Cost of ICU/operations/ECMO/etc.?

[Little-Acorn]

I'm sitting in a waiting room on the 10th floor at UC San Francisco as I write this. My eldest son (age 22, senior in college) went to a New Years Eve party, and apparently took a pill he shouldn't have. Was at death's door for several days, transferred on an emergency basis to UCSF, woke up (sort of) on the fifth day, is now slowly getting better, thought still in very bad shape. I've been living in this waiting room, and a nearby hospice, since it began, and haven't been outside the hospital during waking hours.

More on that later, maybe. Talked to my wife about our insurance, we've got very good insurance, at least on paper. Deductible in the low four digits, which is down in the noise, then they pay 90% of the rest, which is a lot higher than most companies pay. That's on paper, of course, they may disallow some claims, rough guess they may pay 70-80 percent of balance after all is said and done.

Rough schedule looks like maybe 3-4 weeks total in ICU (Intensive Care Unit, where he's been since this started), then (at a wild guess) 3 weeks on a regular hospital floor, then maybe 1 to 3 months of rehab and physical therapy. Plus dialysis for X months or years, plus months of neurological exams, plus X. Hopefully will make a full recovery, though we don't know yet.

No, I'm not kidding.

My question is, what's a rough guess of what this whole thing will cost? Anyone know? Talked to my wife last night, who is very practical, and it was the first time I've started thinking about costs or insurance. I'll be talking to Hospital Accounting and the insurance (Aetna) folks soon enough, but now I'd just like some very rough guesses, if anyone has a crystal ball handy.

My wife and I picked a figure of $1 to $2 million out of the air, on very little basis other than "I heard somewhere that it might...". If insurance pays, say, 75% after all is said and done, then we're looking at a debt of up to half a million AFTER insurance has paid off.

Basically our retirement is gone, or our house is gone, or maybe both if my SWAGs above are off, which they probably are.

Anybody had any experience with this? Want to toss some guesses into the hopper?

P.S. Obamacare still sucks, if that had been in force for the last 20 years the ECMO machine that saved my son's life in the first three days when nothing else could probably wouldn't have been invented, "too expensive and speculative, doesn't benefit enough people".

[ConHog]

I'm sitting in a waiting room on the 10th floor at UC San Francisco as I write this. My eldest son (age 22, senior in college) went to a New Years Eve party, and apparently took a pill he shouldn't have. Was at death's door for several days, transferred on an emergency basis to UCSF, woke up (sort of) on the fifth day, is now slowly getting better, thought still in very bad shape. I've been living in this waiting room, and a nearby hospice, since it began, and haven't been outside the hospital during waking hours.

More on that later, maybe. Talked to my wife about our insurance, we've got very good insurance, at least on paper. Deductible in the low four digits, which is down in the noise, then they pay 90% of the rest, which is a lot higher than most companies pay. That's on paper, of course, they may disallow some claims, rough guess they may pay 70-80 percent of balance after all is said and done.

Rough schedule looks like maybe 3-4 weeks total in ICU (Intensive Care Unit, where he's been since this started), then (at a wild guess) 3 weeks on a regular hospital floor, then maybe 1 to 3 months of rehab and physical therapy. Plus dialysis for X months or years, plus months of neurological exams, plus X. Hopefully will make a full recovery, though we don't know yet.

No, I'm not kidding.

My question is, what's a rough guess of what this whole thing will cost? Anyone know? Talked to my wife last night, who is very practical, and it was the first time I've started thinking about costs or insurance. I'll be talking to Hospital Accounting and the insurance (Aetna) folks soon enough, but now I'd just like some very rough guesses, if anyone has a crystal ball handy.

My wife and I picked a figure of $1 to $2 million out of the air, on very little basis other than "I heard somewhere that it might...". If insurance pays, say, 75% after all is said and done, then we're looking at a debt of up to half a million AFTER insurance has paid off.

Basically our retirement is gone, or our house is gone, or maybe both if my SWAGs above are off, which they probably are.

Anybody had any experience with this? Want to toss some guesses into the hopper?

P.S. Obamacare still sucks, if that had been in force for the last 20 years the ECMO machine that saved my son's life in the first three days when nothing else could probably wouldn't have been invented, "too expensive and speculative, doesn't benefit enough people".

Jesus man, first I'm very sorry about your son, prayers for a full recovery.

Second, your son is an adult , I don't think the hospital can come after YOUR assets to recoup anything. I assume by your comments that he is on your insurance, that's good. I'd just make monthly payments of whatever you can afford in his name and not touch my assets to pay off whatever the insurance company doesn't pay. There really isn't anything the hospital can do, and they can't stop taking care of him either.

[Little-Acorn]

Jesus man, first I'm very sorry about your son, prayers for a full recovery.

Second, your son is an adult , I don't think the hospital can come after YOUR assets to recoup anything. I assume by your comments that he is on your insurance, that's good. I'd just make monthly payments of whatever you can afford in his name and not touch my assets to pay off whatever the insurance company doesn't pay. There really isn't anything the hospital can do, and they can't stop taking care of him either.

Stiffing the hospital that just saved my son's life doesn't seem to me like a very nice thing to do, even if it may be legally doable. This is all in the future, of course.

True that the hospital can't do much to CHANGE the amounts that must ultimately be paid, they are doing huge amounts, everything they can, and with my total blessing. But here I'm just looking for guesstimates of what totals may be.

[ConHog]

Stiffing the hospital that just saved my son's life doesn't seem to me like a very nice thing to do, even if it may be legally doable. This is all in the future, of course.

True that the hospital can't do much to CHANGE the amounts that must ultimately be paid, they are doing huge amounts, everything they can, and with my total blessing. But here I'm just looking for guesstimates of what totals may be.

Oh, I didn't say stiff anyone. Likely your son will end up paying hospital bills for the rest of his life. But certainly you shouldn't lose your home over it.

And I would say $2-4M total bill isn't out of the realm of possibility , but insurance will pay most of that. I would hope.

[Trigg]

Sorry to hear about your son and I hope he makes a full recovery.

In regards to your question, I think you're way over on your estimation of your bill after insurance pays their part. Here is a good web sight

http://www.beckershospitalreview.com...by-region.html

From what I know about the hospital I work at, the charges look about right. I think you're probably looking at 150,000 to 200,000.


Hospitals will not go after your assets if you are making an effort to pay, when all is said and done and your son is released from the hospital go talk to someone in the billing department, they will work with you on a payment option. As far as the physicians fees again talk to the billing department of whatever group the physician belongs to.

Hope everything works out.

[fj1200]

My question is, what's a rough guess of what this whole thing will cost? Anyone know? Talked to my wife last night, who is very practical, and it was the first time I've started thinking about costs or insurance. I'll be talking to Hospital Accounting and the insurance (Aetna) folks soon enough, but now I'd just like some very rough guesses, if anyone has a crystal ball handy.

...

Basically our retirement is gone, or our house is gone, or maybe both if my SWAGs above are off, which they probably are.

My mom fell down a volcano in Costa Rica and punctured her small intestines and was in real bad shape by the time she got back to Chicago. She was ICU for awhile, etc. etc. long process but I think I heard ~$270,000. So I think Trigg has a better number.

That being said, DON'T sign anything where you are personally liable. Work it out a different way.

[jimnyc]

Prayers and best wishes for your son, LA.

[ConHog]

My mom fell down a volcano in Costa Rica and punctured her small intestines and was in real bad shape by the time she got back to Chicago. She was ICU for awhile, etc. etc. long process but I think I heard ~$270,000. So I think Trigg has a better number.

That being said, DON'T sign anything where you are personally liable. Work it out a different way.

That's what I was saying. No way he should lose his home over this.

[Gaffer]

My best wishes for your son's quick recovery. But if he's stable now I would start to look for who provided him with that pill. Seems someone needs to share in the expenses or pay with body parts. Is there an ongoing investigation at this time?

[Nukeman]

I'm sitting in a waiting room on the 10th floor at UC San Francisco as I write this. My eldest son (age 22, senior in college) went to a New Years Eve party, and apparently took a pill he shouldn't have. Was at death's door for several days, transferred on an emergency basis to UCSF, woke up (sort of) on the fifth day, is now slowly getting better, thought still in very bad shape. I've been living in this waiting room, and a nearby hospice, since it began, and haven't been outside the hospital during waking hours.

More on that later, maybe. Talked to my wife about our insurance, we've got very good insurance, at least on paper. Deductible in the low four digits, which is down in the noise, then they pay 90% of the rest, which is a lot higher than most companies pay. That's on paper, of course, they may disallow some claims, rough guess they may pay 70-80 percent of balance after all is said and done.

Rough schedule looks like maybe 3-4 weeks total in ICU (Intensive Care Unit, where he's been since this started), then (at a wild guess) 3 weeks on a regular hospital floor, then maybe 1 to 3 months of rehab and physical therapy. Plus dialysis for X months or years, plus months of neurological exams, plus X. Hopefully will make a full recovery, though we don't know yet.

No, I'm not kidding.

My question is, what's a rough guess of what this whole thing will cost? Anyone know? Talked to my wife last night, who is very practical, and it was the first time I've started thinking about costs or insurance. I'll be talking to Hospital Accounting and the insurance (Aetna) folks soon enough, but now I'd just like some very rough guesses, if anyone has a crystal ball handy.

My wife and I picked a figure of $1 to $2 million out of the air, on very little basis other than "I heard somewhere that it might...". If insurance pays, say, 75% after all is said and done, then we're looking at a debt of up to half a million AFTER insurance has paid off.

Basically our retirement is gone, or our house is gone, or maybe both if my SWAGs above are off, which they probably are.

Anybody had any experience with this? Want to toss some guesses into the hopper?

P.S. Obamacare still sucks, if that had been in force for the last 20 years the ECMO machine that saved my son's life in the first three days when nothing else could probably wouldn't have been invented, "too expensive and speculative, doesn't benefit enough people".

Very sorry to hear about your son!!! I think you may need to double check your insurance policy, most have a "max out of pocket expenditure" That means that you will have a maximum amount that you will have to pay out of your pocket before the insurance3 company picks up EVERYTHING else. Most are NO WHERE near the 100,000 mark most are in the tens of thousands range. Trigg has probably the best estimate for you, shouldn't be any higher than 200k but you never know..

[darin]

man, Acorn - that is so crazy; so sorry, but here's wishing for a full recovery, emotionally, financially, physically.