My 14yr old son had been complaining of neck and head aches for months. We took him to the doctor and a chiropractor but nothing helped. So two months ago my wife took him to get a CT scan.
He had a large tumor on the back of his brain, measuring 2 x 3 inches.
We immediately checked him into the Dallas Children's Hospital and two days later he underwent a 6hr surgery to remove the tumor. Thank God, everything went well and the tumor was benign.
We just got the final bill from the hospital and everyone else involved.
Total Cost = $247,000 dollars.
Yes, thats right. Double what I thought it might add up to. The itemized bill is simply absurd.
Thankfully, I have good insurance and our out of pocket cost is less than $2000.
Your child's life is priceless, there's nothing I wouldn't do or pay to save my son's life but medical costs are insane, if we didn't have this particular insurance or even none, we could be paying for this the rest of our lives.
Just thought I'd share this in case youve ever wondered what actual brain surgery cost.

Thank goodness that he had a good result! Thank goodness also that you had good insurance. Yikes!
Wishing him a speedy and full recovery with no other issues!

I’m glad his surgery went well, and I hope he is recovering well.

I am glad your boy is doing well. The price sucks but, like you said you can’t put a price tag on your kids health.

Great news! No price is too high for your child.

And ironically the least expensive part of the bill is usually the actual surgeon bill. The hospital bills are insane, with absurd costs for many elements of care.

Excellent news that the surgery went so well!!! My father has an inoperable brain tumor and is on hospice. He had surgery for a subdural hematoma 3 years ago, it was pricey but NOT as pricey as your son’s. Best wishes to him.

Dr. Madden (UTSW) did my craniotomy years ago. I would recommend him to anyone.

Glad your son is doing well. Be sure to check his eyesight, as the occipital lobe handles vision.

Prayers for a full recovery for your son.

The health insurance issue is such a disaster. My wife had her gal bladder taken out thanksgiving weekend. She is still fighting the 120k bill. We have insurance through my work with a 6k per person annual max and this was at the end of November so the amount we will owe will be a few k. Not sure why the hospital and the insurance company can’t get on the phone with each other cause this guy isn’t writing any 100k checks…

My brother has had 5 of those surgeries. His tumor is attached to the brain so obviously they can’t cut the entire thing out. Since the brain is so vascular it keeps growing back.

During his 3rd surgery they attached a tube that goes to a bag outside of his skull hut still under the skin. He goes into the doctor once a year and they stick a needle through the skin into the bag and drain it. That helped with the fluid but not the actual tumor. The 5th time they actually cauterized the tumor and it appears to have really slowed the tumor regrowth but screwed up his memory.

My wife has a 22”scar down her hack from $524,000.00 surgery and stay at Vanderbilt Hospital in Nashville. Thank God for insurance…..

Hospital bills even if you don't have surgery are ridicules. I had an encounter with a deer on my motorcycle and ended up with a broken leg and dislocated ankle. Emergency room bill was 70 thousand dollars and all they really did was set my broken leg. 16 grand for a CT scan, 26 grand for the emergency room doctors to do an assessment, 8 grand for a private room I was in for about 5 hours were just a few of the fees plus you don't get one itemized bill you get multiple bills from different departments.

I am glad to here your son is doing well.

To be honest, I would have thought that the surgery would be more. Costs are insane with/without medical coverage.

It certainly causes confusion (understandably), but the fact is, nobody pays the bill price. The goddamned insurance companies have all the power and negotiate HUGE discounts from there, Medicare pays what they tell you they'll pay, and nobody could operate a hospital if everyone paid Medicare rates, so that's a clear loser. The retail bill price is just a point at which the discounts are drawn from. Look around when you're in a hospital ER. A surprisingly large % of the people you see won't pay at all. At best, the hospital will get Medicaid to pay which is even worse than Medicare.

It's a confusing mess. And nobody likes it. But sadly, the fix will be universal healthcare which will drive many changes -- very few of them good. And it WILL come.

I'm so glad your son is doing well. I have kids of my own, and I get what you must have just gone through.

It's a miracle that the technology, and skills are available to save him in his time of need. I don't know what your insurance company discount is, but 50% or more is not unlikely. $150k to lock-up an advanced O.R for hours, and a sizable team of ridiculously highly-trained professionals and all of the ancillary technology and facilities necessary and the materials and supply chain teams and hidden fixed costs (including their own insurance to protect from malpractice). I'm forgetting a lot, I'm sure. It's staggering what it costs. Likely several million a year just to keep the facility from being ransomwared.

Glad to hear your son is alright. It is scary how much medical costs can be.

Ironically, the surgeons bill was $14k. The surgery team billed $80k and the anesthesiologist billed $22k. The most expensive items were the 4 day hospital stay and 3 days in the ICU.
We were extremely fortunate that he didn't have to stay longer.

quote:

Originally posted by r0gue:
It certainly causes confusion (understandably), but the fact is, nobody pays the bill price. The goddamned insurance companies have all the power and negotiate HUGE discounts from there, Medicare pays what they tell you they'll pay, and nobody could operate a hospital if everyone paid Medicare rates, so that's a clear loser. The retail bill price is just a point at which the discounts are drawn from.

First off, I'm glad the OP's son is good and got operated on.

I was going to comment on this very topic. But I have to correct the part where the insurance companies negotiate HUGE discounts. The insurance companies don't negotiate at all. The insurance companies have the power and they run the racket like the mafia and everyone in the industry goes along with it because they'll be taken care of by the insurance companies.

The invoice amount is certainly a work of fiction and no one in the industry pays it unless you're the patient who's not part of the racket by having insurance.

Here's how the racket goes. The insurance companies are required by law to pay out a certain amount of premiums as benefits paid, I understand the required minimum is 85%. They set premiums for the year to get the remaining 15% of the premiums as their gross margin. Then, instead of paying 85%, they pay out 87% so that next year, they have the basis to raise their premiums to get to the 85%/15% target again.

The invoice price is how the insurance companies "convince" people and their employers to pay for insurance. The physician groups, medical device manufacturers, pharmaceutical manufacturers, and pharmacy companies go along with the racket because the system ensures the insurance companies take care of them.

Quite right Rey. Good clarification. The insurance companies dictate more than negotiate. And they have complex rule books attached to the contracts that allow them to deny payment seemingly at will.

It's amazing this shit even works at all. But as we see from an incredible story like the one from sigspecops, miracles come out the other end of this every day.

quote:

It's a confusing mess. And nobody likes it. But sadly, the fix will be universal healthcare which will drive many changes -- very few of them good. And it WILL come

^^^^^^^^^^^^
Not so sure about that. United Healthcare and the Blue Crosses are not going to let that happen. The American public is not going to stand for waiting months for elective surgery and physicians are not going to work for peanuts. Business execs with far less education make more than doctors. Not as lucrative as it used to be.

Glad to hear it was successful.

10 years ago I was part of the OR management team at a large university based hospital in south central PA.

At that time, our OR's generated a minimum of $10K profit per hour, and we had 29 ORs.

Surgical Services/OR's are where hospitals make their money. So many other services in house operate at a loss.