What is the price for a BAV and an aorta root surgery I US ?

[Atenza]

Does anyone know how much it costs for a BAV and an aorta root surgery I US. I know it is impossible to get an exact price but it would be nice to know just about. I live in Denmark and I am a bit concerned about the expertise her, we are not so many people and everything here in our hospital system is like a big secret so I can’t get any information. I can see that Cleveland has a great reputation and would travel if necessary.
I have a BAV and an aneurysm of 4.5 cm.


World Health Organization’s Ranking of the World’s Health Systems - 34 Denmark

 

[almost_hectic]

Without including all the diagnostic testing prior to surgery or the follow up care after leaving the hospital... My hospital bill alone for the surgery and 6 day hospital stay was $182,000.00 if I remember right. That included the surgeons and anesthesiologist. I'll have to see if I can find the final statement and see if that's correct.

 

[Agian]

You shouldn't have to travel to America, Atenza. The operation is very 'standard'.

 

[Paleowoman]

Hi Atenza - how you looked at private health care in Denmark ? If you have money to spend you could pay for the top surgeon and private hospital in Denmark. And there are countries nearer you, for example the UK, where you can get a top heart surgeon and hospital here if you go private.

 

[Jamieann]

It varies greatly on the facility. Additionally, cash price without insurance is different than the amount the hospital and surgeon bill the insurance and then that is dropped down to the contracted rate between the insurance company and the provider. The hospital billed my insurance about $315,000. My insurance's contracted amount they paid was about $110,000. Then add on to that several thousand more for surgeon and anesthesiologist bills. Again, these are the insurance contracted rates, I don't know what cash prices are. Either way, not cheap!!!

 

[almost_hectic]

It varies greatly on the facility. Additionally, cash price without insurance is different than the amount the hospital and surgeon bill the insurance and then that is dropped down to the contracted rate between the insurance company and the provider. The hospital billed my insurance about $315,000. My insurance's contracted amount they paid was about $110,000. Then add on to that several thousand more for surgeon and anesthesiologist bills. Again, these are the insurance contracted rates, I don't know what cash prices are. Either way, not cheap!!!

Yeah, the amount of money these hospitals "discount" is criminal. You just know those costs dont magically disappear, they just flow those dollars into another column on some master spreadsheet and equal cash when it comes out theater end. The cost should be the cost, period. No special rate for one insurers and a different rate for another insurer, and a separate cash rate for the uninsured. Too much goofy math to bilk the system going on.

 

[Midpack]

Some months ago i contacted (by mail) the Mount Sinai Hospital to ask about the aproximative cost of a mitral valve repair surgery. They asked me to send some detailed data about my condition, and finally told me that the total cost should be around USD150000. It is an amount that i cannot afford, so we didnt advance any further. But i have to say that i was somewhat shocked by the fact that i felt treated more as a client than as a patient. We all know medicine has its business side, but i was not shopping! May be it was just that particular person that made me feel that way, so i dont want to generalize. But the human aspect is, IMO, very important.

 

[almost_hectic]

Some months ago i contacted (by mail) the Mount Sinai Hospital to ask about the aproximative cost of a mitral valve repair surgery. They asked me to send some detailed data about my condition, and finally told me that the total cost should be around USD150000. It is an amount that i cannot afford, so we didnt advance any further. But i have to say that i was somewhat shocked by the fact that i felt treated more as a client than as a patient. We all know medicine has its business side, but i was not shopping! May be it was just that particular person that made me feel that way, so i dont want to generalize. But the human aspect is, IMO, very important.

I dont know how anyone could afford it without insurance. I had already met most of my deductible for the year with all of the health related events leading up to surgery day. So by the time I checked in at the hospital the morning of surgery all I had to pay was $350 to cover EVERYTHING. Anxiously waited to see what the bill would be weeks later and then learned of the $182K cost. It almost made me feel guilty because i was so grateful to my whole team of caregivers that I paid so little. Then I quickly realized how high my health insurance costs are!

 

[Jamieann]

Yeah, the amount of money these hospitals "discount" is criminal. You just know those costs dont magically disappear, they just flow those dollars into another column on some master spreadsheet and equal cash when it comes out theater end. The cost should be the cost, period. No special rate for one insurers and a different rate for another insurer, and a separate cash rate for the uninsured. Too much goofy math to bilk the system going on.

Agreed! My cardiologist likes to call the amount between the contract rate and billed rate Monopoly money because it's not something that they know won't even be paid. I actually work for a health insurance company so it's been interesting seeing all this from the patient end.

 

[AZ Don]

Hi,
I had a valve sparing aortic aneurysm (root and ascending) replacement. It's my understanding that it is at least as difficult as the same surgery with the valve replacement so I would think costs would be pretty similar, though without the cost of the valve for my surgery. The bill for the surgery and 5 days in the hospital was right around $100,000. From what I've seen that's a bargain, and that was at Mayo Clinic in Phoenix, AZ. Not nearly as highly ranked as the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota, but it is the top ranked hospital in Arizona and they do share expertise with the primary Mayo Clinic. I should add that my insurance company received a 33% discount and I understand that Mayo will work with individuals on costs and I know that after the fact they are pretty quick to discount the bill up to 20%. Beyond that it depends on your financial situation for which they require extensive documentation. Not sure how it works upfront when the final bill (complications could run the bill much higher) is not known but they do work with people.

The surgery is done frequently and in my view a good surgeon at a good regional hospital should generally be quite capable of doing this, so I agree it should not be necessary to travel ... but still some do so it really depends on your concerns and situation.

 

[cldlhd]

I was given the impression that valve sparing/ repair is more difficult so I assume it would be more expensive. Having said that I never received anything showing the cost of my surgery paid by the insurance company.

 

[Atenza]

Hi,
Denmark is to small to find a private hospital that can do such an operation, but I have looked to the UK and Germany and I don't think it is so expensive, but OK hopefully I got a bit time to decide, I am going for a check in December and last (may) it was 4.5cm. Thanks for all your replies.

Forgot to ask, do you have any limitations to life after an operation, I am quit active and hope to keep it that way but i am not sure if it's possible post-operation.

 

[dick0236]

Forgot to ask, do you have any limitations to life after an operation, I am quit active and hope to keep it that way but i am not sure if it's possible post-operation.

My surgery has had very little effect on my life or lifestyle in all the years since my surgery.

BTW, unless your case is very, very unusual I would think most cardiac hospitals in Europe or other developed countries can effectively treat your heart problem........there is nothing "magical" about US healthcare.........except the cost is "out of this world".

Good luck

 

[cldlhd]

Hi,
Denmark is to small to find a private hospital that can do such an operation, but I have looked to the UK and Germany and I don't think it is so expensive, but OK hopefully I got a bit time to decide, I am going for a check in December and last (may) it was 4.5cm. Thanks for all your replies.

Forgot to ask, do you have any limitations to life after an operation, I am quit active and hope to keep it that way but i am not sure if it's possible post-operation.

I had my aortic valve repaired and my aneurysm replaced with a graft, no limitations post surgery.Best of luck.

 

[Paleowoman]

Hi,
Denmark is to small to find a private hospital that can do such an operation, but I have looked to the UK and Germany and I don't think it is so expensive, but OK hopefully I got a bit time to decide, I am going for a check in December and last (may) it was 4.5cm. Thanks for all your replies.

Forgot to ask, do you have any limitations to life after an operation, I am quit active and hope to keep it that way but i am not sure if it's possible post-operation.

If you're considering the UK then this website will be useful to you to find out cardiac surgeons and the hospitals that do cardiac surgery, including their 'statistics, ie how many operations they do, mortality etc: http://scts.org/heart-surgery-in-the-uk/ Not all of the hospitals offer surgery privately (they are National Health Service), but virtually all the cardiac surgeons will do surgery privately so if you look on this website you'll be able to get a list of all the cardiac surgeons who do private work as well as the hospitals where they do private work and the contact details of their secretaries: http://finder.bupa.co.uk (Bupa is one of the private insurance companies, but the surgeons are not tied to this company and anyone can do self-pay). You'd need to find out the surgeons costs, the anaesthetist's, the operating theatre, ICU and the room at the hospital plus nursing. This website recokons that aortic valve replacement costs around £20,500 ($26,000) privately: http://www.privatehealth.co.uk/condi...acement/costs/ It's not clear that that includes everything. I'd read somewhere that it was more like £48,000 ($61,000) privately. You can only find out by contacting a private hospital and one of those surgeons. There are some top heart hospitals like the Brompton and Harefield Hospital that offer private cardiac surgery: http://www.rbhh-specialistcare.co.uk/for-patients/

Limitations post surgery - initially of course there are, but after a few months most of us have no limitations.

PS - just in case you get confused by the lists of surgeons, in the UK surgeons' titles are Mr or Miss - they are doctors but once they become surgeons they get this different title LOL

 

[Terr]

Before my AVR in Houston St Luke's I got an estimate in the mail from them. They quoted $153K for the surgery, with the "allowable amount" (basically what they were allowed to charge by my insurance) of $32K. I didn't wind up paying much because I was basically maxed out on my insurance out-of-pocket amount.

Not sure if that estimate was for the surgery only and not for anesthesia etc. Pretty sure the hospital stay after was not included either.

 

[Atenza]

"Paleogirl"
Thanks a lot, I have been looking at Papworth and Brompton, Papworth look as they have a lot of experience, it is more difficult to find exactly what Brompton can but that could be an option, properly the easiest to go to for me.
I have looked at Charité Hospital in Berlin as a good option but I am not strong in German.
I am just a bit concerned that all the good doctors will be gone when I need an operation, here I am thinking of Brexit, it seems like all the good doctors are foreigners, LOL.

 

[Paleowoman]

I am just a bit concerned that all the good doctors will be gone when I need an operation, here I am thinking of Brexit, it seems like all the good doctors are foreigners, LOL.

All the"foreign" doctors in the UK will most likely stay after Brexit since most of them aren't from the EU anyway. Many doctors are actually English even if their surnames are foreign - a couple of the best doctors I've seen have Indian surnames but are as English as English having been born and raised in England. And remember that cardiac surgeons are top doctors and will aready have permanent residence in the UK even if they came from elsewhere originally - I've been under two excellent consultants who were asylum seekers, one from Iran back in the 1980's when the Ayatollah was there and the other from Iraq.