Posted By: ConnieT wish I had an idea of how much this costs - 09-22-2018 11:16 PM
I'm starting to get the bills from July in now. I have no concept of the costs for treatment....I paid off all the smaller debts today (those under $325) and made payments on the big one. Still need to send the dentist $700 but he's getting payments too. I wonder if the financial people at the hospital KNOW how much our insurance will probably cover and normal expenses for treatment?

Right now, he's getting full income plus $300/month until disability runs out and then his co-workers said they will take that $300/month out for awhile. I like to have an idea to know how much I need to accept notary work to cover this.....I don't get paid for months so what I"m doing now, I will receive payment in November.

Has anyone been given an approximate cost for treatment or will I just have to watch the bills roll in one by one? I've never had something like this before so I have no idea.
Posted By: DeniseG Re: wish I had an idea of how much this costs - 09-23-2018 01:19 AM
I did not get any heads up on what treatment would cost. However, I have a yearly cap on out of pocket, the surgery covered that so the radiation was covered at 100%. Look at your insurance or call to see what or how much it covers, and, yes go talk to the finance office at the hospital,hopefully you have a cap on out of pocket. My treatment topped $100,000. Usually you can work out a payment plan with the hospital.
Posted By: ConnieT Re: wish I had an idea of how much this costs - 09-23-2018 02:08 AM
thanks Denise. I didn't know if talking to a finance office was an option but i got to thinking it might be. you think about those things on the weekend of course while paying all those medical bills!

Just one overnight stay for chemo was $25,000. so far, that's our biggest single bill $1600 due from us.
Posted By: ConnieT Re: wish I had an idea of how much this costs - 09-24-2018 06:16 PM
happened upon the exact person I needed to talk to today. She told me that once we meet the deductible, there's a 20% charge for awhile and then treatment is covered 100%. Now to get my husband to give me password to see what policy level we have....so far, he's not giving it to me frown
Posted By: ConnieT Re: wish I had an idea of how much this costs - 10-06-2018 08:28 PM
so it looks like about $5000 out of pocket for treatment for 2018. $900 for dentist and $3500 out of pocket for radiation and chemo. I'm paying all the smaller charges and doing a payment plan with the hospital for all the hospitals stays. I've not had to depend of insurance except for my c-sections so I can appreciate having it now! I am going to total the costs sent to insurance just out of curiousity once I have them all in front of me.
Thats a great idea Connie! Please let us know what the total before insurance adds up to. If possible try to include every single charge... even the dentist, fluoride trays, hospitalization, extra hydration, prescriptions, etc.

Years ago when I was going thru everything I had been keeping track. In 2009, it was an extremely difficult year for me! I do remember seeing a bill for over $200,000. I also received other bills showing charges totaling over $100,000. I used to joke I was the $1,000,000 woman, that was before my third OC diagnosis in 2009.



Posted By: ConnieT Re: wish I had an idea of how much this costs - 10-07-2018 03:39 AM
well, i know radiation alone was $121,000. First hospital visit $25,000 for an overnight stay. 2 more of those plus extra days. i kind of joked to the radiation insurance person that I estimated months ago it would total between $500,000 and 1 million. She didn't laugh....she had been through this with her husband over 7 yrs ago so I took my guess to probably be about on target. We will see. I'm a numbers person so I will add it all up and list for others to see.
Posted By: ConnieT Re: wish I had an idea of how much this costs - 11-02-2018 05:04 PM
well, i have a total for July through August on how much this has totalled so far.

This is diagnostics and 1 hospital stay for chemo plus total radiation costs:

drum roll: $163, 848.75. I'm not sure if this encompasses the $25,501 for the hospital stay so it might be that addded on to the $163,000.

I have seen no bills for September or October yet. I wonder if we will see any bills since we are well above our $3500 deductible

Radiology was $121,000.

our cost out of pocket will be around $5000 with medical and dental
Posted By: KristenS Re: wish I had an idea of how much this costs - 11-02-2018 08:32 PM
Wow. It's scary to see it all added up like that.

Hang in there!
Posted By: Magnum Re: wish I had an idea of how much this costs - 11-02-2018 11:42 PM
My husband, a retired accountant, once had our total at $1,203,142 but I believe that also included our hotel stays in Minnesota and our condo stays in Los Angeles...
Posted By: ConnieT Re: wish I had an idea of how much this costs - 11-03-2018 12:50 AM
i estimated $500,000 to a million before we got started. My dad thought I was crazy but then he's 83 yrs old and been to the doctor three times in his life...2 were accidents. I don't have any hotel stays but 35 days of driving 2 hours just for radiation. I don't think we will qualify to take medical expenses on our taxes because of the deductible.
Posted By: ConnieT Re: wish I had an idea of how much this costs - 01-23-2019 01:58 AM
i just organized all the medical bills from this cancer journey. they had stopped sending bills once we hit the deductible but I got a bunch more from december appts. yikes. $9000 for PET scan and a few thousand for another test. I still want to add it all up sometime but not sure if the chemo is included in the $25,000/night hospital stays. $121,000 for radiation treatment. quite the thick files despite not getting bills from September to December once we met deductible.

now we start all over again with that deductible frown
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