over what your going to be paying. Hope your wife has a speedy recovery!
j-mo: long lines? eh, for some stuff, sure. If you want a hip replacement in the USA, write a cheque and you can have it done pronto. Up here, you wait. You got cancer? In the USA, ka-ching, then zip-zap, and you're treated. Up here, maybe a wait. You know you have cancer, but wait in line.
But for ER stuff, hey, it's ER stuff. My SO had some nasty-ass gut pains a coupla months ago ... was crying and whatnot ... I couldn't put up with that, so I drove her to the ER. No lineup to check in. They took her vitals, then we sat a while in an empty waiting room. Then into a bed for some more waiting. Drew some blood. Poke, prod. More waiting. Here, drink this radioactive milkshake. More waiting. Have another radioshake. More waiting. X-ray, MRI. More waiting. Doc oomes by, says meh, here's what we see, but it might be bla bla bla, you're not dying. Here's some free drugs and a scrip for more drugs. Oh, those drugs interact with other drugs that'll kill you? So? Oh, you're serious. Okay, take this stuff instead. Kthxbai.
All told, about nine hours at the hospital from start to finish.
For some less-serious stuff, it was a quick visit to a local walk-in clinic -- you choose which one you want, anytime -- present the provincial health card and ta-da, in and out, all good.
As pointed out, if you don't have private or through-your-company coverage, you pay for drugs. But drugs here are hella cheaper than in the USA anyway .. that's why Americans order their drugs from up here.
Optometrists, dentists, massage therapy, etc. costs money ... partially covered by private plans. I get $500 for massages, most typical dental coverage, and $200/yr optical, 100% drug coverage and other stuff, all covered under group health insurance through work...and I don't even notice it.
For even more, see Michael Moore's "Sicko" ... you think we're cool? See Cuba! (I was amazed at the drugs you can buy at the Varadero airport, next to the ice cream and sandwich stand ... prozac, valium, viagra ... you got cash, they got pills. No scrip needed.)
I has this surgery. The bill was over $16,000. I think the insurance company paid about $2000. Luckily the rest got written off. Had I not had insurance I would have been liable for all $16,000. That is what sucks.
I think you should throw whatever your financial responsibility for the gallbladder episode is onto the total you're suing that jack@ss photographer for, since I'm sure you can blame the whole thing on wedding album stress!!
My guess is you look at your maximum out of pocket on your insurance and that will be your cost. Our out of pocket max for 1 person is $2000. So it maybe a little better than you think.
medical stuff is SO expensive. i would also think that you will be paying your maximum out of pocket expenses, since it's going to be a decently high $ amount from the sounds of it. thank god for out of pocket maximums :)
I had this surgery back in 1993 and it would have been about $17,000 with insurance. That figure was probably high for back then since I was in the hospital for a week. I ignored my stomachache long enough that I developed pancreatitis. Still I'm sure the bill for gall bladder surgery would have to be much more now.
Hey J - Glad the surgery went okay for Mrs J and I hope the out of pocket expenses won't hurt you as much as the gallbladder hurt Mrs J.
Thanks again everyone! We are now FINALLY @ home and relaxing today...so what we originally thought was a check-up, turned into a 4 day hospital extravaganza! whew, i'm just glad we're all done now...at least with the hard part.
I'm actually looking forward to work tomorrow! haha...so over that hospital. And no word on the final costs yet, they will be billing us later. I'll holler once they all come in :) THANKS AGAIN EVERYONE - all our support and comments kept me entertained!!!!
Well, I can tell you that my emergency hysterectomy four months ago cost $17,000 for the hospital alone, and I stayed three days. I thought we had good insurance, but was unhappy to find out how much they won't cover. I owed the hospital 600, which I just paid off this month.
For a while, every time the mail came, there was another small bill for my portion of all the tests, labs, people who read the labs, etc. Our cost out of pocket was about $1200, and luckily we had enough in savings to make up for my short term disability payments, which were %66 of my normal salary.
Five grand for gall bladder surgery? You jest. Try about $20,000...or up. That's what the docs & hospital charged for my appendectomy.
I paid a grand total of $75 out of pocket, only because the hospital didn't write down the hour that I left and so the insurance company claimed I must not have been there longer than 24 hours. Turns out even if you have emergency surgery, the insurer bills you a $75 co-pay for an ER visit if you clock in fewer than 24 hours in a regular hospital room.
Hope you get away with a minimal bill along those lines! And hope the Mrs. is well soon.
Canada,zero cost to me,done gall bladder at 8 am,went to recovery for 3 hours,called my ride for me,gave me some tylennoll 3 in an envolope and wheeled me to the car.gave me a list of things to follow and a pnone number to call if I have a problem............First Class all the way....Daryl Saint John Canada
@Anonymous #1 - Yikes! $1,200 is a lot of money, but def. better than the $17,000...i hope your feeling better health-wise now :)
@Funny about Money - that is AWESOME! oh man i hope they accidently make a mistake like that ;) we actually *just* started getting the bills in, so my fingers are crossed! I'll post about the total damage soon.
@Anonymous - haha...First Class all the way, baby!!
Yeah, insurance is a good thing when you've got something like a gall bladder issue. I hope all is well, everything was a success and that your wife leads to a speedy recovery.
Jerry
www.leads4insurance.com
FOUR DAYS LATER I ASPERATED INTO MY LEFT LUNG AND WAS IN HOSPITAL FOR FOUR DAYS AND THREE NIGHTS. THEN A DAY AND A HALF LATER I GOT DIZZY AND FELL, PASSED OUT, AND MY INCISOR HAD TO BE PULLED ($104.00), THE DENTISTS ALWAYS WANT THEIR MONEY UP FRONT, WHICH IS GOING TO COST ABOUT $500. I'M ALSO ON MEDICARE AND FINALLY BACK ON MEDICAID DUE TO THE HIGH COSTS ACCUMULATED. I HAVEN'T GOTTEN THE BILL BUT READING THESE COMMENTS, BOY, IT SCARES ME!!! I'M HOPING I DON'T HAVE TO PAY ANYTHING, BEING ON SSD YOU REALLY HAVE NO MONEY -- IT ALL GOES TO BILLS, RENT, FOOD AND GAS AND IF I'M LUCKY I'LL HAVE SOME MONEY LEFT OVER TO SEE A COUPLE OF MOVIES. ALL THE WAY AROUND IT STINKS.
SO SORRY to hear that!!! yeah for real, those costs are not joke :( Not sure if you saw it already, but I just posted an update to this and all the costs associated with it. Insurance is KEY.
My brother in law's bills for everything without insurance was 18000
I just had my gall bladder out in May 2009. Im in Orlando Florida. The hospital bill alone was $17,000. Surgeons, radiology, and miscellaneous other bills brought it to a whopping $21,000. Sorry to tell you. I hear that bills can often be renegotiated down to a lower price.
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