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Cancer Care costs are insane..my mom is being treated for breast cancer..each chemo infusion cost $65k to her insurance company. Her surgery to remove her left

Cancer Care costs are insane..my mom is being treated for breast cancer..each chemo infusion cost $65k to her insurance company. Her surgery to remove her left breast cost $165k. 5k going to the surgeon fee while the rest was a facility fee. It's been less than a year now and the insurance has paid out almost a million dollars.

grecy 4y ago
My Mum was diagnosed with stage 4 lung cancer - had 2.5 years of radiation, chemo and monthly doctor visits. Saw many specialists, etc. etc. Never saw a single bill, and in fact was paid actual money for the inconvenience of having to drive 3.5 hours to a bigger facility that had equipment the local small-town hospital did not. Also got a free apartment to stay in for those out of town appointments, meal allowance, etc. Mum had never paid a cent in insurance premiums in her life, etc.
carlmr 4y ago
>each chemo infusion cost $65k to her insurance company. Her surgery to remove her left breast cost $165k. 5k going to the surgeon fee while the rest was a facility fee. It's been less than a year now and the insurance has paid out almost a million dollars. Do you know that your insurance paid that, or is it what you have been quoted? US hospitals are notorious for overcharging by factors of ~10x when looking at their charge master, but the insurance companies will get a much better price after negotiating with the hospital, which is one of the reasons why the hospitals will blow-up charges in the first place, to get paid despite the insurance companies not paying everything. It's a broken system because you need an insurance agent as a "lawyer" to get the real rates. Instead what is necessary is price competition and transparency. You should be able to look up online the cost of chemotherapy for a certain type of cancer in the whole US, then you can filter by distance, reviews and price. The price on the sticker has to include everything. Whether you have insurance or not should not factor into the price at all. The free market is maybe not a solution to the social problem here, but it could at least drive down costs.

grecy 4y ago

My Mum was diagnosed with stage 4 lung cancer - had 2.5 years of radiation, chemo and monthly doctor visits. Saw many specialists, etc. etc. Never saw a single bill, and in fact was paid actual money for the inconvenience of having to drive 3.5 hours to a bigger facility that had equipment the local small-town hospital did not. Also got a free apartment to stay in for those out of town appointments, meal allowance, etc. Mum had never paid a cent in insurance premiums in her life, etc.

carlmr 4y ago

>each chemo infusion cost $65k to her insurance company. Her surgery to remove her left breast cost $165k. 5k going to the surgeon fee while the rest was a facility fee. It's been less than a year now and the insurance has paid out almost a million dollars. Do you know that your insurance paid that, or is it what you have been quoted? US hospitals are notorious for overcharging by factors of ~10x when looking at their charge master, but the insurance companies will get a much better price after negotiating with the hospital, which is one of the reasons why the hospitals will blow-up charges in the first place, to get paid despite the insurance companies not paying everything. It's a broken system because you need an insurance agent as a "lawyer" to get the real rates. Instead what is necessary is price competition and transparency. You should be able to look up online the cost of chemotherapy for a certain type of cancer in the whole US, then you can filter by distance, reviews and price. The price on the sticker has to include everything. Whether you have insurance or not should not factor into the price at all. The free market is maybe not a solution to the social problem here, but it could at least drive down costs.