Fusion surgery over.....

[mmglobal]

I had a client with only one hand... born that way. When he woke up in recovery room after multi-level cervical... he called the nurse over and said... "what did you do to my hand?" I don't think anyone thought it was very funny.

When my son had pneumonia and spent 4 days in ICU, we saw the bills go by for $30,000. The allowed amount that the hospital was happy to accept for $30,000 worth of treatment was $6,000. If we did not have insurance, they would have come after us for the full 30K. This all makes sense to someone.

I've seen many cases of fusions with billed amounts in excess of 150K and allowed amounts around 50K. I've also seen payout amounts in excess of 100K for both disc replacements and ADR. The worst case I've seen was a multi-level fusion that was done on a speculation basis. Someone I know has a lien against his lawsuit for more than $275K for a 2-level fusion that was poorly done. He's still disabled and pretty much bankrupt. If he ever collects anything... the first 275 will go to pay for a 60,000 surgery. This is not right.