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CyberKnife/SBRT/$$$$$$$$

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Posted 4/14/2016 1:12 AM (GMT 0)
Hello All,I just had my 1 month follow up with my RO following 5 treatments of Cyberknife SBRT yesterday.I filled out the questioner that tracks your urinary,rectal,sexual side effects.I feel pretty normal.Urinary side effect is that when I have to pee sometimes its like right now hurry up . Not all the time.I pee more often during the day than before radiation,maybe every 2 hours.I awake maybe once a night to pee.Sometimes more when having a few beers.No rectal side effects.Some sperm still in the pipeline.Still good enough for intercourse,of course.

The whole Cyberknife SBRT charges came in todays mail.Total for the complete treatment plan was just under $115,000.00.Each radiation session came in at $17,272.00 X 5 sessions.With the other charges come to just under 115k.

A statement came in the mail today.It says AMOUNT YOU OWE: 0
I guess my insurance covered it all.
I hope my CK brothers are doing as well as I am.

SEMPERFI
Posted 4/14/2016 1:16 AM (GMT 0)
Yah..........now that's what I'm talking about!

Congrats!
Posted 4/14/2016 1:36 AM (GMT 0)
LOL@the charges on paper before they mark it down to the negotiated charges. I think my insurance paid $19,000 in total for all my treatments including placement of fiducials and the imaging study. I paid $0.

You can see why ROs prefer IMRT or protons with 40 treatments.
Posted 4/14/2016 9:41 AM (GMT 0)
Five years ago I had 25 IMRT and 2 HDR brachytherapy procedures. My RO was a rare one that showed me up front what he would be reimbursed from the insurance company as the charges I would be responsible for in the event the insurance didn't pay properly. This amount was right at $29,000 as I recollect. The insurance administrator actually had me on a conference call with the insurance company to detail the charges, payments, financial responsibility, etc.

Since then, the RO has started inserting the HDR catheters in his clinic rather than a hospital operating room. The result is much better for the patient eliminating the ambulance transport from the hospital to the RO clinic, reduces the total time spent by the patient to about three hours, reduces cost to the patient/insurance company, and increases the RO income as they now get a portion of what the hospital did. Win, win, win, but lose for the hospital.
Posted 4/14/2016 6:51 PM (GMT 0)
An SBRT practitioner (not the one I used for my treatment) told me that while HDR results were great, he did not expect to see many providers in the US--since the billable services were so much less than 40 treatment techniques. Kind of dark.
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