brucesm36
new member
i am trying to find out how much a biomet M2a-magnum costs.
i do not have insurance so the price is important.
i do not have insurance so the price is important.
how much does the prostesis cost?
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United Kingdomano
junior member
Just got the hospital bill which luckily IS covered by insurance. I had a fairly conventional Zimmer hip and it cost $12,000 US.
Interestingly, the cost of the hospital room (private) for 3 1/2 days was "only" $3,200 but a session of radiation therapy that I had, that took, maybe 20 minutes cost $5200. The day after surgery, a visiting doctor claims to have visited 5 times. I only remember seeing him twice. Each visit couldn't have been more than 5 minutes. Cost $1600. My main doctor got $3200 but his poor assistant only $300.
Interestingly, the cost of the hospital room (private) for 3 1/2 days was "only" $3,200 but a session of radiation therapy that I had, that took, maybe 20 minutes cost $5200. The day after surgery, a visiting doctor claims to have visited 5 times. I only remember seeing him twice. Each visit couldn't have been more than 5 minutes. Cost $1600. My main doctor got $3200 but his poor assistant only $300.
Hi ano
if you do not mind reveling it, what was the total cost?
Doctors padding the insurance bill seems to be quite common. I talked to doctor friend who recently moved here from Dallas where shut down his practice in Neurology and he told me about the techniques used by doctors to get back at insurance companies.
I said he spent 1/3 of his time fighting with insurance companies where a 22 y.o. clerk would tell him what is acceptable treatment for his patient.
if you do not mind reveling it, what was the total cost?
Doctors padding the insurance bill seems to be quite common. I talked to doctor friend who recently moved here from Dallas where shut down his practice in Neurology and he told me about the techniques used by doctors to get back at insurance companies.
I said he spent 1/3 of his time fighting with insurance companies where a 22 y.o. clerk would tell him what is acceptable treatment for his patient.
ano
junior member
Total is $50,000+ Final accounting is not all in yet. I attended a "pre-admission" at the hospital a few days before the surgery. They said it was just to "speed admission" on surgery day. They just charged me $360 just for THAT. ($82 after insurance.)
Hi ano
Thanks for the information. I would need to sell my home in California to have it done in the US. My OS here ordered the large head metal-metal, from the description it is probably the biomet M2 the original poster was asking about. On a prior visit I left a 25,000 Ruble deposit ( less than $1,000) to pay for for the joint. I did not have the operation earlier this week because I developed bronchitis so checked out of the hospital to come back home to recover. I was pretty sick all week, even my hair hurt. Hopefully I will be healthy enough to have it done by mid-week.
Medications, prosthesis, and procedures are probably their natural cost plus reasonable profit, so That must mean the selling price in the US is inflated far beyond any ethical level. The companies are surely making a profit selling medications and surgical items in Europe, Asia and Scandinavia or they would sell into those markets, yet the prices in the US are often blamed on the "incentive" needed to give to manufacturers reason to do research. That is pretty much accepted without question but it make no sense. None of these companies are single national entities, they produce products in many countries, based on research done in many countries. The high costs in the US are our fault, we do not start co-ops to buy medications on a low profit distribution model, or form true non-profit clinics. Comparing the services in the US versus Europe, can't be done, there is no comparison. You have a problem...it gets addressed for free. Period. Full coverage with no disallowed preexisting conditions still cost only 40% what is spent in the US for the 60% who are covered.
$12,000 for a prosthesis seems very high considering a top version costs less than $1,000 other places, and the companies are still making enough profit to encourage them to remain in a market.
This whole issue gets me so angry, it is greed and unethical behavior at its worst.
Thanks for the information. I would need to sell my home in California to have it done in the US. My OS here ordered the large head metal-metal, from the description it is probably the biomet M2 the original poster was asking about. On a prior visit I left a 25,000 Ruble deposit ( less than $1,000) to pay for for the joint. I did not have the operation earlier this week because I developed bronchitis so checked out of the hospital to come back home to recover. I was pretty sick all week, even my hair hurt. Hopefully I will be healthy enough to have it done by mid-week.
Medications, prosthesis, and procedures are probably their natural cost plus reasonable profit, so That must mean the selling price in the US is inflated far beyond any ethical level. The companies are surely making a profit selling medications and surgical items in Europe, Asia and Scandinavia or they would sell into those markets, yet the prices in the US are often blamed on the "incentive" needed to give to manufacturers reason to do research. That is pretty much accepted without question but it make no sense. None of these companies are single national entities, they produce products in many countries, based on research done in many countries. The high costs in the US are our fault, we do not start co-ops to buy medications on a low profit distribution model, or form true non-profit clinics. Comparing the services in the US versus Europe, can't be done, there is no comparison. You have a problem...it gets addressed for free. Period. Full coverage with no disallowed preexisting conditions still cost only 40% what is spent in the US for the 60% who are covered.
$12,000 for a prosthesis seems very high considering a top version costs less than $1,000 other places, and the companies are still making enough profit to encourage them to remain in a market.
This whole issue gets me so angry, it is greed and unethical behavior at its worst.
ano
junior member
Yeah, rent the movie Sicko.
I just got some more bills today, and now they are approaching $60,000 total.
Since hip surgery is semi-elective, I'd highly recommend anyone with insurance compare all your plans during open enrollment before you have surgery. I had a choice of several plans, and I picked the most expensive. It will cost me an extra $3400 in premiums this year, but total cost of surgery, physical therapy, and most everything has cost under $600. If I bought the cheapest plan, it would only cost $1200 for premiums, but I'd owe 20% of the surgery up to a max. of $6000, which I would hit.
In the US, there is no doubt there are markups and good profits, but there are also many times where the hospital and doctors may get little or nothing.
I have insurance, so with insurance cost, my hip was maybe $4000. Of course, I also paid for insurance many other years without using it, and in those years the insurance companies win. The leveling out of the bill is what insurance is for. If you took my total payments for medical and insurance and averaged it over say, 10 years, my costs really don't look out-of-line with other countries, at least when you add in what other countries pay into the system. of course, that's not free either, they charge you taxes.
Hi-tech medical care is expensive, and someone has to pay one way or another. Who pays and how is the big debate.
I just got some more bills today, and now they are approaching $60,000 total.
Since hip surgery is semi-elective, I'd highly recommend anyone with insurance compare all your plans during open enrollment before you have surgery. I had a choice of several plans, and I picked the most expensive. It will cost me an extra $3400 in premiums this year, but total cost of surgery, physical therapy, and most everything has cost under $600. If I bought the cheapest plan, it would only cost $1200 for premiums, but I'd owe 20% of the surgery up to a max. of $6000, which I would hit.
In the US, there is no doubt there are markups and good profits, but there are also many times where the hospital and doctors may get little or nothing.
I have insurance, so with insurance cost, my hip was maybe $4000. Of course, I also paid for insurance many other years without using it, and in those years the insurance companies win. The leveling out of the bill is what insurance is for. If you took my total payments for medical and insurance and averaged it over say, 10 years, my costs really don't look out-of-line with other countries, at least when you add in what other countries pay into the system. of course, that's not free either, they charge you taxes.
Hi-tech medical care is expensive, and someone has to pay one way or another. Who pays and how is the big debate.
Also, "cost" is a relative term in the United States. If you have insurance, you will see a cost for a procedure on your bill and then another negotiated lower cost that is the agreed-upon amount with your insurance company. The actual cost paid by your insurance company is always much lower than that first "cost" on the bill. If you have no insurance, you usually can negotiate a lower cost yourself for the procedure by dealing directly with the doctor and hospital. It will still be very expensive without insurance, but usually not as much as that inflated cost that shows up on the bill. I have always wondered why that high cost that no one pays is there and I can only guess that it involves some type of write off from the doctors and hospitals so they can recover costs incurred from treating those patients with no insurance and no money. In the US, hospitals must treat patients and stabilize them in an "emergency" even if they receive no money. Right now, these costs incurred in Emergency Rooms across the nation are huge and hospitals must have some way to balance out their expenses. I'm not in the insurance or medical industry, but I imagine it is a very complex situation that has no simple explanation or solution to make it better. I agree with ANO and our current hi-tech care is very expensive and you do pay one way or the other. It's just a matter of how - insurance, taxes or from your pocket....probably all levels out in the end.
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