Surgery financing scam.... how much did your surgery cost?

[mmglobal]

I know someone who was in an accident years ago that kicked off a horrific ordeal of chronic pain and failed surgery.

After failing conservative treatment, his surgeon recommended 2-level 360 lumbar fusion. The patient was uninsured, so his surgeon recommended a medical finance company. "No problem, they'll finance the surgery against a lien on your settlement... it won't cost you anything!"

Now, years later, he's coming to the end of litigating the accident. He's lost everything and is still not only functionally disabled, but in pain all day every day. The 2-level 360 fusion that I see commonly done under 100k, generated a lien for expenses of 300K against the settlement. Since everyone is in line first and because the lawyers take is based on the entire settlement, covering the lawyers cut on the settlement... just covering the surgery adds almost another 120K. That means that whatever comes of the settlement, 420k only covers the surgery... nothing else.

My questions to the patient community are:

>> If you have a lumbar fusion... what did it cost. When? Where?

>> Do you have experience with medical finance companies?

I get so mad when I think about this!

All the best,

Mark