Anyone tried bargaining with surgeons to reduce their surgery bills?

[macoza]

I want to know how to get doctors to reduce their surgery costs? Has anyone here tried to bargain with doctors to reduce their surgery bills?

[ElbowRoom]

The closest I have found is Dr. Hakky will do *some* surgeries in his office, if the patient is healthy enough and requests it, instead of at the hospital. That takes the out-of-pocket costs from ~$29k to ~$22k, plus $500/hr for anesthesia. If you use insurance you have to use the hospital.

Originally I planned an in-office procedure, but then changed insurance and it got covered so I used the hospital. Now that I’ve been through it, I’m glad I had it done in the hospital. It’s a pretty major surgery and if something goes really sideways it’s good to have access to all the hospital resources.

[Afallach]

You can use Dr Egydio in Brazil. World renowned, innovator that has developed many of the procedures used today all over. I called and it was $15K last year for the implant which included everything. Nice facilities and highly rated. Flights are not that much and a hotel for a couple of days should be reasonable. They will help make arrangements.

My insurance paid so I stayed in the US with Dr Valenzuela in NY.

[Wooody]

Dr Karpman in Northern California charges $20k out the door with an overnight hospital stay for non-insurance patients. That's the lowest fee I've seen from a US high volume surgeon. Don't expect a highly qualified, in demand surgeon to cut their fees and negotiate. Why should they? You get what you pay for.