Cost of Gall Bladder removal surgery?

I had my gall bladder taken out a couple of weeks ago.

Most of the bills have been about what I would call reasonable, except for the bill from the hospital.

This was a planned outpatient surgery, in which I was in and out in about 5 hours.

I received the bill from the hospital and it was $22,918.05. I have searched via Google and see that the costs range from $12k to $25k for the hospital bill. I understand that hospitals are expensive, but this is crazy.

Has anyone had this surgery recently? If so, how much was your hospital bill?

I will be calling the hospital and reviewing the bill, but am not sure what else I need to do. Insurance will cover all but $1500 of this bill, but I do not want my insurance company overcharged.

Welcome to the US Healthcare system. We pay almost double what other first world nations pay and yet we rank in the high 30s for objective ratings of population health such as life expectancy and infant mortality.

Just thank god you have insurance and move on. The insurance company will take care of worrying about whether it is being ripped off or not (and in fact probably has very much set in stone prenegotiated rates with the hospital)

My other thought was that if teh insurance company was charged less then my part would be less. Would be nice to pay less than $1500 out of my pocket.

I would have done it for a six pack. Should have called me.

Welcome to the US, where healthcare is run like a crooked car repair shop. We pay the most of ANY country, receive sub par quality care, have lower life expectancies than other developed countries... Thank you capitalism.

wishing you a speedy recovery, chocula!
...all those bandage changes & follow-up dr. visits will soon be a over.

0AfterRebates said:   http://healthcarebluebook.com/

$5,481 laparoscopic Cholecystectomy (laparoscopic)

$16,986 surgicalhttp://healthcarebluebook.com/page_Results.aspx?id=75&dataset=MD&g=Cholecystectomy%20%28surgical%29

Nice link! I'll refer some patients to it...at least the ones who cant get a cost from their insurance companies.

However, the prices dont include an interoperative cholangiogram and radiology fees for that, if performed. Most Lapcholeys also do an IOC....just to make sure there isnt a hidden stone in the common bile duct.

Pay cash it's often better than what you'd pay with your insurance. You just ask them what the cash price is.

moonbeam said:   handyguy said:   Pay cash it's often better than what you'd pay with your insurance. You just ask them what the cash price is.

Only if you have really crappy insurance. Like RS4Rings already pointed out, insurance companies have agreements that get them special rates far below the billed amount.

One of the little blurbs in the new healthcare act is that if you have insurance, everything has to be billed through them. You aren't allowed to pay cash anymore. It goes along with the electronic med records that the gov wants to become mandatory.

There are even some insurance companies requiring physicians and hospitals to only take insurance paying patients. They aren't allowed to take cash paying patients at all. One rep told me that this was also part of the new healthcare act. It keeps people from getting around NOT buying insurance since they are required, by law, to buy it.

I haven't done the research myself. This is based on what the Provider Relations reps are telling me. Whether or not they are just trying to scare us into conforming or they really don't understand themselves...or even that the information is correct...I just don't know.

Oh, and around here...contracted rates are on average 25-45% of the billed rates. Always look closely at your EOB from your insurance company.

We have a family member that is an anethesiologist, there's one hospital that charges him $7K just to walk in the door.

Now if you were a bear, you could have sold your gall bladder in China and made money on the deal...

Whip out the second opinion that your gall bladder was healthy and get it free.

chocula said:   Thanks for the advice and well wishes... I actually was up and going strong the day of surgery. I had little to no issues with the surgery. It was great.
Don't tell my boss, but I could have gone back to work the Monday following the surgery, but some how I told my boss I was not up to coming in until the following Monday... Of course, I wprked all week at my house, so it was not like I had the week off.

Glad it went well for you. That week off gave you a chance to rest when you needed to...get everything back to normal after the anesthesia. You don't realize how much it takes out of you until you try to go back too soon.

Or so I've heard.