1st quote
Well, dr bitan's people said that my humana insurance will not cover ADR removal (which they normally charge the insurers $25,000 for) but will cover the fusion. They said that humana reinburses at Medicare rates. So, they will get reimbursed about $4,000 for the fusion. Therefore, the best they could do was $15,000. Now, what I'm wondering is how is it that dr b's people are quoting me more for this revision surgury than a us doctor who doesn't really have any responsibility for my situation in the first place? If german prices are 1/2 as much as us prices, you'd think that dr b's people should be quoting around $8k for the revision instead of $18k. I don't get it.
I don't blame dr b for my disc failure, and in fact, he did a great job freeing up my nerves as all my pre op symptoms are gone, but I am a bit dissapointed to find that a us doctor (of great reputation by the way) is able to do this revision for less than dr b's team and the us doc bears no responsibility in this in the first place. It seems not right.
I guess this is one example of a situation where a place like stenum would have really come in handy with their free revision policy. After the quote from the us doc, I really find it hard to believe I'm getting any kind of discount on the revision with dr b's group. I don't know, am I missing something?
Anyways, I'll get a quote from my local doc, dr Peloza , this Friday. I have a feeling they won't be so flexible on price as dr bitan's group. We'll see. So far, I am again very impressed with dr bitan's team. They are very responsive and easy to work with. Dr bitan seemed very motivated and interested to help me, and very straight forward too. Mark is supposed to be checking with dr regan for me, but I have a feeling bitan's quote will be hard to beat. I'll need to make a decision by Monday. My left side of my back, neck, and shoulder are in constant pain (level 3-4). The right side is perfectly fine, so I'm confident removing the disc will resolve this. I just hope fusion doesn't create it's own set of symptoms.
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2/26/09 - c4-c7 3 level ADR Prodisc Nova with Dr Bertagnoli. 100% success.
9/22/09 -Dr B opened me up to find a staph infection was eating my vertebrae causing ADR subsidence. Had to remove all 3 ADR's and convert to 3 level fusion. Mostly pain free 2 weeks post op.
9/20/10 - I think I jinxed myself. As soon as I told dr b and dr Sullivan I was doing well (on 6/1/10) I tanked and have experienced the return of pain. My neuro says the new pain is at t4.
Last edited by steve55; 05-28-2009 at 06:02 AM.
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