There had to be a decimal point in the wrong place.

Edited 12/04/10 23:30

Either a mistake or a gross overcharge by the surgical center. Amazing that your insurance paid that much. What was your surgeon's charge? I thought NA was usually done as an office procdure under local anesthesia.

The procedure was done in NJ. It was with local anesthesia. The surgeon's charge was $1500 per finger. He was in my plan, and accepted $525 total. The surgery center billed my insurance $9000 per finger. I talked to both the insurance company and the surgery center. My argument was they were billing 3 times for the same procedure. I understand the doctor billing for each finger but not the surgery center. This is not over yet, my portion of the bill is $4000. I haven't been billed for my part yet.
Still mad,
Steve

Steve,

I had the same thing two different times in NJ. I still had to pay the Doc's charges. But, the Surgical center accepted payment in full from the Ins. and did not bill me for the rest. The first time I dredfully waited about 9 months for a bill. I finally called them and they said there was no balance due. The totals for my right hand were exactly the same (27,000). The Insurance paid the majority and never heard another word. Hope this helps.

This is simply outrageous - my first impression was the same as another writer, as far as an extra zero being put in. This is one of the reasons at last count we rank 37th. in the world in health care. It is more evidence of why Medicare is having financial troubles. Just who is making the money here??? Dr. Eaton charges are one tenth of this, is the pioneer in bringing the procedure to the U.S. and who, I am sure, enjoys a more than adequate standard of living.

Let's see, for one finger it's $9,000 for 30 minutes work, $18,000 per hour, say a 20 hour work-week, with 4 week vacation per year. That works out to $17,280,000 per year, if my math is right. Not bad change, for a procedure that requires no cutting and no general anesthesia.

Steve Abrams