How much does prostate surgery cost in the US?

In November I went to Johns Hopkins -- rated #1 for treatment of prostate cancer. I met with one of their top doctors who has done 3,000 prostatectomies. He has done both robotic and open and preferred open because "nothing can replace the surgeon's feel." That sold me. He also referred me to a study that appeared in the American Journal of Medicine on October 14. Conclusion: Men undergoing minimally invasive radical prostatectomy vs retropubic radical prostatectomy experienced shorter length of stay, fewer respiratory and miscellaneous surgical complications and strictures, and similar postoperative use of additional cancer therapies but experienced more genitourinary complications, incontinence, and erectile dysfunction.

No matter which way you go, make sure your surgeon is experienced in the method. It's the surgeon, not the tool.


Costs for open RRP -- Billed, Ins. Paid, My Payment (Assume balance was not paid as being more than plan allowance)

Hospital - $10,706, $10,270, $200
Anesthesia - $1,710, $969, $171
Diagnostic - $968, $587, $0
Surgeon - $9,296, $2356, $415

Total Billed - $22,680
Total I paid -- $786

Good luck!

TrekRef

I had a consult with Dr. Joseph Smith of Vanderbilt today. He has performed over 2000 open and since switching has performed over 3000 robotic. He was not a fan of robotic early on. He is now. I specifically ask him the "feel" question. He stated that NO surgeon can feel micro structure. He has been on the podium speaking at same conferences as Pat Walsh and has heard Walsh say feel is important. Again he stated the you cannot feel mico structures. He believes this is just open surgeons holding close to what they know for procedures. He too is one of the TOP in this field and has done MANY of both. He now is convinced of the advantages of robotic.  I found this statement by Dr. Joseph Smith at Vanderbilt.

"I almost exclusively do robotic prostatectomy now because I think that, despite this manuscript, there is clear evidence that it is comparable, in terms of continence, potency and tumor control,” said Dr. Joseph Smith, the chairman of urologic surgery at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine.

This is from the following article: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/14/health/research/14prostate.html

He was referring to the study of more complications with laporoscopic  He points out the study included both traditional laporoscopic and robotic and is thus tainted.  He also holds to the idea.. find a good surgeon.. and let him do the procedure he is most comfortable with.

So we can conclude that experts disagree. 

out total cost just for the surgery at Cleveland Clinic (not include doctor visit) is about $55,000.00 something. we have standard insurance (blue cross) and out of own packet is about $2,000.00 something. hope that helps.

$9.99 at Walmart.

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Mel

KJN -- Patrick Walsh at Johns Hopkins pioneered the nerve-sparing procedure and he is still active. A friend of mine used him although I did not. Jasek Mostwin and Ballentine Carter are two distinquished faculty members although there are others. Listing at: http://urology.jhu.edu/about/faculty.php

They do open and robotic but I don't presume to know the cost difference.