Cost of gamma knife and surgery

[Nancy Drew]

Just curious.  I have insurance, but I was wondering if anyone knows how much the gamma knife procedure cost?  While we are at it, how much does the surgery cost?  I know some people don't have insurance, and I know it must be a bummer to have to pay out of pocket.    Nancy Drew
 

[Jim Scott]

Nancy:

I had retrosigmoid approach surgery.  9 hour surgery, 2 neurosurgeons and a full hand-picked team, including a technician to monitor facial nerves.  I was in ICU for 4 days and a semi-private room for about a half day.  No real complications.  The surgeon's fee was a total of $28,000.  The anesthesiologist's fee was about $5,000.  Everything else was included in the surgeon's fee.

The total hospital charge was about $60,000. for the 4½ days, including the operating room charge.  The ICU daily rate was over $5,000 a day.  A semi-private room was over $3,000. per day.  I could have stayed in a suite at the best hotel in America for those prices!

You have to figure in the multiple MRI scans, CT scans, blood work and peripheral pre-op tests and other miscellaneous charges that come up, too. 

Fortunately, my health insurance paid the doctor's bills at 100%.  I owed the hospital and the and the anesthesiologist a few thousand, which I was able to settle within a few months.  I guess the total cost (doctors/hospital) would come to about $100,000.

I also had FSR treatments but, offhand, I don't know the exact cost, just that they were paid in full by my (Blue Cross) insurance.  I have read figures of $40,000. to $60,000. but can't verify those.  I'm sure others will be able to offer more exact estimates.

By the way:  My sister always enjoyed your books. 

Jim

[leapyrtwins]

Nancy -

like Jim said, the surgery usually costs roughly $100,000.  Mine involved a neurotologist, a neurosurgeon, and an anesthesiologist; hospital charges for the OR for 7 1/2 hours; my hospital room for 5 nights; cost of drugs and OR "items"; cost of nerve monitoring; and the cost of the high powered microscope used during the surgery.  I had no complications either; but I'd naturally assume it would have cost more if I did.

I'm a Nancy Drew fan also - read all her books as a girl and I still have them.  Are you the real Carolyn Keyes in disguise 

Jan

[fbarbera]

If I recall correctly, the cost of Gamma Knife runs around $25,000.  The cost of CK is closer to $60,000 - $70,000.  I think I was told that the difference is due to the multiple visits required for CK.  I looked into costs because my HMO at the time of my diagnosis was refusing to cover CK, which wasn't offered in my network.  Ultimately, my case went all the way up the appeal process and the State of California recognized CK as medically necessary in my case and forced my insurer to cover it.  Lesson I learned:  if you can afford it, stay away from HMOs.  If you can't, don't let them have the last word.

[Nancy Drew]

Thanks for sharing about the costs.  Good for you fbarbera for challenging your HMO.  You are a trooper and a great advocate!  I am probably going to have GK soon as my AN grew for the first time this past year, and I am having hearing loss that is bothersome.  My real first name is Nancy, and I decided to add the Drew part because I feel like I am always investigating this whole AN mystery.  If I was Carolyn Keyes, I guess I wouldn't have to worry about how much the treatment for the AN costs!  I read all of the Nancy Drew books also!  Nice to hear success stories, and I admire each and every one of you.  Thanks.  Nancy Drew!!!! 

[leapyrtwins]

If I was Carolyn Keyes, I guess I wouldn't have to worry about how much the treatment for the AN costs!

Cute 

I also like the way you came up with your user name.  Great idea about the investigating part - very clever.

[Sue]

My GK cost $66,000 and change.  Don't know what they actually got from the insurance, tho.   I've told this story before on here, but when I was in the wheel-chair car coming back from my MRI, before the actual GK, I remember (which is amazing, since I was whacked out on drugs) that I said to the driver, "I wonder how much this is going to cost?"  He replied, Oh, about $10,000.  Now I realize, he probably met just the wheel chair ride in the car!  (The MRI was in a different building.  Now Providence has a whole new Cancer wing, a new GK machine all in the same area: the whole nine yards, but I hope to High Heaven I never have to see that place again.  But glad it's there, just in case! )

I loved Nancy Drew, and I want to see the movie that is now out on CD.  Actually, tho, if you don't mind me correcting you girls, it's Carolyn Keene that was the pen name of the different authors who wrote Nancy Drew, and according to Wikipedia, Mildred Wirt Benson wrote the first 23 books.  My mother had to fight with me to put the book down and get to bed, and I'd say, "let me get to the end of the chapter, Mom", and of course, it was always a cliffhanger, and I could hardly put the book down.

Sue in Vancouver, USA

[leapyrtwins]

Thanks for correcting my error, Sue.

I think I got Carolyn's last name confused with one of the Nancy Drew book titles.  Didn't one of the books have something to do with "lost keys"?  I read the entire series, but that was many, many years ago 

Jan

[goinbatty]

My CK facility costs were $72,000 (x5 treatments).  Insurance paid $45,000 (PPO reimbursement rate).  Thank goodness I didn't have to pay anything.  Right now, I can't remember the total physician charges. 
Sandra

[Kaybo]

I guess that was one good thing about having surgery so long ago - it was only about $80,000 back then!!

I loved Nancy Drew too and yes, I there was one about keys.  Do you remember the one about the cruise ship?  Who in the world would let a bunch of YOUNG high school girls (not even graduates) go on a cruise ALONE??

K