question

Been on th ephone all morning with docs, hospitals adn anethisiologists and insurance companies.  What a maze to get through. 

Bottom line question, can anyone *****cently had the DS tell me what their anesthisia fee was, trying to determine what my out of pocket fee (very very very rough ball park) so I can put money in teh flex account. Staying with curent isurance puts a kink in payment, but I jsut cannot document weight history for past two years, unless I go with pics.  Cannot really ask BCBS beause I am not a member yet and the information lien for open enrollemnt is not as knowledgeable or helpful.

Even hospital room and board and other charges would be helpful...I know it veries etc but like I said just trying to get ballpark.

thanks.

Call Dr. Stewart's office.  They may have a self-pay package flat rate.  That's what my surgeon had with the hospital.  It was one price, no matter what happened.

I talked to doctor stewarts office today...I know their self pay is around 22000.  So basically i was takign 15% of that and assuming i need to put away around 3500 dollars (i would have to pay 15% of all hospital, docs,etc wth insurance) .    When I poke to Dr. Stewarts office first thing this morning, they did not insinuate what you suggested at all, they said I would have to calll the hospital and anesthisiologis they use to determine their charges  The kicker is insurance requires me to use a CMS "well qualified" hospital.  There are only two in Dallas area, and not one of them is in network for my insurance.  When I spoke to one of them, they said if they remained out of network, they would not charge me anything, they would just take what the insurance paid them and write the rest off, but admitted in 5 months a lot could happen and they could  be in network by then.   The anesthisiologists Dr. Stewart uses in out of network too..so my responsibility would be 35% of reasonable and customary.  Ha, anethisiologist just called and said fee would be around 3000, so my responsibility about 1000.  FInally getting somewhere.  The great unknown is the hospital.    Wonder what three days of room and board is...i know the incidental charges such as medicine etc is uknow but if I can get idea of room and board costs I will be much further along in making decisions here.   Again if out of network..there is 35% copay.  wow...crazy.  Wonder what max out of pocket is,  gonna go look that up.

Oh..I am just as talkative in person as I am online...fair warning.

Dealing with insurance, that sounds about right. 

Got my bill for the anesthesia services... the total was $3250.  Had my surgery on 9/21/11 at Denton Regional.  Hope that helps.  :)

 That does help...I actually got a hold of one of the anesthisiologists Stuart uses today and they quoted me around 3000 for a 3-4 hour surgery with the code Stuart gave me for the DS.  So looks about in line.  Dare I ask what the total hospital charges were (if you have received those yet)?  That is my last unknown.  Know knowing causes me to go straight to the worse case scenario of something like  10,000 bucks a day. Too much time on my hands......driving me crazy.

 I was a self pay and My anesthesia fee was somewhere around $3000 too!
but I'm in PHX. Don't know if it helps much. 

 Does help...thanks.    Three grand seems about the going rate...

 I was a cash pay. My surgeon was $7000. My hospital charge was $11,850. That included EVERYTHING!  Throw in the insurance company and it seems like costs become astronomical!  I also met with my surgeon and had surgery 4 weeks later. I had none of this 6 month diet or liquid diet stuff. Insurance really complicates things and just adds a bunch more time and costs!  Too bad that cant make it easier for people to get HEALTHIER!  

 Yeah...insurance is a nightmare.   So your hospital bill  included anesthesiology?  Interesting, Wonder if I would be safe assuming the surgeons fee, a separate anesthesiology fee, and then 10,000-15,000 for hospital...hmm.