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Da Vinci Cost and recomendation

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Prostate Cancer
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Posted 11/6/2006 10:12 PM (GMT 0)
Hi,
I just found out that my dad has prostate cancer and his doctor recommended Da Vinci. He does not live in US so we have to pay for it privatly. I am wondering if you please can give me a rough estimate on the prices. Does the prices differ by state. I live in Northern VA (washington DC area) but I do nto mind to travel to another state if it is worth it.

Is there a link that ranks the docotr who do this procedure? or are they pretty much the same? Can you please recommend a doctor in Northern VA (washington DC area)?

Please feel free to email me on [email protected]
Thanks,
Posted 11/6/2006 10:50 PM (GMT 0)

Try this link to docs and hospitals. Skip down the page to Virginia. Best of luck!

http://www.davinciprostatectomy.com/hospitals.html

Posted 11/6/2006 10:58 PM (GMT 0)
Moustafa,

I just had my Da Vinci last week and I have not seen the cost for it yet so I can not help you out there for a private pay situation. You probably will just have to contact a surgeon and hospital and get their cost. If you go to www.davinciprostatectomy.com you will find a link to hospitals that have the Da Vinci system and surgeons that are using it. I took a quick look and there are two hospitals in your area, one at Falls Church and another in Arlington. I am sure that there are several surgeons linked up to those hospitals. Good luck and I hope it all works out for your father. By the way, I was very pleased with my Da Vinci.

Tamu
Posted 11/6/2006 11:33 PM (GMT 0)
There were a number of recent posts here on costs. You will see them if you go back a few days.

NO doctors are NOT "pretty much the same".  Selection of doctor is the most important consideration and can have a huge impact on your eventual results, regardless of the treatment used.  The doctor is  more important than whether he is using open surgery or robotic.

Suggested advantage of robotic is short term recovery time,  however one can recover quickly with good long term results in the hands of a top surgeon.

You can get free information on top doctors at www.castleconnolly.com

It's worth reading one of the books by Lee Nelson or Dr Peter Scardino both of which have a wealth of information on treatment options, doctors etc.

The website www.yananow.net has stories from lots of men who have undertaken various treatments. Look under mentors experiences.

 

Posted 11/7/2006 12:03 AM (GMT 0)
My medical insurance person told me the prices in Maryland are competitive as a result of State regulation.  She seems to know what she is talking about, so I have no reason to doubt her word.  You live near Baltimore.  I'd check the prices at Johns Hopkins.

Posted 11/7/2006 1:20 AM (GMT 0)

Hello Moustafa,

If you live in Virginia you have several choices: Fairfax Innova Hospital, George Washington University Hospital in Wash. DC, and Johns Hopkins University Hosipital in Baltimore, MD. I can personally spreak for GWU Hospital as that is where I had my DaVinci procedure done by Dr. Jason Engel. In my opinion Dr. Engel is the best choice I could have ever made, and GWU Hospital is a top notch modern, clean, and all around excellent facility.

You are very fortunate to live in the greater Washington, DC metro area because some of the best surgeons in the US and the world practice here. If you need further details please ask.

Glen

Posted 11/8/2006 9:50 PM (GMT 0)
In my case back in 2005 the DaVinci surgery costs about $24,000, however, once you add everything up, it could be around $40,000. There is a great surgeon at University of Virginia in Charlottesville, VA - Dr. William Steers.
Posted 11/9/2006 2:04 AM (GMT 0)

This cost thing is interesting, complicated and needs to be addressed.  Thanks for starting the thread.  My insurance changes next year and I need to make big time decisions now.  My present coverage costs me more than $500 a month for the two of us (and I work for a fortune 500 company) but the coverage is very good and I pay only 10% of big ticket stuff like surgery.  My deductibles are low.  Next year, I will pay about $300+ a month, but my decuctibles are very high and I pay 20% instead of 10%.

The point of all of this rambling is that whatever it is that I am going to do needs to be done this year. 

Has anyone had experience fighting insurance companies to get things covered?  Or whatever?

Regards,

Bill

Posted 11/9/2006 11:23 AM (GMT 0)
The total of all the bills submitted for my Da Vinci procedure came to about $45,000. UHC paid out about a third of that.

If you are paying cash the total will be closer to what the insurance companies pay, rather than what the hospital and doctors submit. Be sure to agree on a price beforehand.
Posted 11/9/2006 3:46 PM (GMT 0)
Hi Moustafa,

Like Glen (spinbiscuit) below, Dr. Engel did my surgery at GWU Hospital.  My surgery was in September.  Dr. Engel and his staff are wonderfully friendly and he has a reputation as the most experienced with DaVinci in this region (700 or more surgeries).  He does 3-6 surgeries per week, I believe.  Dr. Engel was one of two surgeons recommended by my urologist.  The other surgeon was Dr. David Lee  at Philadelphia Presbyterian Hospital or something like that.

I'm sure others can recommend surgeons if you want to go out of this region.

My urologist did not recommend Johns Hopkins since they do not do DaVinci prostatectomies.  They believe that 6 years of experience in these has not yet proven them.  In fairness, there are others on this site who have had good experience with open surgery at Hopkins.

As far as cost, the billed amounts (before my insurance got the hopital/doctor/etc to agree to accept less) would have totalled just under $30,000.  I believe the hospital bill was $18,000 and surgeon's bill was $7,500 plus other bills like labs, anesthesiologist, etc. 

I certainly wish you luck in your search.

 

Posted 11/10/2006 2:25 PM (GMT 0)
Following up what aghaken said, although in my message about, the submitted bills were almost $30,000, the insurance paid out about $8000 and we paid about $800. So, I would assume the higher numbers are just a game that doctors/hospitals play with insurance companies and you would pay closer to the lower numbers.
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