My 3 mo X ray - Discs tilted all over the place

[mark-perth]

I know how it feels to be waiting on quotes. Thats such a hard thing when U just want 2 proceed ASAP.

Please dont take this the wrong way but isnt it about time to take the 100% success out of your signature line. I wouldnt count 3 months as a success, I understand U felt great for 3 months but thats definately not worth having major surgery for 3 months pain relief. if 1 disc is OK maybe thats more like33% success .

Hope U get your quotes soon. I dont think I would have waited, especially as I know first hand how great Dr Bitan is to deal with. I doubt there will be alot in it and I wouldnt be worried over a few $. Great service is worth paying more for. If Dr Bitan is that quick to help you now, he would be just a good if there are any problems later. Thats always a consideration especially as he is also closer but it depends who U have the best gut feeling for.
Best of luck
Mark

[dshobbies]

Steve,

Yes, the waiting game is frustrating regardless of what you're waiting for. I disagree however, that it isn't worth the wait.

Only you can make this decision. Dr. Regan has an excellent surgical reputation as does Dr. Bitan. I believe either one will do as good a job as the other. If you don't have a personal preference and can save $5000 plus hotel costs in Los Angeles, then yes, wait a few days more. Dr R's office staff may be waiting for confirmation from hospital, other doctors or whatever. Dr. Bitan may just know that everyone will come on board if necessary. You might want to call Dr. Bitan's office to explain your situation and see if they can't do better.

Personally, I was born and raised in Brooklyn and now live in L.A. If I had to travel,

This isn't exactly a heads or tails decision. All things are not equal.

Hang in there, Dale

[steve55]

Thx for the opinions everyone. Well, dr regan's biller still hasn't come through. She's been quite evasive in her replies to my questions, she has no eta for me either, when i call her about it, she won't give me a straight answer. She hasnt replied to my email I sent since Thursday. I have no clue what's going on. I've sent mark our emails so he can see what I mean. Maybe he might step in and get to the bottom if it all. Dr regan was shooting for 2 weeks to get me into surgury, here I am 1 week later without even a full quote yet, and not knowing when it will come. Yea, I appreciate dr regan's offer to get me in with a discount, but I don't think he counted on his biller person to take this long. What's worse is that for the first time, my hands are getting numb. Just great. Waiting on Peloza cost me a week, now this biller has cost me a week and still counting. $5,000 is a big difference but it won't matter if regan's biller can't get me a quote before I fall apart. I'm hoping mark can help out and see what her problem is, though not that he has an obligation to.. I'm just about ready to bite the bullet and get done what needs to be done with bitan. $5,000 difference is no small amount, i'm going to call bitan's biller Monday and see what can be done. I'm at the end of my rope dealing with this woman.

Markperth, I can see what you mean but dr b did get rid of all my debilatating pre op symptoms, I think he did spend a great deal of time freeing up my nerves. So, I still like the "success but needing revision" signature. Perhaps I could remove the word 100%.

[Katie]

Just to give you a head's up...Dr. Bitan is away till the 10th. That's not far away, and they can probably touch base with him if need be, but thought you would like to know.

Keep trying...you are much farther ahead than I am.

Plus you never know if Dr. Bitan will match it, if you don't ask

[SandyW]

Steve,

Just read your entire thread - OMG. I understand your feelings concerning Dr. B, I feel the same. BUT what caused this? Has anyone explained ?

Also want to add to your thread about some, not all, of our US surgeons with hugh egos. And will update my experiences with facet pain blocks after I catch up reading all the new posts.

Sandy

[steve55]

I continue to get nasty surprises in my search for a US surgeon(sigh). Dr Bitan's biller has now said that the $15K DOES NOT cover the entire procedure and that I would need to add on my 30% copay for the Anesthesiologist and the hospital. If those 2 are out of network, and I know for sure the Anesthesiologist is, then when they bill me at regular insurance rates, Im sure (well, Im presuming )the cost will jump to a total of $18-20K at minimum? I guess I did not think to clarify whether her quote was for the entire procedure. But when I spoke with Dr Bitan, we talked about this 30% co pay and issue and he thought we could waive the 30%, he must have meant his fees only. Though I did not get the impression that that was what he meant. When a patient discusses cost of a procedure, one would think that the doc or biller would presume that he or she obviously talking about the total cost. We as patients really need to spell it out I guess. I just didnt think I had to be specific, I mean, why would I as a patient only be concerned about doctor fees when discussing getting a quote? That wouldnt make sense. This all may turn out to be pie in the sky quotes in the end. We'll see though.

Dr Regan's biller is waiting for my insurance before going any further, but yet she wants me to start on getting local lab tests done here in the meantime to speed up the surgury date. But before incurring those costs, I think I shoudl wait for the final quote. If Dr Regan's quote comes in too high also, then Im going to have to bite the bullet and go overseas again. I hate dealing with the hassles of travel and fionding a different doc to do follow ups.

On a interesting note, one of Dr B's staff memeber emailed me asking me if I would like to meet with Dr B here in Dallas as he is passing through DFW airport June 20th. I thought that was nice to offer, despite they already know I plan on going to a local surgeon. Who knows, I might yet end up going to Germany after all. Seems Dr Bitan's quote is out of the picture now, and just waiting to see if Dr Regan's $10K estimate will come through. If it ends up significantly over that, I may as well take Dr B 's $18K offer and after insurance out of network $6K deductible and my 30% co pay of $3600 on the balance, total cost will just be $9,600. Im willing to pay a little more to stay in the US, but not more than 5K more.
Again, I would love for Dr B to fix this, but I honestly hate to travel so far again, man, connecting flights (cant fly direct 1st class on miles) and the wait time inbetween the flights, and dragging luggage around all these airports when HURTING, man it sucks to travel. I cant eat that german stuff they feed you at the hospital either.LOL. Only the soup and yogurt were edible. I was living off of Twix candy bars every night last time. LOL

Continuing to wait (sigh).

[Katie]

Steve, maybe it might pay to talk to Dr. Bitan in person about this. His people don't always know that he's spoken to a patient and made other arrangements. That happened to me, although it wasn't about billing. I would give him another chance to clarify things.

I haven't gone back to check, but was Dr. B's cost in Germany going to be $18,000 or Euros? I got confused about that once....but you probably are more on top of that than I am.

With all the travel costs (and the 'price' on your body with flying), would it really be that much more? I hear the frustration in your posts, and I'm very sorry that you are going through that. But it could be worse...you have three doctors to choose from Not many of us can say that!!

We are hoping for the best...keep on slugging.