Robotic Surgery

I'm not sure I'm reading correct information. One article said this was a lot more expensive than a standard operation. Could someone please give me a guesstimate on the total cost of the robotic surgery, including hospital stay charges and everything? Thanks again for the help!

Dana

Mine was about the same cost as ups4. What's interesting is the billed charges (hospital about $33K and doctor about $25K) compared to the allowed or contracted amount through my insurance. The hospital was paid about $2,500 and the doctor about the same. I don't mean to imply that I was stuck paying the balance either. I only paid my deductible. No idea what one would have to pay if insurance was not available. Would the hospital and doctor still bill the same or do they give you a big "discount"?

I'm on medicare and medicare supplement> Medicare allows a fixed rate for the surgery and the hospital and pays a percentage of what the allow. My supplemental insurance pays the percentage that medicare doesn't pay. It cost me zero. The robotic surgery will have lower hospital stay. I was there for only one night while the standard opn surgery may require 4-5 days in the hospital.

Good morning,

My doc does both laproscopic and robotic procedures and I asked about the cost difference. He told me that the robotic procedure was $3000 more due to paying for the robot which is owned by the med center.

Mine at MT. Sinai, NYC was 40K total.
Paul

I had the robotic surgery at Baylor in Plano texas and total cost was 78.000 total paid by my insurance. Whe I was deciding whether to have open or robotic my urologist explained to me that the cost is pretty much the same for either procedure

Dana:

I had the robotic surgery in Atlanta at Northside Hospital in Feb 2008 with a very good surgeon who does about 300 per year. Mostly due to low insurance reimbursement numbers, he didn't do insurance at all - his fee was $8500 in cash up front, and his schedule stays full. Insurance in my case took care of Hospital costs at a very good hospital and virtually everything else - it was only a 24 hour stay. From what I could tell, you're probably right on with a number in the $15,000-$20,000 range unless you're in a high cost area, or have complications that increase the hospital stay. If his insurance is good, the out of pocket should be pretty reasonable. My overall experience would cause me to highly recommend both my doctor and hospital if asked, both as to standard of care and costs.

Greetings, Dana.  I had open surgery, not robotic so can't speak to that cost.  I have good insurance (Cigna) and was in the hospital from Monday morning to Wednesday morning.  Surgeon obviously knew what insurance would pay because he billed about $2100 and was paid $1975.  The hospital bill for 2 days was $25,000 and they were paid about $8,000.  I had some lab bills and other services that billed about $5,000 and were paid about $1,000.  My total cost was a $250 copay.  David

Thank you to everyone for the feedback and sharing! I talked to Cleveland Clinic today and they said without insurance the cost would be $47K. He thought with insurance the cost would probably be double that. Reading all these different costs and the spread between them is, frankly, appalling. He's been trying to get through to his insurance company for days and they won't answer or return calls. I told him to look for a patient advocate number online. Anyone have suggestions for threats or other tactics to get these people to return his call? Having money really does matter when it comes to access to the health or legal system.

Dana

DanaA, Sorry your health plan is not being responsive. Is your husband's health plan through an employer group? If so, ask the employer to contact the Sales and service rep for the plan. If the plan was sold through a broker, he or she can help get an answer to you. If none of the above, contact your state insurance commissioner. The insurance plan will respond.