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Transparency in pricing for surgery
Yes I think it would be helpful to have transparent prices and/or known prices for general services.
My health insurance is limited to in-state providers, so if I was to travel out of state for any health service I would be paying out of pocket entirely for everything. Nonetheless, this is a scenario I consider as I’m sure many others have too. For something like surgery, performed by an expert, services are expected to be fairly expensive.
What would be really great would be a variety of package prices to make the entire experience easier for travelers: total fees for consult, fees for surgery (maybe even repair types), pre-arranged hotels that are near the site of services, pickups from airport, etc. almost like a package vacation, except surgery.
Slightly off topic, the country of Singapore publishes their costs online per hospital and service, for hernia repair that can range from $900 to $22,000 (USD), depending on the choice of hospital, service, complexity of case, etc. Sure that’s a big range, but at least you know what to expect. Here’s the Singapore government website, kind of interesting if you like data:
https://www.moh.gov.sg/content/moh_web/home/costs_and_financing/HospitalBillSize/hernia_repair.html
It would be great if the USA had something similar for US providers and hospitals, but we’re obviously a much larger country than Singapore.
From looking online at actual patient bills, I’ve found laparoscopic hernia repair bills from a general US hospital to range around $10,000 – $35,000, thus after insurance the patient is usually left with a $1000 to $7000 bill depending on their insurance policy and co-insurance. I would imagine open hernia repair with mesh to be a bit cheaper than that but that may be an incorrect assumption.