Self Pay trickle down costs

[BobbyD 211]

Don't get me wrong. I AM GRATEFUL for my new life. However, I was told by my surgeon that his price was all inclusive. Now I self payed, scraped scratched, borrowed and suffered financially in order to get the money paid. Now, I keep on getting bills, one from the surgeon and another from the hospital from the day of the surgery. I am a bit frustrated as it adds up to another 500 bucks. It doesn't sound like all that much, but I'm already 11,000 into this and was orginally told 10,000 max. Should I protest, or just suck it up and realize it was the best decision I could have made?

[Nurse_Lenora 903]

Do you have a contract from the surgeon that outlines what was included?

So sorry....how frustrating

[JamieLogical 8,710]

Worth a call to the surgeon's office at least to see if there was just some sort of error.

[yerawizardamy 241]

Definitely call them. It's possible there was just a mistake. Go through your contract and any paperwork you may have. It's possible the hospital hasn't been paid yet by the surgeon or vice versa, so they are directly billing you.

Also, it's possible that the surgeon had to perform additional testing while operating. I know on my contract it stated that if he needed to do a liver biopsy or hernia repair, it would be an additional cost. Check to see if that's the case!

Edited January 28, 2016 by yerawizardamy

[kranky813 477]

I agree, call the surgeon's office.

I am a self payer as well and the hospital told me the "all inclusive" plan but that only covered their part. I also had the surgeon's fee, the anesthesiologist, and the nurse anesthesiologist. The "all inclusive" only covered everything in the hospital such as supplies, operating room, drugs, 1-2 over night stays, etc...

I would ask to see the contract and look at it very closely.

[AvaFern 3,516]

I was also self-pay and ended up with an extra $500 in bills later. I called the office and while I got stuck with a $50 bill, they handled the rest. It turns out that they had paid for the services, but I still ended up being billed for them before their payment had been posted.

You paid for the fee for the surgery and if you are billed anything additional, this is your surgeon's office's responsibility. If they don't want to be cooperative tell them that you will be happy to contact your attorney. Chances are it's a mistake, but if it isn't, then they need to be held accountable.