Hi Grace,
I don't get on this board much but saw your post asking about HEI. If you have surgery at House, you can stay at Seton Hall which is connected to the hospital via an underground "tunnel" or hallway. The fee is much less than a hotel in Los Angeles. The rooms are nothing fancy but more than adequate and comfortable. The fee was about $80 a night when I stayed a year ago. If you have surgery there, it is a requirement that you have someone stay with you to care for you after your hospital stay so your husband can stay there while you are in the hospital and when you get out. You will need someone to assist you with your meds--you will have a few of them--and to get you your meals, help you walk etc.
My insurance was Horizon BC/BS and was accepted as in-network so I did not have out of pocket expense for the hospital other than my copay. The expense of flying, car rental, Seton Hall and my out patient pharmacy and food was of course on us. You should plan on staying about 2weeks. They will see you for follow-up and remove your stitches before clearing you to fly back home. They want to make sure you don't have a cerebral spinal fluid leakage before they let you leave. I was there about 11 days.
I found it was much faster for me to schedule with them than navigate the medical visits with all of the doctors in my local area. I flew in on a Monday, had my preop doctor visits and labs, EKG, etc on Tuesday and surgery on Wednesday. My surgery was over 12 hours--I was in ICU for less time than I was in surgery-then I was in the hospital for 3 days then released to Seton Hall. It can be boring if you don't have a car to get around as the neighborhood is not safe for walking too far. My husband was able to drive to pick up food (you can go to the cafeteria but we wanted something different) and to do some site seeing. Good luck to you.
Anita
