She tells me she's creative, not a numbers person.

My entire series of XRT (37 treatments) was less than $43K -- It appears to me that she has gotten creative with the book keeping -- Have her spending habits gotten expensive recently, shopping trips to NYC and Miami, more cruise vacations than usual? -- What does she drive and how many times a year does she buy a new one? -- Does she have a copy of "Creative Accounting" in her bookshelves?

Worse, what if she has actually paid out that amount?!?

As you well know in your profession, it's hard for a client to see what's happening right under their nose -- Maybe it's time for an outside audit, perhaps even a forensic audit <g>. You may be an unwitting accomplice to MediCare fraud!

Yeah, my total for neck dissection, 39 IMRT, 8 chemo and about 40 or so other visits totals about $275,000, of which I paid about $2,500 out of pocket.

I think your wife has the right number, just the wrong decimal point! ;-)

Brian,

Can we create a list with approximate costs for different treatments?

IMRT
PET/CT
PORT
PEG
etc

The idea is not necessarily to go shopping but to be informed. It is unlikely that if you need a port that you would say .... you want how much for this?? No thank you!
I was totally floored how much Tenet attempted to charge for the port. Note, the surgeon only gets a fraction of this, he was also rather intrigued by this. I was also surprised how much extra charges were accrued by the HBO treatment which was supposed to be covered by my insurance. Interestingly, they (same company) attempt to charge $345 for the 5 min the physician spent to check my ears. This turned out to be not required in the end. Even more interesting there were different physicians involved who were a) a lot cheaper and b) whose staff were apparently able to properly fill out an insurance claim. There were also rather significant differences in the PET/CT. Trailer, old equipment, Tech who get the date wrong and no head rest (for a head PET/CT) vs newer equipment, competent staff, nice facility at half the price..... nevertheless you have to convince the insurance company that the latter makes more sense. Before I come across at too negative I have to give credit to my insurance company which was accommodating... once you take action.


M

Great idea Markus.

I havent gotten too many bills. Im very fortunate that I have good medical insurance. I remember two bills I received for hospital stays. One was for 7 days and was about $27,000. My latest 10 day stay was $37,000. Out of those I was very lucky and only paid a very minimal co-pay of about $100 each. I never did get a bill for radiation or chemo. I have only paid the doctors their $10 co-pay for office visits.

So far I have yet to receive a bill for the HBO. Ive done 33 dives and have another 17 more to go. That has also been approved by my insurance. My HBO doc told me its very expensive, that it costs thousands to go thru HBO treatments.

I'm currently undergoing HBO treatments. I had 13 dives at one hospital and so far the charges from that facility have total over $15,000 (average of $1,200 per dive). Switched hospitals and have completed 27 dives there, with 5 more to go. I haven't received any statements from that facility yet.

In 2006 I had 33 radiation therapy sessions. Total cost was $55,630.

My oral cancer saga began in June 2005 with surgery, and so far my medical bills have totaled over $130,000 for medications, tests (CT, PET, MRI, etc), doctor visits, treatment.

Fortunately I have good health insurance and my out of pocket expenses have been minimal.

I'm going to hire a Forensic CPA to investigate....Wait I'm a CPA...Ah, but she's my wife...but I can't afford not to have her spending habits investigated...but if she's been "creative" then I can't afford to hire anyone...I'm too busy to track how much she really spends, even if I could...She has been talking about retiring to the south of France when I do leave this earth...See this is the STRESS she said that I shouldn't live under...Who started this thread anyway!!

David

That would be me. I also did wonder how you could be a two million dollar man. Just to keep this thread meandering from it's original focus on an outdated study (thanks again Brian for the RSS nudge as well as the heads up on cancer answers $ focus), I will try and shift it from your wife's decimal dyslexia accounting back to HPV.
I have gotten some PMs asking if I was every tested for HPV. As I replied: "Nope Wanted biopsy tested but since insurance won't cover it, can't waste 6 or 7 hundred that is better for the dental bills. Tobacco and Alcohol highly unlikely since I didn't smoke and very casual drinker (happy hour at conferences or one drink at home)so it's HPV or maybe just bad luck."

You still don't have ANY taste? What about the dry mouth?

yeah frustrating not being able to taste and one of the reasons I am still just 135 pounds at 5' 11". Still have not lost hope though. At least nothing tastes bad or metallic just blah & bland. Can't even taste the mint in the flouride gel although the label says it is there. I am getting good at distinguishing textures.
The Dry mouth though is a lot better. I can even go an hour without sipping water.