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I just got my hospital bill, and it isn’t the $30,000 I was quoted beforehand. Here’s how it really breaks down:
Pre-surgery tests:
Professional fee $135
Laboratory $58
Chemistry $46
Hematology $36
Urology $34
Clinic $643
EKG/ECG $102
————
$919
Surgery:
Pharmacy $1,103.47
Med-surg supplies $636.00
Supply/Implant $35,828.00
OR Services $3,977.00
Anesthesia $643.00
Drugs/Detail code $40.63
Drugs/Self admin $1.81
Recovery room $681.00
——————
$42,901.00
Grand Total $43,820.91
Note that there was not even an overnight stay in the hospital. These numbers do not include turning the device on, or all the follow up care required even to get to a therapeutic dose. Costs also vary widely depending on where you get it done.
This is a far cry from the $30,000 I was quoted and as you can see, the implant itself is a fair chunk beyond that. Why that is, I do not know. There are multiple versions of the implant, and the costs might be slightly different. Also, it seems that insurance companies here pay less than the full cost. It’s infinately frustrating that insurance companies pay less but that some poor person who walks in off the street has to actually pay more. But let’s not get started about that.
Just in case you were wondering, I do have the best insurance ever, and this all cost me absolutely nothing.
Natasha Tracy is an award-winning writer, speaker, advocate, and consultant from the Pacific Northwest. She has been living with bipolar disorder for 26 years and has written more than 2000 articles on the subject.
Find more of Natasha’s work in her acclaimed book: "Lost Marbles: Insights into My Life with Depression & Bipolar" on Amazon.
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Start smashing the tiles in the bathroom and bringing them into class. Tiles for everyone!
(Yeah, OK, don’t do that. That’ll get you one of those rooms you can’t get out of. Tileless.)
Better for a moment is better than better not at all. But I suppose that doesn’t make you feel any, better.
Hey, if you end up with that as your thesis I want a mention, and I totally want to read it.
it was cheap because it wasn’t sleep away camp! $400/day for full day camp and then $200/day for 4 weeks of 1/2 day camp.
I made a nice sculpture-like mosaic. i was on a roll until the OT lady told me I had to stop because I was using too many tiles. Seems $200 does not buy you unlimited bits of tile and elmer’s glue.
but it got me through that suicidal period. i met some cool people. learned some stuff about myself. got some new meds, got some new side effects. and i can check that off as one more of those rather useless in the LONG RUN things that drs & Ts try to get you to do.
i figure if i’m going to spend that much time on the sidelines and that much $$ you had better fix me for more than a moment.
mmmm PR campaign for suicide rights…
you just gave me an idea for a MFA thesis project.
Six weeks? Oh you poor thing. I hope you got something out of it. Don’t worry, the magnets are ugly. ($10,000, by the way, doesn’t sound like a lot for 6 weeks. That’s 238 a day. Seems like a hospital would be a lot more.)
Yes, suicide would be cheaper. Suicide rights, I say. Apparently there is just no PR campaign that can make championing people’s death look good.
wow i just got my bill of crazy camp and for 6 weeks of fun i spent 10,000. i didn’t get any magnets! (sarcasm).
i don’t have the best insurance eve so i’m not sure if that represents my cost or the total cost. in either case, i think you may be the only person to appreciate this bit of warped humor, but for all it costs, i’m surprised healthcare comapnies aren’t out getting lobbyist to go to washington supporting euthanasia and suicide as a patient’s right. it would be cheaper for them to have given me a kevorkian machine and treated me to a death suite at a high class hotel/spa.