Cost of Hemodialysis in center.

[komomai]

Aloha All, I went back home to Hawaii for the holidays so I arranged to visit a clinic near Kaneohe for about 4 weeks at 3 times per week.  So my Coventry statement  showed 3 bills  from the clinic for a total of $52,898 wow!  Now compared to the Okinawa, Japan hospital that I go to a monthly bill runs about $4,000 a month, this includes lab work, epogen shots, Doctors visiting every patient to look at their records and talk to them to see how their doing, also nurses instead of dialysis technicians that can't do the needles or hook up of catheters.  Now I don't speak Japanese but when speaking dialysis it's all the same, dry weight , target weight, nausea, etc.  It also seems I'm the only one who has questions for the doctors and nurses, it seems to me the majority of patients show up lie down on the bed and wait to get hooked up and fall asleep.

I really hope this fistula will work for me as I can't spend anymore time in a hospital, wish me luck.  And a big mahalo to this site and super people.

[cassandra]

Good luck with your fistula Komomai

   
                  


Love, Cas

[galvo]

Thank God for the Australian health system! Dialysis and all its myriad attachments cost me the grand total of $zero!

[komomai]

Mahalo cassandra for the well wishes.

Wow galvo, can't beat $0 for you health care, amazing.  Makes me afraid of going back to the US as their medical costs are outrageous.

[obsidianom]

All I can add is for us there is no cost for dialysis . WE have medicare and a supplement that picks it up 100%.

[jeannea]

I agree with obsidianom. When I started dialysis I had private insurance from work and I paid nothing for my dialysis treatments. Then with Medicare and a supplement through Blue Cross I paid nothing for my dialysis treatments. I do of course pay my insurance premiums. For me, drug costs have been a problem sometimes based on what I was taking. Right now they're pretty low. I think the high costs are a symptom of a problem here in the US. Since nobody with insurance actually pays the full billed cost, billing rates have become exaggerated in order to make do with the percentage the company receives. (Yes, I know some large companies are getting rich but not most small independent operations.)

[Rerun]

Really it is true.  I live in the USA and with Medicare and my secondary I don't pay anything except some out of pocket for medications.  But, it burns me up to see the submitted charges of $60K a month when they know they are only going to get $3,000 from Medicare and a little from my secondary.  I wish they would just tell the truth.

[cdwbrooklyn]

I totally agree with you Rerun. 

[Simon Dog]

Really it is true.  I live in the USA and with Medicare and my secondary I don't pay anything except some out of pocket for medications.  But, it burns me up to see the submitted charges of $60K a month when they know they are only going to get $3,000 from Medicare and a little from my secondary.  I wish they would just tell the truth.

Every once in a while some chump pays it.    I am still on private insurance (Medicare starts in December).     I had two out of town treatments at a DaVita clinic.   My insurance pays my local clinic a bit over $400 per treatment (home or in center, same deal).   My two treatments at DaVita were billed at over $10,000 ($5K+ each), and my insurance paid a total of $9150 - for two four hour in clinic treatments.   At that price, they should have thrown in a massage.

[noahvale]

*

[Simon Dog]

My two treatments at DaVita were billed at over $10,000 ($5K+ each), and my insurance paid a total of $9150 - for two four hour in clinic treatments.   At that price, they should have thrown in a massage.

At that price the massage should have included a happy ending.

I almost said that but wondered if it would be in bad taste 

[jeannea]

Bad taste-yes. True/relevant-yes.