Hi Guys,
My girlfriends father diagnosed with an oral cancer recently. In Turkey, They told them they will need to remove half of the tongue and do surgical operation to remove cancer cells. I am thinking how much the same surgery will cost in US. Keep in mind they don't have any insurance and everything we have to pay will be out of packet. If it is possible could you guys give a estimate. Thank you

This website is made up of patients and their caregivers. It wouldnt be possible for any of us to give an estimate. Here in the US, doctors have their fees, then the tests would need to be done, the hospital charges, anesthesiaologist, medications, etc. Ive had operations where the hospital cost alone is $40,000 before all the other charges. Sorry, but its not something that anyone here would know. Best wishes to your father and to you in finding the info you are looking for.

thousands and thousands of dollars...I call Ron my million dollar man

Thank you for your messages. They went to hospital today to find out what will happen

One surgeons charge alone for just the surgery was $40,000. There were 4 in the OR.

IMRT can cost $5K per treatment. The total bill for that alone was $1/2 million (it was $20K just to program the treatment plan into the machine).

When the doctors and I were exploring the surgery option, they stated it would be a 14 hour surgery - which has got to be more than $40K. The anesthesiologist is typically more expensive than the surgeon. Back to your original question, the way that patients are billed is very convoluted and most fees are submitted separately and sometimes months apart.

There are a few optionsL VA - if he was a veteran, county or medicaid. If he has assets, like a home, they will be attached

Just put a number down and start adding zeros to it. Don't forget, use commas.

Ditto to all the above.

Have you considered India or Thailand? My brother and I did some research on this a couple of years ago when he needed heart surgery. He ended up staying here in the U.S. for it, but we did find some very attractive overseas options, both financially and care wise. Cleary if the patient will be needing follow up - radiation, chemo - you'd want someone local. But for the operation alone it might be a consideration.

Keep us posted.

David 2

@Gary
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) regional fee for service schedule for IMRT seems to range between $500 and $700 per treatment. The majority of regions are in the $500 range ( www.CMS.GOV )

I would think private insurers will not pay more that 10-20% over the CMS.

But then, I guess a CCC could bill whatever they like.

ASTRO shows the billing codes as:
IMRT Planning � CPT code 77301
Design and Construction of MLC devices for IMRT � CPT code 77338
IMRT Treatment Delivery 77418

(CPT codes seem to also be referred to as HCPCS codes)

And they did bill that to Kaiser, although my understanding was that Kaiser didn't pay what they billed and I was given a copy of the bill as a "courtesy", although I had no copay with UCSFCCC.

Kaiser does their radiation in house now so I was very fortunate to have a top notch RO.