Ups and Downs this week on the surgery front.
I'll start with Monday, and the positive. I went for my first appointment with the surgeon, Dr. Colleen Kennedy. We talked about my condition and she says I'm an good candidate for the Lap Gastric Bypass. Dr. Kennedy is very personable and I like her quite a lot. They were willing to schedule my surgery right away and to work with me on having tests run through my PCP so that at least that will be covered by insurance. They gave me amount for the surgeon's fee and anesthesia: $7800. I thought that was pretty reasonable. They told me that I needed to contact the hospital to get the numbers on the hospital fees.
I left the office very hopeful. I've got about $25,000 in my IRA that I can draw upon for this surgery, so I figured I was SET. I couldn't fathom that the hospital would want more than $15,000 for an operation that only has an OVERNIGHT stay.
Forward to Tuesday. I had a hard time getting in touch with the right person at Baylor. They have a number on their website where you are supposed to be able to get a quote on a price. I called that several times before I reached a human (that didn't annoy me because I knew through the grapevine that the area around Baylor was having some trouble with power outages and I figured it was probably causing phone probs). Once I did, they transferred me one place, and then another place and eventually back to the surgeon's office. The one that originally told me they didn't have the numbers on hospital fees. GAH! At any rate, the nice lady in the surgeon's office gave me a number to call and a specific person to ask for. I called and they quoted me the price.
I'm surprised I didn't bruise my chin when my jaw dropped. Their "normal" fee is ***$35,000***, but they will magnanimously give a 35% discount to folks who pay cast, so it would cost me $22,750. OH MY GOD!!! FOR ONE NIGHT!!! I went into a minor shock and just hung up the phone. Fortunately, it was late in the day so my major bummage at the news didn't impact my work. It definitely hit when I got home.
Fortunately, I have an absolutely awesome husband. AWESOME!! I did some web searching trying to decide what to do. I'd really like to use Dr. Kennedy because she seems very nice, extremely intelligent and then there's the girl power thing. I won't deny it, I LIKE the idea of having a female surgeon. Unfortunately, I don't think that will happen unless I can get Baylor to come down on their beyond exorbitant hospital fee.
So I'm beginning to research some alternatives. There's a doctor in Houston who has a package deal (global fee) for $17000 with hospital fees included (and he uses some of the top notch Houston Hospitals). That's expensive, but doable. I'm also considering medical tourism (that's where you go to a foreign country to have the surgery at a majorly reduced rate).
I'm not sure how I feel about the idea of having such major surgery done outside of the US. On the one hand, I've got this notion that the US has better medical care than other countries. However, I'm not sure that's an accurate notion, especially after watching Sicko. Some of the articles I've read seem to indicate that our health care isn't better, just MUCH more expensive.
This is going to require some significant thought and research. First thing I'm going to do is talk to Dr. Kennedy. If Baylor will come down on their fees, I'd love to have her do my surgery. And even if I get the surgery done elsewhere, I'd like to have a local bariatric surgeon who can work with me if I need additional assistance.
I'll update as I know more. One thing I do know is that this will happen. And I'll probably value it even more if I have to fight for it a little bit.