Hospital billed Medicare $83,015

Yes you read that right.  $83,015  Here's a breakdown:

Semi-private room       $7300     Should I tell them it was a private one?

Pharmacy                     6540      Very expensive laxatives and pain meds

Pharmacy (again)            529      This seems reasonable.

Supplies                       2127       I can accept this one.

Supplies (again)           21600      I guess they found out I was in the 
                                                 supply room.

Laboratory I                  1503
Laboratory II                 1317
Laboratory III                  201

Diagnostic RAD               449

Respiratory Care            1298       Must be for oxygen and Tech to watch
                                                  me blow in the little tube.
Pulmonary Care             2806       What's the difference between this 
                                                  and Resp Care?

I saved the best ones for last:

Operating Room           25110      I guess I paid for everone's surgery 
                                                 that day.

Anesthesia                     7130      I'll never complain about the gas 
                                                 prices ever again.  I think I was out 2
                                                 1/4 hrs.
Recovery Room              5100      I maybe was in there an hour at most.
                                                 My wife said I went back to the same
                                                  room I started in.

Unbelieveable bill.  And this doesn't include the doctors or the pre-op $5300 they tried to bell for the lab tests!  Of course Medicare didn't pay anything near that.  I had no co-pay because Tricare-For-Life picks up my 20 %.  What the hell does it cost if you don't have any insurance? 

 Mine on private insurance topped out at $79,000. I am blessed for I have insurance...

Health care is a racket!!

The insurance companys ***** about what the hospitals charge them.  The hospital charges what they do because the law says if somebody walks through your ER door they cannot be refused treatment.  A sizeable number of ER patients have chronic conditions that are not taken care of like they need to be so the ER becomes their doctor of choice and a lot of those ER patients don't even bother to come to the ER till they are critical.  Critical care in and of itself is some high dollar ****!  Cat scans, MRI's, ICU time, CCU time etc.  The majority of hospitals now are corporate owned and have to turn a profit to stay solvent.  Where are they going to go?  The DEEPEST POCKETS!  Who has them?  UNCLE SAM!!  Translation the TAX PAYERS!!  Your right.  Medicare did not pay the full freight but a dollar to a dime says they overpaid for what you were provided.

To answer your question four years ago counting all the pre surgery crap etc.  I was out around argument sake $30K from my own pocket.  My surgeon gave me, and all self pays, a steep discount on his services.  There is no doubt in my mind that I paid for somebody's trip to ER that morning at Baylor in Dallas.  Could I have saved some expense with a different doctor and hospital?  Yes sir I could have but I wanted the surgeon I used because he was recommended by my cardiologist at the time. 

Okay rant off.  Time to go home and shed this frigging kevlar!

I went to the ER for a kidney stone and Ins was billed over 6K. I was there 3 hours and had two rounds of pain meds with a CT scan and an Xray.

 Scott but 3K of that was for the Hot Young nurse to hold your Johnson while she shoved a straw in it!

 Self pay:

I had a vertical sleeve gastrectomy in January as a self pay in Tennessee for $21,000 all included, even the preop labs and upper GI.  The surgeon's fee was about 5k of that.  I sprang for another 2k for a year's worth of re-admission and complication insurance coverage with limits over 100k for peace of mind.  Didn't need that, thankfully.

RNY is about the same and a DS is higher.

You could certainly do it cheaper in Mexico but that was outside my comfort level.  I recieved exceptional care at Centennial in Nashville and would highly recommend them.  I haven't been this skinny since Reagan's first term!

WOW.. I haven't got a clue what my surgery cost.. It's completely covered by  Canadian Health Care. All I had to pay for was parking at the hospital and "Optifast" (before surgery).
I originally visited Yipsolanti Michigan for a surgery consult. Prior to 2010 most Canadians had to go to the states for this surgery (although it was still covered by our Health Plan including travel expenses) . The government dumped a ton of money into opening several centres in Ontario and stopped approving Out of Country surgeries. My wait time was approximately one year (although from reading some of your stories.. some of you guys had to wait that long for approval and tests from your insurance providers). I understand the wait time now in Ontairo is approximately 2 years from initial consult to surgery.
I'm eternally grateful that this surgery was provided for me by our Health Plan. It has changed my life.

Holy crap!!! That is crazy! Mine was no where close to that.
Bottom line is the reason ANY insurance pays for these surgeries is that hopefully in the long run it will save money. If your RNY keeps you from having open heart by-pass or a catherization or lowers your blood pressure and avoids a stroke or you get rid of diebeties and all the complications known with that the cost of WLS is a hell of a lot cheaper. Don is right health care is a rackit at times but it is in crisis right now. I work at a non-profit hospital and I get frustrated when the government makes these deep cuts to health care and says "adjust" but when the auto industry needed help we gave them BILLIONS! When money is tight for hospitals they don't buy new equipment or cut back on services and I don't know about you guys but I'd rather have the latest and best CT scanner when my need comes up compared to having three styles of a ford focus to choose from. 
Anyway, we are all blessed to be able to have these surgeries and I'm so thankful I had a great doc and hospital within 30 minutes to do mine. 
Stoney  

Much of this stems from USG/medicare practices that have long encouraged high "rack rates" for care. Back when Medicare started getting more aggressive on their reimbursement rates (i.e., not paying the total cost) they recognized that many hospitals were doing Medicare patients at a loss, so they set up a kind of slush fund from leftover budget allocations that could be used to make up for some of those losses. At the end of the year, the hospitals would submit a claim to Medicare for those losses, and Medicare would split up the slush fund between the various claimants so that all got an extra few percent back. It didn't take long for the more savvy hospitals to boost their list prices to increase this apparent "loss" and get a bigger claim. As those who self pay for these procedures find, normal range charges are available for those who plan ahead and can use rates negotiated by their surgeons. The only ones who are really charged these rack rates are the uninsured who use the emergeny rooms as their PCP and skip on the bills or those unfortunates between jobs and without insurance who get into accidents and go into bankrupcy over the inflated rack rates (but they don't have any lobbying power, so don't really count to the system.)

 I think mine was upwards of 36K from soup to nuts- I paid co-pays and a $250 non-refundable fee for "immersion day" Harvard Pilgrim PPO paid the rest-

Tim T.