Insurance reimbursement for one chemo therapy session??

[qualified-merc]

Speaking with a friend today, he tells me that one of his family members went in for chemo therapy for cancer. the price? $7,000!!

That seems like a lot of money to me, and, while pricing differs across the country, does anyone know approximate dollar numbers for one chemo session?

[savas]

Highly dependent on what drug was used, start there.

[sunedog]

Wife had chemo for 12 months starting in 2020 for breast cancer. The FIRST chemo session was billed at $39,371. After insurance negotiated discounts, it was still $30,200.

The total for 12 months of all treatment and associated surgeries was $1.034 million. I stopped tracking the bills when her treatment was officially over. But she's probably had $500K in medical services from the collateral damage of the treatment in the time since then.

Cancer treatment is outrageously expensive. Thank goodness our out of pocket max is only about $9000 per year.

[qualified-merc]

It is easy to see why someone would want to become an oncologist then open their own chemo cancer treatment center. Talk about makin' bank $$$$.

Last I read, chemotherapy has a cancer cure rate of around 3%. My own doctor said that chemotherapy destroys both BAD cells and GOOD cells and is virtually guaranteed to lower white blood cell counts to sometimes dangerous levels.

If your white blood cell count is already low and you do chemo and are then exposed to pneumonia, the flu, covid or whatever, you might not survive

[savas]

Originally Posted by qualified-merc

It is easy to see why someone would want to become an oncologist then open their own chemo cancer treatment center. Talk about makin' bank $$$$.
…

That’s not how it works. If you want to make big money then get on the big pharma side of the business.

[JB3]

The people making the fortune are insurance companies.

Doctors offices almost universally cannot stand the endless fight with insurance companies. Most doctors offices have additional staff JUST to argue with insurance company bull****.

This is a fixable problem that has long been festering

[qualified-merc]

Medical billing is very very strange indeed. when you take your car to be worked on for instance, they present you with a bill at the end, right? The bill might say $700. You pay the man $700, right? Or, if you know the shop owner fairly well, you might offer $500 to which he might or might not agree.

Move onto the medical business. As in the foregoing post by sunedog, the chemo treatment center billed just under $40K which was negotiated down to approx $30K. It seems both the medical providers and the insurance companies are in on this negotiated pricing model which means the service price ($40K) was artificially inflated to begin with.

And, I know for a fact that prices for the exact same medical procedure/service vary by state and location. In some cases the variance in pricing is quite large.

[qualified-merc]

With regards to chemo therapy, it is obvious there are middle men every step of the way. Big Pharma, the Oncologist (who may or may not own his/her own chemo treatment center) and possibly the medical clinic where the chemo therapy takes place.

The two leading killers in this country are heart issues and cancer. My father used to tell me "Son, go where the money is.......".

[speednjay]

I guess I’m a deadman if anything happens to me

[Jorn]

My sisters battle with cancer had a $1.5 million price tag.

[qualified-merc]

That is a lot of $$$$$ for cancer treatment. Every time I turn around I see a new cancer treatment center building being built. Last I read the four leading causes of death are:

1. Heart disease
2. Cancer
3. Doctors
4. Hospitals

If items #1 and #2 don't get you items #3 and #4 will for sure finish you off.